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Kyron Audio
Previously, Kyron Audio only made custom speakers. The Gaia is their first non-custom speaker and it was one of the most talked about speakers at the show.
The room looked more like you see above and I really did like the music chosen. When I sat down they had a Sarah Mclachlan track playing - "In the arms of the angels." The sound was quite spectacular, flawless, airy, detailed, all that you could ask. I could not fault the sound. I didn't notice any room issues at all in this room, which could be related to the open baffle design as well as the digital correction.
His partner Lee Gray is an industrial designer and it shows in the creation of a speaker that is both stylish and superlative in performance.
The speaker features Accuton ceramic drivers and a ribbon tweeter. This speaker is available as a kit or fully assembled. The sound of this speaker was beautifully detailed and magically refined. There isn't much that I can say, it was simply a great accurate speaker with nothing to complain about.
VAF audio
Phillip Vafiadis put on the best show.
There were Maggies in two different rooms and both performed very well. I do know that one of them are priced around $3k and I agree with comments made by many that they are value champions. They held up very well against pricier options. My only complaint is that they sounded as if they had an exaggerated amount of treble detail.
Vienna Acoustics
Kyron Audio
Previously, Kyron Audio only made custom speakers. The Gaia is their first non-custom speaker and it was one of the most talked about speakers at the show.
The Gaia is an open baffle speaker that has no baffle for the woofers. It's also a digital active speaker with sophisticated digital speaker and room correction - DEQX.
Designer Leon Suter
The room looked more like you see above and I really did like the music chosen. When I sat down they had a Sarah Mclachlan track playing - "In the arms of the angels." The sound was quite spectacular, flawless, airy, detailed, all that you could ask. I could not fault the sound. I didn't notice any room issues at all in this room, which could be related to the open baffle design as well as the digital correction.
His partner Lee Gray is an industrial designer and it shows in the creation of a speaker that is both stylish and superlative in performance.
WAR audio
The War Audio room featured a speaker designed by Pat O'brien and was one of the most popular at the show.
Phillip Vafiadis put on the best show.
Many had a take it or leave it approach, but Phillip put in a show. The room was always full. He played a reference track first on their smallest speaker seen on the left, i90, which is a compact coaxial point source driver. He described it as the smallest a lifestyle speaker can be without serious compromise. Next up we heard "Soundwall" which uses the same driver mounted on a wall - the red print you see behind Phillip.
The sound was very similar. Then i93, their top of the range speaker. There was a nice mix of technical information and demo. All three speakers sounded very good indeed.
Martin Logan (Advance Audio Australia)
There was something very natural about these Martin Logan Electrostatic speakers. The sound was "just there." There was something "unhi-fi" about their sound. Many speakers seemed a little artifical in their sense of airiness, while these had a more realistic balance.
Vivid audio
Beautifully made speakers with some of the best bass I heard at the show. However, on the tracks that I heard, I felt they were just a little clinical in nature.
Genelec
Genelec need no introduction in the studio world. They make very well regarded active studio monitors. The speakers shown above are active speakers with a waveguide loaded dome tweeter. The larger unit is a 3 way speaker. You can't tell from this photo, and even up close in the flesh it is hard to tell, but it features a coaxial driver where part of the waveguide is actually a midrange driver that doesn't have a surround. The Genelec speakers had very solid bass and a dynamic sound although they did also have a slightly forward nature.
B&W + Classe
I'm a long-time admirer of the B&W 800 series and in this room they were powered by Classe electronics. It was a short demo but on the music played they were very dynamic, clean and accurate.
PMG - Pure Music Group
Some large JBL monitors were played in the Pure Music Group room.
When I introduced myself to Warwick Freemantle (above), he asked me about the kind of music I like. With PMG, it's all about the music. There was another room with JBL speakers, but the two rooms were worlds apart in sound. This one was far better. A very nice sound indeed. Typical complaints about horns weren't evident here.
TAG - The Audio Group
Magneplanar speakers
There were Maggies in two different rooms and both performed very well. I do know that one of them are priced around $3k and I agree with comments made by many that they are value champions. They held up very well against pricier options. My only complaint is that they sounded as if they had an exaggerated amount of treble detail.
Vienna Acoustics
These speakers were very well built but I found the sound to be harsh and clinical.
Aktimate
Aktimate had the cheapest speakers I saw at the show and they had very respectable performance.
This pair had surprising bass - an ideal choice for a good quality PC setup.
Creek + Epos
nice. i wonder what those open baffles sound like. never heard a set of speakers that was specifically designed open baffle
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