I visited the Stockholm HighEnd Hifi show in Stockholm 8-9th of February 2020.
This is a reoccurring event that always gathers some interesting designers, distributors and people from many well-known HigEnd manufacturers and Hifi shops.
I focus mainly on the loudspeakers and as always, it’s hard to evaluate a loudspeaker design at a Hifi show, with unknown music sources and Hifi equipment. I assume that the exhibitor did their best to match the electronics with the loudspeakers and if it sounds bad, it’s probably a less successful loudspeaker design and if it sounds good, it’s probably the opposite.
Here’s some short comments and photos from the show:
The 99.25 Beryllium stand-mount loudspeaker using and a brand new sub-woofer from XTZ.
The stand-mount radialstrahler from MBL. Very nice sounding system.
The new stand-mount Ministra loudspeaker from Neat Acoustics with dual isobaric mounted mid-woofers.
The corner placed AN-E Speakers from Audio Note. It had tight rather punchy bass.
The Courante radial loudspeaker from Bayz-Audio. Perhaps not the best name for a loudspeaker in Sweden! BAYS, if pronounced in Swedish, means poop. Despite that, this is a really interesting loudspeaker and it uses custom made SBacoustics Satori drivers. Here’s a small video showcasing the loudspeaker.
The new Lakmé loudspeaker from Verity Audio. It seems to use drivers from SBacoustics with a 5″ mid-woofer, a ring-radiator tweeter and a woofer plus two passive radiators on the backside of the enclosure.
A wide baffle loudspeaker from Devore Fidelity.
The open baffle Deep Space One MkII loudspeaker from the Swedish Oido Audio.
The LRS ribbon loudspeaker from Magnepan and next to it the small stand-mount loudspeaker from A1 from Magico Audio. THe Magnepan is a rather inexpensive and interesting loudspeaker.
Probably the most interesting newcomer in the Hifi Show!
The Swedish designed active open baffle loudspeaker from FASICO. The Fasico OB3 loudspeaker can be ordered in three different versions and driver configurations.
It uses some of the very best drivers on the market from ScanSpeak RAAL and Acoustic Elegance. In the bass it has an Acoustic Elegance 18″ woofer custom made for open baffle use and in the mid-range we have Scanspeak drivers in either single or dual “Dáppolito” configurations. In the tweeter section there is two ScanSpeak tweeter options or the RAAL dipole ribbon tweeter. World class drivers. The amplification and the cross-over/DSP are from Hypex.
From my short listening session, I thought the version with the Dáppolito mid-range configuration sounded the best.
The Concentro S 507 loudspeaker from Elac. The Concerto S 507 has a rather unique concentric driver called stepX-JET. It’s a 130mm mid-range driver with an AMT tweeter in the center of it.
The Magellan Concerto loudspeaker from Triangle. The Concerto uses two horn loaded tweeters, one mounted in the rear of the enclosure. An easy listened loudspeaker in this setup.
The 800-series from Bowers & Wilkins. Next to it the Nautilus speaker.
The Prestige Five from QLN and next to it the Beethoven Concert Grand from Vienna Acoustics. The picture to the right shows the Prestige Three from QLN. The Prestige Five sounded very nice!
The fully active Kii Three BXT DSP controlled loudspeaker from Kii Audio. A dynamic sounding loudspeaker.
The Reference Series concentric loudspeakers from KEF. KEF, the King of co-axials.
The Confidence 20 and Evoke 20 from Dynaudio. Nice sounding stand-mount loudspeakers.
The Sopra and the Kanta from Focal. Nice and clean sounding loudspeakers.
The F328Be from Revel and the small HDI-1600 stand-mount loudspeaker from JBL. The JBL HDI-1600 had a very entertaining and dynamic sound.