Impressions of the KL International AV Show 2016

Article by Tan TE

Let’s start with the 5 hifi systems I submitted for this year’s Best Sound of the Show, presented in the sequence that I heard them on Saturday afternoon of the Show weekend.

1. Swedish Statement – Vitus Audio / Marten

I heard this system playing with the Vitus CD player as the frontend instead of the turtable. This, to me, was the most balanced sounding system in the Show. It also had refinement and fine details aplenty.

2. Centre Circle Audio – VPI / Accustic Arts / Rosso Florentino

Big scale, dynamic, and came with a hint of the beautiful tonal colour the Italians do best (Rosso Florentino is Italian). Some more run-in on the brand new loudspeakers may help to ameliorate the occasionally hot treble region.

3. Hifi Creations – Kronos / Absolare / Ocean Five / Skogrand Cables / Frank

Hifi Creations pulled out all the stops to give showgoers a feast of the eyes and the ears. The huge conference room they were in was divided into a classy display area and a main demo/listening area.

This was a grand system – a high end, high tech turntable, beautifully crafted tube amplifiers, a 4-tower loudspeaker system, all backed up by 10 pieces of Frank Power Banks. The performance was a far cry from the previous year, the bigger space allowed the sound to breathe and to bloom much better. The music selection done personally by Kronos’ designer Louis Desjardins put listeners into a relaxed and nostalgic mood for music listening (no audiophile demo tracks here). The sound was very big, very rich and absolutely non-fatiguing (this was with the Absolare monoblocks back into the chain after repair. The Magnet monoblocks, while more than competent, did not reach the same height in performance).

And if there was an award for The Best Product Presentation, Hifi Creations would win it hands down 🙂

HFC1

HFC4 v2

. HFC18

. HFC20 . HFC9

4. AV Designs – Bryston / PMC

The very new PMC Twenty5 24 loudspeakers were pumping out sound that was fast, bold and dynamic and yet with a good amount of finesse. Its ability to produce such a prodigious amount of bass was phenomenal for a relatively small and slim enclosure.

5. High End Research – Orpheus Lab / Franco Serblin

Matched with the Orpheus electronics, the Ktema sounded very refined, sweet, and musical. A great torch bearer for the great Franco Serblin.

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More photos from the KLIAVS 2016 to share:

A&L – Musical Fidelity

Absolute Sound – Esoteric / Focal

The new Focal Sopra range showed that they had the same design DNA as the Utopias:

Audio Art – LOIT / BMC/ Magnat / HECO

Audio Art brought in many Magnat and HECO models seen for the first time in KLIAVS.

The newly updated BMC integrated amplifier, now designated as CS2.5:

AVP Soundcraft – Nagra

Audio jewellery:

Clarity MP – Mark Levinson / Revel

The Revel Concerta2 F35 loudspeakers, despite being Revel’s entry level floorstanders, were producing very decent sound driven by the No.585 integrated amplifier.