As for the venue of the HEM Show (Highend Mässa), it was HOTEL C that replaced Klara Strand as the second show venue, located next to Nordic Light Hotel. The demo rooms of the HOTEL C were not as spacious as the ones in Klara Strand, but that did not prevent the exhibitors to put together surprisingly high quality, uncolored sound on average. Overall, once again HEM 2026 turned out to be a successful fair that can still be recommended, without remorse, to fellow enthusiasts.

The fair started promisingly. A stream of men led into a room where hORNs Mummy horn speakers were playing with perhaps the most impressive equipment altar of the fair displaying WB Manufacture’s (the Swede Frank Werner) mighty tube amplifiers: WB Aurora 20 MK II SET amplifier PSVANE’s 845 power triodes on the deck, drove Mummies beautifully with great success. The amplifier’s 2 x 20 W output power was more than enough to conjure up an extremely elegant and toneful horn sound that tempted to listen to the system for a longer period time.

A couple of rooms later, Ø Audio’s renewed Icon 12 loudspeaker from Norway was making music through its constant directivity Quad Vertex Sound Field horn with a 3.4 inch compression driver, and a 12-inch woofer beneath. The 92 dB sensitive speaker was driven by Leben’s tube amplifier, Matrix Audio NT-1 & SC-1 / Kora DAC as the front end. This too was a truly convincing performance in every way, including its dry and clean bass reproduction, even in a relatively cramped, constantly packed room.

A completely different type of horn sound was served by the Klipschorn, launched in 1946, but this time the closed AK7 version without the active crossover with Audio Research amplification. Klipsch’s tractrix horn section may split opinions, but especially when corner-placed, the Klipschorns sounded enchanting. Such a comprehensive, relaxed and natural sound, and without any sense of hype. The least intrusive sound at the fair!

The difference compared to the Elac Concerto M 807 & Marantz system of the same room, was obvious. Very high quality gear as such, but the sound was rather dry and breathless. Good but somehow indifferent.

The new Qualio IQ30 dipole speaker by the Polish Qualio Audio (Cube Audio’s sister company) resembles Wolf von Langa’s similar speakers, but the Canor Virtus S1S amplifier, and Aurender A1 Anniversary streamer/dac/preamplifier, didn’t quite reach the tonal sophistication of the Wolf von Langa Ultima & Phasemation 300B SET presentation from the last year’s fair. Still the sound was very generous, open and pleasant to listen to. A clear positive surprise.

Big and spacious sound. Such was offered by three rather different configurations. The first was an active system by the Dutch Grimm Audio with the LS1c speaker and Grimm MU2 music player. The speakers were far apart, and the sound was consistent, the emphasis being on a secure smooth sound rather than on small-scale sensitization. The listening session ended with the Eagles’ Hotel California. A system of this caliber does not need such cheap sales tricks.

Carmel 3 is YG Acoustics’ second smallest model but offered a wonderfully airy sound with a help of Soulnote’s pre- and power amplifier, and HZ Core/QNET7/Rockna front. The Carmels reproduced the house sound with a tight grip and softness, not forgetting dynamics of the music, or its realism.

Inside the rack, Soulnote’s P-3 preamplifier and HZ Core/QNET7/ Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature DAC, and on top what might have been the most popular turntable of the show, namely Acoustic Signature.

However, one system stood out above the rest when it comes to the sound spreading from the speaker line to the entire room. Behind this larger-than-life and very live-like sound was Mark Levinson’s new company, Daniel Hertz, and its Anton speaker with a 15-inch coaxial element. The speaker was driven by the dedicated Maria 350 DSP amplifier. Was it the fact that the speaker was tuned by the legendary producer Ted Jensen, or the ease of the sound made possible by the wide dynamics that made Johnny Cash sound like Johnny Cash on stage, or at least very close to it.

On the floor, Technics SP turntable with Viv Lab tonearm, DS Audio cartridge and RIAA equalizer. Behind is Audes ST-3200 DC power filter from Estonia.

In the Totem room, the Primaluna tube/hybrid amplifiers had to make room for the Triode’s Evolution Musashi amplifier, which despite its name is a class AB push-pull amplifier with four Tung-sol KT150 power tetrodes and a hundred watts of output power. The amplifier gave a transistor-like hard ride to Totem’s Element Metal V2 floorstanders.

Next to the Triode Evolution Musashi amp stood Aragon Tungsten/Aragon Titanium amp combo, and on the left side of the pic Primaluna’s integrated.

In the Hifi Agenten’s room, Fyne Audio’s F700 series speakers were driven by the French Advance A12 hybrid amplifier with 2 x 190 watts of output power from a pair of Tung-Sol KT170 power tubes per channel. Certainly enough power to drive the speakers and make the bass behave well.

In the PL Audio room, the Revival’s Atalante 7 Evo & Pass labs 250-watt INT-250 combo delivered what might have been the best Revival performance I’ve heard so far. The bass department was solid and well controlled even at higher volumes, and there was no taste of compression in the upper register.

In the familiar Rega & KEF Blade room, a new acquaintance was performing, namely the compact Stream 3 three-way speaker from Sweden’s Accuvoice. Despite its size, the speaker filled the room that was far too large for it with astonishing ease and accuracy.

In the category of small stand-mount speakers, there was an interesting competition going on between Sweden’s Guru Audio and Poland’s Unitra in adjoining rooms. This time, Unitra’s speaker/amplifier combination won by a small margin Guru/Eversolo combo, with a successful balance between resolution and warmth.

A new entrepreneur from Sweden, Green Acoustics, introduced its Yggdrasil CX45 speaker with a 4.5-inch coaxial driver a 20 mm aluminum/magnesium dome in the middle, the crossover realized with Jantzen components.

Moving from a macro to micro level of sonic differences, Sound by Vinyl demoed either its Acoustic Signature turntable with a Soundsmith cartridge or J.Sikora’s new Aspire record player with a DS Audio optical cartridge. The amps were Soulnotes and speakers Kroma Atelier Leonore. The theme of the demo was “No noise, just music”. For example, the properly isolated AC and DC earths were connected, one by one, to the Nordost’s passive QKORE artificial ground, and in between the possible effect was listened using the same music sample and volume. Funny enough, after each step, the sound appeared to become a tad louder, the cause reportedly being that better grounding produces quieter background. Makes sense.

In the Instereo room, where Colin Pratt from Chord Electronics lectured on their FPGA-based DACs and compared the first-generation Hugo 2 with the newer Hugo TT2. The amplifier was Chord’s new integrated amplifier Ultima, and the speakers NEAT’s Neat Momentum JS with Chord speaker cables.

The Finnish speaker expert Amphion and its new X-series with a new aluminum dome. Nice luminous and fresh sound.

The Nova Sonic room, and speakers from Sonus faber and Piega.