Now we return to our regular programming on the audio channel with NAD and TacT who were part of another large exhibit.

Team Green in the Naim room made hay of the small speakers for small rooms concept and pulled off a decently deep soundstage despite close wall placement. Very flat-earth of them.

Opera Audio went for ambience in their exhibit, using racks of wine bottles for room tuning, candles for illumination and their massive Barque hornspeakers for conversion to sound pressure.

Opera Audio's importer also showed two integrated amplifiers branded Egovox which are based on Opera platforms and built by Opera but benefit from custom tweaks commissioned from Poland and involving specific parts and circuit changes.

Further results of this Chinese/Polish collaboration are the new Harmondio brand which will shortly introduce the Turtle Series, comprised of the CD16 and SE211. The CD16 is a tube-based CD player using the 16-bit Philips TDA1541 chip and 2 x JJ ECC81s and 2 x JJ ECC82s. The matching SET will be a 16-watt Class A affair running 2 x ECC83s, 2 x 5687s and 2 x 211s. Styling is unique to suggests conceptual connections to Opera's Forbidden City Series. For the full lowdown, contact managing director Richard Tan.

Panasonic showed BlueRay in a completely blacked-out room and superb demonstration. The picture quality was truly stupendous.