OSCAR AND KELLY BRING YOU THE SECOND HALF OF THEIR COVERAGE OF THE AV SHOW WARSAW 2025 AT THE SOBIESKI HOTEL

Oscar and Kelly take you around the rest of the Sobieski venue of the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025.

After bringing you Stu and Lin’s coverage of  the Golden Tulip, and the Stadium and the first part of Oscar And Kelly’s report from the Sobieski, here is the second half of the Sobieski coverage from the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025.

AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2025 REPORT PART FOUR THE SOBIESKI – SECOND HALF

Picking up from where we left off in the Radisson Blu Sobieski, we continue our tour of the rooms there.

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of the editor.

ATHENAMUSE CABLE     

In this room were a different pair of Ellasonica speakers, paired once again with Ellasonica amplifiers and Athenamuse cables (Eureka2 series). The speakers use a glass midrange driver which is a little different. They sounded great, even handed yet a little more “fun” than the previous Ellasonica ones, with a little added sweetness that makes them a little more engaging.

KAIZEN ART AUDIO

Intriguing speakers in this room, the new Ancient Deva system features speakers crafted from wood and plywood, with the front panels hand-painted to order. Horn + passive radiator, a match made in heaven. And they sounded as good as you’d expect, great detail, space, and body – ok, they may have been playing Diana Krall, yet it was surprisingly enjoyable. These speakers also look cool, with a slightly different look to them, overall, a winner in my books.

BONAWATT

BonaWatt showed off the latest iteration of their Triton hybrid integrated amplifier with modular expansion cards – ensuring this amp is fairly future-proof. Two new cards have also been released, one with a DAC on it, the other being an MM/MC phono stage developed in collaboration with MuzgAUDIO. In the demo system they had a BennyAudio turntable alongside OePhi speakers, and OePhi cabling. These OePhi speakers are using the popular Purifi Ushindi drivers and they sound brilliant, they were playing a popular track I’m Free by Symbolico, and they handled it with ease. Tons of detail and clarity mixed with big, punchy bass – what’s not to love.

THE NOTE

This was an interesting room, with a full analogue setup using field-coil speakers, full tube amplification, a “Vintage Lab” phono stage, and unique field-coil cartridge. This was an impressive system to look at, the Telefunken field-coil speakers, Fostex super-tweeters, all the valve amps and Melco turntable, and yet it was the sound that was most captivating. This is one of those setups where the kit simply melts away and all you are left with is the sound of the instruments, perfectly placed within the soundstage.

REVOX | HORCH HOUSE

Revox had their latest B77 MK III tape recorder on demo paired with their Prestige G140 speakers, M500 amplifier and a Puritan mains conditioner. Revox sure know what they’re doing when it comes to reel-to-reel and this system was a great showcase on how it sounds. Effortless, smooth, and to be cliché, analogue. A great room and, a great system.

TENTOGRA

In here we had the Tentogra Gramy VTA turntable, with Idhos Reference Phono, Idhos Reference monoblocks, Idhos wideband speakers, and Spinor Audio Silver Reference cabling. There was quite a bit of lovely looking kit in this room, and it sounded great too, it was sound that filled the room with ease and dug deep when required.

DSPEAKER

Anti-mode room correction in various forms, in this room they had it paired with a pair of Amphion speakers and a REL sub in the corner. This kind of DSP is brilliant if you have a somewhat tricky room and want to seamless integrate a sub or just level out the speakers. They did a demo with it on and off, and it really does flatten out the response and get rid of the worst of the room modes without ruining the voicing of the speakers.

AUDIO CENTER POLAND / AMPHION

New Amphion Argon audio X series were on demo in this room, with the Argon3LX, Argon3X and Argon7LX. These new Amphions sound fantastic, they have that familiar house sound, just a little more refined and with a dose of extra energy. Even the Argon3X stand mounts do a great job of going deep enough in most rooms, with control, Billie Eilish sounded truly brilliant on these. One of the main features of these is that they are easy to place, with a rear passive radiator they don’t need to be placed far from the rear wall to get great sound.

MIART AUDIO

MiArt are a new company, they were showcasing a reference horn system, consisting of a monitor + sub setup, and a floor standing speaker with ceramic drivers. They had some horns playing in the room when we went in, and they were great, augmented with subs, they offered up a very smooth, and full sound.

TRIODE JAPAN

A well-known tube amplifier company, Triode unveiled their new generation of amps at the show including the Junone 845SE, Evolution 300 WE, Musashi Evolution, and other models from the TRV line. In this room they were using Peak Consult Sonora speakers. Lovely sound in here, big and bold, there are a lot of valve-based systems at this show and if any of you have read my reviews you’ll know I do like the sound of a good valve system. There is something very special about their sound, and this is another great system to showcase that, super punchy, bold, and fun, with a hint of magic that makes them easy on the ear.

BRUNOCO AUDIO 

Brunoco audio products are made in Korea, in limited runs, and they were showing off their Terra 6L6PP and Terra 300b integrated amps, alongside the OmniONE omni-directional 3-way speakers. These are not conventional looking speakers, their unique design is quite cool, and the sound coming from them was incredibly lifelike. They have an up-firing woofer, with front firing dedicated midrange, and tweeter. The amps are lovely too, and it all forms a natural, organic sounding setup.

GEMSTONE

Quite unique looking speakers, made from concrete, they had their Gemini model paired with an Aurender DSDAC, Meitner ma 1 dac, and AudiaFlight FLS4 power amp. These speakers had a tight, controlled sound that handled a wide range of music with ease.

SOUNDEMO

SounDemo are a distributor, they had the newly refreshed Tangent Spectrum II speaker series and also Eltax models, Phase Tech, Later TV and more around the room. The demo system had the Eltax MTR1959 playing, paired with the new line from Tangent, this along with the comfy Ikea chairs made for a nice comfy demo. The Eltax are fun, and the little Tangent electronics are very affordable – meaning you get great bang for your buck here.

After a great evening out on Friday, we started where we had left off and continued exploring the Sobieski on the very busy Saturday of the show.

HIFI SYSTEM

In here we had the excellent Raidho X2t Anniversary Edition speakers paired with Moon audio electronics, they also had the new Raidho TD 3.10 speakers on display in the room. They played some Maneskin in this room and it was great, an upbeat rock track with grit and control. The TD3.10 were the model playing when we were in the room. They also played a softer female vocal track yet there was still a great deep bass beat that these speakers handled with ease.

WILK AUDIO PROJEKT / BLADE BROTHERS 

Blade Brothers make speakers from old wind turbine blades, it’s ecofriendly and provides a very rigid cabinet for the speakers. The acoustics are handled by Wilk Audio Projekt, whilst the design is done by Blade Brothers, an interest blend of design, sound, and eco-credentials.

They were playing some Wilk Audio Projekt floor standing speakers in this room and they sounding sublime, incredibly detailed and open, yet with a lush fullness to them that made them engaging and enjoyable.

MOZZAIK AUDIO / EUPHONY AUDIO

Euphony makes software, which will organise and play all your local music files (PCM and DSD), you can control the software via a web interface or smartphone/tablet. There are a few companies offering this kind of solution, and it seems slick for local media file playback. Mozzaik on the other hand, make speakers and electronics, they were showing their latest speakers and improved DSD up sampler that is made to be used with Euphony. This was a simple setup, yet the sound that was coming out was impressive for its size, the smaller speakers held their own in here.

OWL AUDIO

This is Owl Audio’s debut at the show; they make speakers built on entirely in-house engineering and design. They were using a MuzgAudio reference DAC-01LE, Perfect Connection streamer, Audionet Pre 1 G3 and a pair of audionet monoblocks. They had a pair of stand mount speakers, and a pair of floor standers in this room, the floor standers were playing and sounded great – they use an AMT tweeter, dedicated mid driver and dual bass drivers. Great clarity and detail combined with punchy and deep bass and a natural midrange.

SOUNDAWARE

Soundaware make quite a few components, this year they launched new network streamers, audiophile grade storage devices, audiophile grade network cards, and other bits of kit including DACs, and portable DAC/Amps. They have a wide range of products that cater to quite a few different needs and fit into varied systems. They had a system using their own server, DAC + DSP, linear PSU, and Spendor speakers being driven by a M2TECH Classic integrated amplifier. The Soundaware kit is well crafted and the new D1X server uses an audio grade motherboard – very neat indeed. Overall, this was a very well-balanced system.

OEPHI / DOSHI AUDIO    

OePhi had their Immanece 2, paired with the excellent Evolution line from Doshi, including the Line pre-amplifier and Stereo power amplifier and a Tentogra turntable. These speakers have quite a large ribbon for the mid/high and use custom purify ushindi drivers. These are fantastic, great depth to the soundstage and impressive dynamics. These sound big, and the clarity on display here was truly superb – these can be cranked to deafening volumes without falling apart and have super low distortion.

FEZZ AUDIO / PYLON AUDIO

In this room you had the brand new Fezz Luna Mini, an affordable valve amp that looks fantastic, this was paired with a pair of Pylon Audio speakers, and was a brilliant match sonically. Fezz know what they’re doing when it comes to valves, and this small amp paired well with these stand mounted speakers.

OEPHI / HART LAB

In this room you could find the OePhi Ascendance 2, paired with hArt Lab integrated amplifier with streamer, optional DAC card and optional MM/MC phono stage card, a hybrid amplifier with both valve pre-amp and tube driver with mosfets output. These speakers sit a little below the Immanence range yet still offer that OePhi signature sound that is snappy, dynamic, and engaging. OePhi focus a lot on ensuring their speakers are phase correct.

BELOGUROFF

Beloguroff showed off a range of new products including speakers built around modified JBL drivers in ONKEN-type enclosures, a new entry level range of cables, and a new in-house streamer. An interesting setup, that was incredibly natural sounding.

LUCARTO AUDIO

Debuting the Ferro line, Lucarto showed off the Ferro IA60 integrated amplifier with tube pre-amp, and Ferro IA40. They also had the new Ferro KS400 power conditioner, and Ferro DSD network streamer. They were paired with Qualio speakers, and Tellurium Q cabling, a very well put together setup that had great imaging, depth, detail, and control.

NIRVANA AUDIO

Nirvana Audio were showing off their Chronos optimizer for audio – some little stick optimisers. They were using in a system with Boenicke speakers, Mytek Brooklyn Bridge and Heed amp.

KASOTO / FOUND SOUND        

Kasoto make a wide range of audio furniture, and these were on display in this room, they also make a pair of open baffle speakers and the latest version OnWaTi BF were on demo in this room. Found sound on the other hand make DACs, Streamers, and amplifiers – mostly with tubes. In this room they had their Davio line, with the Plus and Elite DACs on demo, as well as Azure which features DSD playback capability due to the latest-generation DAC platform. Impressive system in this room, and one that sounded good too, with plenty of body, and space.

ANCIENT AUDIO / FRAM

Ancient Audio are celebrating their 30th anniversary, and for this occasion they have released a new Lektor 30th Anniversary CD player. They also debuted a new speaker in this room, the Fram Arte Noir, a 3-way design with passive radiator to help with the low frequencies and an adjustable crossover so you can tune the sound to your preference. These were definitely not lacking body, with ample bass from this setup, and good clarity too.

VELIKINAC AUDIO LAB

Showing off their range of cables in this room, Velikinac also introduced their FakirOne and Differo II SE speakers – these were paired with a Trafomatic amplifier, and some interesting looking resonators around the room. Nice, easy listening through this system, with a full, smooth sound.

STEINWAY LYNGDORF

Well known for their RoomPerfect room correction DSP, Lyngdorf showed off a system consisting of a small pair of stand mounts and a pair of their subs – all dialled in with their RoomPerfect correction, allowing this system to have body, depth, and clarity from a small-ish system.

AUDIOSTACJA      

RME, Mutec, Lake People, Avantone, Violectric, Sony and more head-fi bits in this room.

AUDIOSTACJA

Kii had their, recently reviewed by HiFi PiG, Kii Seven model in this room – and they played Wolf Totem by The Hu, a track that I love. The impact these speakers have, the sheer energy, all without a hint of falling apart of tipping into harshness. Every time I hear these, they just sound fantastic, and I know Stu enjoyed his time with them. The way this track builds and explodes, shows these Kiis have such good transient response and imaging, a brilliant speaker all-round.

ISO ACOUSTICS

We’re very familiar with the IsoAcoustics products, and they had their usual demo where it was easy to hear the difference between the system with and without the Gaia feet. The sound gets noticeably tighter and more controlled with the IsoAcoustics in the system, these work incredibly well. The new Gaia Neo also look fantastic, and they had a good display of their products at the side of the room.

ORCHESTALLS

Hailing from South Korea, Orchestalls make some instantly recognisable speakers that focus on replicating orchestral music. Not really my personal cup-of-tea, for those that like this kind of thing though, they are quite impressive.

AUDIOMAGIC

Audiomagic distributes quite a few well-known brands, in this room they had a full HEED setup with the Obelisk Integrated, Lagrange S, Abacus S, and Volumio Rivo+ streamer, running into a pair of Dorn Acoustics (a sister brand of HEED) Herald speakers. They were playing Tool in this room, a great palate cleanser for me, and it was fantastic. These small speakers handle rock music very well, with great imaging, energy, and dynamics.

CUBE AUDIO / TEKTRON AUDIO

Cube had their new Monet speakers in this room; they were paired with a Tektron SET amplifier. An easy-going speaker, they were using IsoAcoustics feet and these speakers sounded nice and natural.

STUDIO 16HZ / CAYIN POLSKA / MB AUDIO CABLE

There were quite a few bits in this room, including the Cayin Soul 170 I, Jazz 100 and Jazz 80 amplifiers, MB audio cables including their new Silver interconnect, and Studio 16Hz who build speakers and service audio components.

PENAUDIO / ACCUPHASE

This room featured Penaudio’s Karelietta, one of their flagship models, using Seas diamond tweeters – these were paired with a Matrix Audio streamer and network switch, Accuphase electronics, along with Esprit cabling and SolidSteel stands. A great sounding setup, with plenty of energy and clarity.

AUDIO-MIX / PENAUDIO

In the next room we had the debut of Penaudio’s Rebel Three Luumaki speakers paired with a tube amp from Audio Reveal, Matrix Audio streaming transport, cables from Esprit, and stands from SolidSteel. Whilst not quite as impressive as the big room, these held their own as a highly enjoyable, fuller sounding speaker.

ALBEDO / AUDIO CONNECT     

In the first room you had the Riviera Levante amplifier paired with Diptyque DP 140 MK2 and QLN Prestige Three speakers, Aqua Acoustic Formula DAC and LinQ network player. This system was also using cabling from Albedo. These are very open sounding speakers, with enough depth and punch when required.

ALBEDO / AUDIO CONNECT

Here you could find the Ars-Sonum Filarmons XP Universum tube amplifier, Diapason Adamantes speakers, JMR Cantabile Jubile speakers, and cables from Albedo. A smooth sounding system with great soundstaging.

DANIEL HERTZ / LAMPOWIEC.PL

This is a room with the latest project from Mark Levinson, we heard a setup last year, and it was quite special, so to hear it again was really something. I don’t quite fully understand all the ins and outs of the tech inside the amp, but it makes music sound real and feel alive. Daniel Hertz offer a range of amplifiers and speakers to fit most spaces, if you do get a chance to listen to this, jump at it.

SOLIDELEAUDIO

Solidele are known for their stereo power amps, at this show they released some all-in-one components, including their IA501, streaming amplifier. They were doing a talk about the system in this room, and the speakers were interesting.

MYTEK AUDIO USA / ALBEDO AUDIO / FABER’S CABLE

In the first Mytek room they had some thin Albedo speakers and the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II and Amp powering them – these speakers sounded impressive for their size, they were using Faber’s cables and mains distribution in this room.

MUZGAUDIO / LINEA AUDIO

MuzgAUDIO unveiled two new DACs at the show, this is a company who make all their own designs and the whole system in this room was made up of components made in Poland. Linea Audio make a range of speakers, and the slim floor standers from Linea Audio were playing in here. They sounded excellent – quite a well-balanced sound with accurate tonality and controlled yet deep bass. Linea are making some great speakers, so I’ll be curious to see what comes next.

QUALIO / BONAWATT

Another debut at the show was the Qualio IQ30 speakers, with a larger 12” woofer, these are sure to fill a bigger space with ease, yet they remain easy to drive. These new IQ30’s were paired with BonaWatt amplifiers and a Lampizator DAC – easily room filling sound with a great sense of both clarity, and fullness.

PREMIUM SOUND

Line Magnetic and Lab12 tube amps with Psvane tubes partnered with AudioSolutions Virtuosos speakers in this demo room, a great pairing. Massive Attack’s Angel sounded excellent with plenty of deep, pulsating bass and clarity when the vocals kick in.

MYTEK AUDIO USA / ALBEDO AUDIO / FABER’S CABLE

Mytek had a whole range of products on display and demo, the main system however consisted of their Empire streaming DAC and the new Empire amplifiers with GaN FET transistors. These were paired with Albedo Audio speakers, which are made in Italy and use a transmission line design. The Albedo speakers paired well with the Mytek kit, with quite a controlled and detailed sound.

CORRIDOR STANDS

In the corridors we had a selection of accessories, including turntable bits from Vinylspot PL. Vinyl and CD sales from Krautrock-Vinyl.

ŁDŁ Elektronika are a company who repair audio equipment.

Święty Spokój, a who company runs a vinyl café and had a selection of vinyl for sale here. MasterDisc who had a selection of CD’s, SACD’s, DVD audio and an assortment of accessories.

LUCARTO

Lucarto had their flagship headphone amp here, the Songolo HPA300SE, paired with headphones from Dan Clark Audio, Meze, Audeze, HiFiMAN and more. They also had their HPA200 on demo too. I did have a quick listen to the HiFiMAN Susvara with the Lucarto HPA300SE – and it is a fantastic pairing, driving them effortlessly with tons of power, punch, and clarity.

DELTA AUDIO

Delta Audio had a Gold Note setup consisting of the Mediterraneo X turntable, PH-1000 phono stage, CD-1000 deluxe player, and DS-1000 EVO DAC/streamer. This was accompanied by MastersounD PF200 Litz power amps, Spazio tube pre-amp, Brodmann Acoustics VC 7 speakers, Tsakiridis Super Athena mains conditioner, and ZenSati cabling.

They also had Network Acoustics kit ensuring streaming quality, Magaudio magnetic absorbers, and Titan Audio power systems on display.

Now we’re on to the larger rooms with more aspirational systems, and they really do offer something quite different. This is a big sound, even though the speakers are quite slim, they are bold, full, and have excellent detail retrieval. They played Hi Ren by Ren, and it was such a great track for this kind of system, I must give them kudos for their excellent choice of music here.

DNA • AUDIO

In the first DNA Audio room you had a full Lyngdorf setup with 2 BW-2 subs, and CS-1 in-cabinet speakers – a discreet setup for both audio and video use. They had a second setup in here too which had the Lyngdorf FR-2 speakers, and TDAI-2210 amplifier with RoomPerfect technology and a touchscreen. They were playing the CS-1’s when we were in the room and they sounded exceptionally good for a speaker system that was placed in a cabinet.

FEZZ AUDIO / PYLON AUDIO

In the main Fezz and Pylon room we had a full balanced Magnetar system from their Fezz Supernova line. This consisted of two 200-watt monoblock amps, a tube line pre-amp, Lampizator Pacific DAC, and Pylon Gamma speakers. Pylon also had their Beta, and Alfa speakers on display in this room, completing their Amethyst line of speakers. The Gamma speakers sounded brilliant with the Fezz monoblocks, this was a setup that sounded as good as it looked, delivering the weight and scale of any song without breaking a sweat. The spatial cues in the music were accurately placed within the soundstage and it all come together in a captivating and coherent sound.

AUDIO EMOTIONS

Audio Emotions had a couple of rooms with Audio Group Denmark systems, the first using the Axxess Forte 3 all-in-one streaming amplifier, and Borresen X2 speakers. They were using Ansuz cabling and accessories throughout the system. As you’d expect, this was a very well dialled in room, and the Borresen X2 sounded superb when paired with the Forte 3 streaming amplifier. They have that signature control, and snappy transient response paired with explosive dynamics, great stuff!

AUDIO EMOTIONS

In the second system they had the new Aavik 588 series phono stage, SD-588 streamer, I-588 amplifier, and Borresen T1 stand mount speakers paired with the new Borresen A3 Bass Modules (these are fantastic). The new 588 phono stage has a DS Audio optical cartridge input, and they were using this in the system. So, the footprint of this system may be similar to a larger floor stander, however this is an astonishingly good system that outperforms many floor standing systems in my humble opinion. The sheer scale and drive that this setup has is incredible, the bass modules are not simple subs, they are an extension of the speaker themselves and blend so seamlessly. The sound here was coherent, with effortless extension from top to bottom, and the bass modules have such good timing, never lagging behind the stand mount speakers.

AUDIOPHASE / PERREAUX

Audiophase had their whole speaker lineup on display, in different finishes, as well as their range of cables, and previews of things coming in 2026. These were paired with Perreaux electronics, including their latest 300iX integrated amplifier, and flagship VP4 phono stage. Big, bold, punch, and spacious is how I’d describe this room – handling dynamic shifts with ease and composure.

SOUND SOURCE X AUDIO ANALOGUE

In this room you had quite a few Audio Analogue bits on display around the room, the demo system consisted of an Audio Analogue AAdac, AAdrive, AAphono, a pair of ABsolute monoblocks, Airtech ATS01 speakers and an EAT C-Major turntable. This was a smooth, and open sounding system with plenty of drive and body.

DELTA AUDIO

In this Delta Audio room we had a pair of Matter speakers, paired with a full complement of Tsakiridis electronics with the addition of a GoldNote DAC and CD player. These open baffle speakers had tons of punch with good vocal clarity too, an engaging system.

GIGAWATT / MARTON / FONICA INTERNATIONAL

In this room we had the new Fonica isodynamic speakers (FLAG series), with the LaGrande on demo paired with the Marton Prelude pre-amp, Marton Opusculum Reference power amp, and GigaWatt PowerMaster 25th anniversary mains conditioner. There was also the new GigaWatt PF-2 SE EVO+ mains distribution block on show in this room. As you’d expect, these speakers deliver sound effortlessly and fill the room with ease, although they did lack a tiny bit of dynamic punch at times.

SILENT POUND

Silent Pound had a production pair of their new Bloom model, I know Stu is running a pair in at the moment and I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts on them. In this system, they sounded fantastic, the design is beautiful, and they pack a lot of dynamic punch for their size. They were paired with a Vitus audio integrated amp and had no troubles filling this room with sound. Silent pound cleverly set up the demo space with listening chairs in line with the sweet spot, rather than across the room, giving listeners a much better experience. I think one of my main takeaways from this room is that style and substance can mix, and that these are effortlessly natural sounding speakers.

And that’s us done in the Sobieski, what a show, lots of excellent rooms and inviting brands – thank you to the organisers, exhibitors, visitors, and our coverage sponsor Tellurium Q for making this such a fantastic HiFi show…you will hear more from us shortly as we check out the Headphone Zone over at the stadium.

Follow all of our Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025 coverage here

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of the editor.

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden