Audio Video Show 2018 Warsaw Poland Day 2

Walk through the Campanile Golden Tulip and Radisson Sobieski Hotel exhibits at Audio Video Show 2018 Warsaw with AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer.

The video begins with a look at J Sikora's new Kevlar tonearm and a short interview translated from Polish to English with Mr. Janusz Sikora, whose turntable line will soon be available in America.

Also in the video is the editor's first "live" look at Rega's new P8 turntable. How did it sound? Don't know. It wasn't being demoed and the individual who could play it wasn't available.

Much of the exotic "high performance" audio was in the Golden Tulip across from the Radisson Sobieski. There was a great deal to see and hear there.

Today's camera work is better (still not great, but better) and there's plenty to see including rooms full of brands you've probably never heard of (unless you are Polish), some of which you soon will probably be hearing about.

COMMENTS
alucas's picture

loved the first part, like i was standing there getting a quick education on the tone arm making. real up close and personal! a lot of tubes! you seem to gravitate back to the lps, i see. all of the stuff looked real nice, eye candy! loved the short shot of the outside, like i was on a short vacation, cloudy. looked like 90% lp's to 10% cds. much better on the camera! I was wondering, when you first walk in, can you tell if its a digital file or an Lp playing, by the sound, Or if its a tube system or a solid state amplifier? Before you even see the equipment. As always...I had a great time watching you do all the leg work! Thanks again for the time put in to these videos!

davip's picture

When (and more likely 'if') Stereophile get hold of that new Planar 8 to review, please make sure that it is either You or HR, i.e., someone who will put a stethoscope on this thing and see if all that foam makes any difference to the propensity of Rega TTs to vibrate away in-time to the music thanks to their undecoupled motors, tightly braced to both platter-bearing and plinth (thus to arm in vibration terms). To my knowledge, the Planar 3 and the RP 8 (as well as the MoFi 'Ultradeck') -- all direct-coupled-motor designs -- all exhibit this behaviour, and as the new Planar 8 is a poor-man's Nalad -- which will also have the same direct-coupling for its £30k price-tag -- it would be useful to know whether this foam has any real engineering impact on the biggest issue in high-fidelity phonography -- isolating the audio signal from the spurious noise injected by the motor.

Why not have graphed USB stethoscope/accelerometer data alongside subjective reviewer opinions of 'blackness' and 'space' as a standard for TT reviewing to put both the TT manufacturers and the other magazines on-the-spot? In this day-and-age, where it's easier and cheaper to just bolt a motor to a piece of plywood rather than properly engineer a TT (Rega, Pro-ject, Music-Hall, Funk, McIntosh, WTL), I'm sure that many would like to know if Rega's increasingly-more-expensive 'vibration-measuring-machines' still measure their own motor vibration for all that foam and resin.

It used to be that most any TT aspiring to High-Fidelity had a sprung suspension to decouple arm, cartridge, and platter from the motor. That's no longer the case in the today of audio-as-commodity, and such a test would be a real boon for an audio medium that often measures poorly (while beating the pants audio-wise off of any perfectly-measuring digital). Indeed, I'd put money on the TTs that pay attention to isolation of the motos coming out way-ahead of those that don't in both objective and subjective terms (see below).

There's a discussion of this issue over at SHF (http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/rega-planar-6-measurements.786943/), where one poster asks what all of the worlds greatest TTs, e.g., Air-Force, Rockport, Verdier, have in common. They all decouple the platter from the motor. What do Rega do? They couple that motor as tightly as they can to that platter...

Let's see your Stethoscope, Fremer!

alucas's picture

Wow, i have one and should try using it. didn't know this about the regas TT's. maybe i should keep looking at the Thorens TD160 tables, with their decoupled suspension, or the linn lp12? i'll check out hoffmans sit also. thanks.

dazeofheaven's picture

of music and music appreciation equipment (audiophile equipment) from a city I would have never associated with the high end prior to this video. Also at 14:49 a tantalizing glimpse of some Jean Marie Reynaud loudspeakers - sadly no sound or commentary by MF here - a French company that still makes some of the most natural and musical speakers I have ever heard. I own a pair from 2001 and I cherish them as I would a great Gibson or Martin guitar.

garyalex's picture

Agreed on the Jean Marie Reynaud speakers. I own a pair of the Offrande Supreme V2. "Natural" is a great word to describe the sound. Michael, if you ever have the opportunity to hear JM Reynaud speakers you'd do well to give them a listen.

RH's picture

Thanks for the great video Michael. It's great fun to take a virtual tour of such a big show.

In this video you stopped in the room featuring Boenicke speakers. I've been noticing a bit more buzz on Boenicke and the look like a fascinating design. And, as silly as the observation may seem, I can't help but notice that virtually every show or demo video featuring Boenicke speakers seems to sound particularly good, as if a certain vivid, open character is making it's way through the camera microphones.

Do you have any brief impressions to share from your encounters with the Boenicke brand at shows?

Thanks.

Eforsemnes's picture

fnaf plus requires you to become a night guard in a creepy pizzeria.

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