Boenicke W11

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Letter from Hong Kong (22-10): ELO auditions Boenicke W11

Editor Addendum 9/30/22: Finally, video of shop with Audio Consulting DC PS Turntable added. Enjoy.

Boenicke Official Website

I have known Andy S for many years. He is what doctorjohn had described as “German Gang”. In fact, moons ago I bought my Audionet Int Amp and ART CDP from him. I for one, am sold at that time. Lost contact with him for a long time since my hifi infatuation had cooled down. I used to go his home and listen to many brand names unknown to most HK people who were more heavily influenced by UK and US equipment.

After many years, I touched base with him again and went to his shop twice recently to listen to music through his systems. First time, he used Swiss Stenheim loudspeakers and Italian Gold Note Pre/DAC. The sound was decent but not enough to touch me.

Things changed completely the second time I went. This time he changed to Boenicke W11 loudspeakers driven by the same Gold Note pre/DAC and a Chinese power amp. The sound from these speakers were phenomenal! Not only did they have perfect imaging and soundstage, they had perfect timbre, and the fine shading of colors and microdynamics made them so convincing and musical that it was a great pleasure. The speaker is made of CNC machined solid wood, with side firing bass woofers, back firing tweeter. The front sat on bearings, while the back was suspended by springs to eliminate vibration. The look was so sexy also!

Editor: The Isolation Efforts are definitely novel and nothing short of heroic, yet at the same time practical. More description can be had from HiFi+ review of the more junior W8SE+: "...Before moving on I should describe the Swing Base set up. There is a slot cut at the bottom of each cabinet and a metal bar fitting slips into this and runs along the back edge. It’s a loose fit, but each bar terminates in circular pieces that are used to suspend the rear of the cabinet from two precise lengths of steel cable, terminated with a ferrule and hung inside two outriggers rather like a suspension bridge. Hooking each of these onto the cables decouples the rear of the cabinet from the floor while a ball bearing, sitting in its own cup nests into another cup submerged within the cabinet toward the front. When floated like this the whole cabinet sways around at the smallest touch. It’s an interesting solution to decoupling the cabinet though it doesn’t work as well on carpeted floor, but the company has its own ‘Carpet-Aid’ for this..."

Andy's place is always stocked up with so many unknown and uber expensive gear that it's like a candy shop to us! Must pay a visit if you are nearby Tokwawan (a Kowloon disrict in HK)!

Editor’s Footnotes: 1) Every card-carrying HK audiophile of my generation knows Andy S. Like quite a few of HK’s audio resellers, he had come from completely unrelated trade and manufacturing backgrounds, and then the audio hobby blossomed into the real job. At that time, Andy imported and sold grey goods of Audionet and Burmester etc. His success of course brought the wrath of the official dealers (he sold a lot more than them; :-)). Andy is a sharp man, with high EQ, good ears and setup skills, and soon had a following, and I sometimes joined them in auditioning lesser known gears (such as ASR then). Lots of Dynaudio and Acapella loudspeakers. So, European, with a German predeliction. For this crowd I coined the name “German Gang”, and as often with nicknames, it stuck. I was just tagging along. As you know, I’m a tube man, and have always regarded German gear as asceptic sounding (well, most of it), and I see no reason to change my opinion now. At that time, the audio scene was red hot, and forums were bursting with discussions and arguments, which sometimes got overheated. Ah! Our “Youth”! Many years later, Andy had metamorphosed into an official dealer for a lot of brands that are obscure to us (his specialty). I last met him in person at an HK Audio Show (probably around 2015-2017), as German Brinkmann dealer (he had brought this brand to our attention decades ago). After ELO visited him, we re-established communication through wechat. It is him who supplied the anatomical photo of the W11. His store is called Audio Acapella; you may contact him via his Wechat ID: ACAPELLA001 - there are many photos of esoteric gears such as Swiss Audio Consulting; I load here just one of them; 2) this ELO visit particularly excited me, as, ever since I saw a Boenicke at the 2015 HK audio show, I had wanted to hear one but never did (even when, just before I left HK for NYC, visiting then official dealer big-gun Sound Chamber, where they were just on display; now the dealer is AudioEvidence and they are not my type). When I get back to HK (God knows when), I shall make sure I do. It is not cheap but, if you ask me, worth its price just because of the unique construction details, not to mention the brain activities behind all that. If you are in HK, I’d urge you to listen to it at Andy’s (while they are still there). If anyone else has an in-depth experience with Boenicke, I’d be happy to hear from you!

A Tweeter at the back to increase Ambience

Below Video features the Uber High End and Esoteric Swiss Audio Consulting Minima Battery PS Direct-Drive TT!!! First Showing in Asia. Partnering Gear are Silver Rock Phono, SWGLA Preamp, MIPA power Amp and JM370F. Song played is of course audiophile fav Esther Ofarim's Kinderspiele.