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October 11th - 13th, one week prior to the HighEnd Suisse show in Regensdorf/Zürich, the Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic in Montreux hosted the 3rd installment of the Salon Sons & Sens which previously had taken place in Aigle Castle a few highway exits further east.
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Stenheim & Nagra
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It so happened that I had prior engagements out of the country the entire week. For some pictorial coverage of the event in absentia I'd enlisted event organizer Jean-Pascal Panchard at left whose own photographer provided fodder augmented by Sven Boenicke's photographer. Between the two I had all the exhibitors covered for this short report. Merci! My secretary is fired of course for screwing up my schedule*.
For the full scoop of someone who actually did attend, I refer you to Dirk Sommer's two-part coverage on Hifistatement.net. Non-German speakers will have to enlist the questionable help of Google's online translator. Viel Spaß!
Jean-Pascal and partner Pascale Rey envisioned Sons & Sens—sounds and senses as you've probably figured out—to be more than just hifi/audio-oriented, hence a mash-up of on-site wine/chocolate tasting, a catered cocktail, a multi-course pre-registered dinner, a small art exhibit and a big-screen Montreux festival viewing. |
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* That means I'm out of a job now...
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Myriam Machi's Fall'Art—off-the-wall art or more accurately art which fell of the wall to occupy the floor—and Christian Eggs' photography stimulated the eyes.
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As promised, wining & dining were also part of the program.
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Whilst Goldmund, Piega and Ensemble were absent like yours truly, eighteen other CH hifi companies weren't.
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As a proper event hosted in a posh hotel in a world-famous lake resort, the presentation seems to have followed suit.
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As did monstrously high ceilings throughout. For just how monstrous, refer back to the opening photo.
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In roughly alphabetical order, there was Boenicke Audio showing off their new W5 desk-top monitor whose potential—our preview already paints the background—apparently was so off-the-desk that...
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... they also siphoned off Soulution's milkshake for a stretch to displace their mighty Magicos for a prototypical David 'n' Goliath showdown.
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Because Sven was already sold out on his matching subwoofer, the tykes had this field all to themselves whilst in the Boenicke room proper...
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... Swiss ingenuity tapped the woofers of the bi-ampable SLS to serve parallel duty.
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Anagram offshoot CH Precision held court with li'l and big speakers whose provenance I can't make out on pure sight.
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Illusonic demonstrated their up-to-16-channel purist immersive audio processor with a 5.0 system of Audio Consulting, Vovox, Nagra, Oppo and Stenheim to manifest a wider sweet spot with two-channel recordings and superior ambient envelopment.
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