PSI Audio of Switzerland have their new AVAA C214 fully digital active bass trap working between 15Hz-160Hz as efficiently as a perfect passive absorber 45 times bigger would. Despite being active, this device emits no signal, merely absorbs without requiring any calibration yet cancels "all undesired room modes". And unlike its analog MDF sibling, the digital version is housed in aluminium. "By lowering the acoustic impedance of the air in front of it, the AVAA effectively sucks in low frequencies over an area of about 1 to 1.5 meters. As a result, the optimal position for an AVAA is in the most rigid corners of the room, where pressure is highest and where room modes are most present."
Q Acoustics from the UK have the new 5000 models to show. With the same form factors and driver tech as the flagship Concept range, the baffles are laminated with butyl rubber and black acrylic for vibration damping. Finish span a generous satin black/white, rosewood or oak.
Qualio and Cube from Poland are "working on a few surprises we hope to ready for Munich. The first batch of Qualio IQ has been delivered and we have feedback from customers. They absolutely love the speaker like you did. And wherever we bring them to shows, we sell multiple pairs. In Europe that's very rare but the response for Qualio is truly outstanding. We must go to every show possible now. We applied for EU show support and if granted will do a separate IQ room at the Marriott Hotel. Our Cube exhibit will again share with Tektron valve gear from Sicily and the IQ really wants more than SET power." Many people don't know that Grzegorz Rulka's partner Marek Kostrznski is also chief designer at the large Polish speaker house Pylon and previously worked at Tonsil to come with extensive driver design and manufacturing experience when the two formed Cube then Qualio.
Raal-Requisite's new CA-1a circumaural true ribbon headphones from Serbia should be on every showgoer's must-hear list to check in on headfi's current state of the art.
Raidho of Denmark will show this new X2t as well as their diamond-line TD6.
US firm Rockport Technologies' Orion will make its European debut with Absolare electronics from Turkey. Orion's enclosure comprises just three elements: an inner cast aluminium housing, an outer carbon fibre housing and baffle shell. The fabrication process with elastomeric bonding agents "completely eliminates the design constraints imposed by conventional construction methods. Owing to this design freedom, Orion's form has been fully optimized for ideal driver placement, reduction of internal standing waves and minimum edge diffraction." Orion's new drive units include a carbon-fiber sandwich 13" woofer, 7" carbon-fibre sandwich composite midrange and 1.25" beryllium tweeter.
Rogue Audio from the US have their new 325W DragoN monos which embed a 12AU7 voltage-gain stage in an nCore class D power module off a classic linear power supply.
Scansonic HD, Raidho's sister brand from the same Dantax RadioA/S umbrella, will bow their new Q range with three floorstanders and "the most Raidho DNA ever in a striking new Scansonic package with bigger drivers than before."
Seaside by Lake People is a new headphone brand from the German pro-audio firm. The first model is a magnetostatic headphone "fit for the studio and consumers".
Schetl will show their Pathway, a 12" coaxial 2½-way transmission-line speaker with 12" woofer in the lower half of its cabinet. Claimed sensitivity is at least 94.5dB.
China's Shanling have their new M9 Plus digital music player which goes back to the Asahi Kasei well with a quad of their latest AK4499EX converters, a matching quad of premium TI OPA1612 op-amps and dual AK4191 Delta Sigma modulators for fully balanced operation. Two Japanese KDS oscillators handle clocking. A quick 8-core Snapdragon 665 processor with 8GB RAM handles housekeeping chores while the GUI is based on Android 10 to be instantly familiar to many smartphone owners. The 6-inch 2K LCD screen rocks 2'160×1'080px resolution for "full HD". Data happiness includes 32/768 PCM, DSD512 and MQA. Headfi happens on 4.4mm balanced or 3.5mm standard. The battery is an 8'350mAh job for a claimed 18 hours of non-balanced playback, 11 in balanced mode. Fast-charging Q3.0 tech speeds up topping up. Bluetooth 5.0 supports aptX/HD and LDAC wireless via Qualcomm's WCN3980 WiFi transmitter. Data inputs include USB-C via XMOS XU316 transceiver and a microSD slot. Internal music storage is 256GB. The M9 Plus can swing 6V/32?balanced, 4V standard. Weight is 379g, trim black.
The Challenger from Lithuania's very oddly named Silent Pound joins the rare ranks of cardioid loudspeakers à la Dutch & Dutch, Kii and Amphion Krypton3X so we hear more of the recorded signal and less of the room.
Besides operating the UK's Living Voice speaker house, Kevin & Lynn Scott also run the Definitive Audio retail establishment. For many years that held the ultra-exclusive UK license for Kondo Japan valve kit distribution. The Scotts only relinquished it when after the passing of their legendary founder, Kondo's sound signature changed. It took them many years to find an 'original Kondo' replacement: the electronics from Simon Shilton's SJS Electroacoustics which in Munich will drive their speakers and incorporate circuit tweaks curated by them. If you've always been a Kondo fan, you might want to sniff about SJS like a hound hunting for truffles?
Canada's simaudio have an entirely new 6-deep range priced from €12.5K for the 641 integrated to €28.5K for the 891 network player/preamp. The new Devialet-type BRM-1 remote features a massive rotary controller and back-lit info window whilst Oled displays on four of the North models show cover art, song/album titles and artist names as well as volume and menu options.
Simon Audio Lab of South Korea is the new home of Simon Kwangli Lee, ex April Music. Having spent the last few years building up a new portfolio, he's now ready to re-enter the global market. Shown are his new $6'000 Simon CD receiver with 150wpc class AB power stage; and $17'500/pr 300W M1 monos from his Series 1 with a 1kVA power transformer and fully balanced signal path. There's already Series 3 and Series 5 models as well.
SOtM of South Korea will have their wares with German distributor AudioNext rather than their own display but also demo in the Rockport/Absolare exhibit. New for the brand is the sPQ-100 shown, their first phono stage. And for an example of exstreamism, their May Park attached this drawing of their Axpona setup. I count seven external linear power supplies and three network switches alone. Then I lost track of all the required cabling. And there you thought streaming was easy? Also on display will be the "audio-grade USB3.0 host card" tX-USBx10G. A third place to hear SOtM in Munich will be in the Schetl loudspeaker demo.
