The Helsinki HiFi2025 was a success in that it attracted nearly 4,000 people over the weekend. There was less on offer than a year ago, but still enough high-quality products and systems to observe and listen to. Let’s start with the best of the best: The room of the Club of the Finnish Hi-Fi Hobbyists.
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the Club had decided demonstrate a 15 to 20 years old PA horn system, in which solid state PA amps (MC² E475 plus Audiophonics for the sub ) drove 100 dB sensitive Danley Sound Labs’ SH50 PA speaker (the flagship of the Synergy Horn Series), with the help of a 8″ DIY sub for frequencies below 50 Hz.
The 50/50 degree horn features 2 x 12″ woofers, 4 x 4″ midrange drivers and 1 x 1″ tweeter, and is directive down to 600 Hz or so, The speakers were set far from each other, making the stereo angle wide, and then twisted about 45 degrees inward, so that the ideal listening position was the center line (no rows) as if the sound was pouring out of huge headphones leaving the center stage open to make its wonders. The sound had great immateriality in it. The voices and instruments sounded true to size … Just wonderful. This system made all other systems at the Show, sound, well, Hi-Fi. This was not sound reproduction, this was genuine and pure sound recreation.
The reason why this demo was the Best is not only that the sound made a lasting impression, but because it gave an important lesson too. The demo reminded me vaguely of a Show in New York (Stereophile Show – Home Entertainment) back in 2005, where, in one large room (Damoka LLC) Lamm’s tube mono blocks were hooked to a pair of Vitavox CN-191 corner horns from the year 1948 (S2.5” compression driver/horn, underneath a 15” woofer in a folded rear horn), set wide apart in the room corners, Thorens Reference TT as the vinyl source. I was flabbergasted. Captivated. Completely disarmed. So different, as if from the other world!
Srajan Ebaen of 6moons summed up the essence of the experience nicely and aptly: “The living proof thereof was the utterly effortless and natural presentation of this exhibit. It played at subdued and very civilized levels yet held one’s attention. Audio from the days of WE, Siemens and Altec-Lansing arguably did certain — very vital — things far better than most of today’s audio. Those writing off such statements as rose-colored reminiscences of a past that wasn’t nearly as good as memories would have it only had to step into this sizeable room to be taught an important lesson: Our predecessors half a century ago knew what mattered. If they perhaps didn’t capture all the details and suffered certain colorations in turn, they honed in on the musical essence which we all too often miss today.”
BACK ON EARTH
Back in this world, let’s visit quickly the other rooms to see more earthly systems – earthly despite the fact that many of them cost 50 000 – 100 000 euros.
USA/USA
This set included the mighty Wilson Audio Alexia V speakers (90 000 euro) fed by Pass Labs X260.8 & XP-22 combo, music flowing out from the dCS Bartok Apex DAC/Streamer. A very consistent, secure and smooth performance with a reasonably controlled bass in an acoustically challenging room. First class loudspeakers with first class amplification.
ITALY/ITALY
This all-Italy system featured the new Rosso Fiorentino Pisa loudspeakers (63 000 euro) together with Pathos InPower MK2 (120 W Class A) mono blocks & Pathos Acoustics INCONTROL MKII preamp, the DAC and the Network player from the Aqua selection. Here the sound was noteworthy highend, and also the kind of highend that many audiophiles appreciate. No weak links in the chain, and somehow the listener senses it. As a curiosity, the speaker was surprisingly directive in a way that you would not expect on the basis of its operating principle.
FINLAND/FINLAND
This must have been the fourth or fifth time I’ve heard and experienced the flagship Genelec 8381A with adjacent electronics, and this demo was among the best. I believe the speaker is a piece of technical achievement in its own right. But the loudspeaker being technically correct, does not imply that the sound would inevitably be worthy of greatest admiration. It feels as if the speaker were made on the negative technical principle, the main focus being on avoiding sonic mistakes, and the sound then being what is coming out as a result. And that’s the end of it. If any psycho-acoustics is involved it’s limited to hearing thresholds etc. etc. This approach certainly pleases professionals (after all the 8381A is primarily made for studio purposes), but for many audiophiles it only provides the beginning of the analysis, not the end. There’s more to listening to a hi-fi loudspeaker; there’s the positive, musical sound. The sound of the 8381A surely conforms to certain quality standards, but – from a subjective perspective – it lacks inner color and taste. The speaker sounds good, great even, but feels indifferent. This may very well be what the manufacturer has aimed at, but audiophiles typically want more, they want, not coloration, of course, but some positive inner color. Perhaps, instead of limiting themselves to empirical psycho-acoustics (on frequency responses etc.), loudspeaker manufacturers should strive for a more phenomenological approach to the reproduced sound.
FINLAND/NORWAY
Boijs is a fairly new Finnish loudspeaker company, best known for its compact monitors, but on this occasion the company premiered its new flagship Immersion (85 000 euro). The 3-way speaker sports 4 x 12” woofers in an open back (dipole) config., line array construction with an opening in the middle for the coaxial unit (7” paper mid) + 1” textile dome) in a cardioid enclosure. Amplification from Electrocompaniet, Norway. Here’s a better image of the loudspeaker.
It was a little difficult to assess the sound quality in a relatively small and continuously crowded room, but it feels safe to say that the speaker managed to deliver the kind of performance that one would expect from the principle: open, airy, and well breathing sound, the kind of overwhelming sound with a non-boxy bass and believable and indistinguishable midrange/treble.
DENMARK/AUSTRIA/CANADA
Dynaudio’s flagship Confidence 60 (44 000 euro) was driven either with Musical Fidelity’s top Nuvista amp or Moon Audio’s preamp/power amp duo, in a vast room leaving nothing to chance, and delivering that carefully thought-out Dynaudio sound.
UK/CHINA
B&W 803 and Marantz’s new Class D amplification. Now, the sound in this room may not have been the most heart-warming, bad still utterly competent and easy to get enchanted by, particularly with suitable kind of music.
FRANCE/USA/UK
Whenever faced with the offspring of a multiple world’s best -winner (Focal Grand Utopia), hifi-enthusiasts should be on their toes. Above we have: Focal Scala Utopia Evo (40 000 euro) in front of McIntosh MC312 stereo-power amp, C22 Mk V preamp/MQ112 EQ and the DS200 streamer. The sound definitively possessed appreciable features, but so did the sound coming from a smaller combo with the 3-way Focal Sopra No2 (below) and the new Naim 300 Series electronics. Wish I had had more time to focus on both of these systems.
USA/UK
This Anglo-Saxon system featured JBL’s new Summit Series of loudspeakers in the embrace of the Chord amps and source. Exhibiting that unrestrained horn sound that JBL is famous for, the system was fun to listen to.
FRANCE/SWEDEN
Interestingly enough, the Revival Atalante 7 (9970 euro) might have been the only retro-spirited loudspeaker at the Show (Vestlyd excluded), which was kind of surprising given how popular they are nowadays. This was also the only system with a turntable: Takumi Turntable 2.1DC with Takumi Shiro cartridge (RIAA by Lejonklou). The main mission of the demo was, however, to introduce special electronics from Sweden: Lejonklou Källa streamer, and Boazu 2 integrated amp, for what purpose Fredrik Lejonklou himself had arrived at the Fair. The moderately sized amp appeared to have enough horse powers to run the big speakers. A classic 3-way sound with a modern twist!
JAPAN/JAPAN
Not sure what the owners of the original Yamaha NS-1000 would say about this system, but the new Yamaha NS-5000 speakers (18 500 euro) with their Zylon-treated driver cones (not Beryllium) managed to provide a happy and well thought-out performance (Musical Fidelity amp, Rockna DAC and Hifi-rose streamer).
FINALLY, THREE A’S FROM FINLAND:
ALD’s (Antti Louhivaara Design) Audio Anatomy A7 loudspeaker (4980 euro) created a very 3D and tangible soundstage born around the listener thanks, reportedly, to its Horizontal Fan-shaped Sound Dispersion.
In the Amphion room, the stereo speaker pairs (eg. the new Argon 3X, 3 750 euro, with a new tweeter) on the center stage were surrounded by a rectangular of four active subwoofers (forthcoming), two in front and two behind. When switched off, a big difference!
The Aalto 3 (1745 euro) is a passive 2-way standmount speaker with a 6.5″ long-throw woofer, and a 26 mm aluminum dome, and a 8″ passive radiator behind. The saying “a big bass from a small speaker” got an entirely new meaning here.
Below: Pro-Ject celebrating Elvis.
