This year the Helsinki Hi-Fi Show, due to some construction work at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, was squeezed to only one floor, and even there the number of demo rooms was more modest than in previous years. To remedy the situation, the organizer promised visitors two major attractions. The first was JBL’s mighty 160,000 euro Everest flagship loudspeaker. It so happened that the Everests were stuck in London, and no amount of petitions could get them land at the Helsinki fair on time. But no worries, the replacement was JBL’s equally impressive high-performance Summit K2, a 3-way horn speaker (JBL D2815 38mm compression drivers mated to a custom large-format Sonoglass HD horn), and for below 1,080Hz, a 10-inch (250mm) cast-frame Differential Drive mid-bass driver as well as a 15-inch (380mm) cast-frame Differential Drive woofer.

Summit K2’s were driven by D’Agostino Momentum Z monoblocks & Momentum C2Z pre combo. The Class AB monoblocks deliver 500 W output power, of which reportedly 8% in Class A. 8% is fine, but in absolute terms 40 W in Class A is a lot. It remained unclear, however, whether the 40 W in Class A was achieved simply by reconciling high power losses (heat) and high bias by means of massive copper cooling fins, or whether the output transistors were somehow forced to stay in Class A independently of the bias current. Summit K2’s are over 92 dB sensitive so that on paper at least, the speaker can go over 110 dB in Class A. And loud it was played! And for the most part successfully!

The other decoy was 285 000 euro dCS Varese DAC (not including the SA/CD Transport, and the Core provided the clock signal). Had it been just the Varese DAC it would have been of partial interest only. Fortunately, the exhibitor offered an exclusive opportunity to compare the Varese to the neighboring 90 000 euro dCS Vivaldi DAC. The speakers were PMC’s Prophecy 9 (10 790 €/pair), and the amp PassLabs INT250 (17 000 euro).

Two 2.5 min music samples, first with the Vivaldi and then through the Varese, and the factory representative’s word that all other things (volume, phase etc. etc.) being the same. The consensus of the crowd seemed to be that there was a difference, for some smaller than for others. I too, who have not followed the development of the DACs particularly closely, noticed a difference, and that reminded me of a similar event at the Stockholm 2026 Fair earlier this year. There the comparison was not about digital signals, but grounding and noise. What happened was that with higher class grounding, it all of a sudden felt as if the volume of the sound had gone up by 0.5 – 1.5 dBs. The cleaner the sound, the louder it feels, and the more there is for ears to perceive. And so it was with the dCS demo in Helsinki now. Given that all other things really were the same, this of course makes one ask what the mechanism might be? Is this purely a subjective psycho-acoustical thing, based eg. on how human expectation works, or does the measurably ‘quieter’ background really appear as a louder sound? I cannot say. dCS itself stresses the importance of exceptionally low distortion and noise, which in the case of Varese have been taken to extremes.

Audiovector’s brand new R5 Arreté together with Primare amplification. R5 Arreté is a true 3.5-way design with two 6,5″ woofers, one covering the full bass range up to 600 Hz, the second dedicated solely to the deepest frequencies below 200 Hz. The 6,5″ midranger keeps the midrange clean, fast and transparent, until the latest version of the Air Motion Transformer (3800mm2) takes over at 2,800 Hz eventually climbing to 53,000 Hz. A very balanced Audiovector kind of sound.

Toscana speakers (read Rosso Fiorentino) are a 2.5 design with a floor shooting woofer at the bottom, and a coaxial driver on top, both reflex-loaded. A very ear-friendly, smooth and musical sound, the system had little of everything, but nothing too much. The amp was Pathos Classic One MK III, a 2 x 70W hybrid, and the source by Aqua Acoustic. Well done!

Audio Physic Cardeas, and a set of Accuphase electronics. The Cardeas is a four-way speaker with a new multi-layer sandwich enclosure, 39 mm HHCT III+ tweeter, 150 mm HHCM SL + midrange driver, 2 x 180 mm midwoofers, and 2 x 280 mm woofers, all the bigger drivers designed to work without a centering spider in order to efficiently transfer the kinetic energy. I didn’t understand why the Cardeas got help from Velodyne subs, in that room especially, but with lighter, not bassy classic music the sound was fine.

A holy grail for many: Accuphase E-800S – Integrated Class A Amplifier, Accuphase DC-500 – Digital Processor, and Accuphase DG-78 – Digital Voicing Equalizer.

OePhi Trancendence 2.5 loudspeakers with two Purifi woofers, and with an in-house developed metal dome tweeter, driven by Lejonklou Tundra monoblocks via OePhi Trancendence cables, Kuzma/Linn turntables, and the Linn Selekt DSM as the source and preamp. A very sympathetic yet accurate sound!

Kuzma Stabi R and Linn Sondek side by side.

Radial Clarity 6.6 with a Custom AMT ribbon tweeter in a dual-purpose horn, two 6.5” Purifi Ushindi woofers reflex-tuned at 30.5 Hz, and the Marantz 10/10 LINK as the source. The system sounded clean and pure, but also slightly academic, on the brighter side of the things.

These silent Telephone Booths (Framery) belonged to the Club of Finnish Hi-Fi Hobbyists who this year arranged a test of DIY headphones, more precisely two dynamic headphones both with a 50 mm driver.

Finally, two small and active all-in-one loudspeakers: one by KEF, the Ls Luxe, and the other …

… by Yamaha, the new NX-70A.