PART 2 OF STU AND LIN’S HONG KONG AUDIO VISUAL SHOW 2024 REPORT FROM THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE SHOW

Join Stu and Lin as they head to the large rooms on Floor 2 of the exhibition in their Hong Kong AV Show 2024 Report.

If you haven’t yet read our first show report from this year’s Hong Kong extravaganza, click here.

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

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, we arrived at the Hong Kong AV Show 2024 for the Saturday of the show on the dot, and made our way to the second floor and the first room which was PRECISION AUDIO that represent, among others (SILENT ANGEL, HANA, SERBLIN AND SON, MONTAUDIO, LYNGDORF), AUDIO GROUP DENMARK. The AGD brands are ANSUZ, AAVIK, BORRESEN, and AXXESS and Michael Borresen was here to represent the group. If you don’t know Michael, he’s a terrific fellow that is so incredibly passionate about his products. The new speakers are the AXXESS L3 with are part of the group’s entry level range of loudspeakers and cost around 5K euros, but are clearly of the Borresen family of speakers and sounded great in this room with AGD electronics. St James’ Infirmary by Angela Brown (great version) sounded fab and belied the relatively modest cost of this system! 

FIRST IMPRESSION MARKETING were next on the list and the main feature in the room were ISOACOUSTICS. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you will be well aware of this Canadian brand’s isolation (no surprise there) products – we use their GAIA products on all the speakers we get in for review that will take them and I’ going to try a set screwed into my Technics 1200 MK7s to tame the feedback they suffer from…more to come on that when they arrive. The usual ISOACOUSTICS demonstration of switching between a pair of speakers with and without the footers fitted was done and as usual it was pretty obvious. The speakers on this occasion were FRANC SERBLIN KTEMA  with PRIMALUNA EVO 300 Hybrid power monos and PLIXIR ELITE power conditioners, SOLIDSTEEL racks, and a NAIM NSS 333 DAC. Great sounding room and hugely dynamic in this room! 

JADIS ELECTRONICS was the next suite on this floor and what a sight it was – a mega system made up of CH PRECISION electronics and WILSON loudspeakers, aided and abetted by STROMTANK. A static display of, amongst others, AYRE, AESTHETIX, TRANSPARENT. New to the system and making its world debut that was playing was the new C10 DAC from CH PRECISION. Wilson Alexx V were the speakers we heard with CH PRECISION L10 pre / M10 amps / C10 DAC/ D1.5 transport / T1 Clock along with TRANSPARENT AUDIO cables. Very impressive both in looks and effortless sound. Not playing but also present was a second system (these rooms are big) made up of AESTHETIX PALLENE pre amp / ATLAS mono amp /ROMULUS CD player playing through the WILSON The WATT/Puppy speakers. There was also a static selection of JADIS valve electronics which I really have enjoyed very much whenever I’ve had the opportunity to experience them at home – perhaps a retirement amp?

The next JADIS room was an equal feast for the eyes and ears with a funky looking “art audio” pair of DAVIS ACOUSTICS loudspeakers. The full system was Jadis JPS2s pre-amp and JA200 mk2 mono amp, JADIS CALLIOPE CD player, DAVIS ACOUSTICS speakers, and SHUNYATA RESEARCH cables. Classy!

Chairs were moved and then we got to have a listen to the MBL system on this room. This was made up of MBL 101E II speaker / 6010D pre-amp / 9008A mono amps / 1611F with ROON module /1621A CD transport, SHUNYATA RESEARCH ATLARIA NR Ground Hub. There was also static displays of JADIS and MBL products. We were treated to a presentation of the history of MBL and its origins in Berlin and the reasons for focusing on the distinctive driver compliment in this brand’s speakers – essentially to recreate the sound of the concert hall in the home. It certainly sounded great playing the show classic Tin Pan Alley. It was also really nice to get to experience an MBL system in a room that wasn’t absolutely rammed to the rafters as is often the case at smaller events.

AUDIO EXOTICS were along the corridor and the products on dem in here certainly lived up to the distributors name.  Playing Judy Collins’ version of Amazing Grace on vinyl via the DAVINCI AUDIO LABS turntable and a pair of GOEBEL loudspeakers and JMP electronics.

Audio Exotics are also the distributor of our Hong Kong AV Show 2024 coverage sponsor, Esprit High End Audio. The systems featured a selection of the French HiFi brand’s cables, including speaker and power cables and power distribution blocks.

Other products in the AUDIO EXOTICS included ENGSTROM, RIVIERA LABS and others. The classical music we got to hear next was pretty visceral and amazingly dynamic and thoroughly enjoyable despite it being a million miles away from my usual listening fodder. There was also a selection of smaller boxes of kit (switches etc) from EDISCREATION. 

 Ikigai Audio cables and their new system feet were also used in this system.

We met both founder Chris Leung (on the left in our photos) and MD J.Lam. The company has a very bespoke approach to High End Audio, tailoring systems to their clients and working closely with the brands that they represent to bring extreme High End HiFi from Europe and beyond to their Hong Kong and Singapore showrooms.

If AUDIO EXOTICS was (errr) exotic, AVANTGARDE HONG KONG was exoticer playing Francine Thirteen Queen Mary. There were three systems set up and playing at different times, with an array of very tasty turntables set upon the back rack and play being rotated between them. We got to hear there ZELLATON Reference Ultra speakers you see at the front of the system with gold driver surrounds. Loud, clear, dynamic, and really rather good. This system also included the AMG Giro II turntable with DS Audio Master 3 cartridge and YS Sound electronics. Other products in the other systems included SME Model 60 and 6, Kondo, Kaiser, Halcro, Vinnie Rossi and Acoustical Systems.

This room was seriously high-end and very luxurious in the way that this show really excels at – mad as a box of frogs systems that us mere mortals can only ever dream of realising at home. Yes, I know the money being asked for these systems is crazy money (a house or a very nice classic car) but I suppose if you have the means then why not…I would! Like some kind of shrine to high-end audio! 

DCHAV were along the way playing big (ish) CANTEBURY GS TANNOYS with ESOTERIC electronics and turntable to great effect and with an audience that was lapping it up. Other kit in the room but not playing was a gold leaf covered GOLD NOTE vinyl spinner and a whole host of GOLD NOTE electronics through gold-leaf adorned GOLD NOTE speakers. Incredibly bling but very cool and very much for this market. 

Other kit in the DCHAV room included BLUE AURA, CABASSE, RUARK AUDIO, CHARIO, TEAC and CYRUS. 

ERNEST AUDIO always put on a great show and this was no exception. Ernest Lau that owns the company is a very cool fella that is part of one of the biggest rock bands in China The Tai Chi Band. Anette Askvik’s Liberty was playing whilst we were in the room on the VPI vinyl spinner through VTL amplification (making their world debut) and a pair of ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES LYNX loudspeakers. This was utterly effortless despite being a drop in the ocean cost-wise when compared to some of the rooms that we have just been in, The speakers are 300lbs of cast aluminium which is insane…insanely good. Ernest then played us some techno in the form of Hedegaard’s Ratchets. The speakers only have a 10” driver but wow do they fill the room with tight and powerful bass. Ernest was wearing a tee shirt that had the slogan “Feel the Power” emblazoned on the back…quite apt, really! 

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

LOUDSPEAKERS: ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES LYNX (World Debut)

POWER AMPLIFIER: VTL REF 450 Tube Monoblocks, 450W/ch, each with 8 x KT-88 Power Tube, Auto-Bias

PREAMPIFIER: VTL TL-7.5III Reference Tube Line Stage (2 chassis)

PHONO STAGE: VTL TP-6.5II Reference Tube Phono Stage

TURNTABLE: VPI Avenger Direct Turntable with VPI FB-12 Gimbal Tonearm and Shyla MC Cartridge DIGITAL SOURCE: WOLF AUDIO ALPHA 3SX Pure Digital Edition

DA CONVERTER: BRICASTI M-1 Gold

INTERCONNECTS: MADISON AUDIO LAB ECLIPSE AG Silver Solid Core Interconnects

SPEAKER CABLES: MADISON AUDIO LAB ECLIPSE Prototype Speaker Cables

POWER CONDITIONERS: ISOTEK V5 SIGMAS, ISOTEK V5 TITAN AC CABLES: ISOTEK ASCENSION AC CABLES

SYSTEM RACK: STILLPOINTS ULTRA ESS RACK with 16 x ULTRA 5V2, 20 x ULTRTA 6V2, 4 x ULTRA 7V2, 12 x ULTRA CABLE CRADLES ACOUSTIC PANELS: 6 x STILLPOINTS APERTURE II

BOWERS AND WILKINS’ room was full we were told and so given the time constraints we had to go back just for pictures. I suppose being full is a good thing and I guess closing the doors when full is a sensible idea, though less than ideal for us. The were using Classé Delta Pre MKII with Delta monos, CH Precision transport and C1.2 DAC, AMG turntable and DS Audio Master cartridge and phono with the B&W 801 D4 Signature speakers.

WISE SOUND SUPPLIES have the absolutely massive corner room on floor 2 of the conference centre with five full systems set up to play plus a whole load of static displays. All this is highly organised and highly efficient with one system playing and then another firing up. 

Walking into the WISE SOUND room there was some Flamenco style music playing through a system made up of YG ACOUSTICS speakers, SOULUTION electronics with a KRONOS turntable spinning the tunes. Our mate ANDY LAM made a presentation and played a few tunes from his label on this system. Thanks for the HiFi PiG shout out, Andy, it made Lin’s day! 

REVIVAL AUDIO had a great space and I have a great deal of time for this relatively new brand’s loudspeakers that are from Alsace in France. 

AUDIA FLIGHT and YG ACOUSTICS was another of the systems set up.

And the final system in this room was fro LUXMAN (which I really love) playing through YG ACOUSTICS speakers and a stack of REL subs. The syling of LUXMAN kit is very much in the vein of what I refer to as “proper looking” HiFi…and those VU meters on the monos are great! 

You have to admire any distributor like WISE SOUND that is able to command this kind of space and fill it with both kit and an appreciative audience. As I looked around this room I noticed that as well as a predominantly male audience, there was also a good number of women in attendance and they were clearly here for the music and kit! 

Now read Part 3 of our Hong Kong AV Show 2024 Report , or go back to Part 1 here…

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

Stu and Lin Smith