THE FINAL PART OF HIFI PIG’S HONG KONG AUDIO VISUAL SHOW 2024 REPORT COVERING FLOOR 4

Enjoy the last instalment in Stu and Lin’s Hong Kong AV Show 2024 Report, as they cover the rooms on Floor 4.

Read on for part 3 of our Hong Kong Audio Visual Show 2024 report, if you haven’t already seen them, Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

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

A spot of lunch and it was in the lift to floor 4 which was pretty rammed by 13:00 with some rooms difficult to get in and sit down. At this point we decided to go right to the far end of the floor and into a very similar space to the WISE SOUND SUPPLIES room mentioned in Part 2, but this one was hosted by HUGESTEP LIMITED trading as RADAR AUDIO COMPANY that represent a whole load of brands you will be familiar with: RECORD DOCTOR, FALCON AUDIO. SOUNDSMITH. VERTERE, NORDOST, THE GRYPHON, REGA, PAS AUDIO, ROON, ZESTO, ARCAM, SUPRA, KUDOS, PROAC, MSB, AUDIOQUEST, BRINKMANN, QRT, FOUNDATION, AND GOLDEN EAR. 

Again you had several (four plus static displays) systems set up with seats set up in front of them with folk waiting patiently in their seats for the next time demonstration at their favourite brands space. I really like this idea and Lin and I discussed over lunch that it would be a cool concept for UK distributors to do this at shows, but are there distributors with enough brands to fill this kind of space and are there venues that could actually host this kind of set up? 

There was a lot of folks in here!

ProAc K10 speakers and Brinkmann system.

PS Audio and Goldenear displays and the colourful cable display area.

The MSB, Kudos and Vertere system included the Kudos Titan 808 speakers, MSB M500 amps, Vertere SG1 Super Groove turntable and Calon phonostage and Vertere cables.

The Gryphon system featured their EOS 5 speakers Apex Solo monoblocks with Commander preamplification, Siren phonostage and Apollo turntable, plus Gryphon Vanta cables and Gryphon power products.

As I sat waiting for the Gryphon demonstration to begin at 13:30 the system playing in another end of the room fired up The Nolan’s Sexy Music, which was pretty much the first time we’d heard anything but opera, Chinese music, or the usual audiophile show fodder – yes, we’d heard Keith Don’t Go and Hotel California a good few times by this time. Play to your audience, I suppose! 

Next up was HMG and we knew from last year that this big room would be rammed…it was. We’d seen Dr Paul Mills from FYNE AUDIO at breakfast and asked him if it had been busy, but I wasn’t prepared for just how busy this room was. I suppose this is the esteem that a company like FYNE is held in with the Hong Kong audience. 

We got to listen to the CLASSIC GOLD 15 speakers from FYNE, with their new SuperTrax super tweeter, with a whole load of ACCUPHASE kit. These speakers were showed as prototypes at the Munich Show and it was so good to hear them, despite the Chinese music being a bit specialist for my tastes. OEPHI cables were used throughout in this system (Oephi Reference speaker cables, Immanence interconnects and Immanence power cables) and I would have loved to hear some music we are more familiar with…but, again, play to your audience! Accuphase gear included the A300 power amplifier, DC100 DAC/CD player.

Around this room was static displays of FYNE speakers and much more ACCUPHASE kit as well as OEPHI cables.

It’s brilliant to see this relatively young brand (FYNE) being so popular – when I say they are a young brand, perhaps I’m doing them an injustice given the experience this team have in the loudspeaker business. 

FIRST IMPRESSION MARKETING is the distribution company for NAIM, FOCAL, CARDAS, FRANCO SERBLIN, ISOACOUSTICS, JEFF ROLAND, PRIMA LUNA, SOLID STEEL, SOTM, YTER, and a few others. 

The speakers were the FOCAL SCAL UTOPA EVO with a ZAVFINO turntable at the front end and NAIM electronics in the main.
Another room that was standing room only and sounding very nice. 

INTERNATIONAL AUDIO was rammed for a demonstration with standing room only. SILTECH, CRYSTAL CABLES and HMS CABLES too, along with VITUS AUDIO for good measure. The demonstration that was going on ended and we got to get to the system for pics (bind and drive, Lin. Bind and drive!) I’d have liked to have got a listen to this system but kind understand the appeal of timed demonstrations to allow exhibitors to command an audience that is fully engages in their product and what they are saying for a known amount of time…though it’s not ideal for us that have to get round the whole event in a given amount of time. Again, the sheer number of people in this room for the demonstration gives you an idea of how popular audio is in Hong Kong!

The main focus was on the new Siltech Master Crown flagship cables, which were also on static display around the room.

AUDIO EXTREME by name and extreme audio by deed. PHASEMATION MA 500 valve mono blocs powering LUMIN WHITE WHITE ALIGHT ANNIVERSARY sporting ACCUTRON drivers in there, of course.  The turntable is from BERGMAN with a PHASEMATION The new passive preamp is the CM 1500 –  this is just a sample but it is due to come out this winter. Later, PHASEMATION will also release the first tube integrated from the company, the SA1500. The flagship MC cart from PHASEMATION has a diamond cantilever and is the PB5000. 

Also showing was the new model WAND 1444 MASTER turntable with the famous WAND unipivot tonearm. The turntable is an enhanced model of the 1444 with extra isolation isolation by ISOACOUSTICS. It also has an onboard battery that gives 8 hours of run time…very cool. It comes with an additional tonearm board allowing for two tonearms. Phonostages in the system included the EMT JPA 66MK3 and PHASEMATION EH1200. The passive preamp we got to hear was the PHASEMATION CM4200

Lovely sounding system! 

In the ASIA THEATRE room (ROKSAN TRADING) we were treated, when we were finally able to get into the room, to a magical system made up of D’AGOSTINO, TRANS ROTOR and MAGICO M7s. The rooms are now so full it’s getting difficult to get in and it’s not surprising given that folk are getting the opportunity to hear this level of kit at an audio show. I managed to squeeze in to the room and make notes but got told off for resting my laptop on top of an amplifier…so that’s all I can say of this room. 

RICHCOLN COMPANY LIMITED are distributors for PMC, SILTECH, BURMESTER, OCTAVE and EXPOSURE. 

Standing room only again but the audience were lapping up the presentation in the room and when they played music it sounded fab. The Burmester system included the 909 MK5 amplifiers, 217 turntable, 111 Music Centre and BC150 speakers. Wired with Siltech Double and Single Crown cables.

The next room was distributor Richcom and the room was again filled to the rafters for a demonstration of ACOUSTIC SIGNATURE, UNISON RESEARCH, DCS and GAUDER AKUSTIK all housed on BASSOCONTINUO racks and stands. 

Other brands in the room were ACCUSTIC ARTS and LA SOUND CABLES. At the other end of the room was a lovely looking system based around the excellent CONSTELLATION  amplifiers partners with UNISON RESEARCH, ACOUSTIC SIGNATURE, DCS and GAUDER AKUSTIC. 

RICHCOLN COMPANY and NEW WELLWICK AUDIO hosted INAKUSTIK, the German cable brand, THORENS, PEAK, BURMESTER, DYNAUDIO, LECTOR, MOONRIVER AUDIO, DENSEN, and ROGERS to another highly appreciative room filled to capacity with folk that we’re lapping it up. 

The final room on this floor and for us the last room at the Hong Kong show was hosted by GRAND ASIA HiFi LTD and featured EGGLESTONE WORKS, EMMLABS, CAD, ISOL8, SIVA, THIXAR, SIGNAL and GEKKO CABLES. People were literally spilling out of this room with barely room to breath inside, never mind make notes about the system playing. 

BUT IT’S NOT ALL AUDIO AND PIECES OF HiFi

By a stroke of luck we finished the last room of floor 4, got in the lift and bumped into Rebecca who organises the show and were ushered to the VIP seats right at there front of Theatre 2 (there are several) for something that we had no idea about…or what to expect. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that! 

Would it be one of the musical performances that happen throughout the Hong Kong Show? Perhaps a stand up comedian in Cantonese or Mandarin…not really, I knew there was none of them. Instead we were treated to a fabulously glamorous artist who was clearly very famous, and I quite like this exposure to wholly new cultures, wholly new music and wholly new experiences. If we choose and are luck enough, our lives are made up of wonderful experiences and we should throw ourselves into these, whether we understand the language or not. We didn’t understand a word but it was a great experience, none the less. And I suppose this kind of sums up the Hong Kong High-End AV Show a whole new, slightly foreign, but none the less fascinating and fabulous experience. 

IN CONCLUSION

This show is brilliantly orchestrated with a degree of organisation that many could learn from, both from the actual organisers and also the exhibitors themselves. Out of all the shows we visit, Hong Kong is fast becoming a favourite of ours and we’ll be sure to be back. I do think some of the rooms are now become victims of their own success and reputation and just becoming too busy, but this kind of demand and enthusiasm is brilliant to see at an audio show. 

The next Hong Kong AV Show is scheduled for the 8th to 10th of August 2025…we will see you at the show!

If you missed the previous two reports from the Hong Kong AV Show 2024, Part 1 is here and Part 2 is 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