Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Not Best In Show
The 2014 Sound and Vision show held in Athens has come to an end. A biggy this year, more than 65 rooms and halls with just two days’ time to listen, explore, and digest lots […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Zellaton, Gryphon and CH Precision
Sometimes delivering is just not enough, you need a story, and Zellaton surely has one. The company’s origins date back in the thirties, when Dr Emile Podszus introduced a series of technological innovations in driver […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Joseph Audio Pulsar and Enigmacoustics M1 Mythology, the mini monitors that ain’t so mini
Though most of the audio show visitors seek the big mighty high-end systems, the ones most of us only dream of, there is another class of products that merits attention: the high-end compact monitor. Two […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: PMC speakers is recipe for good sound
In my opinion, a simple recipe for good sound is a three way speaker with a great mid-range driver, an amplifier capable of driving the aforementioned speaker with ease, and a good source that will extract […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Big, dazzling horns from Tune Audio
One of the few local, truly high-end brands, Tune Audio brought the big Anima speakers to the show. These three-way, all passive horn loaded speakers have been turning heads for some time now in Munich […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Wilson Audio Sasha II dancing with the Devi(a)l(et)
If there is one speaker that made Wilson Audio famous among audiophiles for delivering best bang for the buck in the almost affordable high-end range and has seen the most evolutions in the company’s huge […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: The eyeball magnet, aka, MBL
If you like visiting audio shows (and since you are reading this chances are you like it as much as I do) then you must have noticed that on every show the German high-end company […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: High-stakes poker with the Tidal-MSB system
While I was enjoying the Athens show, my editor Scot was publishing a mini review of a full TIDAL Audio system with Contriva Diacera SE speakers (SE stands for “Special Edition”) paired with the Preos […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Jadis, the French Rolls Royce
One of the most interesting rooms in the Athens 2014 show was without doubt the Jadis, paired with Genesis 5.3 speakers. These speakers have the looks of being somewhere in between the insensible and the […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: The Cabasse Ocean
Between 2005 and 2006 Cabasse released a couple of AES papers describing multiple co-axial driver speaker systems. The first real world application of those studies was the “Sphere” and the slightly smaller version “L’Ocean” followed […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Kondo and Leben with Blumenhofer Acoustics
Japan has a tradition in tube electronics, probably second to none. In just one room, I found the best of the old school in thermionic valve designs coming from the Far East mixed with the best […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Bowers and Wilkins presents the new CM Series 2
Instead of the 800 series (which has been around for a century or so), B&W brought in the just introduced CM series 2 speakers paired with the “down to earth” priced Rotel electronics; a match […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Aavik U-300 amplifier by Raidho Acoustics
Raidho Acoustics managed to do within a few years time what others did not achieve in decades, creating world-class avant-garde speakers with exquisite sound. Then the same design team under chief engineer Michael Borresen launched […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Audio Physic and the German Bling
In an all-German room, some of the bigger names were showing off their teeth. Audio Physic’s big 3+1/2 way Cardeas plus speaker was driven by a complete set of Burmester electronics including the 088 pre […]
Athens 2014
Athens 2014: Rise of a Monopoly?
I was preparing the opening piece for this year’s Athens audio show and for some weird reason Shakespeare’s Hamlet was a returning thought. In Act I, Marcellus says “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, […]