AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2024 REPORT PART 4 – THE STADIUM PART 1

Join Oscar at the PGE Narodowy, the Stadium, for the next part of our Audio Video Show Warsaw 2024 Report, the first half of the main coverage from this venue.

Following Stu and Lins’s coverage of the Golden Tulip and the Sobieski hotels, plus my report of the Headphone Zone, you join me in the PGE Narodowy for the first half of my Audio Video Show Warsaw 2024 Report from the Stadium venue.

AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2024 REPORT PART 4 – THE STADIUM

The Stadium impresses even before you get inside, this is a mega-venue for a HiFi Show and features a blend of uber high-end brands, with more accessible brands and plenty to keep the Home Cinema fans happy too.

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SOUNDCLUB

First off we have SoundClub with their Emotiva setup, there were plenty of Emotiva models on display and a small demo setup consisting of the fantastic 432 Evo Reference music server, Emotiva TA2, XDA2 and B2+ speakers – a compact yet punchy system.

In the next SoundClub room you had Harbeth, the system included the HL5+ speakers, a 432 Evo server again, Benchmark AHB2 mono block amplifiers and Benchmark DAC3 L and HPA4 DAC/pre-amp setup. This was a well laid out room with good acoustic treatment and the Harbeths are quite something when you listen to them.

SoundClub also had another static display with Trinnov electronics, Wisdom speakers and Ascendo subwoofers (I’m not sure I could fit one of the big ones in my flat).

TELLURIUM Q

A lovely LED display for the one and only Tellurium Q cables – I use these in my system and they are simply fantastic. There were also loads of systems in this and the other venues, and the HHeadphone Zone that were wired with Tellurium Q cables…a British brand that is very popular in Poland.

WATERFALL

Waterfall make record cleaning machines, they looked very well designed.

FERRUM

Ferrum had some setups in the Headphone Zone and also one here in the main rooms, they had the Hypsos + Wandla running into an ATC P2 power amplifier powering a pair of ATC SCM100 PSL speakers. ATC speakers always sound excellent to me, and this setup was no exception, great linearity with huge scale.

PREMIUM SOUND

Premium Sound distribute a nice selection of brands, here we had a static display outside, of the AudioSolutions speakers along with a small amount of finishes they are available in (as well as their full configurator on a PC). AudioSolutions are now up to 145,000 possible variations for the finish of their speakers, edging ever closer to the 200,000 variations they aspire to have – this is a pair of speakers you can order in whatever finish you like.

In their demo room they had the AudioSolutions Figaro M2, Benny Audio Odyssey turntable, Thoress phono stage, Rockna Wavedream DAC/Streamer, Van den Hul The Emerald pre-amp and a pair of Van den Hul Excalibur mono blocks. The cartridge being used was a Van den Hul The Frog and the cabling was also all Van den Hul.

HORN DISTRIBUTION – DALI

Dali need no introductions; they have been in the industry for a long time and had their new Epikore 9 speakers on demo with a Classe Delta 3 pre-amp and a pair of Classe Delta 3 mono blocks. They were using QED cabling throughout and had the smaller Epikore 7 and larger Epikore 11 on display at the side of the room. I must say that the Classe amps + Dali speakers is a great match sonically.

In the next Dali room you had their headphones at the side of the room, including the new iO-8, along with a static display of some of their Rubikore series. The demo setup had a pair of Rubikore 8 speakers paired with a Unison Research Unico 150 amp and Unico CD UNO CD player.

SUPREMA POLAND

In the middle of the hallway there was a section dedicated to various bits of A/V kit including some Aurea speakers, Leica projector, and a full surround setup with Aurea speakers, Denon AV receiver and a Sony projector.

HORN DISTRIBUTION – DENON

At the side of the room was a display of the Denon Home speakers, Denon Perl true wireless earphones, Denon AVC-A10H AV amplifier and also a Denon Home amplifier with Canton Reference 9 speakers. The main demo system consisted of the Denon DP-3000NE turntable, DNP-2000NE streamer, DCD-3000NE SACD player, PMA-3000NE integrated amplifier and a pair of Canton Reference 5 speakers – QED cables were used throughout. Denon HiFi kit often flies under the radar but, they make some good “old school” HiFi kit that was playing very well with the Canton speakers.

HORN DISTRIBUTION – MARANTZ

Like Denon, we also have Marantz from the Masimo family – who have a whole host of new kit that has just been released. You have the Horizon and Grand Horizon lifestyle speakers, the M1 streaming amplifier and Model M4 multi-zone power amplifier (which have been out for a few months now), and more interestingly the high-end SACD 10, Model 10 and LINK 10N network streamer. This new range is very interesting, especially when you consider the fact that the Model 10 is using class-D amplification in a traditional integrated design with a toroidal transformer. These were running into a pair of the Canton Reference GS speakers and they were using QED cables throughout. Let’s just say, class-D should no longer be considered inferior to other amp technology, it just needs to be done right.

CREATIVE

Another company who are very well known and who make a huge range of products across various markets. Of course, this is an audio video show so they were showing off a range of small speakers, soundbars, headphones and headphone DAC/amps. Whilst they may be a little bit more consumer, the little PC speakers they make are good value for money as are their headphones. 

HORN DISTRIBUTION – UNISON RESEARCH / OPERA LOUDSPEAKERS

Another room by Horn Distribution, this time with a Unison Research S6 Black edition valve amp, Unison Research CD Due valve CD player and Opera Quinta v2 (Premiera) speakers. On display was a pair of Opera Prima v2 (Premiera) standmount speakers, Unison Research Simply Italy Black Edition and Triode 25 Black Edition amplifiers.

FOCAL / NAIM

No need to guess the demo system in here, it could only be the new Focal Diva Utopia active speaker system, this wireless active speaker pair features built in class A/B amplification with a powerful DSP engine that does room correction. No extra boxes required, you can stream directly to the speakers, the design is modern too however, the felt side panels may not be to everyone’s taste (Focal will offer them in more finishes in the future). From the brief listen I had they sounded very pleasant indeed – no harshness, big scale and clean sound. Around the edge of the room, they had a couple of pairs of their headphones (Hadenys / Azurys) with the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone edition.

HISENSE

Hisense are well known for their TVs and projectors, some of the short-throw projectors were stunning in terms of visual quality and a really cool alternative to your usual TVs.

DATA GROUP DISTRIBUTIONS / STEALTH ACOUSTICS / WATERFALL AUDIO

There was a large area at the end of this section with a range of mostly installation audio products. You had some invisible panel speakers, Waterfall Audio speakers (these always look cool), Gallo Acoustics speakers, Mina in-wall resonators (these make the whole wall a speaker), and a Canvas HiFi unit which featured a retractable screen for the projector along with a built-in speaker. This was really cool, a single unit that has your projector, screen, and big audio all in one unit. 

HiFiPRO

HiFiPRO had a room with lots of models of the Escape Bluetooth speakers, these are flexible portable speakers that can be grouped/linked to give you fun sound across a wider area – perfect for garden parties or multi-room setups.

VINYL SALES

AUDIO CENTER

Audio Center had several rooms which will be detailed shortly. This section though was prime space for any exhibitor, you had to go through it to get to level 2 if you went up the escalator. In this space they had displays of Rel subwoofers, Roksan amps, Monitor Audio speakers, Amphion speakers, Ruark devices – including the new R610 which was playing (Joy Division – Atmosphere gave me goosebumps). Also on display was the new Cambridge Audio Evo One – all-in-one speaker/streamer which sounds much bigger than it looks, the Cambridge audio Evo 150 and Evo CD were on static display below this, Primare and Cabasse were also featured in this space.

HORN ACOUSTIC / SOULNOTE

Some nice little horn speakers in this room, incredibly effortless and natural sound was coming from them, they were the Horn Acoustic Vivo and they were paired with the Soulnote S-3 SACD player, X-3 external clock generator, Lumin P1 mini streamer/DAC and Soulnote A-3 integrated amplifier. 

INNUOS

Innuos make some brilliant servers/streamers and they had their Statement server with next-gen power supply alongside the Zenith next-gen, these were running into an Accuphase setup with the DC-950 digital processor, C-3850 pre-amplifier and A-80 power amplifier running into a pair of Rockport Technologies Avior II speakers using Transparent Reference cabling.

HORNS / DAVID LABOGA / LUCAS AUDIO LAB

More horns – this time from hORNS and they were running the Symphony 13” MK2 with a Qualiton 300B push-pull amplifier, Eera Meister DAC, Lucas Mini Max with upgraded cryo-copper internal wiring and AES/BNC upgrades – there was a Keces IQRP-800 power conditioner in this system and the cabling was from David Laboga. This was also a very enjoyable system sound wise, horn speakers have a distinctive sound that’s for sure.

GATO AUDIO

Gato Audio had their smaller FM-15 standmount speakers on demo with their PRE-1 pre-amplifier, a pair of PWR-222 mono blocks and a subwoofer. They also had a few models on display at the back of the room including their SDA-1 DAC/Headphone amp with optional network player.

T+A

Around the edges of the room T+A had some static displays of their speakers, headphones, and electronics, the main demo system had the T&A Criterion S230 speakers, G 2000 R turntable and R 2500 R multi-source receiver/amplifier. T&A use transmission line designs in a few of their speakers, creating deep and precise bass response that sounds excellent.

CANOR / TRIANGLE

I recently reviewed the Borea BR02 Connect from Triangle and really enjoyed their sound, in this room though the much bigger Magellan Cello 40th anniversary speakers were playing and these sounded huge. These were paired with Canor electronics including the P1 pre-amplifier, S1S power amp, CD 1.10 CD player and a NuPrime AC-4-E mains conditioner – cabling was Melodika. Around the edges of the room, you had more Triangle and Canor models on static display.

KONSBUD HIFI

Konsbud were showing off a range of SVS speakers, in a surround sound setup using an Onkyo TX-RZ 70 receiver, Ultra Evolution Nano as rears, Ultra Evolution Centre, SB 17 Ultra Sub, Ultra Evolution Pinnacle as fronts and Ultra Elevation as upfiring atmos speakers. They were playing a live AC/DC concert video and it was a system you can rock out to.

PERLISTEN / NUPRIME

I always enjoy Perlisten speakers when I hear them, and they look great too, in this setup you had the S-5M SE speakers paired with a D12S subwoofer, DCS Lina DAC/Steamer, NuPrime Evolution DAC/Pre, a pair of NuPrime Evolution One mono blocks and an AC-4-E mains conditioner. Cabling was all Atlas Cables and there was a static display of more Perlisten speakers and NuPrime electronics around the room.

HALLWAY

Out in the hallway you had a display of Melodika in-wall/in-ceiling speakers and also cables, along with Morel speakers and an area for vinyl sales.

DIORA

Diora is a brand I am really intrigued by, having heard them first at Bristol I was really impressed by the speakers they are making. Here in Warsaw they were showing off a new line called Polaris – in the main demo system you had the bigger of the Polaris models which is a 2.5way speaker featuring passive radiators – these went really deep for their size and had some impressive detail too. These were paired with a full Gryphon setup including the Ethos CVD player, Pandora pre-amp, Mephisto mono blocks and Tellurium Q cabling. Diora have been making cabinets for a few companies for many, many years and are using that knowledge to make their own line of speakers, they had a lot of their other models on static display in this room. The new Polaris range included 3 speakers, a standmount, smaller floorstander and larger floorstander – the size of these means they are well suited to the UK market.

KONSBUD HIFI

Konsbud HiFi had another room with Onkyo, Integra, Klipsch, Wiim and Defunc all on display with some on demo.

SOUND SOURCE

The instantly recognisable speakers from Vivid Audio were in this room, Laurence Dickie sure knows how to make unique speakers. In this setup the Giya G2 were in use paired with a pair of Audionet Heisenberg mono blocks, Audionet Stern pre-amp, Mola Mola Lupe phono stage and EAT Fortissimo S turntable. This setup was vivid, a very refined yet engaging sound that is thoroughly enjoyable.

AUDIO CENTER

Now we get on to three rooms from Audio Center, the first having Audiovector Trapeze speakers paired with Moon electronics 761 Power amp, 791 network player, QSource linear power supply and Nordost cabling. Around the room there were more Moon and Audiovector models on static display.

Next up we have the Cambridge Audio room paired with Acoustic Energy – the main attraction here was the brand new EX series, bridging the gap between CX and Edge. The EXA100 integrated amp was paired with the EXN100 streamer running into a pair of Acoustic Energy Corinium speakers. This was a setup that offered tight and controlled punch, excellent deep bass extension and a big soundstage, the EXA100 never running out of puff. There was a launch event in the evening for press, and this system got pushed with various genres and never lost composure. Around the edge of the room you had a static display of more Cambridge Audio and Acoustic energy models.

The next Audio Center room consisted of Chord Electronics paired with Monitor Audio and Rel. They had a pair of the new Monitor Audio Gold 500 6G speakers, a Rel S812 subwoofer, Chord Electronics Ultima integrated amp, Dave, M-Scaler, 2Go and 2Yu along with Chord cabling throughout. The new Monitor Audio Gold series sound brilliant however, the first play of Hotel California (Live) goes to this room…

The last room from Audio Center had Spendor and Arcam, they were using the Spendor Classic 2/3 speakers paired with an Arcam SA35 streamer/amplifier and the cabling was from Cardas. Spendor are another one of those speaker brands that don’t seem to do anything wrong, all their speakers seem to sound very natural whenever I hear them. Around the room was a static display of more Arcam, Spendor, and Cardas products.

VINYL SALES

More vinyl for sale!

HIFI CLUB

HiFi Club had two rooms next to each other, in the first they had a system which included Electrocompaniet, Rockport Technologies and Transparent cables – the stands were from HRS. The full setup consisted of the EMC 1 MK V Reference CD player, ECM 1 MKII Reference streamer, EC 4.8 MKII Reference pre-amp running into a pair of AW 800 M mono blocks, Transparent Reference cabling and a pair of Rockport Technologies Atria II speakers. What a system, the Electrocompaniet kit is super solid and sounds brilliant with anything you hook up to it.

The next room had Rockport Technologies Lynx speakers paired with Karan Electronics and Transparent cabling. There was a pair of Karan POWERa mono block amplifiers, Karan PHONOb phono stage, Karan LINEa pre-amplifier and VPI Dragon turntable with Lyra Etna MC cartridge. Another well put together system with great synergy and sound.

J.SIKORA

I’ll end part 1 of my Stadium coverage on this room, it was one of the standout rooms for me from the show and it sounded phenomenal, it’s hard to put it into words. Everything was in its right place, nothing was showy about the sound, nothing fighting for your attention, every little detail presented with such ease, impeccable. Now as for the kit, there was a J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme turntable, Doshi Evolution phono stage, Evolution line pre-amp, a pair of Evolution mono block amps running into a pair of the Kharma Exquisite Midi speakers – which truly are exquisite. I’m not really a classical music aficionado however, listening through this system though was a revelation – the dynamics were jaw droppingly good.

Join me again soon for Part 2 of this fantastic Stadium venue of the show, a big shout out to all the exhibitors and organisers, you can tell a lot of effort has been put into these rooms to make them sound the best they can.

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

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden

Follow all the HiFi PiG coverage of the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2024 here