Next were Goldmund. This Swiss company world-premiered their new Logos Satya. This for the firm mid-sized loudspeaker is fully active and may be operated wirelessly. Only one power cable of dubious origins connected each speaker to the wall outlet. The rest was handled by the built-in electronics. In this case, those include three separate DSP engines controlling three separate power amplifiers per channel. A new version of their Leonardo Time Alignment software embeds in DSP to handle amplitude and phase correction. Once DSP'd, the now 3 signals are sent to the corresponding three amps rated at 175 watts each for the midrange and treble; and 250 watts for the woofer. These gain stages stem from their upscale class A/B Telos line, hence don’t look for class D. For those who still desire a connected loudspeaker, the Satya also offers a wired digital input. Goldmund place this model in the centre of their Logos range to bridge the gap between Anatta and 1N2N. During our visit, their crew were still working hard to set things up and run the speakers in. These had been finished only the night before and were still literally cold; reason enough to refrain from impressions which wouldn’t be fair [though it’s unfair as well to present visitors who may have traveled far with virgin hardware – Ed].

Akkus loudspeakers with their Accuton-fitted drivers had pleasantly surprised us at previous Warsaw sighting. Now their room featured the Redwine 1261, a floorstanding 3-way rated at 91dB to enjoy some input voltage. That was delivered by an unfamiliar tube power amplifier. Better known were the two J. Sikora Allmet heavyweight turntables from the Reference and Basic series, both sporting a 14" 4Point Kuzma or additional Stogi arm.

With, relatively speaking, a lot less power to spare, the Destination Audio room sported 45-based power amps. Their 1.5wpc however proved plenty to fill the room with the output from 106dB horns. This crew were still setting up and the room was a bit disorderly. Even with the pressure on, they cleared the floor so our photo wouldn’t be too cluttered. They even cued up some music especially for us. All the gear was already properly set up except for dressed aesthetics. The sound made well up for that and the really dark atmosphere just lit by tubes was very nice. New for this year were the redesigned high-frequency horns fully made of wood by the man behind the design, Włodek Wiśniewski. The 3-way horn uses two 15” Alnico woofers and Alnico compression driver for the mid and high frequencies. A small super tweeter handles the extreme treble. We really liked what we heard and with the speakers around €10K, this big horn system remains somewhat accessible to a larger group of music lovers. The speakers may be big but the small amps needed to drive them make up for that.

Poland also seems to be a real headphone lovers’ country as this  was just the start of many other personal listening opportunities to come.

In the next space analog was king by way of a giant Acoustic Signature Invictus turntable as central showpiece fitted with a Thunder tone arm of the same company loaded with a Soundsmith cartridge. Audio Research were on duty for the amplification chain and the youngest Wilson daughter Sabrina formed the final stage.

One door down the corridor, another Wilson Audio sibling played though the sound here was very 'unWilson'. You either like the Wilson sound or not (so much). We confess to being in the latter camp; until this room. The Sasha Series 2 here had a really nice, warm and open showing without even a hint of boldness but very well behaved and subservient to the music. That came streaming from an Aurender W20. Dan D’Agostino’s Classic Stereo power amp clearly had enough power to control the Sasha. Synergistic Research not only signed up for the cables, they also oversaw room treatment with small resonators attached at critical wall spots. Correct placement of these Synergistic resonators plus the non-standard Wilson Audio setup of the speakers could only be the work of Frank Vermeylen who happily played all kinds of music. A gentleman came at opening time and had not left the room when we entered it some two hours later. That said it all better than we could.