The Xclusive show was in the Ares Tower, a nearby building.
The big Aries Cerat room had a very impressive system in place, featuring the new open-back Sirene speakers. The sound was big, smooth, and refined, perhaps not entirely neutral, but never harsh, hugely involving and effortlessly dynamic.
This was my first time seeing the Clarisys Aria four-tower speaker system in real life, and I was stoked to finally hear them, after just missing them when I visited the showroom in Switzerland. The Arias are bigger than anticipated, with flawless construction. The rest of the system was beautifully put together, and the penthouse location atop the building was very impressive.
As one might expect, the sound was very open, airy, and transparent, but across 5 different tracks on LP and digital, a feeling persisted that dynamics were crushed with a mild distortion on the peaks, as if one of the components was driven too loudly. In any case, something in the chain must have been not quite right, preventing the system from performing as it should.
From a technical perspective, their separate bass and mid/treble towers, which can be positioned and toe’d in independently, make them very intriguing, and I look forward to hearing the Arias again on another occasion.
The Prodigio Audio Vitorla full-range electrostatic speakers sounded excellent. They are open, airy, and refined, demonstrating the delicate qualities typical of electrostatic speakers, with smoothness and a relaxed feel, while also being engagingly crisp, upbeat, and expressive. As they are full-range, the bass is entirely uniform, and the speakers sound 100% coherent. Some might still want to add a subwoofer, but I found them to go at least as deep as an average small monitor speaker, and the bass was excellent. Interestingly, and unusually for a flat panel, the treble was focused and well balanced throughout the room, creating a wide listening area.
Aequo Audio always delivers! This time, I felt the performance was not quite up there with the Dutch shows in Veldhoven, with less precise imaging and some room-induced bass resonance, but nevertheless, it was very good. The Aries Cerat components were an interesting match, producing a full, harmonically rich sound.
The big Avalon room produced some of the best sound on the show: authoritative, fast, precise, linear, transparent, open, airy, and spacious; these speakers are simply great all-round. Too bad the exhibitor started playing so loudly that it drove me out of the room. Nevertheless, if the bank account accommodates them, they are highly recommended.
Grimm Audio demonstrated two new models: the PA1 mono amplifiers that are said to minimize dynamic signal distortions that are overlooked by many but have a large impact on sound quality, and a new pair of passive two-way speakers that went so deep in the bass that it made me look behind the banner in search of a subwoofer.
That’s all folks!
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