The Sobieski hotel's restaurant
offers a simple healthy menu with Polish classics in modern guise. Lots of vegetable dishes are available for those who prefer to stay away from meat or fish. Also, the chef is more than willing to adjust to anyone's whishes. We had a great dinner and good night's sleep after that. Breakfast at the hotel was another occasion for joy because the huge buffet offers a rich variety of fresh products. With enough nutrients in our system, we were ready for day deux which started at the Golden Tulip across the intersection. The first room we came across had Mytek electronics with Sveda Audio loudspeakers. The Polish loudspeaker house offers a monitor speaker aptly called D'Appo that gives away the driver configuration. Sveda build the speaker as an all-active 2-way that includes active 24dB/oct. filters and three 150-watt mono amplifiers built into separate compartments of the cabinet. Separate active 15" subwoofers equipped with a 900-watt amplifier each take care of the bass. Mytek's Manhattan DAC slash headphone amp slash preamp was in charge of getting a useable signal to the speaker amps.


In the back of the room, Mr. Leszek Ogonowski of the Polish outfit bearing the same name had a wide selection of transformers on display plus a few samples of his tube amplifiers. On first sight the transformers looked well made and the selection was huge. Anyone needing transformers should not forget to pay a visit to the ogonowski.eu website.


Demiurg is Greek for builder or craftsman which is also the name of a power cord by Polish company Verictum. They focus on defying the negative effects of RFI and EMI. All sorts of boxes are available that absorb unwanted radiation and as such prevent that radiation from contaminating the neighbouring piece of equipment. Audio-grade fuses and shielded cables belong to the same catalogue. During our stay, there was no A/B demo so we only listened to the system as presented with plenty of RFI/EMI filters. For a formal review in these pages, click here.


Next we had fun with the first track from the Miles Davis album Live Around The World as it emerged from a nice Revox PR-99 MKII open-reel deck. From there a Jadis I88 amplified the signal for a pair of Franco Serblin Ktema floorstanders which filled the space with heartwarming sound.


Of course there was more headfi also at the Golden Tulip. In the corridors between exhibit rooms, the solo listener types were doing their private thing.



More social listening could be executed in the Martin Logan exhibit. The new Neolith showed as the most expensive model of the American electrostatic brand with McIntosh electronics. This new speaker offers their largest electrostatic surface but still combines with a front-firing dynamic mid/woofer and a larger back-firing companion. We must admit that this ML speaker was the first of which we said to each other that yes, we could happily live with it. It was nicely open, transparent and devoid of electrostatic zing.



One of Poland's largest audio distributors had set up a system with all Ayon electronics and a Transrotor turntable whilst premiering Lumen White's Anniversary loudspeakers. We were invited for a special presentation which we attended only for a short time because our Polish is... well, de nada. Polish-speaking attendees however were happy with the presentation and the room was filled to capacity. To our ears the sound was somewhat on the sharp side. In general, we prefer drivers with softer diaphragms. An all-out ceramic system like the Anniversaries here usually does not turn us on but we might well be the exception.