HIFI PIG’S ERIC CHECKS OUT THE FIRST FAS VIENNA

Organised by the German High End Society, the Viennese edition of the Finest Audio Show appeared on the show calendar for the first time this year.

Based on our experience of its premiere on November 18th/19th, we are pretty certain it will become a permanent fixture….read on and enjoy the Finest Audio Show Vienna 2023 Report.

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.

FINEST AUDIO SHOW VIENNA 2023 REPORT

The Austria Center Vienna may be located in a not especially attractive array of modern office towers surrounded by a convoluted knot of concrete bridges and tunnels on the wrong side of the Donau – there is no arguing about the quality of the venue itself, though. The ground plan looking like a Pentastar with satellites on every side, it features a massive central hall and five lobbies that feature the centre of the individual rooms and halls, which vary in size between fairly huge and positively tiny. Just over sixty of those, most of those on Level Minus Two with a few more on Level Zero, were booked for the first Finest Audio Show edition here – substantial but still not a huge amount, which made it manageable for visitors to see and experience most of it in a single day.

EAST MEETS WEST

Although the vast majority of brands featured are well-known from shows elsewhere in Europe, you still come away with a lot of new impressions from your first big show in Austria because of the differences in brand portfolios carried by the individual distributors in different countries, which means you get to see and hear unfamiliar combinations of familiar brands and products. Also, Vienna historically being something of a gateway into Eastern Europe form a Western European perspective, there were quite a few newcomers from that way, particularly out of the burgeoning Polish HiFi scene.

Of the shows we’ve attended over the past twelve months or so, Vienna in general erred towards the conservative when it comes to the tunes being played; most rooms were on a diet of the usual audiophile recordings (although I´m not sure that I´ve heard Keith Don´t Go at the venue itself, there was plenty out there that sounded alike, and Annette Askvik´s ´Unity´ was sure to make an appearance or three, too…), although happily some went against the grain – cue Peter Qvortrup, well into his seventies now, shaking up the Audio Note UK room (as well as every other room within a quarter of a mile) with some heavy duty techno played at sound pressure levels that most would think well beyond the remit of eight watts per channel from a single 300B; but in all honesty, before that little episode the music played there was also varied and much more in line with what ´normal´ music lovers would play at home.

What riles me, though, is the insistence on playing instrumental jazz versions of songs we all pretty much know by heart, there could be a case for that if the recording of the original artist is far below par for sound quality, but why on earth would you play some noodley saxophone version of Papa was A Rolling Stone, the original being a lavish production if there ever was one? Play me the original version by The Temptations and in addition to being involved, I can also get a pretty good idea of how good your set up really is – or perhaps that was the thing to avoid? 

CLEARAUDIO/CHORD ELECTRONICS/ELAC 

No, we wouldn´t have thought of this combination of brands first thing either, but it worked really well together – both in sonic and aesthetic terms. The big news at Chord was the Ultima Integrated amplifier (10,200 euro) which was driving Elac Vela FS 408.2 loudspeakers (5,400 euro/pair) with a Clearaudio Performance CE including linear tracking tonearm providing the source, coming in at just under 7,000 euro.

Playing records in moving cars – it has been done back in the 1950s and ´60s with mixed results (and then, only 7-inch singles) but the people at Clearaudio, erm, clearly had other ideas, putting a Concept deck on a pendulum built into a ´music centre´ in the back of a Volkswagen T1 van (better known as Bulli in the German-speaking world) together with shelf space for records and a pair of Elac two-way monitor speakers. Apparently, it does work when on the move – as long as the driver has no sporting ambitions…

TAD

Technical Audio Devices, the high end brand of the Pioneer Corporation, pulled out all the stops for its Viennese presentation in order to show off its new Grand Evolution One speakers in the best possible light. An oasis of tranquillity and refinement was created with the lighting, backdrop and acoustic panels (the latter from Distilled Audio from the UK), with a supporting cast of TAD Evolution C1 preamplifier, a pair of Evolution M1000 power amps, and Evolution D1000 TX CD/SACD/DAC and a custom built Roon server, all placed on a Beaudioful rack. This was a most lovely room to chill and relax.

CANTON

True to the intention of the show organisers, the bestselling loudspeaker brand in Germany concentrated on showing off their high-end, passive Reference line of which the Reference 1 and Reference 7 were being demoed on the end of some pretty serious AVM electronics. As usual, Canton stuck to its half-hour, moderated demonstration format running their ´own´ music program which makes it less than easy to assess how good these babies really are.

T + A

One of Germany´s high end powerhouses with a full range from analogue and digital sources to loudspeakers and headphones, showed off their second largest speaker in the top line Solitaire, the S 530 sporting an 85 cm high ribbon tweeter next to an array of oval midrange units, with a pair of 25 cm woofers in the sides. Sitting on the business end of a system consisting of the PDT 3100 HV CD/SACD transport, PSD 3100 HV streamer/DAC/preamp and A 3000 HV power amp, this was some serious kit, and it showed. However, T + A also brought a system to fit in with the High End Society´s ´Sounds Clever´ initiative which promotes high performance audio systems that come in at under 5,000 euro for a complete set up. Well, actually two because the Caruso R all-in-one CD/streaming receiver was offered in a package deal with either a pair of Caruso R10 monitors or S10 floorstanding speakers, for just under 4,000 euro or 5,000 euro respectively with a matching set of speaker cables thrown in; highly attractive, the Caruso being a classy looking and feeling ´lifestyle´ sort of deal but no slouch sonically, either…

PRIMARE/AUDIOVECTOR/INAKUSTIK

Another ´living room friendly´ system built around a Primare I35 Prisma network player/integrated amp, coming in at just under 5,000 euro and playing through Audiovector R3 Arreté speakers (11,250 euro/pair) with cabling and mains conditioning being provided by Inakustik. This is the kind of stuff that´s perfectly suited to people who want high quality (both in sonic and haptic terms) without a lot of fuss.

NUBERT

Offering loudspeakers in all shapes and sizes for every type of domestic usage imaginable directly to consumers for 45 years now, Nubert from Schwäbisch Gmünd in southwestern Germany chose a modest room for a static display of a reasonable cross-section of its product lines.

TECHNICS

Technics occupied one of the smaller rooms at Level Minus 2, too, demoing their SB-G 90 M2 speakers (5,400 euro/pair), driven by one of their big integrated amps with the SL-G 700 M2 network/(SA)CD player and an SL1200G spinning records. A no-frills room with decent sound.

CABASSE

For presentation, this was a bit below par – especially given it was an essentially ´lifestyle´ product that was on display here. The Abyss wireless/connected integrated amp was unceremoniously dumped on a table cloth covering God knows what, and we can´t remember whether anything was actually playing when we went in, so a missed chance overall as we know this equipment can look and sound pretty darn good in the right environment…

AUDIO ELECTRONIC VERTRIEB

This was a curious one – a time warp if you will. A tiny room chockful with audio systems on racks like in a high street store from the Eighties – and at least three of them were playing at the same time (albeit at low volume levels – thank heavens)! Nevertheless, the Viennese audio distribution company had put together a system for the Sounds Clever initiative that pretty much does it all and seemed well balanced to us – the retro-themed Leak 230 amplifier with its matching CD-player/transport, Dual CS618Q turntable and Wharfedale Diamond 12.2 speakers with all stands and cables necessary, coming in well within the 5,000-euro price limit. Surely one both-feet-firmly-on-the-ground system that we would have liked to experience under more favourable circumstances.

NAD/PSB

NAD partnered with their sister Lenbrook Groub brand, PSB Speakers.  The PSB Passif 50 large(ish) standmount speakers shared an early 1970s vibe with the NAD C 3050 amplifier which made them natural partners at least from an aesthetic point of view. As a thoroughly 21st century counterpoint, a NAD C 700 streaming integrated amplifier flanked by a pair of ´modern´ PSB towers was sitting next to the retro pairing. Also featured were a pair of very orange (we like orange) PSB Alpha BluOS streaming loudspeakers, and a smart home control panel to go with it.

DALI/OCTAVE/NAD

No surprise were the featured speakers – the Epikore 11s, sitting just one notch behind the statement Kores launched last year, took centre stage at DALI. The supporting cast, however, was again different to what we heard the Epikores with before, consisting of Octave valve amplification headed by an NAD M66 streaming DAC/preamp. This was obviously another successful pairing, indicating that the Epikores aren´t obviously fussy about their partnering equipment, provided it is of sufficiently high calibre.

Kii

Kii had both the Kii Seven, which was launched at Ascot last month, and the large Kii Three on demo. In a large room with no acoustic treatment as such if you disregard the big branding background, these showed what you can do in ´normal´ acoustic environments with the right hardware augmented by some very clever software.

STEINWAY LYNGDORF

A pair of tiny standmounts, backed up with a pair of slim and relatively deep subwoofers in the room corners and powered by a four-channel power amp being controlled by a 12-channel preamp (we assume the excess channels are for AV surround purposes) was making big sounds in a suitably darkened room. A shade under 48,000 euros buys you the lot.

STYRIA HIFI (ALSYVOX, ADVANCE, LUMIN, ROKSAN, HALCRO, ORIGIN LIVE)

We were greeted by some big (but not overly huge) panel speakers here, which we´d never encountered before. Alsyvox makes a five-strong range of these full range ribbon speakers, which unlike Apogees of yore are capable of being driven by amplifiers that don´t double as welding equipment – for the middling Botticelli and Botticelli X (same, but with external crossovers), 94 dB sensitivity is claimed and they don´t go below 1 Ohm or something stupid like that, either. Prices start at 80,000 euro and go up to 282,000, though. Although the Herculean Halcro stereo amp, was in the room, too, amplification as well as the CD transport and DAC (each with their own external power supply unit) were from Omega Audio Concepts. With the digital front end provided by Lumin and an Origin Live Resolution deck holding the analogue side up, this was another high-dollar, high class affair.

SIEVEKING SOUND (TW-ACUSTIC, CARDAS, APERTURA, QUADRASPIRE)

Leonard Cohen´s You want it darker was spinning when we entered Sieveking Sound´s room, which featured a slightly different set up than we are used to from German shows – whilst key brands TW-Acustic (turntable), Cardas (cabling) and Quadraspire (equipment support) were present and correct, the phono stage this time was a Whest, passing its output signal to an Audia Flight integrated amp and Apertura – we believe them to have been Armonia Evolutions – loudspeakers provided the voice of the system. A musically and sonically satisfying room as always.

LONGTONE HIFI (NAIM, LINN, NEAT, ATLAS CABLES)

The Linn/Naim connection of days long gone on a corporate level, is alive and well at this Viennese dealer who presented two systems built from products of both brands, with Neat Acoustics speakers doing the talking. When we were there, Martin McCue from Atlas Cables was holding a presentation/demo of the various lines of Atlas cables and the differences within.

INPUT AUDIO (MICHELL, HARBETH, CREEK, MANLEY)

Another stalwart from the German audio scene where you pretty much know that you´ll be getting a good selection of music, played on a well-balanced system set up that gives more in music than it takes in euros and real estate. At the Vienna show, the small Harbeth P3 ESR SE speakers were supported in more than one way by the new Nelson column active subwoofers annex speaker stands, and driven by a positively tiny Creek 4040 A integrated amp that, at 998 euro even includes a DAC… Analogue front end duties were performed by a Michell Gyro SE deck and Manley Chinook phono stage.

FAVO AUDIO HOME

A Polish manufacturer and distributor of PA systems from small and simple to huge and sophisticated, Favo Audio brought a fairly ambitious three-way home audio speaker in addition to a small pro audio subwoofer/satellite set up. Details are thin on the ground (the website does not mention anything of this) but according to the stand personnel, this is indeed a Favo Audio product.

SPENDOR/ADVANCE/ROKSAN

Another combination of brands that we´ve featured literally hundreds of times in our show reports – just seldom together. On the rack from top to bottom: Advance Paris MyConnect 60 all-in-one (790 euro), Roksan Atessa CD-transport and integrated amplifier (700/1,350 euro) and Advance ClassicLine PlayStream 5 streaming amplifier (1,200 euro), the latter of which was playing the Spendor A2 small floorstanders while we were there.

MP&S KLANGWELTEN

This manufacturer from Leverkusen builds electrostatic speakers with Martin Loganesque curved stator panels, and matching dipole subwoofers from either wood or concrete, strictly to order. Having one of the smaller rooms, MP&S settled on their Model L electrostat (including concrete foot) with a matching sub for this show, driven by an Ayon CD-player and Primare integrated amp. Somehow, this worked better than it had any right to within these tight confines.

UNISON/FYNE

And yet another pairing of familiar brands that we haven´t spotted yet at shows in Germany, the UK of Benelux countries. Also it was kind of refreshing to see the ´bookshelf´ Vintage Five speakers rather than the big floorstanding Fynes at the centre of proceedings, supported by a cast of Unison Triode 25 and Unico Due amplifiers, and Unison CD Uno CD-player.

REGA

The long-awaited Naia turntable, more or less the ´productionised´ version of Rega´s ´reach for the stars´ development project Naiad, made its Austrian debut here – sadly, only on static display. Another premiere, that of the Aya floorstanding speakers, was however on demo. These comprise a 2.5 way system using all-Rega designed drivers in a custom, sculpted cabinet moulded from glass reinforced cement. At 2,000 euro, these look to be a highly interesting addition and one we would very much like to sample in more familiar conditions. (HiFi PiG’s Oscar currently has a pair in for review).

As its contribution to the ´Sounds Clever´ initiative, the Rega System One, consisting of P1 turntable, io amplifier and Kyte speakers, including all the cables needed, represented pretty much unbeatable value at 1,299 euro for the lot. The price even includes a little remote…

PMC

Often partnered together, PMC and AVM have distribution relationships both in the UK and Germany (PMC UK Distribution and Besser Distribution, run by AVM’s Udo). PMC speakers driven by a stack of German AVM equipment, including their own turntable.

The speakers were from the twenty5i range….though we were hoping for some Prodigy on the new prodigy5. It is easy to see and hear why these two brands have partnered together as they are a winning combination.

EPOS

A British ´80s hero reimagined for the 2020s by Karl-Heinz Fink of Fink Team – that´s the story of Epos loudspeakers so far. The man himself was present for the introduction of the brand new (and very orange – did I mention we like orange – a lot?) ES7N monitors. As the number suggest, these are about half the internal size of the ES14N with which the brand was resurrected recently, and they did sing on the end of a Canor CD player/DAC and amplifier. Nice room too, amazing what you can do with a few Ikea Kallax shelves, some acoustic panels and the right lighting…

LUXMAN/WILSON BENESCH

Luxman chose a pair of Wilson Benesch Discovery 3zero speakers to demonstrate their wares on, drawing from a clean power supply courtesy of Stromtank. Classy, refined, maybe not the last word in sheer involvement, still very pleasant.

METRONOME

Metronome from France had a special occasion to celebrate: the launch of the Kalista Mantax DAC, which they chose to do not at the Finest Audio Show itself but in a presentation in a downtown hotel. The Mantax is the matching DAC to the Dreamplay X multiformat player/streamer and comes with the separate Elektra power supply as well as 24 different sound profiles – that number of possibilities made up from 2 sets of DAC chips (AKM and ESS), solid state and tube output stages and six different conversion filters.  Kalista being the ´luxury´ arm of Metronome which came into being as a separate brand in 2015, the price for the Mantax alone will be in the region of 60,000 euro, just like the Dreamplay X and if you want to replicate the aesthetics shown at the launch party with the two of them stacked on top of a bespoke (and matching, of course) three-legged support, that´ll be another 10,000 euro. Eternal show favourites Birds and Keith Don´t Go both featured at the demo (using a big T + A integrated amp and some standmount Piega speakers) but yes, it all did sound well, luxurious – warm, inviting, big, precise and not at all ´digital´.

LYRAVOX/ANTIPODES

Lyravox from Hamburg brought the relatively modest Karlos two-way system – this is way more than just a loudspeaker, featuring active, DSP-controlled drive and several digital and analogue inputs. Antipodes provided the front end in the shape of its Music Streaming Bridge to make up a minimalist but very high performance system which went a long way towards cancelling out the less-than-desirable room acoustics, too. Mains conditioning by UK-based Puritan.

CAYIN

More Puritan mains products were on show at Cayin, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Although more amps were on display, the heart of the system was the Jazz 80 amp which drove the French Atlantis Lab speakers, the AT 16 and the larger AT 23 taking turns. Both seemed to have an extra bass driver on their respective rear panels.

DREAM AUDIO (YG, PILIUM, EPSILON, KUZMA, DS AUDIO)

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing? Dream Audio from Bratislava brought a H U G E system built around the grandest YG Acoustics speakers (as if the pair of extra bass columns weren´t enough, check out the humungous subwoofer at the back of the room, behind the equipment racks), driven by massive power amps from Pilium and Epsilon with a Kuzma Stabi XL and DS Audio optical cartridge making up the analogue front end. It must be said that Hugh Masakela´s ubiquitous train to Johannesburg sounded as huge as the dimensions of this well-into-seven-figures ensemble suggested…

THORENS/ELECTROCOMPANIET/CHARIO

Back on Planet Earth, the Chario Aviator Cielo (10,000 euro/pair) is a three-way floorstanding system with an extra bass driver on the back. A Thorens TD 1601 and a stack of Nordic electronics from Electrocompaniet made up the rest of a well-balanced system.

MITO AUDIO

From Cologne, this loudspeaker manufacturer presented itself for the first time (we think) in one of the smaller rooms. The larger, white ones are called Vektor and cost 9,500 euro/pair, the smaller ones cost 5,500 euro a pair. Developer Markus Thiel is an architect in daily life, and it does show in the intricate shapes of the speakers which were being driven by a vintage McIntosh amp.

HORN ART & TUBE

Giant, single driver, back loaded horns with artwork on the sides depicting female Japanese gatekeepers; a pair of Garrard 401s in custom plinths, one with a 12-inch tonearm and the other sporting a 13.5-inch specimen; a Tektron valve phono preamp and KR Audio integrated amp, and a cosy sofa in front of it all. Yes, we dig this room although the audiophile, half speed master recording of some free jazz that was playing (a limited edition, 3 x 12”, 45 rpm affair that could be bought at the show, too) was slightly too esoteric for our tastes.

KLANGLOFT

As per usual, this Munich dealer/distributor showed off a stack of the extravagant Aries Cerat (valve) electronics through the Kawero! Furioso Mini speakers – a combo that just works, every single time.

WLM

The Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur offered up three pairs of loudspeakers from their comprehensive range, for direct comparison on a system consisting of a DAS (Digitale Audio Systeme) digital front end, and their own amplifiers. One gets the feeling that at WLM, there is a high level of bespokeness where not just the aesthetics but also the sound can be tailored to the customer´s wish to some extent.

ICHOS

A decade after the company´s launch, Ichos´ developer and owner Robert Rothleitner gave its four speaker models a technical update. Shown in Vienna was the Ichos No. 4 SE at 8,700 euro for the pair. The analogue front end was courtesy of a Thuono Audio TH 300/TH10 and Rike Audio phono preamp; streaming by Melco with a CanEver ZeroUno SSD DAC/preamp and Olimpico hybrid Class A power amp.

AUDIO NOTE UK

The Big Thing at Audio Note UK is the field coil AN-E. At around 50,000 euro a pair, it replaces the former all-silver top models in the AN-E speaker range and, of course, comes with its own PSUs (one per channel) for the field coil drivers. Driven by a Meishu Tonmeister 300 B integrated liberating a full eight Watts per channel, the immediacy and dynamics of the new field coil units are something special, reminding more of big horn systems than a relatively modestly sized box speaker using a single 8-inch bass/mid driver.

Obviously, this was something of a family outing for the Qvortrups with Peter, son Daniel and daughter Emily (all involved with the company) all in the room at some point.

TAYLOR ACOUSTIC

Yet another newcomer at the international show front, we thought – until we learned that Taylor Acoustic are already a quarter of a century in business, Stu and Lin having had close encounters with the brand as early as the High End Munich 2019… Very serious looking speakers, sporting the finest woodwork, the Master Cello being the biggest and the latest addition to the range, next to the standmount Concert 120 and the Symphony 160 floorstander. Despite the supporting cast not quite being of the calibre that they normally use at shows, the sounds in this room were really nice.

LINEA AUDIO/MUZG AUDIO/PERFECT CONNECTION

A Polish manufacturer that was absent in Warsaw but had a presence here, Linea Audio showed three different loudspeakers – Phantom, Ghost and Illusion – plus the very ambitious 100k Euro DearWolf Longhorn using an array of ceramic drivers and aluminium sandwich honeycomb woofers. Sadly, we didn´t get to hear that one – but the engineering and finish seem excellent to our eyes. Streaming front end and cables by Perfect Connection, digital/analogue conversion courtesy of Muzg Audio and a big Accuphase power amp to bring it all to life.

FM ACOUSTICS/VERTERE

A Swiss brand that has been largely flying under the radar for a half century or so. In champagne gold with golden knobs, the electronics are strong reminders of the golden age of HiFi visually, the portfolio rivals that of big corporate affairs with five preamps, three phono stages, two ´harmonic linearizers´ (aka equalizers), two electronic crossovers, three stereo power amps and four different monoblock power amps, three loudspeakers and a sub to choose from – all built to order. A pair of Vertere turntables in clear acrylic provided the source.

AUDIO REFERENCE

One of the biggest distributors of high end gear in the German-speaking market, Audio Reference chose well-known set ups tor their demonstrations, with VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic) amps driving either large Perlistens or Wilson Sasha Vs, with dCS and VPI providing digital and analogue sources on the left, and a Pear Audio turntable (which more or less traces its roots to the larger Nottingham Analogue decks) fronting an Accuphase suite of electronics, driving Monitor Audio´s flagship HYPHN speakers.

NAT/RUI BORGES/SUPREME ANALOG/BAYZ

170 Watts from a single ended triode, and they light up the room, too – the NAT Magma Evo monoblocks use a humongous NOS GM100 tube. With an NAT preamp, a Rui Borges turntable, Supreme Analog tonearm and Bayz Courante 2.0, their smaller speaker with a 7.5″ woofer and a radial high frequency units, in something that looks like a drainpipe with 180-degree bends on either end, this room was one of the highlights of the show. Kraftwerk´s Die Roboter (The Robots, for English speaking readers) sounded awesome, the analogue bass sequences that give this track its drive, having an almost physical presence.

BRODMANN ACOUSTICS

Home advantage: Bodmann´s Vienna Classic VC7 speakers on electronics from Digitale Audio Systeme (DAS), all developed and made at not that much more than a stone´s throw from the venue. The Electrocompaniet ECD2 DAC comes from a bit further afield – Norway to be precise.

IMPERIO AUDIO (MCINTOSH/AURENDER/SHUNYATA/MARTIN LOGAN)

Imperio Audio, a high end dealer from Margareten, the 5th district of Vienna, took a stack of Big Macs and combined this with an Aurender streamer and Shunyata power conditioning. At the end of this lot, Martin Logan Renaissance ESL 15a, the largest but one from ML´s ´Masterpiece´ series, did the transducing – all in a moderated demonstration format. Pleasant indeed.

The High End Society tells us that more than 4,000 visitors came to the Finest Audio Show Vienna 2023. The FAS Vienna in 2024 will also take place in November, the dates will be published as soon as possible.

We hope you enjoyed Eric’s Finest Audio Show Vienna 2023 Report, to see which shows are coming up, check out the HiFi PiG HiFi Show Diary here.

Eric van Spelde