HIFI PIG’S THIRD REPORT FROM THE WARSAW HIFI SHOW 2022

In this third report from our coverage of the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2022, Stu and Lin make their way over to the Golden Tulip Hotel.

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi Pig Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of HiFi Pig/Big Pig Media.

So the Audio Video Show Warsaw, as I’ve mentioned in my introduction, takes place over two hotels and the national stadium. After covering all the rooms at the Sobieski it was over to the Golden Tulip, a few minutes walk away.

The Golden Tulip has a lot less rooms than the Sobieski, but it is here where you will find much larger rooms filled with many higher-end products. I like this split!

HOLOPHONY

The first room we went in at the Golden Tulip was Holophony that make their speakers from bamboo. Playing whilst we were in the room were the Polish company’s NUMER 2 loudspeakers. These are a two-piece speaker made up of an upper two-way unit and a separate bass unit. The NUMER 2 are €9500. The Audio Acoustica amp was a prototype.

This was a big room for the Holophony speakers to fill but they did pretty well. Actually, it was a fairly natural-sounding system and pretty good from top to bottom.

A static display of audio accessories and cables was also in this room from Avatar Audio was also in this room.

NATURAL SOUND

Audio Tekne electronics and Cube Audio speakers featured in this room, though we got to hear a pair of standmounts called SP- 2116 speaker system. Personally, I thought this system was a bit lost in this huge room and would have loved to have had the opportunity to have a listen to the Cube Audio full rangers allied to an 18” bass driver. However, what was clear with this system was that the tonality of the music shone out, if not the dynamics.

RCM

Polish distributor ECM AUDIO had a large room made up of a fantastic VITUS AUDIO RS101 MK 2  power amp with the VITUS AUDIO RL103 preamp powering a pair of Gauder Akustic Cappello 80 floorstanders sporting their Beryllium tweeters and costing 18K. This was a more room-filling sound than the previous couple of rooms and much more to my taste. The turntable being used when we were in the room was by THRAX with the DS DSW3 cartridge and a THRAX phonostage.

We were treated to a short demonstration of the DS Audio doodad for centring off-centre records; which is apparently all of them. We covered this product at Cranage and it’s certainly getting hyped around the various social media groups.

There were turntables from TechDAS, cables and accessories from Furutech and an overall feeling of this room catering to the high-end consumer.

AYON

This room was packed despite being huge. The system was made up of: Ayon Audio Orthos Evo, Lumen White Kyara floorstanders (Accuton drivers), Ayon Audio Auris II, Ayon Audio CD-35 II Signature, Ayon Audio S-10 II transport. Ayon Audio Kronos. The turntable was the Transrotor Rondino Bianco with the Analog Relax EX-500, Phasemotion EA-1000 with cables being the Siltech Royal Triple Crown. One of those “if you need to ask…” kind of systems.

A bit of background music played when we were waiting for the main event and then an introduction to the system before we got to listen to it properly. I’m not a fan of long introductions being more of a “this is the system, this is the tunes I’ll play, enjoy” kind of person.

First of all, we had the streamer playing a pretty standard and not audiophile file version of Lennon’s  Imagine, though I don’t know the artists.

The danger in rooms of this size I that a system can get a little lost, I’d already heard this at the Golden Tulip. but this system filled the room very nicely despite all the folk soaking up the bass and me being sat at the back of the room. Actually, this was very good, though it was female vocals and piano which is hardly taxing music for a system. Sadly we just didn’t have the time to sit through the rest of the presentation, fascinating though it was.

ESTELON AND ACCUPHASE

At the front of this system were the Estelon Extreme II loudspeakers with Accuphase electronics, a Transrotor Orion turntable and its full rack. Cables were by Siltech and Crystal Cables and stands by Base Audio.

Again, perhaps it’s because it was in Polish and I speak no Polish but I don’t want to listen to extended introductions to a system.

GROBEL AUDIO

Here we got to listen to Franc Serbelin Accordo Essence speakers with Jadis i70 and I300 amplifiers with master tape being played through a Revox tape machine.

Now this was an impressive sounding system playing Malia and Boris Blank’s version of Fever. This was played at pretty low levels but I really didn’t miss the extra volume; everything was there. Imaging was really superb and a really full range sound.

What I loved about this system was that it was sonically understated and superb without the feeling that it was trying too hard.

LOVELY!

REED, SULEK, VINIUS, EAR YOSHINO.

This room featured a Reed Muse turntable with Vinius and Ear electronics. This too was a lovely-sounding room once the people running the room had stopped talking loudly to each other. I like enthusiasm, I really do, but sometimes it can overflow into it just getting in the way just a little too much.

Again what I found was a very natural and organic sound through the AUDIO NOTE UK loudspeakers.

LAMPIZATOR, SVEDA AUDIO, KBL SOUND

We have said that this lots room has been the best of the show at the Audio Video Show Warsaw at least a couple of times in the past and I’m afraid to say that the same was true again thus far in 2022 at the show.

Those SVEDA speakers are absolutely huge but sound effortlessly glorious when fed with the Lampizator kit. The music was played relatively loud but it didn’t feel as if it ever got to be too much for the room and it would have been easy to have a normal conversation over the top of it.

Lukasz from Lampizator was introducing his new rather cool looking Kraftwerk 8 AC mains filter. There’s no way to say what it does in a system in a show environment and all anyone can hope to comment on is an overall sound that they experienced…and this was really nice. Drums on Shirley Horn’s My Man’s Gone Now had snap, speed and power; dynamics aplenty!

Stay tuned for the next report…there is still plenty more to come both from the Sobieski and the stadium.

Manron valve amps on display at the Golden Tulip

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi Pig Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of HiFi Pig/Big Pig Media.

Read the first report here!

Read the second report here!

Read the third report here!

Read the fourth report here!

Read the fifth report here!