Bel Canto Design of the US premiered their new Black DAC [$40K] at Axpona to have Munich attendees hopeful that it'll also show there. "The Black DAC is based on the full Black system architecture to go to extraordinary lengths to preserve signal integrity," explained founder John Stronczer. "It consists of two discrete elements each contained in a separate machined aluminum chassis: the ASC2 asynchronous multi-input processor/controller fed from a linear AC power supply; and the Black dual-mono DAC. They connect via proprietary ST fiber-optic interface which is immune to RFI/EMI, provides galvanic isolation and ensures perfect signal transfer with a -130dB S/NR."
Boenicke Audio of Switzerland will premiere their W22 flagship speaker which has slow-cooked on their best burner for the last three years. Bullet points are: Accoya or Mahogany solid-wood enclosure with custom-made side panels on proprietary Swing Base flotation; Furutech FT-816 speaker terminals; Lessloss coaxial hookup wiring; Duelund tinned copper Pio Cast and Audio Consulting custom-made bypass tweeter capacitors; custom AER tweeter of high 101dB/2.83V/m sensitivity with ultra-linear cone, powder-coated bell-bronze curved baffle, friction-free suspension, paper voice coil former, special aluminium-alloy voice coil wire, double C37 lacquered carbon membrane, bell-bronze phase plug, Harmonix RF 5700 on magnet; Audax rear tweeter; custom 28.5cm Supravox mid/woofer with bell-bronze phase plug, C37 lacquered cellulose diaphragm, paper voice-coil former, aluminium voice coil both C37 lacquered; no electrical crossover on widebander; proprietary suspension mechanism for the mid/woofer and tweeter; proprietary linearization network for acoustical phase; 24 x LessLoss Firewall filters per speaker; Boenicke Audio ComDev inside; Steinmusic Speaker Match Signature inside; latest-gen Bybee Quantum filters inside; latest-gen double series and single parallel resonators on all drivers; 600W Class D module with programmable DSP for active bass amplification; twin 15-inch long-throw woofers in sealed enclosure delayed by extra samples to phase-correct minor DSP latency. And finally, the W22 model has no set price. Price is determined for each individual transaction based on custom finish choices. Worldwide shipping and personal set-up by Sven Boenicke himself are included.
Børresen Acoustics have expanded at the bottom of their speaker range with the X series whose X3 opened it up last year. This year the above X6 will take pride of demo place. At the very top of their portfolio, our industrious Danes now follow up last year's M1 shocker…
… with the €260K/pr M3, a 5-driver 2½-way tower with their very best tech. Shown here is the even bigger €540K/pr M6 whose 7-driver array usurps the catalogue's top spot. "The creation of the M1 was a dream project for Michael Børresen and our most ambitious loudspeaker project to date. Now we expand it with the M3 and M6 with more of the M-range 4½" drivers series-connected in pairs to work as either mid/woofers or pure woofers." Those drivers combine 3D-printed zirconium baskets; membranes laminated from two spread-tow carbon-fibre layers around a layer of aramid honeycomb spacers then coated with an outer titanium skin treated with Ansuz Supreme coating; and "iron-less" motors with solid silver pole pieces. The tweeter is the firm's signature monopole planarmagnetic of 94dB sensitivity, the crossovers are series types augmented with Tesla coils and 3rd-gen dither tech. Hookup wiring is Ansuz Gold Signature which alloys copper, silver and gold.
CAD aka Computer Audio Design will bring their kitchen sink plus Trilogy amplification and Wilson Benesch 3Zero speakers. New for the company are the USBII-R cable and matching USB filter. The latter is intended for open/unused USB ports including service types. The motto is, close all backdoors on UHF radiation.
Camerton of Berlin and Kallyste from the Côte d'Azur will collaborate on an ambitious headfi system of Amethyste amp and Binom-ER 2023 Edition planarmagnetic headphone. The amp/preamp uses a tube-rectified power supply and pentode-based voltage gain stage plus impedance selector. A new line of silver-plated copper cables will also make an appearance.
CanEver of Venice and their colleagues of Extreme Audio and newcomer Thuono Audio will collaborate with CanEver's ZeroUno Plus Ultra DAC/pre and 90wpc class A LaScala power amp with output transformers, a TH400 turntable by Tunono with 13" tonearm and Magic Wood cartridge plus Sigma Acoustic's renewed Orchestra 2.9 with AMT, papyrus-fiber mid and custom 15" woofer.
Carbide Audio from the American cowboy state of Texas have the Evo update to their Carbide Base footers based on a combination of viscoelastic vertical and ball-bearing horizontal isolation. "We added a new non-magnetic stainless steel section into the top center. A new ridge lining the top perimeter reduces surface area for improving coupling. The lower isolation stage is updated to allow footer movement in response to low-amplitude horizontal vibrations. To improve damping of these movements, twice as many viscoelastic elements factor in the lower section. Additionally the zirconium ball bearings are 50% larger to minimize deformation of the hardened steel raceways for lower friction. The patent-pending progressive shape factor design of the upper housing has evolved to more gradually brace the bulging ViscoRing™ with increased compression. This recreates better isolation when supporting equipment on the lightweight end of the weight range for a given ViscoRing."
China's Cayin always bring the kitchen sink. This year one new faucet will be this CS-100DAP [€2'680], a network player and Android-based streaming hub. Possible sources are UPnP/DLNA, Samba and Apple Airplay, Bluetooth, SD card and two USB host ports. What's more, an integral twin-bay dock can accept two 2.5" SATA drives. Signal can output analog on RCA/XLR or the deck can act as purist D/D converter/bridge via I²S, coax, BNC or AES/EBU to a DAC of your choice. There's even a 6.3mm headfi port. A high-resolution 5" TFT display shows album art and related intel. The HiByCast App adds wireless remote. Data compliance is up to 32/768 PCM and DSD512. An 8-core Qualcomm processor handles housekeeping so that even max sample-rate playback and playlist cueing promise no traffic jams. Available finishes are silver or black.
Cen.Grand of China are imported to Germany by Audio.Next to make visiting that exhibit smart play. I reviewed two of their products to date and bought both. Iain Borthwick, their UK importer under the Willowtree Audio banner, tells me that Cen.Grand finalized their new GLS 1.0 music player for shipment later this year. This stereo analog preamp and 1'000-watt 9i-958 power amps are in production already.
If life were fair, Munich would have a sample of CHoco Sound's new Emei [$1'699 delivered] integrated from China's Kinki Studio factory. But it's more likely that this new brand can't afford to exhibit; and possibly wasn't even ready when those arrangements had to be locked in. Being associated with Singapore's Vinshine Audio crew who also handle Denafrips, Jay's and Soundaware, it's simply possible that one of these half-size lookers will show somewhere. Under the spy glass sit two pairs of the same lateral Exicon Mosfets which power Kinki Studio kit as well as Enleum's AMP-23R. And aside from the three analog inputs visible on the back, the 6-pin port can still power an optional outboard DAC/BT module.
The UK's Chord Electronics Ltd. introduce their Ultima Integrated [£8.5K], a 125wpc full-width deck with 3 RCA inputs, 1 XLR and fixed/variable pre-outs on XLR. "The latest dual-feed-forward error-correction" and the company's "ultra-high-frequency power supplies" are key talking points as is their usual industrial design angle.
CH Precision of Switzerland will unveil their new P10 phono stage with outboard power supply. There's a quad of inputs on both RCA/XLR, half executed in current mode, the other half in classic voltage mode. The new gain topology now spans three active stages and two passive EQ sections, netting up to 97dB on the voltage inputs. Feedback is selectable between global and local. There's phase inversion, mono playback mode and mono setup mode expanding to four chassis. EQ options go well beyond standard RIAA to include EMI, Columbia, Decca London, DGG Teldec, Capitol, NARTB and Philips. There's even remote control.
More swish Swiss comes from Clarisys Audio's Auditorium full-range ribbon dipoles driven in Munich by all Soulution electronics. These three-way panels use a 4.2cm wide midrange ribbon with 250Hz and 5.5kHz end stops handing over to dedicated treble and bass membranes. Without external passive crossover, each 2-meter tall speaker still manages to come in at 210kg. If you didn't know, Clarisys also host an Apogee Acoustics restoration portal to spread their ribbon know-how to owners of Jason Bloom speakers in need of repairs.
COS Engineering of Taiwan have their new S10, an Ethernet switch "designed to handle the frustrating lack of audio fidelity arising from streaming". The result is described as a 10-port layer-2 unmanaged Ethernet switch with 8 x 1000/100/10Mbps copper ports and 2 x 1000/100Mbps SFP fiber-optic ports. The internal linear power supply is preceded by a low-noise filtered AC inlet and there are 12 x 4'700µF smoothing caps and four low-noise regulators. Each port can be individually disabled and reclocking is by twin 0.025ps oscillators. Finish options are silver or black.
Davis Acoustics of France, speaker house and driver manufacturer with clients like Avantgarde Acoustic, still had a bit of a gap between their Dream and Stellar range. Munich 2023 will see a new model to start occupying that space.
Devialet have their new Mania [$790 – $990] billed as an omni portable speaker with "360° stereo sound" streaming WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, Spotify Connect or AirPlay 2. There are four wideband drivers, two woofers, claimed 95dB peak SPL, promised 30Hz-20kHz bandwidth and a 3'200mAh built-in battery. This back-porch and beach party affair measures just 18x19x14cm and weighs 2.3kg. Various finishes and two trim levels apply. Such product is ideal for Harrods of London type stores to go where traditional hifi cannot. Perhaps Devialet really are the Bang & Olufsen of France?
Germany's Elac from my former hometown of Kiel will bring their new Vela BS404 which combines the firm's own take on an AMT called JET-5 tweeter with an 18cm mid/woofer. Also new is the Varro range of subwoofers with custom BASH amplification. It includes three Premium models of 10/12/15" woofers; two Reference models of 10/12" woofers in more complex enclosures; and two Dual-Reference models with force-cancelling 10/12" woofers. All models include Elac's 3rd generation Sub Control 3.0 App with auto EQ room correction and easy setup of multiple units.
So busy with their flagship amp were South Korea's Enleum that they halted production of the much delayed HPA-23M mobile headphone amp for a month just to free up resources to ready the new range topper for a Munich exhibit with Apertura Audio speakers and Wattson Audio digital. Would it materialize in time? One day before this report closed, the above photo arrived with these words: "The AMP-54R [€25K] is our new flagship amplifier. Building upon the latest advancements made with the AMP-23R and HPA-23RM, we employ our absolute best tech and design to make this a statement product. The AMP-54R is the direct successor to our legacy Bakoon AMP-51R introduced in 2016 as a 100-watt amplifier. Since then we made significant technological strides including JET Bias, our proprietary software-controlled bias system. The AMP-54R packs all this in a compact form factor of 40x40cm just 7cm tall so nearly half the volume of the previous flagship while maintaining the same output power. Additionally transformer power increased by 25% and power supply capacitance doubled in dual-mono configuration. Thanks to JET3 Bias evolved from the AMP-23R’s JET2, a new algorithm tracks and optimizes output bias with more accuracy for improved performance and efficiency. A more advanced 32-bit CPU run the latest software. For the first time in our amplifiers, we offer optional modules. The first is our proprietary current input phono stage. The second is a streaming DAC with coaxial/optical/LAN inputs. These make the AMP-54R a complete all-in-one amplifier solution for a no-compromise minimalist high-end audio system." Not visible in the photo is that the entire amplifier floats atop an exposed central transformer cowl while each side of the belly exposes twin rows of five capacitor tops.
Estonia's Estelon will bring their new 3-way Aura [€17.5K/pr] which brackets its 1" ScanSpeak Illuminator tweeter in an oval waveguide with two 5" SB Acoustic Satori papyrus-paper midranges then adds a down-firing 10" paper-based woofer from Faital in the firm's trademark sealed synthetic stone enclosure. Finishes are white or black, the grill detaches magnetically. Partner in crime will be dCS for digital, Moon for analog and Crystal Cable/Siltech for wiring.
Ferrum Audio from Poland will premiere their new flagship Wandla DAC built around their proprietary Serce processor board allied to an ESS chip. There's an IR remote, volume, one analog RCA input, RCA/XLR outputs and, on the digital input side, USB-C, coax, AES/EBU, Toslink plus I²S and ARC via HDMI. The touch screen adds extensive menu options.
