30-strong giveaway – It's time for another giveaway lunacy. Nothing has packaging or owner's manuals. What's available? It's a mystery this time. Think passive and active speakers, digital and analogue, most of it compact or half width. Some of it I bought for myself and no longer need. Other stuff manufacturers didn't want back so I'm passing it on. Everything must be picked up in person. Positively nothing will ship. No demos, no consultations, no recommendations. You're mature enough to hit up the web for manuals or reviews afterwards. To estimate your travel time, look up Kilrush in County Clare. That town gets you to within 12 minutes of my house. If you want to participate in these pickings, email me at your earliest convenience. Come July 23rd, this op will close. All the names in the hat by then will be contacted with my Eircode and a weekend pickup date so that nobody working a regular 9-5 is disadvantaged. Then all parties can pick what they want for themselves, family members or friends. Depending on how many or few sign up, some could walk off with quite a stash. I hope for it all to go. You are responsible for bringing your own pillows, towels or blankets to protect your free loot during the journey home. The obvious idea is to give all of this stuff a new lease on life rather than have it sit in my racks gathering dust. Contact me at srajan#6moons.com if you want to partake.

Sealed diamond – It's in Final's new DX10000 CL, a closed-back full-size 40mm dynamic headphone with a chemical vapor deposition true diamond diaphragm, polyurethane surround, lightweight polyimide bobbin-integrated voice coil, free-floating lead wires, N55 neodymium motor and aluminium shorting ring in a machined aluminium-magnesium alloy housing of 543g. The earpads cover in Ultrasuede. A limited 150-piece edition [€9K] sports gold-coloured accents and delivers in a wooden box with aluminium headphone stand. The standard edition [€8.5K] features silver-coloured accents. Both come with 1.5m/4.4mm and 3m/XLR4 silver-coated OFC cables. Sensitivity is 92dB/mW/1kHz, impedance 20Ω.

Not a tube buffer – It's how William Baker insists we refer to his Harmonia and Harmonia Jr. They are "DHT output stages for sources which maintain a 2V output to connect to any preamplifier, integrated amplifier or receiver. Both are capable of running 45, 2A3 or 300B direct-heated triodes via a user-adjustable DC heater voltage. The Harmonia Jr [starting at $3'595] features 3 x RCA inputs and 2 x RCA outputs with an optional gain control. The Harmonia v4.5 [starting at $5'500] uses a larger chassis to accommodate a relay-based input selector (1 x XLR, 3 x RCA), balanced transformer-coupled i/o via Cinemag line transformers and an enhanced power supply. Both XLR and RCA inputs/outputs on the Harmonia v4.5 are transformer coupled. Both models offer upgrade paths." Not included in the press release but common sense with direct-heated triodes prone to microphony is some potential for self noise contingent on overall system gain.

Maiden podcast – Dawid and Srajan just uploaded the first episode of their new 7th Moon Podcast. The next taping is scheduled for July 19th. The current plan is for two episodes per month. If you're a hifi manufacturer interested to join our dialogue because you have novel tech, an unusually clever implementation or an otherwise interesting story to share with our audience, contact either of us for consideration. If two talking heads are company, three could be positively sparkling?

Flagship LAN cable – Furutech's new Project V1-LAN [£3,050/1.2m] throws the kitchen sink of their in-house tech at hifi's critical Ethernet connection. "As a category 8 cable, it supports 40Gb Ethernet, frequencies of up to 2'000MHz (category 7 X 3.3) and features improved specs for crosstalk and system noise. Category 8 is backward compatible with categories 7 and 6. At its core are silver-plated OCC conductors treated with cryogenics and ring demagnetization to optimize conductivity, minimize distortion and preserve signal purity. It integrates Nano Crystal² Formula tech throughout to actively suppress static, resonance and electrical noise. The cable is built with a sophisticated multi-layer structure combining high-grade insulation, vibration-damping materials and extensive shielding. A five-layer shielding system, double-layer outer sleeve and hollow-tube fillers work together to reduce mechanical resonance and maintain a pristine transmission environment. A specially engineered cable damping ring improves grip and enhances mechanical stability. Exclusive RJ45 plugs and damping rings incorporate more NCF material with high-grade nylon insulation. The connector conductors are formed from Alpha-treated copper alloy with 24k gold plating housed in NCF-insulated bodies for optimal electrical and mechanical performance. Connector housings and damping rings feature a four-layer hybrid NCF carbon-fibre structure finished with a hardened clear damping coating for maximum rigidity and resonance control.

NCF hits USB-C – Furutech apply their best nano-crystal formula to the connector shells of their new GT4 USB-C cable which complies with the new USB4 40Gbps specification and supports power delivery up to 48V/5A so 240W. The makeup includes silver‑plated Alpha-treated OCC conductors; high‑density polyethylene insulation for optimal signal transmission; four‑layer shielding to minimise electromagnetic and RF interference; and gold‑plated copper‑alloy USB‑C connectors engineered for minimal noise interference. The cable also supports video output, enabling the transfer of high‑bandwidth content such as 4K video when used with compatible USB‑C displays. Available lengths are 0.18, 0.6 and 1.2m priced at 160, 180 and £215 respectively.

Ixycore – 200W. 400W. 800W. 1.2MHz. 100kHz. Those are the power specs into 8, 4 and 2Ω plus the switching frequencies of the GaNFet class D outputs and associated 1'300W SMPS. There's input impedance of 20kΩ, output impedance of 63µΩ, selectable AC/DC drive, 24.3/36dB of gain on XLR/RCA and 98% peak efficiency. It all fits into a machined aluminium case of 30x23x6.5cm WxDxH that weighs 4.5kg. Hello Ixycore monaural amps shown in the Newcomer area at Vienna HighEnd 2026.

Crius H5S – It's Canor's new headfi/DAC/preamp 3-in-1 half-width component. It runs fully discrete circuitry to avoid all op amps and even shuns signal-path coupling capacitors. The gain section runs adaptive bias between class A and AB. The converter is a dual-mono ES9038Q2M. Headphone ports are on XLR4, 4.4mm, 3.5mm and 6.35mm with up to 5wpc. The display integrated into the master controller is 1.8". Digital inputs are on USB-C, coax and optical, analog i/o on RCA and XLR plus a pair of XLR bypass outputs. Finish options are black, silver and bronze. The power supply is internal. Pricing TBA.

A for Aalborg and… – … Børresen's new A range spanning the models 1-3 in satin walnut or black ash. The 5-inch mid/woofers are a new design sandwiching an aramid honeycomb core between carbon-fibre skins whilst the motors are ferrite with dual copper caps to lower inductance. The tweeter is the brand's familiar planarmagnetic operating above 2.5kHz. The bass loading is described as different from classic bass reflex to avoid resonant peaks. Once again paralleled mid/woofers become 2½-way not 3-way affairs. The A1 promises 45Hz-50kHz bandwidth with impedance above 6Ω. The A2 with its twin 5-inch drivers adds 10 cycles to 35Hz. The four-driver A3 adds another 10 cycles for an F3 of 25Hz.

Vienna 5 – The Meliá Vienna hotel is the 5th show location we've learnt of and occupied by Dali of Denmark.

Balearic convertible – Palma Audio's new DHS-10 [€1'595] continues where their DHS-1 left off. It's still a full-size over-ear headphone that can be operated open-backed or sealed by rotating the perforated end plates. There's 32Ω impedance, 107/109dB/1mW sensitivity open/closed, 3.5mm connectors and the seven different finishes shown.

225Ω – 3Hz-115kHz bandwidth. Less than 0.05% THD. 495g. Those are the basic specs for Meze's new high-impedance Arta [€6K] planarmagnetic headphone which will launch at Vienna HighEnd.

Grimmoire – It's Grimm's secret recipe for a 150W class AB monaural power amp—200W into 4Ω—called the PA1. DC-coupled input stage. Feed-forward error correction. Fully balanced. 96 small power transistors. 2nd-order feedback loop. 90'000µF capacitance. 118dB full-power S/NR. THD below 0.0001%. Bandwidth of 0.1Hz to 300kHz. Weight of 15kg. Dimensions of virtually 25cm cubed. Switchable RCA/XLR inputs. 18/26dB of voltage gain. Selectable signal sensing. Industrial design by Michiel Uylings. Wanna hook up?

2 x 8 – It's the woofage in Raidho's new X2.8 which no longer is a 2- or 2½- but proper 3-way design with the brand's signature planar tweeter and what looks like a 4" dedicated midrange plus their customary Mundorf/Nordost filtering. The F3 is a claimed 32Hz, pricing €27K for gloss black or white, €30K for the shown Walnut veneer. The marginal press release lacked further specifics. Not to be left behind in the news cycle, the TD series 1.2, 2.2 and 3.2 models get the Signature upgrade of Furutech terminals, hot-rodded filter parts, IsoAcoustics isolation footers and softer suspensions on the bass drivers. The standard finish for these models is black whilst Walnut and custom colours demand a surcharge. Per-pair pricing has been at €24/€26.5K for the TD1.2, €45/49K for the TD2.2 and €69/€75K for the TD3.2.

Dextrous Dexter – Four of 'em in fact; compliments of Marten's new Dexter range from the €20.9K/pr Duo to the €49.9K/pr Quintet, with the Trio [€32.9K] and Quartet [€42.9] holding down the middle ground. Common to all is a pure diamond tweeter and triple-layer cabinet construction. The midranges of the 3-ways and mid/woofers of the two-ways are black ceramic, hookup wiring is Jorma Duality. The bass loading of the floorstanders is a combination of bass reflex and transmission line. Available finish options are matte and gloss Walnut, gloss black and natural Oak. All four models also come in Statement Editions upgraded to Jorma Statement wiring and more upscale filter parts.

Kalista enter the stream – France's digital experts Métronome introduce DreamPlay S and SC for their luxury brand Kalista. The two-letter prefix indicates an on-board DAC, the S version is a pure streamer to feature RJ45, USB host, I²S, coax and AES/EBU ports plus stub antenna for 2.4/5GHz WiFi and multi-pin umbilical for the outboard Elektra power supply. Data compliance is 32/384 PCM and native DSD256. Supported protocols include DLNA/UPnP, Audirvana, the three Connect services for Spotify/Tidal/Qobuz, Roon Ready and vTuner. The SC adds RCA/XLR analog outputs.

4 + 1 – It's the 2-way party Storgaard & Vestskov's Astrid invites us to. Four 5" polypropylene mid/woofers run in parallel so add up to a classic line source which suffers less distance loss and propagates as a cylindrical not spherical wave. A dimpled soft-dome tweeter covers the treble, two clusters of three ports each the bass loading. Astrid stands just 6cm taller than a metre, 30cm wide and 60cm deep. Weight is 37kg, response 32Hz-20kHz ±3dB, efficiency 90dB, nominal impedance 6Ω. There are three standard satin and four standard gloss finishes which combine lacquered cabinets with two-tone anodized metal work as shown.

Vienna 4 – Hifi Deluxe, Munich's long-standing off-site show in the Marriott Hotel, reappears in the Acrotel Kaiserwasser location in Vienna this year to coincide once again with the main HighEnd show. Confirmed exhibitors include AGD, Audeze, Bayz, Davis, Grandinote, JMF, Lindemann, TotalDAC, Métronome/Kalista, Rockna, Westminster Labs and more. This is the fourth Vienna venue I've learnt of to suggest quite a splintered approach that makes it harder for press and public to see everything they want to see. One ring to rule them all? Not!

Vienna 3 – No sooner had my virtual ink dried on the Vienna 2 post that Stavros Danos of Cypriot hifi house Aries Cerat notified me of a 3rd event/location called Xclusive Audio Show. With Stavros hosting, other brands in attendance will be Aequo, Clarisys, Prodigio, Pink Faun and Shark Cables. This event also takes place from June 4-7 but in the Wolke 19 Ares Tower location "directly opposite the Vienna HighEnd building".

Vienna 2 – Before the 1st installment of the Vienna show is even underway, there's already a parallel offsite endeavour called Vienna Sound Fest. It takes place in parallel from June 4-7 in the Techgate Building, Donau-City-Straße 1. "The project was born from the lack of available space at the main venue where increasing international demand made it impossible to accommodate all participating brands. Located only a three minutes’ walk from the main exhibition, Vienna Sound Fest expands the city’s growing ecosystem of high-end audio events with a more curated, design-focused and experience-driven atmosphere." Exhibitors include Artesanía, Audionostrum, Carbide, DS Audio, Engström, Esoteric/Teac, Kroma, Kuzma, Marten, Pilium, Taiko, Tannoy, Vinnie Rossi, Wadax, YG Acoustics, Ypsilon and more.

Party like it's 1961 – Then French inventors Georges Gogny and Georges Poutut created a flat-panel polystyrene driver called Ortophase. Soon forgotten in the mists of audio Avalon, many decades later Frenchman Thierry Cirot rediscovered it, acquired 20 raw drive units and between 2013-2017 managed to reverse-engineer and resurrect the technology. In Hong Kong meanwhile, Wango Lee had heard an original Ortophase system in his youth and never forgotten the experience. In 2021 he learnt of Thierry's work online. Today the Thierry & Wango Audio brand is dedicated to a modern interpretation of this technology assisted by owning an original 32-cell 1960's Ortophase cabinet. Their modern open-baffle hence dipole line-source V12.1 stacks twelve 1.5g/ea. full-range planar membranes in a crossover-less vertical array which claims 5Hz-40kHz response at ±3dB. It reads like the ultimate widebander but adds cylindrical wave propagation for reduced room interaction and distance loss. Unlike other planar drivers say Manger, Ortophase requires no LF assist from dynamic drivers; nor a mix of planar units for different frequency bands patched together by an electrical filter. One multi-paralleled driver does it all, hence V12.1.

Hubba hubba – Reiki Audio launch the new SuperHub, "a 7-port version of our 2-port SuperSwitch"; and the OpticalBridge X gaining "the same 10mm milled case and footer options as the SuperSwitch X and Pro X. Its FMC circuitry is new and notably quieter and we sourced SFP audibly quieter than those used previously. All these factors add up to a substantial performance improvement over the original. Available to order now, with shipments commencing early August."

Not chromium dioxide but polycarbonate – Famous for their open-reel decks, Revox now serve up silver discs with their Studiomaster CD100  [€1'895], a black, white or silver slot-loading CD player with coax and Toslink digital outs plus standard RCA analog sockets. Measuring 88x200x342mm HxWxD and weighing 3kg, this half-width component runs BB PCM1796 conversion silicon and accepts global 100-240V AC to suggest a switching power supply. The RJ45 socket called CD-Link Joy can connect to other Revox components like their M300 or M500 receivers.

Raidho's passive aggro – Aggrandizement not aggression is the word for their new X.1.6 Reference [€10K] which, taking a page from the recent ScanSonic book, replaces port with passive radiator for maximal bandwidth from a compact monitor. To further level up to the Ref suffix, the crossover goes Mundorf and Nordost Valhalla. Yousa.

Magic wand? – It might be the 12" Dark-Light tonearm [€8.9K] from New Zealand's Wand. It's 308.8mm long, 700g heavy, with an effective mass of just 17g and a mounting distance of 295.6mm though two other options are available. From designer Simon Brown: "As arm length increases, so too does the diameter of the tube toward the pivot, producing greater stiffness rather than the expected loss of rigidity. The larger rear section enables a greater internal brass mass, lowering the centre of gravity and acting as a virtual sink for vibrational energy. Our ZeroPoint™ diamond-on-carbide bearing maintains consistent contact under load. The natural drag of the stylus creates a force vector that biases the contact point, aligning it broadly with the stylus cantilever. This reduces microscopic instability and improves both detail retrieval and bass clarity. Supporting this, the Side-Glide™ bearing provides gentle lateral stabilisation, ensuring controlled motion without introducing additional friction."