HIFI PIG BRINGS YOU THE DUTCH AUDIO EVENT 2023 REPORT

HiFi PiG reports from the DAE 2023, we bring you full coverage of this fantastic event which includes exhibitors and brands from the Netherlands, the wider Benelux region as well as international HiFi brands from around the world. From the more accessibly priced to the ultra High End, we heard it all at the Dutch Audio Event 2023.

On a weekend that has lots of HiFi Shows happening around the globe, Lin and I chose to cover the Dutch Audio Event in Eindhoven, a HiFi and home audio event we have been attending for a number of years now. However, we also have folk covering the UK Audio Show at Daventry and the HiEnd Singapore show, and we will be bringing you coverage from each of these events in due course. 

The venue of the Dutch Audio Event is in a sprawling hotel that used to be a monastery and there are a good variety of rooms ranging from pretty small to pretty expansive. Speaking to the organisers before the event, they indicated that they expect between 4000 and 5000 visitors to the Dutch Audio Event and there were folk queuing up outside the venue well before the 10 a.m. opening time. (In fact, at the time of publishing we were informed that there were over 6000 visitors during the weekend).

The organisation of the Dutch Audio Event is excellent and walking around the night before everything was already in place for visitors and most rooms were fully set up by early evening. Complimentary event guides were piled high for visitors and this was well laid out and informative with all the rooms being clearly marked on a useful map. The map is vital for this event and whilst it is all on one floor, the hotel layout is somewhat confusing, but the organisers, Caspar Bunge of Audio Life and HiFI.NL, have done an excellent job of guiding visitors around the event with good signage on the floors (very clever, I thought). In addition to the excellent “on-floor” signposting every door was clearly marked.

And so after a fun breakfast with David and Lukas from GIK, who were attending the Dutch Audio Event for the first time, it was time to get our show-legs on and see what this year’s event had in store for us. 

VORTEX HIFI

This was an interesting concept with the room components (streamer, amps, etc) costing less than 900 euros.

The accessories, however, cost over 10K and are designed to reduce the “stress” to the human ear. The chap in the room told me that the stress is caused by electrical waves and noise waves. The concept here is to allow the human ear and then the brain to feel the full gamut of human emotions through the reduction of stress. There are ground optimising products and other products to optimise the high frequencies in the room. 

All very interesting stuff. 

GRIMM AUDIO

This is pretty much Grimm’s home show and they were very excited to show us a proper production model of the new MU2 which will ship in late October. They have gone through all the prototype tests and have been changing the firmware and optimising everything. This is exciting stuff from Grimm who will then get feedback from their current batch of products and then the second batch will go out in December….the first batch was sold out before they were launched and after the Munich High-End Show…and these will have features included from feedback from the first batch. 

Grimm has also been working on new firmware for the LS1 loudspeakers too.

The set up was a full surround five-channel system; LS1s front, centre, and rear, and whilst I’m not usually a fan of the whole surround thing for music, I did really enjoy this as it was quite subtle whilst playing Roxy Music’s Avalon. What I did notice was that I was sat in the rear left of the large room and still got the full surround effect. 

I called this an end-game system when I reviewed the LS1 and MU1 systems earlier this year, and I still think this to be true! This is a system for those who love music and are not interested in, nor want a million and one boxes of kit to show off. Minimalism in the aesthetic, if not in the software implementation which is very clever, indeed. 

I noticed that even at this relatively early hour the rooms were beginning to fill very quickly and they were really enjoying the music and a surround version of Strawberry Fields. I moved over to the other side of the room and you still get the effect. Is it “natural”…I don’t know, but it’s certainly very impressive to experience.  

Very enjoyable indeed! 

FINE SOUNDS

Sonus faber, Mcintosh and Rotel were on show in this very cool-looking room. The little Sonus faber DUETTO were being played when we were in the room. DUETTO is an active standmount system with built-in streaming and comes with its own app. They are wireless capable but also wireable. This was the first outing for the speakers.

The speakers are two-way with a silk dome tweeter and a 5.25 inch woofer. They cost around 4000 euros with the stand adding another 750 euros to this cost. They are clearly Sonus faber in their styling and are very nice looking. 

This is a good sounding speaker that certainly filled the room at Dutch Audio Event and perhaps we will see more of this kind of high-level lifestyle loudspeaker in the coming years. I actually think this is a sensible move for the industry in many ways in that it will engage those who love music, as opposed to the dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles and their many boxes of electronics. 

AVANTGARDE & AVM 

Our love of the German brand Avantgarde is an open secret and I still recall the first time I had the opportunity to experience the brand in Monaco with Geoffrey at Sound Galleries. The rep said “and now we will listen to what one watt sounds like”. Two minutes into it I was hooked. 

The AVM models were the preamplifier PR8.3 and the Streamer was the Media Player MP8.3 and the Phonostage 8.3 with a Bergmann Magne turntable with a DS audio cartridge. The Speakers were the latest iteration of the DUOs (GT) and I think it goes without saying that I really loved the sound in this room. 

ARETAI

Using SolidSteel stands the speakers playing in the Aretai room were the ARETAI CONTRA 100S at 9000 Euros a pair. These are a closed-box speaker with drivers front and rear which I think is an interesting concept. And these have a claimed response down to 32Hz depending on the room conditions, and I can believe this as for a stand mounter they do go very low. I also like the horn load tweeter on these. 

The amp was a BLADELIUS ASK INTEGRATED with phono, DAC, and streamer onboard (14K Euros with all the extras outlined).

This is a nice-looking system with a very nice sound playing Tainted Love by Karen Souza.

LEICA

OK, LEICA (yes, that LEICA) is not the first brand name you expect to see at a HiFi show but the German camera manufacturer has just announced their LEICA CONE 1 video projection system costing from 6996 euros for the 80 inch system to 8995 for the 120 inch system. All the lasers in this system are from HiSense but these are handpicked…and the lens inside is, of course, a LEICA lens. Linn provided the sounds to go with the visuals in a very smart and liveable with at home set up.

BOENICKE & VERTERE

Not exactly the partnering I was expecting to see at the Dutch Audio Event but one that certainly works very well. Regular readers will be familiar with both these brands. 

The Boenicke speakers started out as being teeny tiny stand-mounters that punched well above their weight category and astounded everyone who came into contact with them. However, the range of speakers has increased to include the floorstanders we got to have a listen to and they did certainly fill the room – which was itself the busiest we had encountered up to this point which goes a good way to highlight the respect that this brand (and, of course, Vertere) has in the audio world. 

PEARL ACOUSTICS

Pearl Acoustics Sibelius SG is a single-driver loudspeaker crafted from twelve-year-old solid French oak but with a range of finishes available. They are 87dB sensitive and PEARL suggests using Class A amplifiers (they were using SUGDEN today). 

Prices in the natural finish are a bit shy off the 6K Euros point rising to 7200 in the white finish. This was a busy room and absolutely fantastic to see this English brand doing so well on the continent.    

The sound is much bigger than the tiny driver would warrant and I’m astounded by these speakers every time I get to sit in front of a pair. Harley Lovegrove (pictured with his speakers) went into a good deal of detail to explain to the audience how these speakers manage to produce this range of frequencies with him telling us that much is down to the rigidity of the solid oak cabinets. The alloy driver on the speakers is exceptionally stiff but exceptionally light in weight and this helps produce, along with the winding of the coil, the high frequencies that this speaker produces.  This no-crossover design helps produce a fantastically clear and coherent sound that was clearly to the audience’s liking. 

Yep, I could live with these, for sure! 

MUSIC 2

Trafomatic amps and Blumenhofer loudspeakers were making nice sounds in this massive and very cool feeling room. 

Speakers were the BLUMENHOFER GENUIN (10K euros a pair) with the Traumatic amps being the EVOLUTION LINE ONE preamplifier at 3K and the EVOLUTION ELEGANCE amps at 8K. 

The GENUIN speakers are a pretty compact floor stander but judging from the sound (Playing Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wildside), you would never believe they were so compact, particularly as this was a bigger room. 

GOLDMUND, PINK FAUN, MODUS & IKIGAI

I’d been looking forward to hearing the GOLDMUND TETHYS loudspeakers with the Dutch MODUS electronics and IKIGAI cables and I get it. The full kit list is as follows:

Goldmund Tethys speakers, Modus Audio SPA01 power amplifier, Modus Audio SPAR01 pre amplifier, Modus Audio DAC01 DAC, Pink Faun 2.16 Ultra Dual streamer, Silent Angel Bonn NX switch and Genesis GX word clock, AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioner, Ikigai Kinzan interconnects, network cables, speaker cables and power cables throughout.

This is expensive audio, that’s for sure, but I also fully understand why people are willing to invest this kind of money on a system. The assembled visitors to the show sat in a kind of quiet reverence to this system and they clearly got it too.

TOTEM & REGA

This was a massive room for such small speakers to fill, but they did a brilliant job! 

REGA NAIA turntable ARIA phono, AETHOS Integrated amp, and TOTEM BISON TWIN TOWER speakers.

The REGA NAIA is the British brands latest (and flagship production model) turntable that was launched in September and costs around 10K GBP. It features: ZTA Zirconium toughened alumina (ceramic) central bearing, RB titanium tonearm : One piece titanium vertical bearing and Titanium vertical spindle assembly

Tungsten balance weight shaft and weight, Ceramic top and bottom braces, Reference advanced fully adjustable power supply, Resonance controlled ceramic platter with improved flywheel effect and complex profile, Low mass skeletal aluminium feet and Triple Reference drive belts for improved stability and drive characteristics. The Rega Aphelion 2 MC is factory fitted (optional) and takes the price to £12500.

AUDIO ANALOGUE

Italian brand AUDIO ANALOGUE were at the Dutch Audio Show and had the first showing of their Bellini preamplifier with DONIZETTI mono amplifiers with Airtech loudspeakers (ATS01 costing 50K euros). The source was a CD player called AA DRIVE with the AA DAC. Cables were all from AIRTECH.

OK, this is a pricey system but it’s a really lovely sounding system that had clarity and power aplenty in the room. 

The Italian-themed lights under the rack were a lovely touch. 

DRIADE SYSTEMS

This was a new brand to me.

PIEGA & INAKUSTIK

Swiss brand PIEGA played us their PREMIUM 701 WIRELESS GEN2 loudspeakers. The name sort of gives it away but what surprised me was the sub-4K price tag.  

CHORD ELECTRONICS

Really really great to see the guys from CHORD ELECTRONICS at the Dutch Audio Event. The system was an MSCALER feeding DAVE DAC in DAC mode feeding ULTIMA PRE3 Analogue preamplifier and pair of ULTIMA 3 monoblocs. Songs faber loudspeakers. Music was a guitarist called Marcin playing a really cool version of Kashmir. 

Great room and FULL! 

SOULNOTE & WILSON BENESCH

I tend to associate SOULNOTE electronics with FINK Team loudspeakers and oddly enough, just before we walked into this room Karl Heinz Fink had messaged me to say he had arrived at the show. However…

The little Wilson Benesch stand mounters have a lot of fans and do understand why given how good they sounded with the SOULNOTE electronics at the Dutch Auto Event. Also featured was the Luphonic Audio turntable that launched at Munich a couple of years ago.

AUDIONOTE UK

Now, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Judas Priest at a HiFi Show before but I did at the Dutch HiFi Event and it was in this room.  Audio Note shouldn’t do metal, should it? But it does and it does it very well with a whole lot more deep kick than I thought would be possible in this room. I also thought the room was really nicely dressed. 

Full system was as follows:

TT-Two Deluxe £2450., ARM-Three/II £1760, IQ3 Moving Magnet cartridge £936.50

CD Zero integrated CD player £2169.50

OTO Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier £5499.00

AN-J/LX Hemp ‘speakers £5199.00

LEXUS interconnects £238.50 for a 1m pair

LEXUS-LX bi-wire ‘speaker cable £1850.00 for a 3m bi-wire pair.

Excellent. 

VOGELS

A Dutch distributor selling Klipsch, Pioneer and others.

RIVIERA AUDIO LABS

Playing Neil Young’s Old Man when we walked in the room which got my attention immediately. I’ve always really enjoyed this Italian brand and with the Oswald Mill (Fleetwood Audio) speakers it was a great-sounding room; Dynamic, detailed, and really good fun to listen to. 

Also a very cool ambiance to the room. 

WESTERN ELECTRIC, SYNTHESIS AUDIO & AUDIO SOLUTIONS

The entrance to this massive room was made up of (basically) a record store but once you got through that you entered a listing space with a whole load of kit around the room and a very nicely put together (and sounding) system. 

The WE 91E wasn’t playing when I was in the room but the Synthesis Audio (NYC500) amplifiers were doing a fab job of driving the Audio Solutions Figaro MK2 Model M loudspeakers. 

Well worth getting through the record shop space to the main event. 

INNUOS

Kurt who was doing the dem for INNUOS asked the question “Does anyone like Jazz?” And interestingly I wasn’t the only voice in the room to say NO! I do like some of it, to be fair, but it was an amusing aside. IINNUOS chose a pair of Wilsons and an D’agostino amplifier. 

Either INNUOS know how to choose their partners very carefully, or their streaming products just work very well with whatever they are partnered with because I’ve never heard them sound anything other than excellent. 

Full system was as follows: Innuos PhoenixNET connected to an Innuos STATEMENT with Next-Gen PSU and PULSAR as sources. From there a Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Progression integrated amplifier served as a DAC, preamp and amplifier driving a pair of Wilson Audio Sabrina X speakers. The mains block was an AudioQuest Niagara 5000 with their cables as well. A SolidTech Rack of Silence rack held all of the components.

As a rule the usual run of a show is for Kurt, or whichever INNUOS representative is present to do a comparative test switch in and out different levels of their kit but that’s not what happened here today…I reckon the dem is brilliant as I’ve seen it loads, but it was really cool just to listen to Diggin on James Brown by Tower of Power and then One in My Heart by Human League…both tunes I’ve never heard at shows before. 

AUDIO GROUP DENMARK

If you read HiFi PiG and our daily HiFi News then you will know Audio Group Denmark and their brands as they sponsor our news. The brands in question are Aavik, Borresen, Ansuz, and now their entry-level products AXXESS.

At the Dutch Audio Event, we got treated to the frankly awesome-looking I-880 integrated and the  SD 880 streaming DAC. Needless to say, the power distribution and switch were from Ansuz and the speakers were the M3 we have heard before. Look, you can poke the accusation of bias at me for saying that this brand is at another level of sonics…but they are in many ways.

There is a sense of accuracy you get (even in this room) and a sense of speed and scale in the sound staging – I was lucky enough to sit dead centre on the back row of the room to enjoy a bit of TOOL. Yep, that’ll do, thank you very much! Fritz played Chocolate Chip Trip for us and there was a real sense of this being a very powerful track and the system got the dynamics of the tune across really (REALLY) well. Drums (it’s essentially a drum track) moved across the stage and had proper clout to them. 

So that room was the high-end of Audio Group Denmark, but AXXESS, as the name suggests, is where the entry-level to AGD starts and we got to hear the Forte 3 through the Borresen X3 speakers that we were lucky enough to have reviewed and give our top award to. It’s easy to get a bit frivolous and call this entry-level, which it is, but this is an entry-level that still has a significant price tag, but you can clearly hear the shared heritage of the two systems we have just experienced. The latter still has that tight and dynamic feel, it’s just that the previous room was even more so! Again, and somewhat obviously, the switch (Power Switch ) and power distribution were from Ansuz. 

Also on show were the Borresen Z1 standmounters…but sadly not playing. 

HiFi MATTERS

The turntable in this room was the TAKUMI Buy Rik Stoet and is a vinyl spinner we have experienced before but not through MOONRIVER and LINE MAGNETIC electronics and (new to me) DASL loudspeakers. 

System was Moonriver 404 and Line Magnetic LM845 integrated amps, 505 phono amp, Takumi TT Level 2.1DC, DASL speakers, and the cables in the room were by Tellurium Q.

This was a sweet-sounding system, for sure with the brushed snare coming out the right-hand channel and way beyond from where the speaker was sat.

The DASL speakers were a small two-way sealed box speaker. I like sealed box (infinite baffle) speakers and this was a very good interpretation of the design. 

CEC, GURU, BESPOKE AUDIO, MUSIC FIRST AUDIO, MERRILL AUDIO

Ton that owns the company that sells all the above was the person who first invited Lin and me to the Dutch Audio Event many years ago when it was still called XFi. 

The little GURU 12 speakers were prototypes. These little speakers are lovely in how they play music and have a slightly fuller sound from what I remember of the (also stunning) GURU Q10. 

Bespoke Audio pre was in the system with plenty of Music First Audio in the display.

AEQUO AUDIO

We reviewed the AEQUO Audio speakers years ago and though they were fantastic…my opinion hasn’t changed since then and this Dutch brand’s Stilla speakers were sounding fab on the end of CAAS (From W. Yorkshire in the UK) electronics. 

The guys at AEQUO are in the throes of building a new factory facility which will come online in Q1 of 2024 and so I think we will be hearing a LOT more from this excellent and forward-looking brand in the coming years. 

I could still live with these speakers very easily!

ASPERA AUDIO 

This was a room I was looking forward to experiencing and they were playing an excellent version of The Police’s Roxanne by DubXanne…check it out as it knocks the original into a cocked hat. 

Anyway, the HiFi in here was all PS Audio, and having read a whole load about the Aspen FR20 loudspeakers, it was fab to finally get in front of a pair. The streamer was the Airlens. The amp was the Perfect Wave BHK S250.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting from these speakers but many people had said that they’d heard them at shows and really rated them, and, yes, I rate them too. Apparently, I heard them at AXPONA too but they made a much bigger impression on me at Dutch Audio Event. They seem to be very much up my street of being big on bass speed and dynamics, but also with a nicely open midband and top section.
A very enjoyable experience, indeed, with one high frequency in the mix coming from somewhere well outside of where the speakers were placed. 

REFERENCE SOUNDS

Reference Sounds had a full JBL system playing including all the electronics and the turntable. TT 350, CD 350, MP350, and SA550 (Turntable, CDP, Media Player, and integrated amplifier).  The turntable is a little off a grand, the amp is just shy of 2K and the CDP and media player are both under a grand. The speakers l1000 MK II are 2250 euros. 

I wasn’t actually overly aware that JBL currently did electronics so this came as a really nice surprise that you can now have a full JBL system from front to back. 

Cool, retro, and very nice sounding in a room that was nicely put together and chilled. 

Kii

The Kii Three and the Kii Three BXT are a phenomenal speaker system with onboard amps and onboard DSP to allow pretty much any kind of room to be good sounding with these speakers.

The Dutch Audio Event has done nothing to change my opinion on these speakers and with the launch of the new Kii SEVEN wireless speaker I think they now have something for every situation and every pocket. 

Cool stuff and very clever. 

We got a chance a little later to get a listen to the new Kii SEVEN that was launched the previous weekend at the Ascot Show. Price for a pair of these is around 7500 euros and they have onboard amps, DSP and streaming. XLR and TRS, AES/EBU, KiiLink/KiiCONTROL, WiFi, Bluetooth, DANTE are also included This is certainly a speaker that bridges that serious audiophile territory and the lifestyle aspect of audio. 

During the brief listen we got to have of the Kii SEVEN speakers it was clear that they share a lot of the characteristic of their bigger siblings; tight and controlled bass and what I would describe as an accurate sound. They also sound a LOT bigger than their relatively compact proportions would lead you to suspect. 

Very, very interesting and very cool. I actually think the SEVENS were one of (if not THE) highlight of the show for me.

SVS 

Home Cinema at full throttle.

GIK ACOUSTICS

Dave and Lukas from GIK ACOUSTICS were attending the Dutch Audio Event for the first time this year and were using the event to officially launch their new product, the SlatFusor Series.

This great looking (i’d be happy to have our walls covered in these) panels are designed to not only combat bass issues, reflections, and resonances but also scatter mid-band and high-frequencies.

The new SlatFusors are veneered in sustainable oak that can be stained too.

SlatFusors come in a range of thicknesses to work in the way you need them to; the slim 2″ acoustic panel to eliminate reverb and echo, and 4″ and 6″ bass traps to control low-frequency build-up.

The design is really clever and allows you to seamlessly line up a whole wall, making several SlatFusors look like one continuous wall, or they can be used individually and strategically.

Regular readers will be well aware that we use GIK panels in both of the HiFi PiG Towers listening spaces for the simple reason they work.

REFERENCE SOUNDS

First stop of the day after a breakfast with the guys from GIK again was the Reference Sounds room where we were treated to some Daft Punk through Wilson Audio Sasha loudspeakers, Mark Levinson no 50 monos, Wadax Atlantis Ref server, and ref DAC. 

Yes, this is seriously expensive high-end audio and has the prices to match, but what a fabulous way to start a Sunday at the Dutch Audio Event. The room was nicely laid out with cool red lighting, a few bits of D’Agostino displayed and some Audio Research being nicely lit and shown off. 

Cool and a fab start to the day to blow the cobwebs away. We had actually snuck in a little before opening so had a couple of tracks and a nice chat with Brandon from Wadax before the crowds arrived. The big sign behind the speakers simply stated AUDIO PURITY, and yes, I get that statement in this room. We have a busy schedule ahead of us today and time is tight to get round the whole event, but neither Lin or I were in any real hurry to move on from this room, which sort of suggests it was really rather pleasant. 

MORE MUSIC

The new MOON North Collection and Estelon speakers were featured in this room with the 791 preamp/streamer and 2 x 761 stereo amp playing in mono configuration. The Streamer was the Aurender N30SA with The MC 10 clock which is a new clock. The rack is a Finite carbon fibre edition MK 2 and the cables and power conditioning are from Shunyata. The Shunyata Altaira grounding system and the Shunyata Typhon mkII power conditioner were also new. Speakers were of course the X Diamond MK 2 from Estelon which were making their Netherlands debut.

This room was another large space that was tastefully dressed with grey and white drapes and banners for the various brands represented, which included PrimaLuna, dCS, Pass Labs and Bassocontinuo.

This is very high-end kit, much like the last room we were in and the effortlessness of this kind of kit was well evident; a kind of quiet luxury.

YAMAHA

Next up was Yamaha which had the NS-800A speakers and RN1000A amp playing in a huge room and then a living room-styled set up are where they had another 5.1 system set up.  This latter space was a very cool concept and I liked it a great deal. It gives the visitor to the show an idea of how a system could look in a regular living space. I know this kind of dressing is secondary to many audiophile people, but I think it is important at these kind of events if the industry is to become more acceptable to regular people who love music and are looking to have a system that they can live with day in and day out. 

DALI

We ran the news on the new DALI EPIKORE II speakers a few weeks ago with DALI saying that this new speaker is a natural evolution of their EPICON series of loudspeakers.

Being driven by NAD electronics this was a very good demonstration of what  is an excellent sounding loudspeaker. 

BIG BOYS AUDIO TOYS

Omega Audio Concepts is a fairly new brand to me (in this guise), but one that encompasses electronics, cables, and speakers; a sort of nose to tail listening experience, if you like. Everything looked very nicely finished and sounded great in this large room. We have experienced Omega previously at the Deluxe Audio event that runs alongside the Munich High End show. This was the first time we had the opportunity to really sit and listen. This system also featured some of the most insanely neat speaker cabling we have ever seen…and a CD player you may have mistaken for a BBQ.

The OAC system was, in full: Speaker M.U.S.A. Amplifier MONO AMP DNA, 100 Watt. CD STREAM and cables Omega Audio Concepts, The Element.

Whilst it wasn’t Keith Don’t Go, we did get treated to the first outing of Tin Pan Alley and it did sound very good, even over the chatter in the other part of the room.  

Also in the Big Boys Audio Toys space was Fischer & Fischer which we didn’t get to listen to but both spaces were generating a lot of interest and chatter from visitors to the Dutch Audio Event. Big Boys Audio Toys was proudly emblazoned in lights behind this system that included the Metronome Kalista Dreamplay CD player and amps from Eunice Kron’s Czech KR AUDIO.

STANDS AND STATIC DISPLAYS

FINE SOUNDS BENELUX

We thought we had seen what Fine Sounds Benelux had got to offer yesterday but this was a much bigger and well-dressed affair; a large room with nice walls (brought in for the event), mood lighting, a motorbike, and lots of kit.

Speaking of kit, the system in the room playing when we visited was Mcintosh Preamp C2700, MC 611 amp, and Sonus Faber Amati Homage G5 loudspeakers that were playing a John Grant track called Black Belt. This was a BIG room but the sound was equally BIG and this system had no trouble filling it at all. 

Needless to say, the room was very busy and people were clearly enjoying what they were hearing.

Very nice. 

VERY FINE SOLUTIONS

I’d really been looking forward to this room since chatting with Martine of VFS in the bar during a much needed break during our first day at the Dutch Audio Event. Frank and Martine who run this company are hugely passionate about the music and about creating a wonderful experience for everyone who visits their room.

The room was a collaboration between Sounds & Colors Magico – Antipodes Distributor for BeNeLux, VFS, and AudioXperience, the local dealer for the products.

The system consisted of an Antipodes music server, then an MSB Digital Director preprocessor that prepares the signal for the DAC and this is connected by glass fibre to the MSB Reference DAC and pre which went into the  N205 monos from MSB. Speakers were the Magico S3 and cables were from the Dutch manufacturer IKIGAI.

A Dusty Kid rework of Moonlight Sonata got played for me and from the first bars of the track it was clear we were listing to a rather special system. There is scale and dynamics aplenty and a purity of  tone on this system, even with the somewhat banging sound of DJ Eclipse’s Walk With Me tune. 

The room was very square but the team had worked very hard to remove standing waves caused by the room shape and I love all this attention to detail and it is something that visitors to shows often don’t realise happens – exhibitors don’t just turn up and plonk their kit down at show. I don’t envy the VERY FINE SOUNDS team having to dismantle and load all this into the vans at the end of the day. It was also dressed and lit to give the feeling of understated opulence and luxury, befitting of the system on show.

Yep, that will do and I could happily live with this beautiful-looking and sounding system.

D & D AUDIO

D & D Audio got my attention by playing Ghost Rider’s Make Us Stronger that I could hear from down the corridor even though the speakers were the somewhat diminutive Crystal Cable Futura II that we got to hear at the Hong Kong show. They may well be tiny loudspeakers, but they are exquisitely built and sounded great with Siltech Royal Signature Crown cables, Aurender, Siltech, and NAGRA electronics. 

Around the room were YG Acoustics Carmel 3 and Hailey 3.2 speakers. 

432 EVO AND AMPHION

I’ve just reviewed the 432 EVO MASTER music server that you can read about here.

Frederic was in full flow explaining the system to a packed room when we got to the room but kindly switched to English when Linette walked in the room – thanks! The banner in the room is a really interesting concept as it’s a picture of a choir that Beatrice (Frederic’s partner) sings with. 

Amphion Krypton 3X were the speakers and a VITUS AUDIO amplifier was supplying the juice. 

OK, I know the tune playing has significance and it sounded very nice, but for me, it was the reaction my body had to the sound in this room that really caught my attention – instant goosebumps. I have no idea if this is the 432 Hz tuning, the fact I know the story about the tune, or whatever. That doesn’t matter, but the connection my body made to the music was instant and (without retreating to Pseuds’ Corner) palpable. 

We also got some Ghost Rider and I’m convinced this is the new Keith Don’t Go!! 

VERY cool and very emotionally connecting to the music and a really effortless portrayal of the music for a show environment. 

TERRASON

PMC, ARCAM, HALCRO, ESOTERIC, and many more brands were being shown in this room and it was the new ARCAM kit that was being introduced and explained when we were in the room. We ran the news about this new product a few days before the show but this was the first time we got to experience it in the flesh and here playing through a pair of fact.8 speakers from PMC. 

This new set of RADIA electronics from ARCAM will fly off the shelves, I think. It looks cool, is feature rich and sounded great through the PMCs. There was a lot of high-end kit in this room, and I think it is a confident brand that chooses to play what is essentially entry-level kit at a show – personally, I think this was a great move! 

AUDIOQUEST AND GOLDENEAR

With Primare electronics AudioQuest has the way they present at events down to a fine art. Wherever in the world you see them exhibit the feel of the room will be the same; dark, red, and with lots of cool branding. It’s corporate branding but corporate branding done well. 

The GoldenEar T66 speakers were playing when we went into the room and sounded great. GoldenEar is getting a lot of love on the various social media spaces we inhabit and from a price-to-performance ratio perspective they do seem to offer excellent value. 

We got to listen to an interesting version of Bohemian Rhapsody by Pentatonix. 

ATC, BENCHMARK, MUTEC, PSI AUDIO

The product that got my attention in this room was actually the active bass trap (C214) from PSI AUDIO. The bumph tells me they will absorb room modes from 15 – 160 Hz and that they work digitally. Not really the place to assess a product like this, of course, but I thought the concept was very interesting.

The SCM 50 from British brand ATC were playing when we went in the room with an ATC amp and preamplifier on the rack. The Benchmark and MUTEC kit was blinking away on top and doing its thing. 

ERCT

ERCT say they are “a Distributor of excellent audio brands” and their kit roster does read very well; AMG, Audiomica, Cary Audio, Eversolo, Norman Rogue Auto and more.  We got to listen to Octave electronics. 

Peter Gabriel’s 4 Kinds of Horses sounded great!

The big system that we heard was: Octave audio HP700 SE with phono Riaa and MC module €16800, RE 320 power amp stereo incl. Super black box €13490, Streamer Cary Audio DMS800 €18000,
Turntable – AMG, Analogue Manufacture Germany, Giro II including arm, cartridge Goldenberg Brilliant.
Speakers Ø Audio Icon €15000. Audiomica audio cables introduction Silver Reference, Rack Solid Tech Balance, Ansuz switch. Total for this system was over 116,000€

The smaller system we didn’t hear featured the new Eversolo DMP-A6 master Edition and cost around 13,000€.

MAFICO

No, that’s not a spelling mistake, that’s the name of this Dutch distributor of Harbeth, Lindemann, DS Audio, Ayon, Final, and Bryston. 

The Final speakers, an electrostatic design, looked and sounded great being driven by Bryston electronics. All very flowing and effortless sounding. 

Whilst we didn’t get the chance to hear Harbeth at the Dutch Audio Show immediatelu, it was great to catch up with Alan who runs this classic and somewhat iconic UK Audio brand. Actually, we hung around chatting to Harry from Harbeth, and the SHL5s were fired up and being fed with Lindemann zeros and ones. 

I sense that Harbeth has a bit of a reputation of being a bit “British” in the sense that I think some people have them down as being a bit pipe and slippers, but I’ll have none of it judging by today’s performance. Dynamic and natural through the mids is what I took away from this brief experience with these speakers…and I thoroughly enjoyed the Malia and Boris Blank’s Celestial Echo. 

Here’s a picture of Alan with the speakers on a set of stands that you will hear about tin the coming weeks. 

SANGEAN EUROPE

T + A & MUSICAL FIDELITY

And there it is! Finally, we have Keith Don’t Go. 

A Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier and LS35As were actually playing in the room when we were in here but there was a whole load more kit around the room that was very, very busy. I thought it was the larger T + A speakers playing when I first sat down and had to do a bit of a double take…as did a couple more people in the room. It’s the first time I’ve heard this retake on a classic amplifier from my youth and I actually think it’s a very clever move to reintroduce the “hot plate” to a new audience.  

At the other end of the room was the new preamp, streamer and DAC from T + A which is from the HV series. This is PSD3100HV. This has two separate DA converters in there giving conversion up to PCM 768 and a True One Bit converter that will do DSD to 512. The big thing here is the G3 server client which has more features than the current model and offers more services. The A3000 amp in this system has been out for a while but the speakers are the Solitaire S430 that we reviewed on HiFi PiG a short time ago. 

The R Series multi-source receiver was on show and has the new streaming client too. This is a lifestyle kind of product due out at the end of the year. 

There was masses of kit in this very busy room.

Aaaaand now time for a drink and snack in one of the cafes dotted around this vast hotel. 

LOEWE

The night we arrived at the venue, this surround sound AV system was playing to itself in the room with the door closed. We genuinely thought there might be someone getting killed in there before we looked at the plaque on the door…and then penny dropped. 

AUDIO TECHNICA AND GENELEC

Well, from the Fast and Furiousness of the LOEWE room to some calming Rammstein in the Audio Technical and Genelec. We got the demonstration of changing the stylus on the AT turntable to a SHIABATA profile stylus which gave us a little bit more of a sparkly and toppy character to the recording. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I think we will see more and more crossover from the pro world in to the home audio sphere. 

Nice sounding system for the real world, I think.

VOXATIV 

Voxativ from Berlin were in a room off the main drag and it was busy with people sitting in relatively quiet reverence. The speakers were the HAGEN the amp is the ABSOLUTE system with amplifier, streamer, and a DSP system onboard. 

Really lovely sounding system. 

HOFFNER

The H10 (13,700 Euros) speakers are a 2 way fully active speaker with a passive radiator on the front instead of a passive bass tube, The idea here is to get a better timing response. There are 3 presets you can switch between and the main aim here is to get time-aligned music. 

The H20 (15 900 euros) is a passive version of the same speaker. 

The speakers are all handmade in Aachen near Cologne in Germany and the speakers are wood and not MDF. These are a cool concept of a loudspeaker system that deserves to be more well-known in the UK and beyond. 

AUDIOLAB, CANTON, WHARFEDALE, MISSION, PROJECT & PINELL OF NORWAY

This was a bit of a weird set up in a large and open space. Actually, it was weird in quite a cool way with lots of little stations to show off kit and a main area that was playing a range of systems. 

TEMPORAL COHERENCE & HEPTA

A very nice chap with a spectacular moustache was speaking Dutch (naturally) in this room but being English, I naturally don’t speak Dutch. However, the room was packed with an audience that was clearly appreciating whatever was being explained to them.

We got a version of Streets of London by Dave Roth and despite having to be right at the back of the room it was clear this was a nice sounding system. Clear guitars and vocal were my takeaways from this with sense of the artist being at the front of the room. 

Wish I could have got a seat at the front for this one…

KAD AUDIO

Another packed room and another name I wasn’t very familiar with, though I have heard them at this show before. 

KAD Audio is a speaker maker that make hand-crafted speakers that are active and wireless. They currently have two models; the smaller K5 and the K7 for larger rooms and “a masterpiece for the audiophile”.

Sounded nice enough but sadly I was too distracted by the large screen at the front of the room showing a whole series of graphs.

ARPEGGIO ACOUSTIC

Arpeggio speakers being driven by Audio Research electronics in this room. The Magnum Opus speakers are an interesting-looking speaker that I think will likely divide opinion on looks as they are quite short and stout, though they sounded nice enough over some chattery folk in the room. 

LYNGDORF 

Sorry guys, but you were locked when we came by, however, as we had finished the show the room was open and there was loud techno blasting out from a packed room….sounded fantastic and probably not what you would expect from the Steinway stable!

DAUDIO

Daudio were demonstrating their modular open baffle MOB speaker at the show. The Daudio MOB 3 will be used with the Premium mid-high combination and the Reference filter. This was another busy room that folk were obviously loving. The system is a DIY kind of package for 6K euros and I can’t help but think that this is OUTRAGEOUS value for money given what I was hearing! 

Fading Sun by Terje Isungset got played and this is a tune I really don’t know. It’s sparse and full of atmosphere and bell sounds that came across not here speakers as clear as a (yes, I know) bell. Space and a really deep and tight bass is what I got from this system that I think is going to be VERY popular indeed when it goes international. It’s quite a big system but it looks interesting and not overly imposing. 

I liked this room a lot and we spent a lot longer in here than we did in pretty much any room. Brilliant! 

CANTON & AUDIOLAB

It was a close run race but Canton came in second with their playing of Keith Don’t Go. 

I think this 9000 series Audiolab kit is a really very good indeed with the amp and network player coming in at about 5K for the pair and the CD player coming in at 1300 euros. The large stand mounters from Canton are 3600 euros making this not quite a budget offering, but one that is relatively affordable in the grand scheme of audio things. 

Sonically it was a good sounding system in this room with loads of bass. 

The electronics look very nice with a kind of “proper HiFi” look about it and I particularly liked the digital VU letters on the 9000A amplifier. 

Real world HiFi I would say!

AUDIO PHOOL

What a cool name, though I’m sure it will upset some…needless to say I like that aspect of the name. The Audiophool is actually the server that the Dutch brand say is a “powerful and sustainable platform for ultimate digital audio playback.” Now that’s quite a statement but I suppose you get nowhere in this world by being timid and meek…wasn’t;t it Zappa who said “the meek will inherit nothing!”? 

Anyway, the Audiophool server is computer based and dedicated only to music playback with low latency via SPDIF, AES, EBU, USB or I2S.

I’ve no idea what the speakers were in this room and I’m guessing they are of an AUDIOPHOOL design too. 

RIKE AUDIO

There was a very nice version of Neil Young’s Four Strong Winds playing when we went in this room that I’ve not heard before…and that was nice.

High End Ovum brass (or whatever metal they were) resonators (I assume) were dotted around the room which I have no idea of whether they had an effect or even what they cost as the folk in the room were unable to offer any information. 

Sounded nice enough, despite me having little idea of what I was actually listening to. 

B AUDIO

Ah, the French contingent finally. We knew they were here somewhere and it’s always nice to catch up with these guys as they always have nice sounding rooms. 

B AUDIO electronics (obviously) feeding Intrada floorstanders that were interesting looking. Sadly, I walked in at the end of a rather interesting version of I Will Survive but did get to hear an equally interesting version of Stairway To Heaven. 

The B.audio Alpha One is the outcome of the experience acquired during the development of the Reference Series electronics and combines an advanced DAC together with a high-end, passively cooled, dual-mono amplifier in a single enclosure.

The proprietary EX networking module is also included, offering acoustic correction and advanced streaming capabilities. Alpha One benefits from B.audio’s patented SJR “Source Jitter Removal” technology, which eliminates the imperfections affecting the clock signal of any digital source, optimising the digital-to-analogue conversion process.

The fully symmetrical integrated preamp stage features a commutated resistor volume control for channel balance.

Like all B.audio products, the Alpha One incorporates no coupling capacitors and uses multi-pole servo circuits operating outside the signal path to provide a consistent DC reference. Directly derived from that of the manufacturer’s power amplifiers, the amplification section uses a sophisticated topology featuring local feedback at the most critical stages, thereby, say B.audio, considerably reducing dynamic distortion. As a result, Alpha One benefits from the advantages of a Class AB output stage while providing ‘perfect linearity of operation’. Its dual-mono design features comfortable power handling (200W under 4 Ohm, 120W under 8 Ohm) combined with a large current reserve. The B.audio Alpha One is available now at 15,990€ inc VAT, with a 450€ supplement for the black finish.

 The speakers are the INTRADA JOSQUIN and are from Poland costing 17 800 euros. It has a 22cm woofer actually inside the speaker and is bass reflex loaded. There is no crossover in the design between mids and bass. 

The last tune we got played in this room was Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall and I was very impressed by the clarity and detail, but also the power and dynamics of this system.

FAB!

HEADPHONES AND HEADFI GEAR

For all those into Headfi there was also a really nice selection of gear in The Head Space…we checked this out towards the end of the event when it was quieter, apparently, this had been a very busy place through the weekend.

DUTCH AUDIO EVENT 2023

And there you have it, another absolutely brilliant show from HiFi.NL, Caspar, and the whole team that work on the Dutch Audio Event. Without a doubt, this is one of the very best shows we attend, though the quality these days seems to be almost universally high at pretty much all the audio events we attend.

My takeaway from this year’s Dutch Audio Event is that we have a show that is of a scale now that it is a major player on the European HiFi show scene (there were around 6000 visitors to this year’s event) but it still seems to have an air of it being a small and friendly show in its vibe.

Thank you to the organisers, all the exhibitors who put so much unsung effort into making sure their rooms are the very best they can be, and to all the visitors to the show that stopped to say hello to us.

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.

Stuart and Linette Smith

For all of the Dutch Audio Event 2023 coverage, click here