The Brussels airport is about 30 minutes from the city's center. The first location of the show, the Crown Plaza hotel, was readily located as were the two floors used for the show. One of the first rooms visited was Dutch distributor RA Vision's who had German Sehring loudspeakers and Chinese Shanling electronics on demo. The Sehring loudspeakers are modular and can be upgraded by adding a subwoofer base or by swapping out drivers. These speakers come in various colors and finishes and we liked the bright yellow one. The sound was intimate and pleasant and Luka Bloom was presented with flair. Next door, the same distributor had signed on with behold and combined their electronics with Ascendo speakers. The German behold brand and its designer Ralf Ballmann -- present with his wife Gisela -- are into digital 100%. Their equipment is built to the highest of standards and whenever possible, the signal is upsampled to 768KHz near the source. Only in the power amplifiers does reconversion to analog occur to keep data transmission completely in the digital domain. Analogue turntable inputs are digitized at 24-bit/192kHz in the phono stage which also acts as the table's motor synchronizer. Ralf Ballmann has abandoned his previous setup wherein the DA converter was mounted atop the actual headshell. With the new system, any turntable can now 'benefit' from digitization (we can see diehard vinyl fans react utterly aghast). The modular preamp can be fitted with all manner of circuit boards to accept any conceivable digital or analog input. Two 600-watt power DAC drove the Ascendo speakers. We played Renaud Garcia-Fons' Navigatore and Ralf Ballmann proudly showed us his own copy of this CD.

Greatech of Germany then presented the smallest amplifier we've seen in a long while on a static display. Greatech uses four subminiature tubes to derive one lone watt of go juice from the puny uVAC amplifier. A separate power supply completes the li'l black beauty. Needless to say, any connected loudspeaker should be of the ultra-high efficiency kind.

Another Dutch distributor cum speaker builder used the Reimyo CD player, Harmonix cables and his own Daluso loudspeakers. From an aesthetic perspective, this was a very clever combination; from the audio viewpoint, a very good- sounding one. The Daluso loudspeakers are of Dutch design and make use of a cast aluminum enclosure with curved sides and various types of driver arrangements.

From Belgium came Orator whose Joris Potvlieghe was present to demonstrate his amplifier and loudspeakers, both stand-outs for their wood work. The sound of their combination mimicked the visual image - warm and solid.

Another emerging marque is Paolo Beduschi. This Italian woodworker and speaker designer has put all his love for music into his loudspeakers. We had the privilege of reviewing a pair and were positive about the outcome, with a well-defined soundstage, good integration between drivers and very high marks for appearance (hey, we're talking Italian).

Listening makes hungry. Why not do as the Belgians do? That meant frites met mayo, French fries with mayonnaise. Add some veggies and it ain't not too bad. In a pinch.

In the other hotel -- the Courtyard -- we were welcomed by live music. Another surprise there were the new Prima Luna monoblocks, the ProLogue 6 and 7, the first with EL34s, the latter with KT88s. Designer Herman van den Dungen is working hard and the results are affordable and plain brilliant.

In the room next door, Johan Bezem of Classic Audio did again as he did in Veldhoven. He once again transformed his space into an art gallery, all black curtains and framed pictures of Clear Audio products on the walls. Johan is a very passionate man and full of energy - as long as things are analogue. He might even be coming out with his own record -- as in vinyl -- label in the future. Since he loves flamenco and that type of eclectic fare, we are very curious.

Of course there are always certain show rooms that just don't do it. One of the few rooms of these 3 events was the room with Duevel and Avantgarde Acoustic. We tried to make contact with the exhibitors who were yapping on the phone while a pair of Unos was playing. Too bad. We were off to higher ground.
The last room we visited was More Music's. After a long day, one simply can no longer listen with anything even remotely approaching real concentration. Time for Rock'n'Roll. That came by way of Harry van Dalen who was demoing the large Audio Physics loudspeakers
with Theta Digital and Pass Labs. Set up in a 30-degree angle, the music was simply there. James Carter's baritone loosened up all our cramped muscles, Lou Reed added his part and some Japanese Taiko drummers kicked the last bit of overload cobwebs out of the body. Music as physiotherapy if you will. [Marja with Steve Rochlin of EnjoyTheMusic above who had the good graces to solicit us for his magazine. Sorry Steve, we're too busy as it is.]


Three shows in a relative short time are tiring. Luckily the good food and nice beds upheld the vital balance to make it fun rather than drudgery. We made some interesting arrangements for upcoming reviews on 6moons so keep your antennae aimed at Rotterdam.