Among all the Audio fairs I’ve been to since autumn 1994, the Stockholm HEM fair (High end fair), which this year was held at Hotel C Stockholm in addition to Klara Strand, may have been one of the best in terms of the relative proportion of rooms that offered, other things being equal, reasonably balanced and uncoloured sound. The competent sound reproduction was not limited just to three or four stars (Kerr/Gryphon, AudioNec/Alieno, von Langa/Phasemation etc.). There were a bunch of speaker-amplifier combinations that, again, considering the trade fair conditions, produced surprisingly authentic, tasteful sound. Such were e.g. Magnepan’s new 2.7i panels with Devialet’s new Astra amplifier; the massive Canton Reference 1 under Primare’s command; OePhi Transcendence 2.5 speakers with hArt’s hybrid amplification; Elac Concentro S507 & Michi; Fyne Audio Classic & Cyrus 40 series; YG Acoustics Summit & Moon; KEF R3 & Moonriver; QLN & Accustic Arts; Totem Audio & Primaluna; Audio Note UK; and many others.

A striking feature of the Show this time was the number of conventional looking and sized passive dynamic two- or three-way floor standing speakers (Kerr Acoustics, Ø Audio, OePhi, ELAC, QLN, etc.). Is this a sign of a a trend? Hard to say, but the familiar large horn and panel speakers were almost completely absent. The same goes for active speakers: only the French Focal and Cabasse had decided to push the concept forward. Otherwise, a quite a few rooms had a turntable as their only source, and Class A/AB tube amps were at least as common as Class D. Among the tube amps there was a 250-watt 300B single-ended amplifier!

EIGHT PICKS

ONE: AudioNec & Alieno

Finally! The room of the French company AudioNec has been among the top 5 at the Munich Highend fair from year to year, but only now found its way to the Nordic countries. AudioNec is best known for its modular loudspeakers with sealed woofer cabs, but this time on the demo consisted of their open-back OB1 MAX with a 31 cm long Duopole 313510 widebandwidth unit, two 15” woofers plus one directional super-tweeter. When listened to from the right seat, the sound was superlative, amplified by an Italian Alieno 250 LDT – a 250 watt transformerless Class A 300B amplifier together with an Alienon preamplifier (150,000 euro package). Front end Bacch/Thales/Viv lab/Ds Audio/Meitner Audio and cables Luna and Harmonics.

TWO: von Langa & Phasemation

Perfect Sense had pieced together an elegant and sophisticated system with Wolf von Langa’s reasonably sized Ultima speakers, Phasemation’s 300B tube amp, and Yuki turntable. Together they sounded very appealing, almost magical. Synergy on many levels. A harmonious and intimate sound that nailed the listener to the bench. Cables Esprit Eureka from France.

For the first time in Nordic countries: Yuki AP-01 turntable (Yukiseimitsu), non-flexible belt drive, magnetically levitating platter, statically balanced, straight tonearm with Ikeda Akiko cartridge. That’s something for turntable manufacturers to think about.

THREE: Kerr Acoustics & Gryphon

Stylus Audio’s simple but cleverly assembled system with Kerr Acoustics 320 Mk III two-way transmission line speaker with Gryphon Diablo 333 amplifier and Brinkmann Taurus turntable a Soundsmith cartridge at the tip the tonearm. An uncomplicated setup, well-chosen music, nothing else is needed. Excellent, uncolored vinyl sound with incredible bass. One of the best at the fair.

FOUR: Conventional floorstanders

The first example: Ø Audio’s conventional-looking, three-way dynamic floorstanding speaker from Norway: Frigg 02 (next to Avantgarde Colibri) sports a SEAS 180mm midrange, a SEAS Metamopdal TPCD dome in the DXT driver, and a SEAS 220mm woofer gently crossed. The sound had a very positive and premeditated character in it.

Another winner in the category: OePhi’s Transcendence 2.5 speakers from Denmark surprised with their balanced and all-encompassing sound with the help of hARt’s Tune Two tube front end, and Tune Three hybrid power amp. The Streamer Ideon EOS (EOS Time & EOS DAC) and cables OePhi Reference & Immanence.

Elac’s Concentro S507 is a stylish 120 cm tall 4-way speaker with four 150 mm reflex-loaded woofers and ELAC’s JET 5c tweeter. The speakers were played a way too loudly (Michi electronics), and the sound suffered from shockingly poor acoustics, but there were some very nice notes that could be heard from time to time.

FIVE: A little vintage horn speaker & Marantz solid-state electronics

This Altec-inspired, 97.5 dB sensitive speaker is a collaboration between Klipsch and OJAS’ Devon Turnbull. The Klipsch OJAS k0-R1 is a 2-way speaker with a 12-inch K-28-E woofer and a 1211 horn with a K-706 compression driver for frequencies above 1200 Hz. Pop music sounded insignificant and indifferent (what it mainly is?), but a baritone saxophone accompanied by a double bass was really sweet and full of life! The amplifier was Marantz’s brand new Model 10, a fully symmetrical 2-channel amplifier with a Purifi’s Class D amp board, and unprecedented 250 watts per channel. Below: the LINK 10n streamer/preamplifier and SACD 10 player.

SIX: Tube amps

What a charming and sympathetic sounding little system! APS TubeTechnique’s new 6SN7 AirArt front end together with AirArt 170 mono outputs with Tung-Sol KT-170 power tetrodes, and the speaker from Denmark: InCognito by Peak Consult. Couldn’t be much better.

Tung sol’s power tetrodes – KT-120, KT-150 and KT-170 – are becoming a new industry standard! Cayin’s new Soul 170I digs out 130 watts from a pair of Tung-Sol KT-170s in a push-pull ultralinear mode. The other tubes are ECC83S, 6SN7 and 22DE4. The KT-170 delivers amazing 70 W triode connected! I wonder who will be the first to design a single-ended amp using the KT-170 as the output tube? A matching output transformer? A new power supply?

The speaker was HECO’s 75th anniversary Direkt Premium.

This 300B amplifier carries Lundahl transformers: LL1665 mains transformer, LL1673 choke, LL1667 choke for anode and LL1623 output transformer.

Audio Note UK’s familiar and safe room offered best powerful tube sound by the manufacturer.

SEVEN: Bigger ones

Devialet’s new Astra amp did good work with the new Magnepan 2.7i. There’s just something about the organic sound of Magnepans.

The Canton Reference 1 is a real stunner for a speaker, both in appearance and size. Sounded surprisingly clean and neutral tough, even at higher sound pressure levels.

EIGHT: Active speakers

Cabasse Pearl Pelegrina is a fully active speaker with the manufacturer’s famous three-way coaxial driver in a 42 cm diameter spherical enclosure. The 300 mm woofer enjoys almost 2000 watts of continuous amplifier power. Despite the mediocre acoustics, the sound was surprisingly clean and powerful all the way down. Next to it, the KEF R3 with the UNI-Q coaxial element taking a measure of Cabasse Baltic, also with a three-way coaxial element. The amplifier arsenal from Moonriver.

The Focal Diva Utopia active speaker with a felt surface. The lower limit frequency is stated to be 24 Hz (- 3dB/27 Hz).

EIGHT: PA for audiophiles

The Swedish company dot Audio, based in Norrtälje, makes PA sound with 4/8-channel, 10 000 – 20 000 W rms amplifiers, but thought that hi-fi enthusiasts might be interested in their 95 mm thick Walle wall speaker (8” bass and 2 x 2” mid/hi) and the four-channel Walle Amp DSP amplifier designed for it. Why not!