Something special went on one floor down in the Yayuma room. This was a closed-door demo and at first its occupants did not mean to let us in. A bit of hinting about 6moons then opened the doors. In a very dark and curtained-off part of the room, the Yayuma company had assembled. Jarek Proksa, Jurek Pona and Marcin Skrzypczak each donated the first two letters of their first names to form JaJuMa which then was sexed up into Yayuma. What was it all about? The company's foundation theory is Jurek Pona's notion about the difference between live, recorded and replayed music. In the process of translating an acoustic signal into an electrical representation, flaws are introduced. In an ideal world, the acoustic output of a speaker would be identical to the acoustic input of the recording microphone. Many attempts are made to achieve this, alas to no avail as Mr. Pona believes. His algorithm is based on the "three components of sound". Said algorithm plus the electronic implementation thereof have been filed for as a Swiss patent and go by the name of Pona Sound: pure original natural audio. It wasn't clear to us just what Mr. Pona considers to be the three components of sound. Are those intensity, pitch and timbre? Anyway, in the following A/B comparisons between straight and corrected sound, there was a subtle if noticeable difference. We thought that the corrected sound was somewhat more dynamic and less cluttered. Maybe we now curse in church but it resembled the effect of a Schumann resonator like the Acoustic Revive RR-888. When the patent is granted, we expect more news from this company as they plan to license their invention to all the major audio electronic companies like Sony and Pioneer. Isn't everyone entitled to their own dream?

Some more Blumenhofer loudspeakers came by way of smaller floorstanding samples from their Tempesta and Fun ranges. A Burmester 061 was in charge of spinning CDs while Stein Audio or Rogue Audio Sphinx amplifiers steered the signal.

Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur under the baton of Martin Schützenauer demoed their Rudolf loudspeakers with vertically opposed up/down-firingwoofers in combination with their Anton preamp and Johann monoblocks.


On passive display was the coolest boom box of the show, the Wiener Wunderkind. This is a 250wpc portable music system which includes a DAC and accepts streaming both wireless and via a cabled connection. With great looks, color options and a matching flight case, one nearly forgets that there's no battery option so portable should really read transportable. You still need to plug into AC power somewhere - certainly not into beach sand as their poster would have you believe.

A tiny widebander in a tall sleek cabinet with a supporting woofer in the bottom was the description of the Audium Comp 5. On display was the active version with a 30-watt amp for the widebander and a 100-watter for the woofer. Next to built-in amplification, the Active is equipped with DSP to enable room correction without needing to put the speaker into the middle of the room.

Vienna is home not only to WLM and Vienna Acoustics but also Brodmann, their third speaker brand. It's home also to piano maker Brodmann who in fact are older than Bösendorfer. When Yamaha acquired Bösendorfer pianos, they sold off the Bösendorfer speaker division to Brodmann. Still with us? We spent quite some time here as we loved what we heard. An all-out setup of Electrocompaniet was in charge of powering a pair of tall Vienna Classic VC7 or more compact FS from the Festival series. Together with the FM Acoustics room in the Stadium, this offered the best sound of the show for us. Our photo is blurry, possibly due to teary eyes and concomitant lack of focus or shaky hands.

Kiuchi-san was at the helm of the Reimyo/Harmonix room and acoustic master that he is, controlled the sound by adjusting the volume for each track played. Next to Reimyo, the room sported a pair of Trenner & Friedl loudspeakers that go by the name of Isis, not the most neutral title for anything these days.

Melodika are yet another Polish brand who offer a full range of loudspeakers and electronics. All equipment is tagged with budget-friendly prices and from the short impression we got, there were no budget cuts in the quality department.

Pathos had their Sooloos inspired streamer, German Physics their Walsh-derivative omnis and Nime their alien-esque metallic speakers, the latter on passive display whilst we were present. Having not heard the German Physics in too long a time, this room reassured us of the very special traits they possess. Even in a crowded and smallish room, the sound was entirely unconstrained.

Phast tube amplifiers and a DAC from the Ukraine contributed to a cozy atmosphere in the next room. The sound was nice and enveloping and the visuals were a match of warm woods and glowing tubes. Okay, the 50 shades of blue in the PS Audio PerfectWave transport did not match this picture. Cables were supplied by Sound-Y.P. Laboratory. The speakers looked like a Klipsch Chorus but far more attractive and more Tannoy-esqe.

A white party was going down in the Fezz room. This new Polish company offer an EL34 based push-pull integrated with ECC83 drivers for an attractive price and they call it Silver Luna.

A small room does not need big speakers. This bit of obviousness was well served by Boenicke W8 loudspeakers which nicely matched the room's volume and associated Wile Louis amplifier from Poland and the Acoustic Signature turntable equipped with an Ortofon cartridge.


Just as one can never have too many acoustic panels, Hegel figured that 250wpc was just barely sufficient for their H360 integrated amplifier. A victim of that output were a pair of Gradient Revolution MK IV loudspeakers. The smaller Model 6.0 was idling in wait.

We've never yet witnessed a live demo of Fonica turntables at any Warsaw show and this year was no exception. A static display was all there was to it.