HONG KONG AV SHOW 2023 REPORT

HiFi PiG’s Stu and Lin take a trip to Hong Kong to report on the Hong Kong Audio Visual Show 2023.

NO PART OF THIS ARTICLE MAY BE COPIED IN ANY FORM. THIS INCLUDES WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH ARE THE PROPERTY OF HiFi PiG AND BIG PIG MEDIA.

So, never having been to Asia before this trip to Hong Kong promised to be a bit of an adventure for Lin and me. We’d been following the weather for weeks before the trip and it looked like it was going to be somewhat warm (34 degrees) and a tad humid…I’m not sure either of us were prepared for just how hot and humid it actually turned out to be. At least we weren’t going to be getting caught in the typhoon that was the topic of a good few discussions online and at the airport. Anyway, a couple of flights (obviously, for anyone that follows our travels, we would be going through Charles de Gaulle) and we were there armed with printed off instructions and lots of advice from the absolutely brilliant Rob Wong of AudioQuest/GoldenEar…thanks a million Rob, it’s been a huge help. Thanks to Rob and Adam too for taking us out shortly after we arrived and ensuring we were well-fed, this made us feel instantly at home in a very foreign city.

The city and the people of Hong Kong have been absolutely fantastic with everyone we have met being only too eager to help. And this eagerness to make sure we had everything we needed was echoed by the show organisers and the staff of the show.

And so, before we get going on what has been a thoroughly enjoyable and eye-opening HiFi show I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of the show Audiotechnique, especially Rebecca and Lincoln, and the sponsors of HiFi PiG’s coverage of the show, Stratton Acoustics. If you don’t know their speakers then you really ought to check them out by following this link. I love the brand’s whole ethos of creating products that are designed to become heirloom products. They also sound phenomenal as many who attended the Audio Show Deluxe earlier this year will attest.

As a bit of a preface to the actual coverage of the show and without wanting to spoil what you are about to read and look at, I just want to say that this is an absolutely phenomenal show and we at HiFi PiG are so proud to have been considered worthy of being media partners and both Lin and I were somewhat overawed to see the HiFi PiG logo on posters and in the show guide.

The show itself is held over three floors with one floor being given over to the entrance (there was a huge number of “booths’ to welcome visitors and barriers to guide people. Yes, the number of people attending the show is outrageous and on the first day alone there were 14,000 people through the doors and the following two days looked equally, if not even more busy. On the floor with the entrance you had a massive hall with a mix of record stalls (everyone referred to these stalls as “software” which I found a bit confusing…it doesn’t take much) and then loads of stalls promoting and actually selling HiFi products and you had everyone from Burmester to Tecsun having stalls. There was high end HiFi cheek to jowl with cable sellers and those selling audio accessories. And people were there to buy! I think this is what surprised me somewhat; Western shows I’ve attended tend to be more about showing off and displaying a company’s wares, here that was mixed up with brands actively selling hard product. In this huge space, there were a whole load of cabins (helpfully all had air-conditioning units attached to the rear of their structures) situated down two edges of the hall and this is where you were able to sit (though in most cabins there was standing room only) and listen to some music.

Free and very fast WiFi at the venue was a major boon and something we really appreciated, as was the excellent catering that was laid on with both vegetarians and vegans being well catered for…in fact, better than I have experienced at ANY show in any part of the world!

The other two floors were where the big suites were situated, and I found this set up quite interesting. Some rooms were massive as you can see from the photographs and had two, three or even more systems set up in different zones within the rooms and as one system finished another would strike up. All had clocks displaying the times a system would next be live. I liked this set up and it allows people to plan their visit to the show and ensure they hear everything they want to over the course of a day. With that said, we didn’t get a chance to listen to every single system, but we made sure that we listened to as much as we could and photographed what we didn’t have time to listen to. The idea of any really serious listening is pretty much impossible given the sheer number of people attending and I think any comments I make about the sound in a room need to be taken as being made in the context of less-than-ideal listening conditions. But I don’t think critical listening at a show, much less one on the scale of the Hong Kong AV Show, is pretty much impossible anyway and shows are about MUCH more than listening to systems. For me, shows are social events for people to come together to be like-minded people AND (perchance) to get to listen to systems they may never otherwise get the opportunity to experience. With that said, the money here in Hong Kong is crazy and I’m sure that a lot of very expensive decisions on kit buying were made on the day and a lot of money will have exchanged hands.

Elsewhere there were areas for bands to play and even a theatre where visitors could see live music. And for me this show was pretty much perfectly done and impeccably organised with there being something for everyone to enjoy beyond merely listening to HiFi.

With regards to the people attending the show you had three days with clearly distinct audiences. The Friday was the hardcore audiophiles’ time to come out and play (serious play), Sunday was a day for families, and Saturday was a bit of a mix of the two. This interested me and I think the cultural difference of music and audio being a family activity was clearly evident.

I know you are only here for the pictures and my waffle is second place, but I hope I manage to convey a little bit about the scale of the show, the enthusiasm of the people attending, and the out and out professionalism of the show organisers. And so, without further ado…

MRS HIFI PIG’S BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Stu has summed things up pretty comprehensively above, but I just wanted to add my thanks to Rebecca and her team at Audiotechnique. This was just a fabulous show. It completely wowed all the senses. I loved that there was probably more crazily High End HiFi than I have encountered at any other show, I loved the enthusiasm of both visitors and exhibitors, the atmosphere was incredible, the venue and facilities superb. All the people we have met have been so welcoming, generous and kind…I love Hong Kong! I very much enjoyed discovering Hong Kong and Chinese brands that were completely new to me, but had a long history, we made some very exciting new contacts. Of course the social aspect of seeing the traveling HiFi Industry family that we meet all around the world was brilliant, it is one of the most lovely things about working in the HiFi Industry.

There is so much more I could say, but this is probably better done with the words and pictures to follow…enjoy, and see you next year Hong Kong!

THE HONG KONG AUDIO VISUAL SHOW 2023

Anyway, on with the show, or rather it would have been on with the show had we not somehow managed to oversleep.

A quick run around to get our bearings with a load of folk wanting to take pictures with us and we were into the thick of it.

What we wanted to do on the first day of this show was to really give you an impression and general feel of the event and how very different it is to the other shows we have attended around the world.

The first impression, and which I mentioned above, I got from the Hong Kong AV show was just how busy it was. We started off in the main hall that was vast and very, very busy with a good mix of people. What I thought was particularly interesting was that there were just so many young people. A large part of this hall was given over to headfi and cables being sold and on display.

Richcoln are a big Hong Kong distributor with a host of very well known British and European and US brands, including Burmester, PMC, Thorens, Tidal and more…they also had a couple of rooms which we cover later on.

FUNG NING AUDIO

So, after a bit of a scoot around the main hall, which was organised chaos, we popped into a lift and up to the fourth floor and into an absolutely MAHOOSIVE room (the Chancellor Room) where Chinese distributor Fung Ning were in residence and displaying a whole load of products from high-end European manufacturers.

On the right as we walked in there was a system set up that was made up of the wonderful Kalista CD player from France along with Venture amplifiers and speakers. All the electronics were placed on Artesania stands.

A little further along and playing The Tennessee Waltz was a system made up of Lorenzo speakers with Goldmund and Chord Electronics electronics. The turntable being used, Luxcar, was a new one to me but looked mightily impressive and sounded great too. Not playing but displayed were Aries Cerat electronics. We came back on day 2 for another listen to the Lorenzo speakers and caught the end of Hotel California…again, it was hard to get close to get a proper listen but this is impressive stuff.

This was seriously high-end audio and the serious audiophiles who were in attendance today were lapping it up.

Right at the other end of the room things got even more serious with flagship Goldmund Telos 8800 amplification the size of narrow fridges on display along with a full range of Kharma loudspeakers.

I’m not sure if this is really what I was expecting to find but it was nothing if not impressive.
Equally impressive was a rack filled with WADAX, Tech Das, and Chord Electronics kit, and it dawned on me just how much money’s-worth of high-end audio gear was in this room – hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds of gear.

From behind me the Marten, Oprheus, and Trinity based system fired up. The crowd literally bristled with excitement as it played and it is clear that we are in the company of people that fully appreciate what they are listening to and are loving it!

Remember, the above was in just ONE room!!!

HUGESTEP (Trading as) RADAR AUDIO

This distributor was also in a huge room too and they had seriously high-end kit too, and all beautifully presented.

I sat down to take a few notes at the nearest available seat and without having taken much notice only to realise I was sat in front of a system of Constellation Audio amplifiers and Magico speakers with a Vertere turntable heading it all up. On the digital front were MSB Technology units and cables were all by Nordost.

This is where I first noticed that the sections of the room had clocks displaying the times the system would get played – very organised!

Next corner of the room we had a full-on Gryphon system with Rune from Gryphon doing a presentation of the new Diablo 333 integrated amplifier. Speakers in this system and making their debut were the new Gryphon EOS 5 speakers. I got a chance to exchange a few words with Rune about the show and it was nice to get a “veteran’s” view on the show as he’s been coming for years. Like me, his main comment was that the people are just SO into the whole high-end audio concept. Nice to meet Alexander, Rune’s son who has just joined the company in a marketing role.

And then PS Audio electronics were being partnered with a Rega front end and the PS Audio Aspen SR30 loudspeakers. All this was wired together with AudioQuest cabling. Impressive!!

I was sort of getting my bearings a little more by this time, but Rune sort of summed the whole thing up with the phrase “culture shock”, and it is. There is just so much enthusiasm and passion for this audio kit on show from young, old, men, and women.

And then in yet another section of the room (I’m emphasising this to give you an idea of how big these rooms are) there were GoldenEar speakers, more Audioquest cables, Proac speakers, Falcon speakers, Zesto Audio, Arcam…

HMG

And then another absolutely packed room with Fyne speakers partnered with Accuphase electronics and Siltech cables. Fyne are apparently huge in Asia and I get that there is a whole heritage thing going on.

I got the chance to listen to the big Vintage Fifteen speakers using a HUGE pair of monos with equally massive VU meters and it was as impressive sounding as it was to look at.

On the Saturday we spotted a somewhat jetlagged-looking Max from Fyne being interviewed. For someone who was clearly so knackered he did a brilliant job of explaining the company’s philosophy and products.

FIRST IMPRESSION

And then there was a system of Naim Audio Statement Electronics (no less) along with the big Focal Utopia III Evo speakers. Look, I’m getting to the point where I’m running out of words for big, mahoosive, ginormous, but this is what we have here – systems that are big in price, stature, and performance. And the distributors aren’t afraid to play the systems loud which I thought was somewhat refreshing.

This system was excellent and dynamic….and a massive thanks to the guy who saw me sat on the floor taking notes and brought me a chair – thank you!

First Impression made quite the impression.

CRYSTAL CABLE

I thought it must have been the big red speakers (Symphony) you see in the photographs playing in this room, but it was the Crystal Cable Minissimo Forte standmounters that were actually playing, I was told.

Gabi from Crystal Cables was at the controls playing music at very sensible levels for this room.

The standmounters are an interesting speaker that was introduced at Munich and have the electronics built into the stands, though they are not active and rely on the Siltech amps that were playing to supply their juice.  They are made of one piece of aluminium and the shape is the classic teardrop shape that Crystal is known for. They are 95dB sensitive and will go down to 48Hz.

Again, the room was absolutely packed with people and Gabi told me half the team were doing this show and the other half the Taipei show. (There is a Hifi PiG report on the way from the Taipei show shortly).

AUDIO EXTREME

Phasemation valve monos and a Brinkmann turntable were playing through a pair of Lumin White speakers with Accutron drivers to a room where there was standing room only. The Phasemation were the new flagship MA5000. These are designed to be higher powered than their other amplifiers using a 300B driver and a pair of 211 triode valves in PSE to giver 45 W a channel and using six transformers inside.

The Phasemation phonostage uses six boxes..yes, six boxes! Everything about this show is bigger and more of everything!

It was nice to see French brand J M Reynaud on display and on show were Dan’s new ModWright KWA99 mono-block power amp and Analog Bridge tube buffer amp were on show and these are the same amps we saw at AXPONA where they made their debut.

As well as ModWright, the Audio Extreme system also featured Bergman Audio’s new version of their Galder air-bearing turntable and Odin air-bearing tangential tone arm. Plus Japanese Analog Relax EX-500 and EX-1000 cartridges and a new flagship cartridge (with diamond cantilever and special stylus shape) prototype was being used.

ROKSAN TRADING

No, not that Roksan! This is a very, very high-end distributor dealing in the likes of D’Agostino, Reed, Transrotor, Simaudio, Vivid, and (playing in the room when we went in) Raidho D5.1 loudspeakers. The Relentless monos from D’Agostiono (this was the first time I’d heard them) looked incredible and huge…sort of sums up the whole show (that we have seen so far). I did manage to get a sit down and get a proper listen to this system and it was, like the NAIM/ Focal system we heard before, massive in scale and dynamics.

RICHCOLN COMPANY

…Another massive room that was packed and another room filled with massive speakers and electronics.

German brand Burmester took care of the electronics, 175 Turntable, 069 CD, 077 Pre, 948 power conditioner, V5 rack and the new Burmester 159 monoblock amplifiers. and the speakers were the flagship Peak Dragon Legacy from Peak Consult of Denmark. The cables were Siltech Royal Single and Double Crown.

However, as well as the system that was playing there was a whole load of PMC speakers on display, From the new Prodigy entry-level to top-of-the-line models, they were all there, though I didn’t spot the Fenestrias. Octave electronics were also on show.

On the Sunday we met up with Frank from Burmester to have a chat about their new streaming servers and amps but we are visiting them very soon and so we will bring you more about them when we can sit down and have a proper listen to them – at the moment they are still in final prototyping stages. Suffice to say, they look stunning and have the usual Burmester refinements!

RICHCOM

We bumped into Udo from AVM in this room and he told us Richcom were their new distributor in the region. And what a set of brands to have in your company: McIntosh, Sonus Faber, Unison Research, dCS, Acoustic Arts, Acoustic Signature, and Gauder Akustik…

NEW WELLWICK AUDIO

I think it’s pretty much pointless me pointing out that the rooms are rammed anymore and from now on I would suggest you take it as read that there was standing room only…and not a great deal of that.

A big pair of the Dynaudio Confidence 60s were playing in this room being driven by Densen, Lector and Moonriver electronics and a pair of Octave MRE220 monoblocs and Octave HP700 SE pre.

GRAND ASIA HiFi

This was the last room on this floor and was made up of the absolutely huge Boulder 3060 power amplifier being fed by the 2110 preamplifier. CAD grounding products were being used and so were a whole load of ISOL-8 products. Speakers were the very excellent Egglestonworks Viginti….which their UK distributor Bill at Auden had used at Audio Show Deluxe.

Prize goes to these for being the first room to play Keith Don’t Go and we duly went back and gave them their prize of a HiFi PiG Fan Fan!

This was an excellent-sounding room that we went back to a few times and If I was to have been able to pick out a system that fitted my tastes and to an extent the depth of our pockets then this would have been it.

Excellent! Really Excellent!

We were somewhat overawed by the whole thing and having about ten minutes sleep the night before didn’t help any but we absolutely loved our first day at the show, despite severe jet lag.

DAY 2

PRECISION AUDIO

So, the first room we go into was the room in which were placed the last speakers we reviewed, the Borresen X3s from Audio Group Denmark. In the review, I said that these were game-changers and I stand by that comment 100%. A full Ansuz, Aavik, Borresen and Axxess system was playing when we went in the room and I turned to Michael Borresen to say that it was the first room we had been in that was playing at reasonable volume.

Read the Borresen X3 review here!

Michael was enthusing about the Hana Blue cartridge that was playing and a conversation about these wonderful cartridges ensued.

Not playing in this room but present were Monitor Audio, Montausio, Sorane  Lyngdorf, Andante Largo, Serblin and Son, Divine Acoustics, and Wooden Bull.

The turntable on which the Hana Blue was playing was the Pear Audio Robin Hood.

I’m trying not to comment too much on the sound of rooms at this show as it’s not really the ideal environment and it is very busy, BUT for a ten grand pair of speakers and a five grand amp this was outrageous…in a good way.  One of the sounds of the show for me!

FIRST IMPRESSION AUDIO

Iso Acoustics will be known to anyone that regularly reads HiFi PiG as we have been fans of their isolation products for years now. The footers are perhaps the best-known products but they also do products for desk mounted speakers that we actually tend to use under standmounts on stands…not sure if that’s how you should use them, but it works a treat.

The Iso Acoustic dem is a good one where they switch in real time between two sets of speakers. One set of speakers is spiked, and one uses Iso Acoustic footers. Light on and it’s the footers, light off and it’s the spikes. The difference is clear to hear and far from subtle with the sound clearly tightening up and becoming clearer with the footers and muddier with the spikes.

JADIS ELECTRONICS LtD

Or so the sign outside this room said, but inside, as well as the display of Jadis products there was a whole array of high-end audio on show and playing.

CH Precision and Wilson formed the heart of the system we got to hear. The full system was a set of CH Precision M10 power amps, Wilson Chronosonic XVXspeakers with their subs and a Wilson Audio Active XO crossover, The music came from a CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD transport through a C1.2 DAC and T1 Master Clock. And though we didn’t hear it there was a CH Precision P10 phono and the YUKI AP01 turntable. This turntable is getting everywhere and is proving to be a very popular choice for many brands at shows. A Stromtank provided the electrical juice for this system

Other products in the room included Meitner, emmLabs, MBL, Ayre Acoustics, Finite Elemente, Dyptique and more.

Pretty incredible sounding room this with an effortlessness I’ve not really heard from Wilson speakers at a show before…or not to this degree, anyway.

 

The next room at the show had a smaller pair of Wilson Sabrina X playing along with EmmLabs electronics including the DV2 flagship DAC TX2 CD/SACD player, NS1 Streamer, Pre (preamplifier needless to say) and MTRS mono amplifiers. A Stromtank S1000 was also in use in this room. The EmmLabs  MTRS is a 400W Class A/B solid-state amplifier. and made its debut at the show.

Not playing but fully set up was a complete MBL system which looked rather impressive and a pair of the fantastic Diptyque speakers of which regular readers will know we are fans of.

I note that this morning is somewhat quieter than yesterday and with a more relaxed and less frenetic feel to it. People are still very enthusiastic and obviously very much into the whole thing but there seems to be less people…perhaps it’s still very early. I’m not suggesting it’s empty by ANY stretch of the imagination, more that yesterday was PACKED!

We went back in the afternoon for a listen to the MBL system once it was on and again it was absolutely packed with people. Sounded nice from my vantage point, mind.

AUDIO EXOTICS

It’s funny the people you meet when in far-flung places we get to and in this room we got to see the lovely Vivien Falize from Esprit Cables from France. These cables aren’t particularly well known in the UK at the moment, but I fully envisage this will change in the very near future.

These speakers from Gobel sort of bring the whole concept of exotic audio together in one package. They look utterly bonkers and sound fantastic. The only issue in this room was a room down the way playing way too loud and exciting something just outside the room to rattle somewhat. When that shut up the room was effortless!

At the side of the room but not playing whilst we were in the room was a full Riviera Audio set up.

This, as I outlined in my preface, seems to be a very common sight at the Hong Kong AV show – two or more systems set up in one room with specific times for each clearly given. I like this idea and it means that those looking to hear specific bits of kit can plan their days and not miss anything they really want to hear.

AVANTGARDE HONG KONG

OK, so we seemed to have found the exotic and uber-high-end floor of the Hong Kong Show. Playing when we were in the room was a system made up of PW Acoustic LS with the Acoustical System GC arm with Palladium cartridge from Acoustical System. The phono was the Acoustical Systems Evocator and preamp is the YS Sound 382 and the YS Sound 33s amps. Speakers were the Plural Evo from Zellaton.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking with reference to the other kit in this room, but it was certainly something of an experience, even just to look at. Kondo and Halcro amps. And LOOK at those speakers by G.T Sound – utterly bonkers and utterly fantastic!

They won’t fit in the house and I can’t afford them, but I really want a set.

Nice to see Audion amps in this room too!

DCH AV

Next on the corridor was DCH AV in another very nicely proportioned room, and that’s something I’m appreciating at the Hong Kong AV Show – all the rooms on the main floors are of a good size, though I think the smaller rooms benefitted sonically.

We got to listen to the Esoteric turntable along with a whole load of Esoteric electronics and a pair of the BIG Tannoy GRs.

One whole wall was given over to Gold Note from Italy, of whom we are big fans, and other brands in this room included Cyrus, Cabasse, Audiolab, and Blue Aura.

ERNEST AUDIO

A brief break for the most delicious pudding I have ever eaten (something with sago and coconut cream) and a coffee, and then we headed to Ernest Audio’s room.

Ernest Lau is a lovely guy that we first met completely by chance over breakfast in Munich and have kept in touch through social media ever since.

Ella Fitzgerald’s Black Coffee got played whilst we were in the room and it sounded fabulous.

The record player was from VPI and we got to listen to Shelby Lynn through the Rockport Technology Orion speakers and VTL amplifiers. Again, I said I wouldn’t comment on the sound too much at this show but what grabbed me about this system was small details and particularly a small cymbal splash that just sounded so lovely and easy within the tune. This is a system I’d be very happy to live with.

The full list of kit in this room was as follows:

Rockport Technologies Orion Loudspeakers in Porsche GT3 Silver finish

VTL TL-7.5 III Reference tube line stage preamp

VTL TP-6.5 II Reference tube phono stage

VTL Siegfried II Reference Monoblock Power Amp (2023 is Siegfried’s 20th Anniversary) VPI Avenger Direct Turntable, Shyla MC Cartridge

Wolf Audio Alpha 3sx music server Bricasti M-1mkII DAC Madison Audio Lab Eclipse AG Solid Core Cables Stillpoints Reference Rack with Ultra 6v2 and Ultra 7v2 Stillpoints Aperture Acoustic Panels

IsoTek Ascension Power Cables IsoTek V5 Titan Power conditioner IsoTek V5 Sigmas Power conditioner

We popped back a little later to catch Abey Fonn from Impex Records, giving a talk about coloured vinyl.

BOWERS AND WILKINS

This room was absolutely rammed which goes a god way to explain how much this iconic British brand is respected around the world. I can’t really comment on the sound as the room was just so busy but sat at the back and listening to something or other on violin did sound almost as if there was a live violin and piano in the room.

The speakers playing were the 3oth Anniversary Nautilus speakers in pearlescent white along with Classe amplfiiers and a DS Audio optical cartridge,

Incidentally, we just bumped into a friend on the corridors, and they told us that on Friday there were 14,000 people at the show. That is a lot of people and whilst the show did feel very busy with some rooms standing room only, it didn’t feel like we were too rushed at all. I kind of like this balance of the show being both chilled AND hectic. I know that latter comment doesn’t make much sense but then neither did Bowers and Wilkins playing I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas. In fact, both seemed perfectly normal despite it being 32 degrees and the middle of August!

WISE SOUND

Another massive room and another room filled with several systems set up in different parts of the room. The room was plenty big enough to host the three (sorrry four) systems and despite there being a whole load of people in the room it felt very chilled out and very calm.

In one section we had a Luxman-based system playing through a pair of Wharfedale speakers and sounding fab with Sade’s Smooth Operator taking centre stage. This sounded really excellent and I did manage to get a decent spot!

Elsewhere there was YG Acoustics Peaks speakers supported by REL Carbon Special subs and Audia Flight electronics. We came back to get a listen to this system in the afternoon and trying to get anywhere near the system was pretty much impossible. We sat down a little way away and I turned to Lin to ask if what was playing was a singer or on the HiFi…that’s got to be a good sign, surely.

On the way back to this room later we passed crowds and hordes of people queuing up to get into rooms with timed presentations. The more the day goes on, the busier this show seems to get. And everyone is SO enthusiastic about the whole thing…and many are here to buy!

And then…Soulution electronics, with YG’s Reference Series speakers and a Kronos vinyl front end.

And then…Pathos Audio and the fantastic Revival Audio range of speakers including their new compact standmounter.

All in the same room!!! Sounds bonkers. Both is and isn’t bonkers!

DAY 3

Day three and we were up and at ‘em pretty much as soon as the show started, despite a pretty broken night’s sleep. But we had a plan today and that plan was to get into Hall 3 and get through the smaller cabins before the crowds arrived. With that said, the crowds had already arrived.

LUMIN

The first of the cabins was a room of Lumin kit including the Uw streaming transport, The L2 UpnP server/library and the X1 amp. The DAC in the room is the P1 that uses dual E9028pro chips and has dual toroidal PSU transport. The speakers were the Amphion Krypton 3. Que Sera Sera was playing when we were in the room and it struck me that we’ve heard a lot of music that is very different from the show norms.

HARBETH, SUGDEN AND HIFI RACKS

The next room had a distinctively British feel about it, with Harbeth, Sugden, Dynamique, and HiFi Racks being very prominent. In addition to the British contingent, we were also treated to T Sound Anchors from the US and Triode from Japan. The Harbeth speakers playing in the room were C7ES-3 XD and sounded excellent playing some very British Dire Straits with the Triode TRV-CD6SE CD player spinning the discs and the Sugden DAP 800 taking care of preamplifier duties into the Sugden FBA 800 Class A power amplifier. It struck me, and maybe it was because of the rooms being less rammed that these booths actually sounded better than some of the bigger rooms that we had been in the previous couple of days.

EISTEDDFOD

The next booth along the way was way fuller than the previous rooms and all the electronics were new and unknown to me. The English name of this Chinese brand is Eisteddfod which I’m pretty sure is a Welsh institution and festival of poetry and music…whodathunk.

However, they looked exquisitely made and had an air of the FM Acoustics about them, particularly a preamplifier that wasn’t playing but sat at the front of the room atop a pair of monoblocs.

Stennheim Alumine Five speakers were making the noise in the room and all in all, this was excellent.

The rack in this room caught my eye somewhat.

GIG AUDIO COMPANY

The next of the cabins was the GIG AUDIO Company who had a set of ATC speakers playing but the rest of the Shengya kit was wholly new to me. The company is 32 years old and in the room was a CD3.8, the preamp was the CV-1HD, the integrated amplifier on show was the A-30 and it is an OTL model. The power amps playing were the PSM-300T model. They were playing unknown music but were exceptionally helpful and the sound was excellent!

LINN

And then the Scottish brand Linn were in the next room playing an LP12. The speakers wwere the new flagship from Lin in the form of the 360s.

After the LP12 we got a listen to the Klimax DSM all in one streamer.

The room was very busy, and the brand is clearly held in very high esteem in Hong Kong. I think having a smaller room for this kind of kit is actually a very sensible idea.

Racks in the room were another well-known name in the guise of SolidSteel!

BESPOKE AUDIO AND TOTALDAC

And in this next booth we had more names that we are very familiar with. Bespoke Audio were taking care of the preamplifier duties and the streamer was Taiko Auio SGM Extreme music server whilst the TotalDAC d1 Sublime four box took care of converting the zeros and ones into music. Another name we have known from their earliest of days at the Munich shows were dealing with the amplification, Westminster Labs. The speakers are a Hong Kong brand in the form of Volent. Playing Daft Punk was a good move and they clearly know we love this record. Also in the room was the Innuos Pulsar, Rockna Wavelight Streamers and DACs and Audiobyte kit.

INNUOS

Innuos were playing some Cantonese pop music through a pair of Magico speakers.

The Statement Extreme, Pulsar and Phoenix Net were featuring in this room and Gryphon amps were applying the power. This is high class audio streaming at its best in my honest opinion despite us not owning any Innuos products….yet. I have been listening to their gear at shows for years now and I have NEVER heard their room sound anything but first class and Hong Kong AV show was no exception.

Thanks for indulging us and playing Daft Punk’s Giorgio…we heard the champagne pop!

New to Innuos is the software that is version 2.4.5 that has a number of new features including a new tag management system. Basically, this allows you to merge your tags into a more manageable format. This allows users to create their own tag management structure that is unique to them and as such highly intuitive. The batch management aspect of this allows for mass conversion of tags rather than going through them album by album. You can also click on a tag and it will play just your files with that tag and so ideal for whatever mood you are in or even if you are having a party. You can also click to select multiple tags and mix it up as it plays a smart-mix of whatever you choose. This is all done on a file level so that if you move to another system (Sonos, for example) they will pick up on the new tags. What is also a cool feature of this is that you can merge tags. This means that if, for example you have Rock, Chinese Rock, whatever rock then you can merge them into one of the tags making for a much cleaner browsing experience.

AUDIO DYNAMIC

This room was filled with kit but at the time we went in the room a fantastic pair of Verity Arindal speakers were playing Jazz at The Pawnshop of a rather beautiful reel to reel player.

The amp was a Verity Audio Amp 200 and other speakers in the room were a horn-loaded model that were new to me by Meyer Audio. A fantastically dynamic room that had both our feet tapping and me typing along to the music.

KINGSOUND

Kingsound makes electrostatic speakers that I’ve heard a few times and have always been very impressed, but whilst we were in the room we were treated to hearing a pair of their new Super Electrostatic tweeters on top of a pair of Graham Audio speakers. Difficult to say what effect the super-tweeters were having as we didn’t get an A/B comparison but, as Lin said, you wouldn’t have guessed it was the Graham speakers that were playing, and the sound was fantastically open with a Jadis amp supplying the juice.

Very nice sounding room!

MUTEC

Well if it wasn’t our old mate Lawrence in this room and what an absolute treat to see him after so long! Lawrence is the China and Hong Kong distributor for Mutec from Germany but is also the owner of DARED.

This room was very good sounding with a pair of B and W speakers, which I’m actually warming to more and more as time goes on.

The amps in the room that were playing whilst we were in here were a big pair of Classe with associated preamplifier and an Aeron CD player taking control of the spiny shiny discs. Needless to say, the clocks were all from MUTEC and an Antelope Amari DAC was in play too…actually the Amari is an AD/DA converter and this sort of gives away the pro origins of the company.

The room was very buys playing some Chines pop that I obviously don’t know but the people in the room were obviously loving it. Lawrence played us some Dire Straits which was very nice….I’m not sure he spotted my techno tee shirt!

AUDIO ACCESS

Lots of British brands on show in this room including AVID speakers, and I noted they also do KERR speakers that we know very well. Black Rhodium cables and Spendor speakers are also handled by this distributor. There were also products from a company called iNCRECABLE that looked very interesting and deal with earthing and mechanical vibration decoupling. We got a demonstration of the iNCRECABLE products, and they obviously do something positive to the sound.

I was sat in the NAGRA room when a guy collared me and insisted I come back to have the presentation in English, which I was very happy to do and these clearly have an effect. We got given VIP seats right at the front that had been reserved for us.

iNCRECABLE have been making cables but now they have loads of different products including amps, cables, power conditioning, and the grounding boxes that we had been asked to have a listen to.

These are called grounding boxes but they work differently to the likes of Entreq in that they are a “noise cancelation system” that is designed to connect to each part of the system. Each are different colours and have different functions…brown for analogue, for example. They next “footers” apparently get their energy from vibration through a “Mechanical Vibration Device” under the device which is designed to change movement to heat. There is also an electronic collector that is connected to the back of whatever product you connect it to.

Then we got the full demonstration which involved playing some Diana Krall with and without the devices (Speakers, Digital and Analogue. People were not allowed in so the dem was the same acoustically. Things were put in and out and it’s clear these do something!  I thought they made it more rounded..and nicer.

The little doodads I got to hold outside the room work too. Not the best place for a dem of this level of subtlety but there is clearly something going on here!

Interesting things!

KINKI STUDIO

The wonderfully named Kinki Studio was a bit of a surprise and I certainly wasn’t expecting what was behind the plastic screen doors.

The amps were the Kinki Studios Stunning m791 and the preamplifier was the Stunning 790. The speakers were the Triangle Magellan Quator 40^th anniversary model. Oddly there was no seats in the room which I found a bit odd.

Sounded great but I can’t help thinking some seats would have had people stay in the room a little longer.

 

NAGRA

The outside of the NAGRA room was the same as all the other boxes/booths that are essentially plywood boxes, but they had done a fabulous job inside the room to give it great NAGRA branding and a cool feel to it.

A recorder playback machine was being shown that is from the NAGRA Production line and used by many professional engineers and sound recordists.

The Classic DAC 2 introduced at Munich was dealing with the zeros and ones and the amp was obviously one of theirs, though a solid-state model. Speakers were the Wilson Sabrina X and we were treated to a blues guitar recording from the Montreux Jazz festival, that NAGRA are very much involved in. Sonically this was excellent and I’m guessing here that the guitar used was a semi-acoustic, though I’ve no idea which one!

Excellent and one of the sonic highlights of the Hong Kong AV show for me! We didn’t get a listen to the NAGRA turntable but that thing is a beast of a record player! Wonderfully over-engineered!

LOCKWOOD AUDIO

British manufacturer Lockwood were on Hong Kong after a bit of a tour around the region. They were showing off their own new drivers that replace the Tannoy drivers. The dirvers are all made by Volt to Lockwood’s specs and use Alnico magnets and crossovers built in the UK.

There are 10, 12 and 15 inch variants. Needless to say that Lockwood, given their heritage and Englishness, are hugely popular in China.

Prices on the Minors are UK 8691, Academy 1 floorstander with a 12 inch driver is £4384, The LE1 is £21295 and has a 15 inch drive unit, the Major (in the room) is £22 520. The LE1 and Major are vented with an aperiodic vent whilst the others are sealed units. Co designed by the BBC in the 50s, and nothing has changed « A sound to remember ». A modern classic!

DIAMOND HILL

Another of the many, many new names at this show. The horn loaded drivers of the Diamond Hill speakers from China had a Technics reel to reel player playing through them and were hugely dynamic.

HIT AUDIO & CHOICE

Hit Audio deal just with Line Magnetic. The room was absolutely rammed with people and impossible to get a proper listen, and though there were seats no one seemed to want to use them in the first of two rooms, though the second room was being used more conventionally.

NAMPENG

The first thing I noted in this room was that they were resellers of GIK acoustics products and this was about the first room we came across at the show to use proper room treatment…and it did show to a good degree. We did get shown the Matrix Audio Element X2 streamer that looked very interesting and the KEF speakers playing in the room clearly benefitted from the treatment in the room.

SUPERMASTER TECHNOLOGY

Soundbar karaoke…whodathunk this was a thing…

ARIA AUDIO

Aria Audio were showing off the SoulNote A3 integrated amplifier and the Z3 Network transport, X3 10M Master Clock and D3 DAC that regular readers will be familiar with as we have highlighted them at other shows.

Speakers were the Vienna Acoustics Liszt Reference speakers that all sounded really excellent playing what I think was a Yello track.

SOUNDWAVE AUDIO

A headfi extravaganza in this booth with Violectric (who have just signed a distribution deal with Electromod in the UK), Meze and Naim and Focal. If you check the pictures, there are some new Focal headphones that don’t officially launch until next month…see if you can spot them!

The second Soundwave Audio booth had more of their portable audio brands including Dan Clarke Audio.

SOUND OF STRINGS

This was the last of the booths that we had to cover today and as a nice way to do that given that it featured Wilson Benesch Resolution 3Zero speakers being driven by Audio Research Reference 160 M power amplifiers and Reference 65 E preamplifier. The record player in this room was also from a favourite brand of mine, Gold Note and this time the Pianosa with the PH1000phonostage. There was also the GoldNote CD 1000MK2 CD player, but we didn’t get to listen to that. A very nice sounding room.

And that’s another show for us wrapped up.

Once again, we’d like to extend our thanks to the show organisers, all the exhibitors who took the time to speak to us and who put so much effort into their rooms, all the people that said hello and wanted to take pictures with us and to the people of Hong Kong who were (without exception) hugely warm and friendly.

Will we be back? Of that, there is little doubt!!!

An absolutely BRILLIANT show that if you get the opportunity to attend then you really must. The Show, the people, and, well, everything goes together to make the Hong Kong Audio Visual Show probably my favourite show we have visited around the world…and that’s saying something given the excellence of pretty much all the shows we attend!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

NO PART OF THIS ARTICLE MAY BE COPIED IN ANY FORM. THIS INCLUDES WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH ARE THE PROPERTY OF HiFi PiG AND BIG PIG MEDIA.

HONG KONG AV SHOW 2024

Next year’s dates, for the Hong Kong Audio Visual Show 2024 are the 9th to 11th of August 2024….more info in the HiFi Diary here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart and Linette Smith

 

For HiFi Shows and Events around the world, check out the HiFi PiG HiFi Diary here!