Even more DIY was in the diyaudio.pl room. It seems that the aesthetics of these DIY projects improve every year. On active and passive display were examples of pure craftsmanship which quite a few 'real' companies could take an example from. Maybe because we recently reviewed a LampizatOr DAC, the use of a ring-lit power button seen in many Polish and clearly also DIY projects caught our attention. Once you notice it, you see it everywhere.

Fezz Audio exhibited their tube amplifiers in combination with Pylon loudspeakers in a few rooms. Some of the combinations clicked, some did not. We liked the room with the Fezz Mira Ceti 300B single-ended integrated amp. Because Fezz are a sister brand of Toroidy, the Polish transformer specialist, their tube amps are unusual by using toroidal output transformers.

Pylon showcased a room full of prototypes of newly available loudspeakers. Their collection of semi-gloss white skins triggered associations with a platoon of space troopers.

A completely differed color scheme fired at our retinas in the second room where Audio-gd gear was active. It combined with another Chinese brand, Yaqin. A top-loading SD-35A CD player with tube output stage was followed by the preamplifier MS-845 and the power amps MS-845 (yes, the same name).

The next room used Graham Audio BBC LS3 and Italian Norma electronics. Analog replay was possible with the help of a Technics SP25 studio turntable.

Dutchies Pink Faun were present in two rooms. One static room gave Mattijs de Vries opportunity to explain and show his designs and products ranging from a sophisticated streamer via all kinds of DACs to amplifiers and cable solutions. A room next door offered listening options to a simple but musical setup built of Pink Faun electronics and Bach loudspeakers.

LampizatOr and RDacoustics joined forces in the next room we visited in the Sobieski hotel. The Polish/Czech cooperation worked out very well in the sound department. Lukasz Fikus had his 211 true balanced power amplifiers together with Big 7 DAC and DSD Komputer streamer; RDacoustics brought two pairs of Evolution speakers. The black one was equipped with Fostex drivers, the other was fitted with Voxativ. On our visit the Fostex pair was playing and the room needed some fine tuning especially in the bass – or just some lower volume.

Yet more Latvian companies came by way of Old School and Cold Ray. Old School make a series of loudspeakers based on 80’s designs with modern parts. Cold Ray produce footers and also the Fractal 7 of which the company says: "Fractal 7 diffusers are designed to reduce the effects of sound reproducing equipment vibrations in a diffuse sound field."

From Czechia came Block Audio. Their dual-mono twin-chassis preamp with separate battery pack includes a phono stage. The massive Mono Block power amps are rated to 500 watts of which the first 200 operate in pure class A. Don’t worry in these environmentally conscious times, there’s an eco-switch to save on your green power.

Another room of the Polski Klaster Audio association had a Shape Of Sound turntable combined with Egg Shell tube amplifiers and hORNS Mummy loudspeakers. Of course Audiomica Labs provided all cabling while the rack was from Voltec Audio Products.

In a room with a dominating Artnovicon acoustic panel on the front wall, German Audionet electronics combined with Vivid B1 speakers. In the room next door the Audionet gear now all in black and with red lighting combined with YG Carmel 2 loudspeakers.

The Baltlab Endo integrated amplifier was the centrepiece of a setup with a CEC CD transport and Exogal Comet DAC. The Osiris speakers on duty came from Trenner & Friedl of Austria.

CubeAudio are a Polish brand who presented their new Bliss C loudspeaker. Their 8" wideband driver called fc8 has, according to them, an extended copper faraday ring system, a hybrid Neodymium/Ferrite magnet, an ultralinear low-damping spider, an underhung voice coil and the cone is multicoated to be waterproof. We liked what we heard during our visit.

Some rooms have the décor of a discount electronics outlet. The Rega room was one of those. Rega presented their P3 turntable in combination with the Brio-R amp and the Guru QM10 loudspeakers shoved deep into the corners as per their design brief.

RT Project as we understood it upgrades vintage gear and now built their own DAC as presented on breadboards. Additional gear was a Kenwood L-1000m, Pioneer PD-S 95, Technics SH-X1000, JBL L19 and Sonus Faber Amator 2.

Polish Avcon presented their Avalanche Reference Monitor, a ported 3-way with ribbon tweeter. Triode was the brand for the electronics while the Avcon room treatment bore the name Grand-6. That woodwork is the background for this company is clear. The speakers are built up from multiple layers of plywood which has been CNC’d into shape. We liked the sound and spent some extra time.

Megalith Audio are a new Polish company focusing on loudspeakers. According to their publicity, they went back to what they call old school "where enthusiasts and not accountants decided on the final product".

From Denmark came the just reviewed Buchardt Audio S200 MkII speakers.

Luxman are still around and very much alive as we experienced in combination with Wilson Sabrina loudspeakers. Luxman's L-505uX was the CD player and the L-590AX Mark II the integrated amp from a by now 90-year old audio company. Congratulations!

Heco too are still live and kicking and presented their Direkt Dreiklang, the 3-way version of the earlier two-way Direkt. A 28mm tweeter sits between a 215mm woofer and a whopping 400mm woofer all on a very wide baffle. The sound was most enjoyable and the 400wpc Magnat RV3 hybrid amp clearly did not have to work hard to drive this 98dB load. Calm and friendly were the words that came up whilst listening.

All the German Audium loudspeakers sport a 75mm wideband driver. In the first room we visited, they had the active version of the Comp 8 model. The active part is not only an amplifier but DSP which takes care of room adaptation and crossover tasks. On top of that, the loudspeaker is wireless. Note the entirely empty rack. In the adjacent room, Audium played with the passive version of the Comp loudspeaker.

Magnat offered a complete system including Quantum 1000 S loudspeakers and the MA1000 hybrid amplifier.

Wireless loudspeakers featured again in the Infado Boson room. Their loudspeaker cabinet is home to a DAC, DSP, amp and of course wireless receiver. The system accepts up to 192kHz sample rates from the wireless connection but also from wired USB and S/PDIF. If you are fed up with cable spaghetti and mixing and matching and want to just listen to more than decent sound, check out this Polish brand. Haiku Audio also from Poland offered tube electronics while Wigg Art, another Polish company, provided their Arvil 2-way floorstanding loudspeaker.

Joyful red dominated the sparsely clad room of Sulek Audio. Sulek cables all use wide braided multi-line configurations and as such are easily identified. The room used simple electronics like last year and all cables were from the Edia line.

Another encounter with the DIMD PP10 saw it in combination with an Aqua Hifi La Voce DAC and Jean Marie Reynaud Euterpe Supreme loudspeakers.

In the room next door, it was cabriolet time as many electronics had their tops off. Here Wells Audio was the main player with their 150wpc Innamorata power amp whilst Angstrom Audio delivered their Reference preamp and Aqua Hifi contributed their new Formula range topper DAC. Speakers on duty were Diapason Dynamis. We have to admit that this year the sound was much better than last year. A third room was again built around Wells Audio, now with their Akasha power amp and Jean Marie Reynaud Bliss monitors.

The scent of apples was abundant in the next room. Not surprising really as the decor was built around apple crates and plenty of snack apples were on offer to boot. Vintage refurbished gear filled the crates on the walls. Various reel-to-reel decks showed their innards and a beautiful Revox on a modern-day Stacore stabilization platform played with Phase Linear 4000 pre and 400 series power amplification on the second pair of JBL 250 Ti Tower loudspeakers at the show. This room had the most atmosphere - by far!