Team Green brought their new Ovator S-600, a quite conventional looking speaker which, since it's a Naim, hides more behind that facade. From the press poop, "the new speaker combines all that Naim has learned about building loudspeakers over the past 30 years and incorporates technologies never before seen in a high-end design. The Ovator employs a Balanced Mode Radiator driver to handle all the frequencies from 380Hz to beyond audibility. Another 'first' is that this design is intended not to be placed against a wall but used in free space, which enables it to deliver astonishing imagery alongside the traditional, musically engaging, Naim performance." That second 'first' is specific to Naim whose corporate culture has, until now, never given much credence to the fully developed soundstage non-Naimies lust after. "Constructed on the rigid foundation of a pressure die-cast aluminium plinth, the Ovator S-600 comprises a visually stunning leaf-spring decoupled enclosure fitted with two custom-designed rigid paper cone bass drivers. Located above the bass drivers, within a nested and leaf-sprung aluminium enclosure, is the balanced mode radiator which reproduces all six octaves from the 380Hz crossover point to well above audibility with a flat frequency response, minimal distortion and consistently wide dispersion."

NAT Audio is another valve electronics company from Serbia.

Norma is an Italian hifi brand that Richard Kohlruss of VMAX Services in the US had recommended to me last year very highly. Very familiar with Audio Analogue and Unison Research, Richard felt Norma packs the goods in a special way and as we share notes on worthy reviewables (for me) and commendable sellables (for him) once or twice a year, I meant to follow up but somehow never got around to it.


This year, the name off Richard's lips was a lady's however - and she's not an audio company. We'll let Richard's smile that rather looks like a cat that just swallowed a canary fill in the gaps. This year I spotted Norma properly however so I finally caught up with the man also on business...

North Star Design also is from Italy and once again showed a bevy of topless components.

To learn more about Nubert, I recommend taking a gander at Jörg Dames' nuVero 4 review. Once again, an attractive solution for wall-tile acoustic room treatments and one we seem to have seen earlier, just in a different color scheme.

Because Onix parted ways with Mark Schifter's AV123.com, one assumes that brand owner Hsao-Hsiung Pu of Sound Art Electronics Co. Ltd in Taiwan is shopping for a new importer in America. To Munich, he brought his own speakers (he also builds for mbl) and gorgeous 'dripping black lacquer' electronics. The UK connection is here.

Pathos Acoustics premiered its own speakers.

Peachtree Audio premiered its long-awaited Nova with Sabre processing for the digital inputs. After unanticipated delays, hundreds of units have finally shipped out to customers and I received my personal unit the very day I wrote this. Really. Thus the inside shots.