OSCAR AND KELLY BRING YOU ALL THE COVERAGE OF THE AV SHOW WARSAW 2025 AT THE SOBIESKI HOTEL

Oscar and Kelly head to the Radisson Blu Sobieski venue of the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025.

Spanning three venues, the Golden Tulip, the Stadium and the Sobieski, the Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025 was huge this year. Oscar and Kelly started their coverage at the top floor of the Sobieski venue, join them for in depth insights and loads of fantastic pictures from the event.

AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2025 REPORT PART THREE THE SOBIESKI

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.

ADMD AUDIO

ADMD were premiering their new R-2R DAC featuring a switchable FLAT/VINTAGE mode. This DAC comes in a compact design with discrete ladder network. They were using an Electrocompaniet EC4.8 MKII integrated amplifier driving a pair of their own ADMD speakers. Full, natural, and smooth is how I would describe this system, a lovely room…you can expect to read Stu’s review of their DAC very soon.

SZEMIS AUDIO KONSULTANT

In this room we had the Sugden A21aL Class-A amplifier paired with the Sugden DAC-4 and Type-A mini loudspeakers. There was also a second, higher-tier system, featuring the Sugden MPA monoblocks with Grand Type-A speakers – this is the one that was playing when we went in the room, they were playing a live recording of Chopin (on SACD) and it was incredibly lifelike through this setup. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a Pioneer PD-T05 stable platter transport. This system had brilliant range and they changed through a few pieces of music in here proving that the system can handle dynamic shifts with ease.

MORE AUDIO

In here we had the MORE Audio CS100 amplifier, now featuring a black front panel. They were pairing their amp with a pair of Qualio IQ Ultra speakers and the Kultura Dźwięku Scratch speakers (which were playing when we visited the room). The small speakers had good range and filled this room nicely.

RADA ELECTRONICS

Rada make a range of valve-based products, they had their PRECIOUS TUBE stack running into a pair of RiSound open-baffle speakers with Rada optimised crossover, along with a Meend custom Technics PS10 MKII turntable, REED turntable, custom 2B tonearm and AIDAS cartridges. Whilst the music playing may not have been to my personal taste, this system was tonally accurate with great insight into the recording.

CLOSER ACOUSTICS

Closer Acoustics are a Polish high-end brand; they had their full OGY system powered by their signature 300B amplifier and paired with a Lampizator Amber 5 DAC. An interesting setup, I really enjoyed these smaller transmission line speakers on the open-baffle bass stands. Very controlled sound with great depth, the bass was perfect in this room, only coming out when called for. Very effortless.

PEŁNE BRZMIENIE STUDIO HI-END

Polish distributor for ART speakers from Scotland. The demo system had the Impression Diamond 10 playing with amplification from ART Audio (Adagio monoblocks), along with power kit and cabling from Audioplan. They were using a Linn Systemdek and Audio Research CD player for the sources. I’ve heard ART speakers a few times, and they sounded great in this room paired with these electronics, the valves certainly smooth out the diamond tweeters.

AUDIO ANATOMY / LUXURY AUDIO SYSTEMS / HEA

In the first Audio Anatomy room we had a pair of Manger P2 speakers running off a Matrix Audio TT-1 streaming transport, and Pathos TT amp. They also had the Audia Flight FLS8 and other components on display in this system. These Manger speakers have impeccable timing, with great transient response and deep bass when called for and the mid/high driver uses some interesting tech.

AUDIO ANATOMY / LUXURY AUDIO SYSTEMS / HEA

In the second Audio Anatomy room you had a pair of hORNS Aria III MK3 speakers playing, paired with a Mavis M90-P amplifier, MMS-1 streaming DAC and PH-DS1 phono stage that also features a DS optical cartridge input. The soundstaging here was phenomenal, with sounds emanating around the room, with huge depth, width, and height.

INTRADA / AKWA AUDIO PROJEKT

In here we had the Serblin & Son Frankie Hybrid pre-amp and Frankie monoblocks, running off a Zavfino Copperhead turntable with Aeshna Titan tonearm and EMT HSD006 cartridge. They were using a pair of Intrada Nadia speakers with Zavfino cabling. This was another well setup system, no bloat, clean, and crisp sound that had good space, and insight.

SISOUND    

Sisound make a range of audio systems, this year they were debuting their new Solidus X and Solidus M speakers which use planar ribbon drivers in sealed enclosures. They were using their Staccato BU-01 Class-A integrated amplifier to drive them. We heard the Solidus X and these are my kind of sound, controlled, deep, and punchy due to their sealed enclosure. The ribbon tweeters offer up great detail without sounding harsh, and these seemed to handle any kind of music thrown at them – a highlight of the show for me sound wise.

IDEON AUDIO       

Ideon had a full range of electronics on demo, paired with a pair of hORNS Symphony 10 speakers, and a LAB12 Suono power amplifier. I’m enjoying what I’m hearing from the hORNS and they do pair very nicely with valves.

MJ AUDIO

MJ Audio had a range of Vicoustic room treatments on demo alongside a demo system using the Bryston COMPACT T10 monitors, Bi-200 integrated amplifier and BDA 3.14 DAC/transport. Fairly balanced sound from these Bryston monitors, they seem to image very well too.

KULTURA DŹWIĘKU

Kultura Dźwięku premiered the Soul 3 speakers in this room, these speakers were running off Bonawatt valve amplifiers, a Lumin streamer, and they had Tellurium Q cables all-round. The Soul 3 are a big sounding slim floor standing speaker, plenty of deep bass with great clarity throughout.

HART LAB / ARETAI / REED

Latvia’s Aretai speakers, Reed turntable, hARt labs electronics. This system was big, bold, and slightly sharp in the treble at times – I feel they need a little more space to really breathe. They had a Reed Muse 3C turntable, Reed EQ, Reed PS, and OePhi cabling throughout.

In the second room they had a smaller setup, with stand mount Aretai speakers that have a secondary driver on the rear of the speaker, enabling them to go down to 30Hz. We had a short demo session with these, and they sounded a lot more even handed than their bigger siblings.

POPORI ACOUSTICS / COSTA SONIQA        

I’ve heard Popori before and highly enjoyed them (an electrostatic speaker that can do bass), this year they have a new model to show off. The Vitorla, a two-way electrostatic design with ribbon high-frequency planar transducer. They had a Cary Audio DMS-500 as the streamer of choice, Musical Fidelity A1 integrated amp, and full Viablue cabling. They also had a Pro-Ject Xtension 12 turntable as an analogue source. These were incredible sounding speakers. Popori are one of those companies who demonstrate that electrostatic speakers can in fact do full-range sound, with clarity, and an effortless presentation. These also look mad, and don’t cost the earth, impressive.

AUDIO NOTE (UK)

In the Audio Note UK room, we had their Meishu 300b Tonmeister integrated amplifier with Phono input, DAC 3.1X/II Balanced DAC, AN-E High Efficiency loudspeakers, CDT transport, and TT-2 dual-motor turntable. Audio Note always know how to set up a room at shows and this was no different, engaging, full, yet never bloated.

DUTCH & DUTCH  

Dutch & Dutch are well known for their active speakers, at this show they premiered their brand new 6c speakers. This is a slightly smaller model from the brand, but with the same DNA, offering the same level of quality in a smaller footprint. They still have the same streaming and RoomMatching tech as their bigger siblings, and they form the basis of an upcoming floor standing system. These are still a very Dutch & Dutch speaker, with very similar voicing to their bigger sibling, yet with a tiny bit less heft to the sound. For a compact active speaker, they sure do dig deep into the bass with great impact and control. Active speakers are becoming increasingly more popular, and when they sound this good, it’s no mystery as to why.

AUDIO FORTE      

Audio Forte distributes a few brands such as Acoustic Solid, Atoll, Graham Slee and more. In this room they had both CD and vinyl systems setup with the Atoll IN400 Evolution integrated amp, DR200 Evolution transport, ST300 streamer, Atohm GT2 speakers and an Acoustic Solid turntable. This was an even-handed, quite relaxed room, although they were playing quite soft blues music so it may have just been that. The new Atohm GT2 did sound great though, with a clean, and detailed sound.

AUDIOTHLON

Audiothlon had two rooms, this year they decided to set up similar rooms with different amplification. They also had 4 new models in their refreshed Equilibrium speaker range, designed for use in smaller rooms.

They were using 15th anniversary edition Denafrips R-2R DACs in the system; this room had the Class-A solid state amp from JJ Pure Audio whilst the other room was using a tube amp with 300b tubes in push-pull configuration – from Pier Audio.

The first system we listened to had the Pier Audio 300b amp, and it sounded fantastic, someone requested some techno music and it handled it with ease. This was not a “woolly” sounding tube amp, instead it had a firm grip over the speakers’ drivers and dynamics were a real strong point in this setup.

The second one had the JJ Pure Audio solid state amp, and whilst this still had excellent dynamics it was a little cleaner overall, and favoured clarity over “fun”. Two different presentations, both equally enjoyable, and both suit slightly different tastes (it was a bonus being able to listen to the same track in both rooms). Both systems were brilliant, and I enjoyed the sound of the Equilibrium speakers.

THIVANLABS / MAVIS LABS

ThivanLabs are a Vietnamese company, this year they had their Eros 7 speakers being driven by a Mavis M90S tube hybrid integrated amplifier, ThivanLabs TMS9 Premium 300b pre-amp with MM/MC phono stage and headphone output, J.Sikora Aspire turntable and AIDAS cartridge. As you’d expect from a horn loaded speaker like this, they are quite lively, yet balanced, and controlled with huge scale.

HOMOGENIX

This is a Polish company who make MC cartridges, they have released a new model the MC EVO which includes a Boron cantilever and MicroRidge stylus. In this room they were comparing cartridges from their range, so you could hear the changes in voicing between them. They also had a new super-tweeter they were demo’ing from Take T. They were using a SoulNote E-2 phono stage and a pair of valve mono blocks in this room.

BARE BAFFLE / ARYA AUDIO LABS

In this room you could find the Schetl Pathway speakers, which are based on a form of transmission line design. These were joined by a pair of Arya Audio Labs AirBlade super-tweeters, WE 300b tubes in a pair of Phasemation MA-2000 power amps, a Wadax studioplayer, and a HoloAudio DAC. There were a few isolation bits around the room, and this was a very easy-going system. The music was, once again, quite tame so we didn’t really get to hear its full potential, it was however very easy on the ear.

Ø AUDIO

Now, I first saw the Ø Audio speakers back at the Oslo show, and have since experienced them at a few other shows, and I know Stu highly enjoyed his time with the Icon 12 too. Well, they just so happened to have the Icon 12 speakers playing with Electrocompaniet electronics and Tellurium Q cabling – what a system. They played a track specially for me, as they know my taste, Wolf Totem by The Hu. These speakers have incredible drive and body, they hit hard with real impact, without ever losing track of the intricate details. Even in this small-ish room, they never sounded overpowering. The Electrocompaniet AW800 M monoblocks retaining excellent grip over the speakers, and a DCS network streaming DAC.

STORGAARD & VESTSKOV

SV Audio are another company that have impressed me, their system at Munich as quite something. Here they were using Accuphase amplification and CD player, dCS streaming DAC + clock, and ZenSati cabling – the speakers in this room were the Frida and Gro.

We listened to the Gro and these speakers never fail to impress, snappy transients, deep bass, and accurate tonality – they seem to pair very well with the Accuphase kit too. These sound a lot bigger than their size would suggest…and I know there is a pair of Gro at HiFi PiG Towers with Stu, awaiting a review following his review of the Frida standmounts which you can read here.

LOCKWOOD LOUDSPEAKERS

Lockwood are a legendary British company and this year they had their brand-new Mini Major on demo, paired with Luxmann electronics. We saw a teaser of these speakers at Bristol, so it was great to finally hear these. They also had their Mini and Academy series loudspeakers in the room. They did have a prototype Mini Universal monitor, which shares a lot of parts with the Mini Major.

The Mini Major sound bigger than their cabinet and driver size would suggest, and the Luxmann amp had no issues driving them. What they lack in absolute heft, they make up for in imaging, and accurate voicing.

FORUM DIYAUDIO.PL

In this room they had a community showcase of DIY products and projects.

HOLBORNE

In this room you had some lovely Swiss Analog products, including the Analog 3 turntable with uni-pivot tonarm, alongside Holborne Passion integrated amplifier and Diapason Adamantes speakers with B.A.C.H cables. They played One For Sorrow, Two For Joy by Reema and it sounded beautiful on this system, with a smooth, open presentation. 

WILE / SOUNDART

Wile had two new products on demo, the ROCK NT hybrid amplifier and Mocarz III power conditioner. The speakers in the room were a little too big for the space, and there was an abundance of bass at times, they were still detailed though.

SKALA AUDIO

Skala make speakers, and at the show they were showing off a new take on their Kaliope model – Velvet, which brings an even more refined and “velvety” presentation. They also showed a new bookshelf model, the Kaliope Monitor. We got to listen to the Monitor speaker, they were being powered by Fosi amplifiers, a Wiim mini, Chord Mojo II and a little FX-Audio valve pre-amp. This was an affordable setup in terms of electronics, which didn’t detract from the sound of the speakers – which was punchy, energetic, and clear.

FORUM AUDIOSTEREO.PL

This was a room setup by a Polish online audiophile community, there was some good bits in here including an S.M.S.L DAC, AudioLab CD transport, and other assorted pieces.

AUDIO ATELIER    

Audio Atelier had several rooms. In room 407 you could find the Bladelius Ask integrated amplifier, which has an integrated DAC and streamer, driving a pair of Ø Audio FRIGG speakers – once again brilliant sound from these Norwegian speakers. Even though these are a little smaller than the model heard earlier, they still managed to sound dynamic and punchy.

AUDIO ATELIER    

406 was a room shared with Multidine, alongside Norma Audio and their Revo IPA-80 and HS-IPA1 amplifiers, and CDP-2 CD player. They also had a Lumin U2 streamer in this system, playing through the Norma HS-DA1 DAC. They were playing some Pink Floyd in here and it was a great little system – yes, the speakers didn’t quite fill the room as well as some other bigger ones, yet they held their own and had great imaging.

AUDIO ATELIER

405 had electronics from Aurorasound, including their newest HFSA-01 hybrid amplifier, alongside the Lumin T3X and U2 streamers. They also had some Merson Audio components and the classic Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a and M10 monitors on demo. They had the M10’s playing when we were in the room and they have that typical solid imaging that smaller stand mount speakers offer. If you listen to music that focuses on the midrange, these are fantastic, and the new Aurorasound amp looks great.

AUDIO ATELIER    

Room 402 had kit from Grandinote, including the Solo integrated amplifier, Volta streamer, Celio phono stage and Mach 2 Estrema speakers – the analogue front end was supplied by J.Sikora, in the form of an Aspire turntable with Marasakino Sumile MC cartridge. Another fairly easy-going room, the J.Sikora Apire is a lovely looking turntable and the Sumile cartridge seemed to be a great pairing.

AUDIO ATELIER    

In Room 401 Audio Atelier had the new Bladelius ODEN II amplifier paired with TAD speakers (both the CE-1TX and E2 were on demo). Source wise they had a Lumin U2X network transport and Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC. I’m a fan of the TAD speakers and they worked well with the Bladelius here, with great control, scale, and detail.

SOFT COLLECTIVE

Some interesting speakers here with an 18” woofer, dedicated midrange, and tweeter in an open baffle design. They were being run off a 17w valve amplifier, as the speakers are quite high sensitivity. These excel with vocal-centric music yet can deliver impact and depth when called for. They had a Rockna DAC in the system and a Technics turntable with custom plinth.

WK AUDIO  

WK Audio make a range of cables, here you could find the premiere of their new TheRed MKII flagship speaker cable price at a measly €10,000 – entirely hand made in small batches. They also had their entry level range, TheOne series, on show. Sadly, they were playing Hotel California in this room, the cables are pretty though.

CIARRY AUDIO / ZENSATI         

Ciarry had their latest generation of speakers, the KG5040 MK2 on demo, alongside their C8 standmount, driven by Bryston amplifiers and using ZenSati cabling throughout. The KG5040 MKII sounded lovely, but again some soft female vocals were playing that didn’t really give me a good taste of what these are capable of. They do handle the vocal range well though, with plenty of detail and air.

BMN

BMN had a few new speakers on show, including the Bauritius 2, Bauritius 3, and Berges 3i – these were paired with either the Moon 641 amplifier or Primare i35 (both were in the room). They were using a Moon 681 as the source, cabling from Purist Audio Design, and a Nordost QRT QB4 MKIII mains distribution block. A great sounding room to be honest, these speakers had quite natural voicing with plenty of depth.

HAIKU AUDIO        

Haiku make a range of tube, hybrid, and solid-state amplifiers, in this room they presented three of their models, the solid-state Sol 2 Pro, and two tube models, the Milo 6CA7 and Selene 300b. DeVore Orangutan O Baby. This was a proper analogue room and it was easy on the ear and a pleasure to listen to, I do rather like the DeVore speakers.

ATHENAMUSE CABLE

Athenamuse make a huge range of cables for pretty much any component in your system, they had a demo system using Ellasonica speakers which feature diamond tweeters and a full complement of Ellasonica amplifiers including active crossover bi-amping. These are clear, crisp speakers that focus on clarity, and openness of sound – an enjoyable listen without harshness.

VIRTUAL HIFI

This company make a range of audio tweaks, including op-amps, isolation feet, cables, and speakers made with 3D printed parts – a nerds dream. They showcased two new models, the Mini Monitor Viper and Monitor Cobra. These are really cool looking speakers, we heard the Monitor Cobra and they sound great – big, deep bass, crisp highs and just a fun sound. The 3D printed feet look great too, and they have some on a pair of SolidSteel stands. These speakers put a smile on my face, it may have helped that they were playing some pretty heavy techno music.

Virtual HiFi was founded by Greg of Cube Audio and Qualio fame…you can read more about this new brand here.

HIFIHIEND LT

A big Lithuanian distributor, they brought a few brands to demo at the show. The main system had the GG Acoustics speakers, Zoom Audio Labs Amplifier, Denafrips Terminator 15th DAC, Denafrips Gaia 12th DDC (digital – digital converter), Matrix Audio NT-1 streaming transport, TS-1 Streaming DAC, and SS-1 Pro network switch. This was quite a fun room too, playing some Yello, it was big, bold and punchy.

Stay tuned for the second part of the Sobieski coverage coming soon…   

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.

Follow all of our Audio Video Show Warsaw 2025 coverage here

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden