The Hong Kong High-End Audio Visual show has been held every summer since the inaugural edition in 2003, except in 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic. This year, the show took up three floors of the Hong Kong Conventional and Exhibition Centre from August 9 – 11. It has become one of the largest shows in Asia, with 20 individual meeting rooms functioning as listening spaces, 27 specially constructed listening booths on the main exhibition floor, and 96,000 square feet of space for displays and shopping. There was a large section devoted to music vendors, with a vast selection of LPs, CDs, SACDs and even open-reel tapes. The show offered live music performances by local artists, as well as seminars given by international experts and industry veterans.
Given my experience at previous shows, I arrived early to pick up my badge in order to avoid the long lines of people. Even though I had received an invitation to apply for a press badge, somehow the system did not have my registration when I arrived. Fortunately, I was able to get this rectified quickly without having to line up at the regular ticket counters, and therefore was one of the first to get in when the doors officially opened at 10 a.m. I immediately headed to the most popular rooms, and was able to listen to the systems and take photographs before the hoards arrived. By lunchtime, the place got so crowded that it was impossible to do any serious auditioning, or even to get into some of the rooms.
The first room I got to was shared by the loudspeaker manufacturer Franco Serblin and acoustic isolation specialist IsoAcoustics. They had an interesting setup with two identical pairs of Ktêma speakers (only the color was different), one with the original spiked feet on the carpeted floor, the other with the GAIA isolation feet installed. The music was switched between the two pairs of speakers by remote control to demonstrate the effect of the isolation. The effect was not subtle, and I was quite surprised by the magnitude of the difference. On a female vocal track, the voice became more focused with improved image definition when switched to the isolated speakers. It also seemed louder. The overall effect was more lifelike and realistic, which I consider an improvement. On a string quartet, the isolation rendered the individual instruments more focused and distinct, but the spiked speakers seemed to give a better impression of space and airiness, which I preferred. I suspect the magnitude of the effect is speaker-dependent.
The Ktêma speakers in the Franco Serblin/IsoAcoustics room.
IsoAcoustics' GAIA isolation feet.
The late Franco Serblin was the founder of Sonus Faber, and the distinctiveness of his designs rests upon the musical instrument-like enclosures with tuned resonances to enhance tone color. I know some aficionados of string instruments who swear by these speakers, but it goes against the goal of most modern loudspeaker designs, which is to minimize colorations. I suspect the effect of these isolators would be far more subtle on speakers with well-damped enclosures.
I next visited the Avantgarde room. This audio distribution company has no relationship with the namesake loudspeakers, and it is not the current distributor of Avantgarde Acoustic products. Nevertheless, it represents a number of very high-end manufacturers with very interesting products. On show this year were three separate systems, of which I managed to audition two. The first system comprised of the AMG Giro II turntable and arm, with the DS Audio Master3 optical cartridge, and YS Sound 782/998 amplification combo driving the Zellaton Reference Ultra (7066).
The Avantgarde room.
The DS Audio optical cartridge is all the rage now, with its superiority in terms of low distortion, neutrality and lightning-fast transients. Instead of coils and magnets, the cartridge has a light source and a receiver sandwiching a shade plate attached to the cantilever. Movement of the cantilever alters the amount of light transmitted to the receiver, and this light signal is transformed into an electrical signal by an-all analog process inside a special phono preamplifier. Since the mass of the shade plate is far lower than that of the coils or magnets of a conventional cartridge, this results in superior transient response. It also avoids the back EMF and hysteresis loss inherent in an electromagnetic system. Preamplifiers from other manufacturers such as Soulution and EMM Labs are starting to incorporate this proprietary system, which DS Audio is licensing to manufacturers without demanding royalty payment.
Another view of the Avantgarde room.
Despite the modest size of the Zellatons, the speakers gave a very credible performance, energizing the large space with sound of impressive scale and dynamics. The imaging is tactile and three dimensional. At $250,000 US dollars, these speakers are anything but modest, but the cost is dwarfed by that of the amplification, priced at more than three times as much.
The next system comprised the massive Acoustical Systems Astellar turntable with Taitan GC arm, Palladian XO cartridge, Evocator Ultimate Reference phono preamp, and Ocean Way Audio HRA horn speakers bi-amped with two Halcro Eclipse stereo amplifiers. At less than half the price of the Zellatons, the Ocean Ways nevertheless proved superior in terms of scale and dynamics. They presented the music in a relaxed, completely natural manner, without any sign of strain, even though the imaging might be less pinpoint-precise. If there is no space constraint, I know which pair I would go for (if I ever win the lottery).
Another interesting setup was found in the Esoteric/Tannoy room. This was the first time I listened to the new Esoteric Grandioso T1 turntable. This turntable is full of innovations. The platter is floated by a magnetic field, isolating it from the environment and greatly reducing bearing loading. It is driven magnetically, which means there is no physical link of any kind between the platter and the motor. The drive is servo controlled by a 10 MHz clock. The speakers were the Tannoy Prestige Gold Reference, driven by Esoteric amplification.
I often find the Esoteric electronics rather cold and un-involving, and modern 15-inch Tannoy speakers tend to sound rather slow and lacking transparency (unlike their ancestors, equipped with the vintage Tannoy Black and Silver drivers). I found last year's demonstration, featuring the Westminster Royal speakers, rather disastrous. However, their system sounded good this year. At the risk of sounding clichéd, LPs played on this turntable got close to the sound of master tape. It had a low noise floor, and sounded extremely stable and solid. The speakers were lively and dynamic, and the sound of the system was musical, in contrast to the over-analytical sound of many high-end systems.
The Esoteric/Tannoy exhibit.
Esoteric's Grandioso T1 turntable.
A touch of class: the badge on the Tannoy Prestige Gold Reference loudspeakers.
It seemed to me that the majority of exhibitors had set up at least one turntable system, and LPs were featured in many demonstrations. I estimate a good 20 percent of the stalls were taken up by record dealers. The Japanese manufacturer Yukiseimitsu Audio displayed their quirky AP-01 turntable. It has a magnetic bearing, which means the platter is floated on a magnetic field to minimize bearing noise. Power is transmitted to the platter via a thread, driven symmetrically by two shafts on either side of the platter. This avoids the unbalanced horizontal force applied to the platter in a conventional single-belt drive design. Notice that the integrated tonearm is straight, without the usual S or J-shaped arm tube or an offset angle between the headshell and the arm tube. This means the angle between the cartridge cantilever and the tangent of the record groove is constantly changing as the record is played, and the distortion due to the horizontal tracking error varies across the record surface. On the other hand, there is no need for anti-skating, since the force from stylus drag is always in line with the arm tube.
Record dealers where everywhere at the Hong Kong Audio Visual Show.
Yukiseimitsu Audio's AP-01 turntable has a completely distinctive design.
I have not used this type of tonearm to tell you how the distortion affects the sound, but I favor the use of 12-inch arms precisely to minimize this distortion. The arm bearing is a dual-pivot type, with a magnetic brake to minimize tilt during play.
Another new player in the analog game is the Canadian company Zavfino. They started by manufacturing cables, and their tonearm wires are used by many well-known manufacturers. They also do contract manufacturing of tonearms and turntables for other brands, and recently started to manufacture their own designs under their name. These are standard belt drive designs without a suspension, which seems to be a rather crowded field.
Here's another unique turntable, from Zavfino.
A turntable that garnered a lot of attention is the Kronos Audio Perpetual, which costs 40 percent less than their flagship Discovery. This massive sculpture-like device seems to offer better value for money, even though the price is still pretty hefty.
The latest generation of the Thorens Reference turntable was on static display. Its selling point is the integrated active isolation platform designed by the German firm Seismion, which is two orders of magnitude more effective than the more common air suspension systems. It uses belt drive, but the rotational speed of the platter is servo controlled using ultra-high-precision quartz oscillators. The turntable can be ordered with the Thiele TA01 pivoted tangential tonearm, which employs a clever cantilever design to achieve the zero tracking error of linear tracking arms, but avoids their inconveniences. Its design goal seems to be diametrically opposite to that of the Yukiseimitsu, but who is correct?
Turntables were in abundance at the show: here's Kronos Audio's Perpetual...
...and the mighty Thorens Reference.
Thorens chose to do their live demonstrates with their TD124DD direct drive record player, which is a homage to the classic TD124 idler wheel turntable from 1957. This was originally meant to be a limited edition, but demand for the product is such that the company has decided to make it a part of their regular lineup. In my opinion, this new direct drive turntable comes closest to being a bargain, if such a concept is even possible in high-end audio.
On the subject of classic products, I came across a loudspeaker in the Wilson Audio room that brought back memories. I thought it was an original WATT/Puppy repainted in bright orange color to make us old timers happy, but it was in fact a new updated version. The WATT/Puppy first appeared in 1986 and remained in production with regular updates until 2011. This new version uses the most up to date cabinet materials, drivers and crossover components, and is released this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company.
A classic combination reborn: Wilson Audio's WATT/Puppy loudspeaker.
One of the products I find the most interesting comes from King's Audio, a manufacturer of electrostatic loudspeakers based in Hong Kong. They showcased a pair of speakers in the form of traditional Chinese calligraphy scrolls. The artwork on the speakers can be customized according to the buyers' wishes, but I guess copyright restrictions do apply. There are many important collectors of Chinese painting and calligraphy in Hong Kong, and they can now meld their love of art with their love of music.
Loudspeaker art from King's Audio.
Another local company that is on an upward trajectory is Westminster Lab. Founded by Hong Kong engineer Angus Leung, the company's innovation is their sliding Class A amplifier topology. Class A refers to the way the output devices (transistors or tubes) are biased. In single-ended circuits, as found in the most primitive tube amplifiers, the output device is always conducting current since it has to amplify both the positive and the negative phases of the signal. A push-pull circuit allows one half of the output devices to be switched off up to half of the time (Class B).
The Westminster Lab amps were featured in the Volent Audio room.
The analogy of lumberjacks cutting a tree with a two-person saw is useful. If only one lumberjack is working, he/she has to push and pull the saw in turn. If two lumberjacks are working, one on each end of the saw, only one lumberjack needs to be pulling the saw at any time. In Class A push-pull amplifiers, the current going through the device that is not doing the work is simply wasted. This is why Class A amplifiers tend to be big and run hot. The problem with Class B operation is that it takes a finite amount of time for the output devices to turn on and off, which means when the signal crosses over from positive to negative phase and vice versa, crossover distortion occurs.
In practice, most push-pull amplifiers operate in Class A/B, which means the devices are biased in such a way that for low-level signals, the amp stays in Class A, and only goes into Class B when high power is needed. Nevertheless, pure Class A amplifiers are still thought by many to be superior in terms of sound quality. With the sliding Class A topology, the bias of the output devices varies according to the required power output in that instant. Since music amplifiers only need to provide high power momentarily during music peaks, such a scheme greatly reduces power wastage and heat, and simplifies heat management.
Having learned about these monoblock amplifiers before ever setting eyes on them, I was nevertheless shocked how small they are when I saw them for the first time during the show. You can compare their size to the speakers right next to them to get an idea. An equivalent 400-watt Class A/B monoblock would normally be at least four times the size, and I hate to think how big (and wasteful) a conventional 400-watt Class A amplifier would be. The booth was not conducive to a proper audition, but the verdict from magazine reviewers and customers has been highly positive. It is no surprise that this design came from the mind of an engineer living in Hong Kong, where the cost of real estate is the highest in the world. Just the space savings alone would fully justify the cost of these amps in Hong Kong!
Having visited all the exhibits, I noticed that there were few dipole speakers, and only a handful of horn speakers. Tube electronics were also less well-represented compared to previous years. The majority of equipment on display came from well-established and heavily promoted brands. In contrast, the Munich High End Show features a far greater diversity, with many quirky products from little-known manufacturers. This might be due to the fact that most of the exhibitors in Hong Kong are local distributors, who are less willing to take risk by promoting little-known brands. While Hong Kong does have a fair number of well-heeled, trend-following audiophiles, there is also an active community of enthusiasts who are into, shall we say, experimental audio. Since the show only takes up a small fraction of the available space at the exhibition center, the organizers should consider expanding the show in the coming years and give a chance to smaller manufacturers to showcase their products.
All images courtesy of the author.
