STU AND LIN BRING YOU THEIR FIRST REPORT FROM THE FABULOUS HONG KONG AUDIO VISUAL SHOW 2024

Join Stu and Lin of HiFi PiG as they bring you all the the exotic sights and sounds of their Hong Kong AV Show 2024 Report, part 1 takes you round the huge expanse of stands in Hall 3, and the many listening booths located around its edges.

ALL IMAGES AND TEXT ARE COPYRIGHT HiFi PiG AND MAY NOT BE USED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE EDITOR

We would like to extend huge thanks to our hosts, the show organisers, Rebecca and Lincoln of Audiotechnique and of course our Hong Kong AV Show 2024 coverage sponsors, Esprit High End Audio of France….you can click on their banner below and through the report to see their extensive range of cables and new loudspeakers, and there will be more on them later as we go into the large rooms at the show.

After a cancelled flight and all kinds of shenanigans, we finally made it to the Hong Kong AV Show 2024, one of my most favourite shows on the calendar. It’s a slog to get here, but well worth it. We landed Thursday night, a day later than we should have dumped our things in the hotel room and then off out for dinner with the Pope (thanks Simon for a fab evening) and then onto see a band doing some great rock covers in a bar called Wanch. What a great way to start our Hong Kong adventure but an early night was in order as we had an early start…and what a start to a show it is with speeches, gongs, and indoor fireworks. Fabulous! 

Having been to this show before we got our bearings very quickly, but weren’t ready for the increase in the number of booths in the massive marketplace area. 

The first of the booths had HANOWA Mercury speakers with IDEON electronics. We’ve come across the IDEON brand before at shows but the `German HANOWA ribbon speakers were new to us. The price is about 80K in euros (720 HK$). Playing classical music and given the external noise and the less-than-ideal room (the rooms are made of plywood) I thought they sounded very good and are a brand I’ll be keeping an eye out for at future events. 

BLACKWOOD who exhibited at last year’s Audio Show Deluxe were showing off the finished versions of their Solaris speakers that we have heard in prototype form. Fully active system with Class D amps from Purify, Accuton drivers, onboard room correction and DSP from DIRAC LIVE and cost 180K Euros plus tax. However, included in the price is the HiFi Rose RS130 streamer/transport, all the electronics, and set up anywhere in the world. That kind of makes a lot of sense and you certainly seem to be getting a lot for your (considerable) outlay. 

NAGRA was next in the line and were using a very nice pair of Wilsons. The full system is the new NAGRA Streamer for which this was the Aisan premiere, though this new digital source was launched at Munich. The CLASSIC electronics are the entry-level to the world of NAGRA and were: CLASSIC DAC II, CLASSIC Preamp, a pair of CLASSIC AMPs and driving WILSON SASHA with KUBALA SOSNA cables. The streamer has onboard clocks for different sample rates (different clocks for different sample rates), and an optical fibre connects the DAC and the Streamer. Swiss and American gear making a fab sound. 

DALI were playing their new RUBIKORE series loudspeakers along with LYNGDORF electronics and ENTREQ grounding solutions. The specific speakers were the RUBIKORE 8 floor standers and RUBIKORE 2 standmounts. Good sounding room and dressed very nicely  – quite incredible what can be done with a plywood box and many of these rooms ended up sounding better than a lot of the smaller rooms at Munich. 

MIRO SOUND was using the excellent QUALIO speakers that we’ve been longtime fans of and we have been using them in our second system for a couple of years now. You can read the full review of these interesting and excellent value loudspeakers HERE. An AURALiC streamer supplied the streamed music (we also use an AURALiC streamer with these speakers) and a TRINNOV AMETHYST preamplifier fed a TRINNOV amplifier. Very nice sounding and airy room. 

HIT AUDIO were playing a mahoosive LINE MAGNETIC LM5190 amplifier into DEISIS loudspeakers, though B&W speakers were also in evidence in this busy room. The CD player was also from LINE MAGNETIC. CD seems to still be massively popular at this show, evidenced by the number of stalls selling huge numbers of CDs. 

SOUND OF STRINGS AUDIO SUPPLIES booth was down the way from HIT AUDIO and what a room this was. WILSON BENESCH stanmounters being driven by a whole load of AUDIO RESEARCH electronics. CRYSTAL CABLE were used throughout and VITUS AUDIO and AUDIO PHYSIC were also in the room, though not being used when we popped in for a listen. 

MICHAEL”S AUDIO was showing off a fab-sounding system made up of HEGEL and KEF. Again, it’s pretty incredible what can be done with a basic box of a room. HEGEL were showing off their H400 streaming amplifier, with Anders Ertzeid and Johan Coorg on hand to field any questions from visitors to the show. You can read more about this new streaming amplifier from HEGEL HERE. It struck me that the sound these guys are getting out the these rooms is pretty incredible and this was a punchy and lively system, though I do have a soft spot for the HEGEL/KEF partnership and it certainly goes to show that very high quality sound doesn’t need to cost the price of a house. Johan, hope the back gets better soon! 

EISTEDDFOD is a new electronics brand for me, well new to us last year at the show, but their kit certainly looks the part. STEINHEIM speakers were being used in the room. The names of this kit are the 341 pre, 840 mk 2 stereo power amp, and a prototype CD player they are calling a digital processor. Very cool! Made in China. 

As the name suggests, OTG AUDIO had a good selection of HeadFi gear.

GORDONS AUDIO VISUAL was showing off WILSON BENESCH floor standers and a whole load of AIRTIGHT electronics. 

AUDIO ACCESS’s room was absolutely rammed showing off KERR ACOUSTIC and AVID speakers with various doodads to ground the sound. We came across the doodads last year and they do seem to be taking the world, particularly the States, by storm.

 More HeadFi gear from SOUNDWAVE AUDIO

AMBAGO AUDIO  had a bit of an interesting take on the show format by having no seats in their room. Bit of an odd one, but I suppose it allows more people in the room to listen to the AYON speakers being powered by a whole load of electronics I’d not seen before from KINKI STUDIO – interesting name and an interesting concept for a room. 

AUDIO DYNAMIC ENGINEERING & CONSULTANCY was showing off AERON electronics, VERITY speakers and a huge telly…way too packed to get in properly, but the people in there were very much enjoying it!

KINGS AUDIO won the prize for the first outing of Keith Don’t Go, but the stars of the show were the incredible-looking KINGSOUND panel speakers dressed as Chinese banners in chromed steel frames. The HKAT SARONE streamer being used looked very cool in a decidedly retro style. I had the opportunity to hear this brand’s speakers a good number of times now and always thought they sounded very good. 

And then it was time for lunch. I have to say the lunch options and the way the whole set-up for food here is done works very well indeed. There are lots of options and prices are pretty reasonable. 

We then started with the extra row of stands and booths that had been added for this year, before rejoining the main row of cabins again, down the side of the hall.

GIG AUDIO were using SHENGYA electronics and ATC SCM100 speakers. The Preamplifier was the CV-1HD, the monos were the PSM-300T Class A with 100 watts per channel into 8ohm. The CD player is the CD3.8 with a tube output. Good sounding room! 

INVISIBLE and INNOVATIVE were up next and what an interesting bunch of kit they had. Interestingly, we found that this gear was from the UK in the form of the SOUNDRIPPLE designed by DOOLAB UK. The concept is an integrated sound and furniture system and very much on the smaller home.   The SOUNDRIPPLE is made of sustainable materials and costs 2500US. Basically a big soundbar that is cable-less. Very cool, very on-the-ball, and very affordable. Good sounding too! 

LIEDER were using QSA cables and hORNS Overture speakers being fed with a BAT VK-76SE amplifier and a CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE DAC to make a very nice sound.

Some of the interesting stands in this area…

INNUOS were showing off their STATEMENT, ZENITH and PHOENIXNET products in a very cool-looking room that also sounded great playing Blues Company through B&W speakers, AUDIO RESEARCH pre and amplifiers and a TOTALDAC DAC. Hard to say what the different bits and pieces in the system are doing, suffice to say that they are all clearly doing something very right and even in this booth sounded excellent. As Lin commented whilst we were chatting, neither of us are fans of the B&W speakers, but in this system they sang. Very impressive stuff. 

VOLENT CORPORATION were playing some scatty jazz through a very impressive looking and sounding system made up of ESTELON speakers, TAIKO AUDIO, TOTALDAC, AUDIOBYTE, WESTMINSTER LABS and  BESPOKE AUDIO preamplifier. The ESTELON speakers were the XBMK2, the TOTALDAC was the D1 Streamer MK 2, and there was also the INNUOS ZEN NextGen music server/streamer. The TAIKO AUDIO was the SGM Extreme music server. Another really great sounding room that was pitched just right with regards to volume and the way the room was styled. 

Next up was the British contingent in the form of LINN and CHORD ELECTRONICS. When we were in the room it was the LP12 turntable that was playing through a full set of CHORD electronics and sounding very nice. You kind of get the impression given how packed this room was, that the two British brands are a bit of a hit in Hong Kong and have been for a while. Great to see! The full system from CHORD was the ULTIMA and ULTIMA 2 with the ULTIMA pre 2. Speakers were by the very British brand SPENDOR.

MUSIC ICON were showing off a turntable I’ve not come across before by the Japanese brand CSPORT that also made up all of the electronics. The turntable certainly looked the part and sounded great with the PSI AUDIO speakers. 

I’d been looking forward to the VIGOR AUDIO room as it had a good number of brands playing that I really do like a lot, specifically TELLURIUM Q cables and STRATTON ACOUSTICS speakers. The latest and more compact STRATTON ACOUSTIC Element 12 speakers are certainly very impressive sounding with MOLA MOLA MAKUA preamplifier and PERCA stereo amplifier – CLASS D has certainly come a long way and it seems that it’s becoming much more accepted as being real high-end…and rightly so! The DAC in use was the Mola Mola Tambaqu. 

RADIO UNISON were showing off a full TAD system. TAD-R 1TX speakers (the big ones) were being powered by the M7000s power amplifier, C700m preamplifier and the D700 transport. The kick in this room was palpable and yet tight and controlled. A very dynamic and full-hitting system. Fab! 

GARNER CO had an interesting array of products on show from SUGDEN, ART LOUDSPEAKERS TRIODE and TOTEM. Also showing were a product labelled up as GARNER that is made in Italy but looks a lot like GOLDNOTE to me. Platforms in this Rome were by AUDITE. 

The LUMIN room was very busy indeed and making a nice sound, though I didn’t know the Chinese music playing, although the introduction to the second track we got to hear was very much like the intro to Speed Kills by Gil Scott-Heron. Another room using B&W speakers that sounded very good…whodathunk. 

And that was all the booths in the absolutely massive marketplace taken care of. There’s been some really great sounding systems and a couple of systems where something was clearly out of kilter. It’s also very well organised and people are very polite…though it seems an audiophile trait to want to stand in doorways at shows. 

Now it’s time to tackle the static displays in this huge Hall 3, and that’s going to mean that there’s going to be a whole load of photographs for you to enjoy! The sheer scale of this space is a little daunting, and it’s very busy, keep in mind that this is still Friday and very much a working day in Hong Kong, but it is PACKED!

In the middle of all the madness of the marketplace area and the hordes of people buying cables, CD, vinyl and the odd reel to reel, and also absolutely mobbing the stacks of HeadFi stands there are a number of specially created spaces for brands to promote their wares, some with listening booths.

The first of these we cam across were long time friends of HiFi PiG Pylon and Fezz. The space they had created was pretty spectacular and an oasis of calm in the maelstrom of humanity outside.  The system we got to hear was the FEZZ integrated LYBRA 300B PSE, the EQUINOX DAC Empowered by a LAMPIZATOR and the speakers are the JADE 20 by PYLON. What I really love about these sister brands is the effort they always put into creating a space that is inviting, calm and well thought out. This goes a long way to help sell a brand to the public and to set them apart…others could learn from this Polish brand in this respect. 

THORENS were partnering with PMC, CHORD COMPANY, BURMESTER and others on their distributor’s stand (Richcoln); as well as being in several systems in their rooms, and the standout was the new reference turntable at 220k euros. It’s a clever bot of kit that is full of sensors to detect vibrations and the creates an opposite vibration to cancel it out…kind of like noise canceling headphones, I guess.

The UK”s Cambridge Audio had a large stand, new on this was the brand new Evo One as well as a comprehensive selection of their current gear. The Cambridge Audio Evo One was launched the day of the show opening, it’s a powerful, stylish wireless speaker designed by Cambridge as the “perfect all-in-one audio solution”. It certainly looks like a very stylish product, and Evo One was getting lots of attention at the stand.

The large 6.8” colour screen offers the choice of function or a taste of retro-chic style with a clock display, the album artwork and info of the current track, or virtual VU meters. Cambridge says Evo One keeps plastic parts to a minimum and uses 50% recycled material, an FSC-certified wood veneer cabinet and optimised power consumption. Pricing is 1299/€1499/$1499.

Now read Part 2 of our Hong Kong AV Show 2024 Report here and Part 3 here.

ALL IMAGES AND TEXT ARE COPYRIGHT HiFi PiG AND MAY NOT BE USED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE EDITOR

Stu and Lin Smith