Stockholm Highend 2010
The venue was the same Sheraton Hotel as last year but the line to the main entrance was much longer this time in spite of the arctic winter day. Instead of two floors three were occupied. Good for the show.
People often ask about novelties at the show as if innovations were the sole purpose of coming to the event. But they are not. An equally important function of these shows is to communicate that life goes on as before. And so it did in Stockholm in February 2010 despite certain economic uncertainties.
I rushed straight to the third floor where for an hour and a half I could go around the rooms reasonably undisturbed. The tour could hardly have started more rejoicingly than it did in a room where flagship Harbeth M40 sang peacefully with the help of Herron electronics. So gentle and relaxed!
In the next room, the good old Carlssons had been resurrected, and renamed Larsens (Larsen Hi-Fi). The source and the amps came from Gamut. Like Carlssons, Larsons need be placed back to back to the wall in order to deliver their best. Pity that I wasn’t in a more nostalgic mood.
I was positively surprised by the performance of Acapella Fidelios, here with Trigonin electronics. I don’t think I’ve heard these tiny Acapellas before. The sound was open and unsuppressed reminiscent of horn speakers. Also, when the music is good the sound tends to feel good too. The Art Deco type of equipment racks were manufactured by MBJ Design.
Audio Space introduced an impressive collection of tube amplifiers including the Reference-three mono blocks with 805 as the power mill (40 watts single-ended). The speaker was their own transmission line, and on the floor stood Revox tape recorder – also played when asked.
The true eye-cather was however Audio Space modified Rogers LS 3-5. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to hear these classics.
The ATC room was a disappointment not because of the speakers but because of the volume level of the demo. A good speaker need not shout, only bad ones do. The Audio Note room had more modest volume levels but the room was so crowded every time I visited it that I couldn’t get a decent grip of the vinyl sound. But I spotted Ongagu 211 SE and was happy.
The Swedish Intelligent Sound displayed its IS6 Pro & IS8 Pro, a model from a few years back. The manufacturer must have a deep distrust of the design world.
The speaker was driven by a new G-Dis P-400 power amp, a hybrid amplifier with a digital power supply and an analog amplifier module.
G-Dis products were seen in more than one room. In their own room the whole system was built around G-Dis products including their flat prototype speaker. The music flowed from a computer through the new state-of-the-art G-Dis DAC-V Mk II DA-converter, soundcard and digital pre.
One of the sonic delights of the Show was provided by a new Swedish brand, Kentzy with its 3-way tower. The drivers are ScanSpeak Revelators and the crossver frequencies 250 and 2500 Hz.
In Helsinki Triangle Magellans were hooked up to a Sugden front end, in Stockholm to Nuforce pre and REF 18 mono blocks. The bass kicked handsomely.
In this room Nola’s Micro Grad Reference open baffle speaker on its dedicated stand sang jazz with Karan amplifers and Audio Aero LaSource digital player.
Guru Proaudio’s QM10 cubes took marching orders from LFD Audio’s integrated amps. An irresistible sound in some sense.
The Swedish importer VälLjud demoed two fancy systems. The other one had the smaller Verdier Platine as a source with Helius Omega Standard tonearm and XYZ cart. The pre was the legendary CAT SL-1, the speaker AudioZ ETA and the muscleman CAT JL3 or 2. No complaints about the sound, genuine music.
While EAR’s number one Tim de Paravicini sped on the corridor, VälLjud’s other room was packed with EAR stuff from EAR Master Disk turntable to mighty M100A monoblocks. The speaker was Analysis Audio’s ribbon speaker. Only heard orchestral music.
Amphion’s Anssi Hyvönen demoed the new Argon 3; Audio Analog’s Crescendo CD-player and integrated amp are also fresh models. In another room floorstanding Amphions performed with Hegel electronics including their brand new H70 integrated amp with inbuild DA-converter. The latter made its world premiere at the Show.
T.A.C. and Vincent electronics kept Whaferdale’s Opus 2 company but my heart went to a micro system with Whaferdale ONYX-100 monitors and Dynavox VR-307 hybrid amp.
Genelec’s colorful designs got sonic support from Genelec 7000-series subwoofers. Technically solid sound but not exactly the most exuberant.
Woodmountain Electric’s room was a true treasure trove for the members of the old school. In addition to various WE-inspired horn speakers and Fostex FE103 – FE106 solutions, the table was set with a series of tube electronics such as a KT66 based 15 watter. The amp is said to drive any speaker between 2-150 ohms.
Audio Nord’s room was continuously crowded. Here the folks are about to listen to Sonus Faber Liutos accompanied by Ayre’s electronics.
Highend systems require a hank of highend cables.
JMLab, Linn, Canton Reference ...
XTZ Divine 100.49 looks like 40000 euro speaker but cost only 4000 euro. Like other XTZs, Divine 100.49 can pass by the passive crossover in ordfer to make it fully active.
System Audio & Primare is a habitue of this Show. Very consistent peformance - again.
In addition to the regular TAD/Pioneer, B&W/Classe and KEF/Chord combos, there were other super weights such as this incandescent and accurately sounding Burmeister setup.
Hi-Fi Consult demoed both Vienna Acoustics and Thiel flagship speakers with the favourable help of Pass Labs and VTL electronics. Impressive bass performance.
But not quite as impressive as in the next room in which Halcros were ask to drive Vivid Audio’s gigantic G1GIYA speakers with a tapered bass enclosure. Exceptionally natural dynamics and life-like peformance by this setup.
In the smaller system Vivid Audio’s K1 was fed by Audio Valve’s poweramp.
This peculiar looking TT, or its prototype, is The Disc Rotator from Sweden. The bearing and the platter come from Clearaudio. The plint is a massive multilayer construction of aluminium and several layers of viscoelastic polymers and mechano-acoustic damping composites. The manufacturer recommends SME V tonearm.
The biggest fuss at the Show was made of HRT Music’s Streamer and its big brother Music Streamer +. These small ingots are very reasonably priced (140-290 €) but are said to take a computer to the next level of sound quality.
That's it.
