AV Show HK 2009

Click on pics to enlarge. (L) Westlake SM-1; (R) Tannoy Canterbury

AV Show HK 2009 - Brief Report

Once again it was show time. This year we went on Friday at 2:30 and the venue seemed more crowded than last year, a resounding success. The ticket counter 大字寫著今天套票已售罄, so no more LPCD, only SACD. Overall, the rooms kept the same configurations, but there were some surprises, and sound seemed a little better than past years. In no particular order:

Wise Sound has quite a bit of esoteric and over-priced stuff, though sound was decent. I frowned upon the look of the Wilson-clone Ntt.

Spark, Audiospace were all second-rate, as usual. Over-priced these days too.

Tara labs had smaller Rockport this year, and the sound was not up to their usual standard. No, I did not see HiFiDuck this year. The only pony-tailed person I ran into was Leo Fung.

Dah Cheong as usual demo'ed Chario instead of Tannoy. The former was a little dark, as usual. My Canterbury was on silent display.

(L) Basshorn; (R) Excel's glass

Avantgarde this year was fun. Trio +Basshorn!!!! Driven by Kondo, all other speakers at the show could only vie for second-place, and a distant one at that.

Excel's glass-enclosed Crystal cable Arabesque was OK, but not nearly up to the standard established by Vivid last year. Better not mention a full Krell setup, ugly and ineffective.

Jadis' MBL sounded worse than usual. Too bad I did not catch the Westlake Tower SM-1.

Avalon + Rowland was as usual predictably reasonable in sound.

Surprise, Dynaudio this year has the Consequence Ultimate, sound was decent, much better than their performance in years past with other models.

German Physiks was slightly etched in sound, but seems promising. I'd wait for judgement.

(L) EAR; (R) Quad

I was happy that finally a full set of EAR was sounding! 912 + 509 I have, now who will sell me the Acute CDP?

Wilson Sasha driven by Ayre lags far behind the sound of Sophia driven by Boulder last year.

Quad was quite disappointing. Do you like low images and dwarfs?

There was quite a bit of Music Server wares, though the mobbed software vendors give lie to the prediction that CD is passe. Naxos (F03) has quite a bit of bargain CDs, though mostly gone by the time I got there. The other software vendors are not worth mentioning.

Best Sound - Avantgarde.
Most interesting - Nothing.
Bargain - Cut-out CDs at Naxos.
AV show CD - Even more boring than usual (2x 敲擊卡門!!).
Against - Price increase.