Audio Video Show Warsaw 2026 Report Part Two – PGE Narodowy

AV SHOW WARSAW 2026 REPORT FROM THE PGE NATIONAL STADIUM

We headed over to the PGE Narodowy Stadium for the next part of our AV Show Warsaw 2026 coverage.

If you want to start with our first report, from the Golden Tulip, you can read that here.

Poland’s national stadium is, as you would expect, huge, and in the last two years the Audio Video Show Warsaw has taken over even more spaces for the exhibition.

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AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2026 REPORT PART TWO – PGE NARODOWY

This second Audio Video Show Warsaw 2026 report comes from Stu and Lin, with some help from Oscar and Kelly later in the report.

This is a huge report from a massive venue, so don’t forget you can use our new ‘search this article’ function to find a particular brand or room. If you need instructions on how to use the search, click here

After the Golden Tulip, we spent the rest of Friday afternoon up on floor two of the stadium, on the East Grandstand side, where the really big rooms are.

SOUNDCLUB 1

Soundclub had several large rooms, and this HUGE room was split into two, with two separate systems set up. The first (not playing) was the one fronted by Wolf von Langa speakers and Airtight electronics, specifically the ATM 3211 mono power amplifiers with the ATC-7 preamplifier. The AP-01 turntable is from Japanese HiFi brand YUKI, and a gorgeous thing it is indeed!

The system that was playing used Halcro Eclipse amplification through EgglestonWorks Andra Viginti V2 20th Anniversary limited edition loudspeakers. The preamplifier was the Halcro Equinox two-box preamplifier. The DAC was a Brinkmann Nyquist. It was excellent to see the 432 EVO Reference music server being used in this system, too.

LAMPIZATOR AND SVEDA

It’s always an absolute pleasure to see Lampizator and Sveda in their home country, and to me this room sounded very nice. The full system was the Sveda Gabi actives at 59K, the Lampizator GulfStream music server that was making its Polish premiere (29,250€), and the Pacific 5 DAC from Lampizator, which costs 33,210€ and was also making its world premiere. Also making its premiere was the Lampizator Neptune 2 balanced tube preamplifier 21K. Power and connector cables were all from KBL, and an EAhibrid PureDC-B1 switch and LAN cables were being used in this system. The total system, with cables, filters, etc was just shy of 250K Euros.

This was a really huge room too, but this system filled it really nicely and without over-energising it.

SOUNDCLUB 2

Brandon from WADAX was hosting this room when we went in, and it was very busy, though I did manage to grab a seat for the duration. Marten Coltrane Quintet Statement speakers fronted the system, with a Boulder 2160 stereo power amplifier and 2110 two-box preamplifier supplying the juice.

The WADAX was the STUDIO collection three-box system with the player, clock, and PSU supplying the zeros and ones for the system, and I really do like this stack – I can’t afford it, but I do love it. I also love the slightly pared-down styling of this new WADAX system rather than the rather unique older styling of this brand.

We got to hear some music I didn’t particularly enjoy and then a drum track that really showed off the dynamic chops of this system to great effect – good choice! Not exactly the ideal setting for critical listening, but the drums were in the room live!

The second part of this room was fronted by a HUGE pair of Gobel Divin Monarch loudspeakers and Soulution amplification. WADAX were supplying the zeros and ones, and there was a turntable from Brinkmann. The racks were Alumaster made from Aluminium block and Carbon Fibre by Franc Audio Accessories.

DREAM AUDIO

The guys from Dream Audio never fail to put anything together that isn’t utterly stunning, and they didn’t disappoint in this room at the National Stadium in Warsaw. Kroma Atelier Maribel speakers fronted a system that had Ypsilon Hyperion, Orion, PT100 Anniversary, DAC1000SE and S100 server electronics. Taiko Audio routers and switches were in evidence, along with Telos grounding and Powerstation. Stage cabling, Hifistand, and Carbide bases completed the system.

I’m going to say that the Kroma Atelier speakers are currently one of my favourite speaker brands in the world, and they produce some absolutely stunning models that are distributed in the UK by Boyer. I can see a pair gracing the Hifi PiG reference system at some point in the future, though I guess it’s not going to be the Maribels…sadly. At the show, on one track I heard, there was a little something awry with a specific bass note on a track; I don’t know if it was the room or what, but the track soon got shelved.

UBIQAUDIOLAB

If you are into cars and tuning cars, then you will know the chap behind this brand (Igor Akropovic) as he is very well known on the tuning and F1 circuit for exhaust systems. The Absolute Sounds team from the UK were manning a good part of this room and were doing a great job of charming and attracting the crowds. Igor wanted more music and less of a HiFi sound and so he dreamed of a day he could sit in his home and hear not the system, but just the music. But a team was needed, and the first member was Andre, an engineer of futuristic design and a very imaginative individual. Igor Kante was also brought into the team, who had decades of high-end listening experience. And the result is the system we have in front of us now. The idea is emotional connection with the music, something I bang on about all the time. Just you and the music!

The Ubicube 700 monoblocs (four of) and the Ubiquitous 300B pre were being shown and demonstrated. We were treated to the technical gubbins behind these, but if you are interested, then do head over to their Ubiqaudiolab website for a look, as it’s quite fascinating, even for a technophobe (kind of) like myself. The dcS Varese DAC from the UK and a Dohmann Helix 1 turntable from Australia with a Reed tonearm and an Analogue Relax cartridge were being used, as were the Autobigoraphy speakers and Subsonic subwoofers from Wilson Audio.

The Ubicube amps are the most fabulous-looking and spectacular things I’ve ever seen in the audio world! If a Bond villain transformed into a bit of HiFi kit, then they’d be one of these monoblocs.

Musically, these were reel-to-reel recordings put onto DAT. The version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here was perhaps as good as I’ve ever heard it. Absolutely Stunning!

If there is a way to put on a presentation, this is it. It was educational, not over the top and the musical choice was spot on!

LIROGON, VTL, EVEREST, NETWORK ACOUSTICS, GRAPHITE AUDIO, ZENSATI

I first happened across the Polish speaker brand Lirogon at the Vienna show earlier this year, but they were in a pretty small room that didn’t really give them room to breathe. Here at the Warsaw show and with the big VTL monoblocs, they really came to life. Subtlety when it was needed and power likewise.

Great to see the Network Acoustic lads doing so well and being so well represented on the International scene!

A J Sikora turntable was being shown, but we didn’t get to listen to that, sadly.

This was a spectacularly good system that was only slightly eclipsed by the previous room we were in. Had we not just been in the UBIQAUDIO room, this system would have knocked us out even more than it already did!

The full system was: Lirogon Origin, VTL Siegfried reference mono, VTL 6.5 preamp, VTL 6.5 phono stage, Everest Ascent reference server, Playback mdp6, J. Sikora standard max supreme, ZenSati #1. Aidas True Stone Violet Gold Coil, Network Acoustics Muon² filter system, Network Acoustics Muon² Switch, Network Acoustics Origin, Network Acoustics Muon² Usb and acoustic treatment was by nyquista.

SOULNOTE AND HORN ACOUSTIC

After about half an hour of riding the lift (we have this same problem every year at this show) and finally admitting defeat at trying to get to the place we planned to start back on the East Grandstand side, we went to floor 2 of the West Grandstand and started off in the SoulNote and Horn Acoustic room that overlooked the National Stadium’s ground.

Fronting this system was a pair of Horn Acoustic model Vivo with a SoulNote A-2, S-3 (DAC/SACD) playing along with Lumin P2 Streamer and a Lumin P1 mini switch (seeing a lot of switches at this year’s show).

INNUOS

The team from Innuos were showing off their Zenith NextGEn stack. The Zenith NextGEn with the Phoenix USB output, along with the NextGen Audiophile switch, connects via SFP optical to the network; on the output side, we have the Next Flow with a DAC. That outputs an analogue signal into a pair of Duo GT speakers from AvantGarde.

The room was really nicely laid out and dressed, and Nuno from INNUOS had put together a bit of a video that explained how the Innuos SENSE app works and was apparently proving very popular with visitors. This app has been updated with a whole load of input from actual users, and I found it quite interesting that the library side of things has its own classical music mode; given how difficult classical music is to catalogue, this is no mean feat.

The room had been really nicely dressed as a sitting room kind of environment, and hats off to Innuos for this – some rooms we saw yesterday hadn’t really been dressed much at all, despite some of the really high-end gear they contained.

GATO AUDIO & CLC AUDIO

From a room that was calm and quite dark, we moved to this room that was also nicely dressed but much brighter and set up across the room in what my folks would have called catty-cornered – take a look at the pics to see what I mean. The GATO electronics were feeding into a pair of Copenhagen Loudspeaker Company CLC65a loudspeakers that are active and have 3 x 150 W amps on board, along with active DSP. As well as the room correction, you can also change the EQ manually with the companion app. Input is via an XLR connector with a Premium ESS ADC with adjustable sensitivity. Price is TBA on these speakers, but based on this limited listen to them, I can see them doing really well for folks that want a quality and “real” audio system but don’t want the associated hassle of a million and one boxes. The room setup across the room worked really well, and the system sounded very good!

HORN, QUALITON, ALBEDO

Speakers are the Unicersum Reference four-way horns with a Qualiton 300B push-pull amp, which gives 25 W per channel. All cables were from Polish brand Albedo who use silver in their cables.

The Qualiton Tube filter (the box on the left on the rack) is a power conditioner that uses tubes. I asked why tubes, and got the response that it’s an active noise-cancelling technology that injects noise in a reverse phase into the system. Quite clever and not something I’ve ever seen before. You can have it active with the tubes or turn it off and use it passively. The price is 6500 Euros.

Lovely and relaxed-sounding system. I liked it from an aesthetic, techy, and sonic perspective.

T + A

Well, this was an impressive-looking system made up of the T +A HV series of components on a rather splendid-looking rack and all connected by Tellurium Q Silver Diamond cables. Clearly, a lot of effort had been put into the room and how it was dressed, and it did sound nice and chilled out, but I do wish folk (exhibitors) would take their conversations outside the rooms.

STUDIO 999 AUDIO

In this room, we had speakers by Stenheim Alumina 5 SE and electronics by Gryphon Antilion and Karan Audio KAL Reference MK3. Tunes were being played on an AEG M21 reel-to-reel player.

RAFKO

This was lovely. And a nicely put-together room. There was a Bryston Pre and Streamer (BR20) and a 43B amp. After that we had the new DSPX, which is Perlisten’s first step into electronics: a 2-in, 6-out product that is a standalone DSP product. It looks like a hugely flexible product that will be hugely popular. There’s much more to this product than I can go into here, but the explanation was very interesting and definitely worth finding out more about. Perlisten S4B standmount black edition speakers were making the noise! We got to listen to a contrabass tune that sounded very real in the room. Very cool, and I look forward to having a play with the DSP product sometime down the line.

SVS

MELODIKA, TRIANGLE. & CANOR

Three brands that I’ve a lot of time for playing in this room. Triangle are French and need no introduction, and folk who have been reading HiFi PiG for years will know I hold their speakers in very high regard. They consistently punch above their weight when reviewed. Speakers playing today were the Triangle Solstice 8 floorstanders. The new 21 cm midwoofer uses a 100% natural cellulose pulp cone, with a 120 mm ferrite magnet and 40 mm voice coil. Triangle says the cone profile, dust cap and suspension have been developed to balance low-frequency output with midrange performance, while the rigid open basket is designed to aid airflow and heat dissipation. High frequencies are handled by Triangle’s 25 mm silk dome EFS (Efficient Flow System) tweeter with phase plug. The company specifies homogeneous high-frequency dispersion and a precise soundstage, with a slightly warm character intended to work with a range of electronics.

The DAC was the CANOR Verto D4S; the integrated was the Canor Virtus I4S; the Virtus A3 was also being shown, as was the NuPrime AC6 conditioner.

The new Borea speakers from Triangle were on show, and I’d hoped to get a listen to these lovely-looking speakers.

UNITRA

Unitra is a Polish company that is very well known and goes back to the 60s. They make what I would call proper/traditional HiFi that is clearly very popular with the Polish audience, given how busy this nicely laid-out room was. We got to listen to WSH-805b dual mono Class A amp that is purely analogue, the turntable was the GSH-630 Fryderyk direct drive; the digital was the CSH 801 CD player, using an e-ink screen that I thought was very cool. Lastly, on the digital side was the DSH805 DAC with a Sabre Pro chip. The speakers were the ZGZ 802 floorstanders that are closed boxes rather than having bass reflex, and this makes them easier to place.

KLIPSCH, ONKYO, WIIM, JAMO

MELODIKA, EXPOSURE & MOREL

This was a kind of booth created on the main walkway of the event, and it was really very well done. Exposure Electronics fed a pair of Avyra 633 speakers from Morel, and it was all connected (obviously) with Melodika cables. The speakers are from the entry level but are based on the shape of the flagship models and are available in four colours. Needless to say, the drivers are made by Morel themselves.

Also lots of record and CD sellers occupied this floor….all proving very popular!

CHORD ELECTRONICS

From the hubbub of the walkways on this floor, walking into the Chord Electronics room was a really nice and calming experience, though I’ve no idea what the music they were playing was.

The full system was the Chord Electronics Ultimate Pre, Ultimate 5 Power and the Ultimate Phonostage. The digital side of things was handled by a Quartet and DAVE DAC.

The turntable was the ProJEct Classic Reference, and the speakers were the Spendor Classic 100s.

Cables were all by Chord Company.

A lot of folk could take note of how well this room was dressed and put together. The staff were helpful to those who wanted help but took conversations outside – very professionally done and all credit to the team involved.

AUDIOVECTOR, MOON by SIMAUDIO, NORDOST & REL

It seems that the brands in this section of this floor at the Warsaw AV show had got the memo about dressing their rooms properly, as this was another room that was beautifully put together. Great branding around the room and enough chairs for everyone without it feeling packed in like sardines.

The full system was the Moon 491 and 461, Audiovector R5 Anniversary speakers, along with REL 212 subs. All cabling was by Nordost.

The system playing was accompanied by a very nicely laid out and well labelled selection of products from the brands sharing this room.

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO

Cambridge Audio are another brand that know their market and know how to dress a room appropriately, though the room wasn’t as filled with folk as I’d have expected. Branding was on-point, and there were enough seats without the room feeling cramped. Cambridge were showing off their EVO 300 all-in-one player through a pair of Acoustic Energy Corinium speakers using WireWorld cables.

The EVO is an interesting product that will appeal to those who want good sound without a whole load of faff. At the heart of the Evo 300 is a Hypex NCOREx Class D amplification stage delivering 300W per channel into 8 ohms. Cambridge Audio has implemented a dual-mono architecture intended to improve channel separation, alongside a balanced preamplifier stage and dedicated analogue volume controls for each channel. The Evo 300 uses Cambridge Audio’s StreamMagic Gen 4 streaming platform, offering access to Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Amazon Music, Qobuz Connect, Deezer, internet radio, UPnP streaming and Roon Ready functionality. Streaming can be handled over Wi-Fi or Ethernet via the StreamMagic app.

Digital conversion is managed by an ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC, with support for PCM files up to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512. The amplifier also supports Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX HD, allowing compatibility with a broad range of streaming ecosystems and devices. There are lots of connectivity options available to make this an ideal solution for many. It costs just shy of 4K Euros.

ARCAM, MONITOR AUDIO, REL, & CARDAS

At the heart of this system was the ARCAM A50 Signature with the CD25 and ST25, making sure that CD and streaming were fully covered. Speakers were the Monitor Audio Silver 500 8G floorstanders, aided and abetted by the very compact and very cool-looking REL Planar PL-2 Subs. The whole lot was connected using Cardas cables.

The room was again dressed well with lots of cool branding and lots of static kit on show. This was a relatively small room but made a big sound, with the speakers being run fully open.

RIVIERA, DIAPASON, & NOGLER AUDIOTECH

Riviera is up there with the most beautiful-looking audio gear out there at the moment and has a kind of understated look that I love.

This was a busy room that was very well put together.

The amps on the floor are the AFM100SE monos with 100w into 8 Ohms and they run in pure class A. The unit with all the knobs ( I think this looks great) is the Riviera APF01SE preamplifier that is also Class-A and includes 2 MM phono inputs where you can play with the res and cap input. There’s also an MC input for those using Moving Coil cartridges. Helpfully, it has balanced and unbalanced outputs and has adjustable gain and phase. It also has adjustable LF turnover and HF rolloff to tailor the sound to users’ preferences. The final Riviera product on this rack is the APL01SE tube line preamplifier.

The turntable is the Nogler Audiotech Antheo, which is apparently 100% made in Italy.

Speakers are from Diapason: the Didascalia.

The whole lot made a very nice sound in another very nice room that was very popular with punters.

VTL, TRANSPARENT, VPI, LYRA, and ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES

The system featured a VTL TP-6.5 Series II phono preamplifier (84,500 PLN), VTL TL-7.5 Series III reference line preamplifier (199,500 PLN) and a pair of VTL Lohengrin reference power amplifiers (498,500 PLN). The digital source was a Playback Designs MPS-8 CD/SACD player with optional streaming functionality (133,500 PLN), while vinyl playback was provided by a VPI Dragon turntable (39,900 PLN). Loudspeakers were Rockport Technologies Lyra (1,160,000 PLN). The system also included HRS isolation furniture and platforms, along with Transparent Audio cabling and a power conditioner.

Our mate Ingo Shulz asked for some dub reggae, but sadly they didn’t have any. A decent substitute seemed to be Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond. Look, it’s a classic for a reason, and it sounded excellent on this system in a room that was bright but somehow very chilled out at the same time.

Playback Systems is a brand that’s not so well known in the U, but Manor Audio, who are the distributors for the brand, will be able to see you at Audio Show Deluxe in March.

I liked this system A LOT, and as Ingo said, “I could live with that!”

KARAN, TRANSPARENT, VPI, PLAYBACK SYSTEMS, ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES and LYRA

Karan PHONEa, Karan LINEa, Karan Powera made up the power and phono duties for this wonderful-looking system. If there was a prize for the most purposeful-looking system, then this would be up there with the winners.

The system featured a Karan PHONOa two-box phono preamplifier (174,900 PLN), Karan LINEa two-box preamplifier (186,700 PLN) and Karan POWERa power amplifier (238,800 PLN). The digital source was a Playback Designs MPS-8 CD/SACD player with optional streaming functionality (133,500 PLN), while vinyl playback was provided by a VPI Forever Model One turntable (29,500 PLN). Loudspeakers were Rockport Technologies Lynx (446,500 PLN). The system also included HRS isolation furniture and platforms, along with Transparent Audio cabling and a power conditioner.

J SIKORA, DOSHI, JOSEPH AUDIO, HEAR, SOYATON, AIDAS CARTRIDGES

The J Sikora Aspire turntable fronted this lovely-sounding system, and on the end of the electronics from DOSHI were a pair of PEARL Graphene Ultra speakers that we’ve heard a few times now. The phono is a Sikora one that is apparently a DOSHI design with added extras. The Soyaton interconnects were new. Room treatment in the room was some rather nice-looking bass traps and diffusers by Ortvik.

Jeff from Joseph played us an original Al Green record, and I kind of get where he gets the “Effortless Musicality” slogan that adorns his banners at shows.

GRYPHON AND WILSON

A whole load of Gryphon electronics fronted by a pair of Wilsons were making very nice noises at this year’s show. I probably moaned about the sound of the Gryphon room last year as I really didn’t think it represented the brand very well at all, but this year the system had clearly been put together with a good deal of thought and care.

The full system was as follows:

Wilson Audio Alexia V, Gryphon Antileon Revelation stereo amplifier, Gryphon Helios preamplifier, Gryphon Ethos CD player, Gryphon PowerZone power equalizer, Aurender A1 server and DAC, Aurender MC10 clock, Aurender NH10 ethernet switch, Gryphon StandART rack, Artesania Exoteryc PRO rack with panzerholz shelves, Gryphon Vanta and Rosso cables for Gryphon components and Stelath Audio cables for Aurender components.

TRIODE, BLUMENHOFER ACOUSTICS

I’ve a lot of time for Blumenhofer loudspeakers, and the Gran Gioia 2 x10” II speakers were certainly on point this year, being powered by Japanese brand Triode’s Evolution Musasho integrated amp and Junone 845 integrated amp. A Cary Audio DMS 800 PV streamer fronted this setup, and a PS AUDIO Foundry F12 Sub aided the bottom end of a lovely-sounding system. A PS Audio Powerplant dealt with the power side of things.

AUDIO SYSTEM

A PS Audio PMG Signature pre fronted a system with PS Audio PMG Signature M400 monos, a PMG Signature DAC 512 DAC and streamer with a PS Audio AirLens streamer also on the rack. The speakers are the PS Audio FR5 Aspen.

AUDIO RESEARCH, WISLON AUDIO, GRIMM

A series of banners positioned around this room gave the impression of being inside a library…kind of.

Streaming and conversion duties were being handled by a Grimm. Amplifying all this was an Audio Research i70 going into a pair of Wilson Audio Watt Puppy. Cables and power treatment were all by Shunyata Research.

AVID HiFI

Great to see British brand AVID HiFi so well represented at the Warsaw AV show. This was AVID from nose to tail with an AVID Acutus Dark Iron turntable, AVID Opus Pre, AVID Opus Stereo Power, and AVID Evo Two speakers. We got to listen to Sophie Hunger, who is a new name to me, but very enjoyable.

CLOSER ACOUSTICS

I’ve been a real fan of Closer Acoustics for years, and judging by the number of people in this room, so are many other people. At the Warsaw AV Show, we got to hear the OGY Actives for the first time, and I had to ask if there was a sub – the bass from these diminutive speakers is pretty incredible.

So this was a system with a tiny little streamer and a pair of OGY Actives only. The bass is lifted slightly so that when you are listening at low levels, you still get to feel the power of the music. However, at the show they got to give them a little bit of a workout, and it would have been very easy to over-excite the room, but these speakers just didn’t. I loved that these were a total system where you need to add nothing, as it comes with a streamer box. If I wasn’t so obsessed with boxes, I’d be exploring this system, given it’s likely to be a lot less than 5 grand!

The remote is very cool, too!

Very nice, indeed, and we’ll bring you more information on this system as soon as we have it.

I have to say that this part of the show has been a real pleasure to experience. Almost all the exhibitors had put a great deal of effort into their rooms, and the standard was high. There was a great balance of high-end systems and more affordable systems.

Still unable to make our way back up to the big rooms on the top floor, we decided to try our luck with the big downstairs rooms…it appeared though that most of Warsaw, their extended family and probably half of the rest of Poland had the same idea….it was super busy, but we persevered

MCINTOSH STAND

McIntosh had a DJ playing tunes through one of their systems, which I thought was a really cool idea and certainly one that attracted a good bit of attention from folk of all ages.

MCINTOSH SONUS fABER

Imagine having to queue to get into a room at a HiFi show, but we had to do just that to get into this room. We stood patiently outside, waiting for it to empty, and Lin described the situation as being like a clown car – wave after wave of folk coming out of the room. We got to chat to Adam, who organises the show, and he showed us that over 8500 people had visited the show TODAY – that’s unique visitors and not people who have been and returned and not exhibitors either.

The system was made up of: Sonus faber Amati Supreme speakers being driven by MC1.25KW monos from McIntosh and a DS200 Streamer DAC, and a C12000 SET pre. We did get a presentation and a bit of music, but the room was so busy it was silly to make note of it, over and above that the guy doing the presentation was excellent.

DWA KANALY

Magico SS speakers fronted this superb system that also used MSB electronics (specifically, the Palidase DAC) and a Pink Faun streamer. Amplification was from PLINIUM in the shape of the Achilles and Alexander models. The Acoustic Signature Thirty Neo turntable (25K) is a joy to behold, and there was a very nicely displayed set of turntables shown around the room on static display. Ikigai cables completed the system. This was still a very busy room, but coming from the McIntosh room, it felt like a bit of an oasis. I guess the popularity of the former works against them in this kind of situation – it was lovely to be able to sit and actually listen to a few tunes on this system, which, for those interested, sounded really very nice. The room was nicely put together but not over the top on branding and whatnot. I’d been sat over on the side of the room eagerly awaiting a space in the main bit of the room, and I’m very pleased I took the time to wait, as, for me, this was one of the best-sounding and coolest rooms we have been in so far! I could have stayed in this room a LOT longer than time allowed for, but if you are at the show and you have the opportunity to hear these brands together, then take it, take time, and take a listen!

KONDO

AudioNostrum speakers fronted and all Kondo system. The legendary Japanese brand (Kondo) needs no introduction, and it was nice to see/hear that the people in the room showed a degree of reverence for the brand and shut up for the duration of the tunes playing. Sadly, the room was too busy to get a real idea of the system, but it was quite the experience. Also…tidy the tables in the room!

VITUS, YG ACOUSTICS, FURUTECH

Top-of-the-line YG Acoustics Ultimate speakers fronted this system, with Vitus Audio amps and electronics supplying the juice via an SME vinyl spinner. This really did sound excellent.

dCS, DAN DAGOSTINO, WILSON AUDIO

Another absolutely rammed room. What I found interesting was a guy who’d clearly just bought something from Topping (an affordable brand) was very keen to get in to experience this system. HiFi should be aspirational, and this system was certainly that.

And at that point we decided we were fighting a losing battle downstairs, and armed with insider knowledge from Adam (thanks, Adam) we were able to find a lift that we could actually get to the top floor in…which, having wide, spacious corridors, was a much better place for us to be on a Saturday…we decided we would tackle the lower floor again on Sunday.

FLOOR TWO EAST GRANDSTAND STATIC STANDS

We scooted through the static stands chatting with folk before we got to the big rooms again.

QOBUZ

The Warsaw Audio Video Show also coincided with the launch of French music streaming and download service Qobuz in Poland on 23rd October 2026, bringing the platform’s international presence to 27 countries. Qobuz participated in the show, marking its arrival in a country with a growing market for paid music streaming, which increased by 20.5% year-on-year in 2025. The service offers high-resolution music streaming and downloads, human-curated playlists and recommendations, with additional editorial content tailored to Polish listeners. Qobuz reported growth of 45.7% in 2025 and says it expects to achieve positive net income by March 2027.

After saying hello to the QOBUZ guys we headed right to the far end of the leg and to the room that we started in at last year’s Warsaw event.

ELECTROCOMPANIET

At the risk of repeating myself, regular readers will be well aware that we are fans of this Norwegian brand. The HiFi PiG reference system comprises a pair of AW800 M monobloc amplifiers and the new EC5 preamplifier. Both are top-tier products, and whilst they are far from inexpensive, they punch into sonic territory reserved for some of those unobtanium-type products and brands. A bit of an insider’s secret, if you will.

The system at the Warsaw Show was made up of the following: ECM-1 II streamer, EMC-1V CD player, the EC5 preamplifier, the AW800 M monos, a pair of Rockport Technologies Orion floorstanders (110K) with Transparent wiring it all up, and HRS supplying the rack.

We got to hear Snowy White’s Bird of Paradise, which took me back to my mid-teens and opening up the pub for my folks of an evening and playing this tune on the jukebox.

This was a big room to fill with sound, but the system Lasse had put together filled it with ease, and it sounded fab! But then, I’m a bit of a fan…did I mention?

FOCAL NAIM

A demonstration was going on in a totally packed room….so we fought our way through to the back room to see the other set-up….also bumping into the lovely Rik from Takumi turntables.

CANTON, ADVANCE PARIS AND CYRUS

Focal and NAIM were playing an EDM version of Sunshine of Your Love in the other part of this room, but I got a chance to sit and chat with the guys from Cyrus. The Canton speakers are the Reference Alpha 2, and the Cyrus kit is the 80 Amp, using the pre-out on that into two 80 power amps running in mono. Luckily, we hung around for a little longer than we should, given the guys from Cyrus are so nice, and we did get a chance to have a bit of a listen. Certainly this isn’t exactly a budget system, but nor is it in the uber-pricey bracket. Like the Electrocompaniet kit, this punched well above its weight.

MBL

MBL always put on nice rooms at shows, and up until a couple of years ago they were always dark, over busy and pretty much impossible to get a feel for. However, at the Warsaw show they had a huge and relatively quiet (in comparison to some of the insanity we had downstairs…or was it upstairs) room. I sat well to the left of centre and still got a nice feel for the stereo soundstage that was playing.

J SIKORA, KHARMA & ARIES CERAT

J.Sikora Reference with a KV12 MAX tonearm with a Mammoth Gold cartridge from Aidas. The electronics were all from Aries Cerat the Agetto pre and the Gemini Monos, the Thalos Signature phono, and the speakers were the Kharma Enigma Veyron EV4D. The speakers are very interesting, and I sat with Charles from the company who told me they are the first speakers with the C Drive from Kharma, which makes them essentially a whole new model. C for Charlie Drive, who is the creator. There is no iron in the motor; rather, there is a cluster of magnets that allows for a more dynamic and controlled sound when compared to the standard models, which are the same, but without the C Drive.

ZENSATI & ACAPELLA AUDIO ARTS

I’ve always loved the whole idea behind the Acapella Audio Arts speakers -they’re insane, and like the conversation I just had with Charles at Kharma, they have to be the product of a dream. They are the Sphaeron Excalibur. The right half of the speaker is the same Sphaeron from 40 years ago, and this is the 7th iteration. The first generation had a full bass horn but now has a passive “normal” speaker arrangement. The system is a 4-way system with 4 18” bass drivers per channel, 2 horns that you see, two normal horns and the iconic plasma tweeter that works like a welding machine, with the arc’s amplitude being modulated. Basically, the tweeter has no mass. This is driven by a Class A tube amp built into the tweeter. The weight is around 800KG per speaker, with a sensitivity of around 100dB /wattand they use their own solid-state amplifiers (1KW into 8ohms – doubling up into 4) with a tube-hybrid preamplifier. The company is still family-owned, and Richard took over from his father in February.

DYNAUDIO, CIRCLE LABS, SILENT ANGEL

This was the last room of the day and beautifully put together with nice sofas and areas to relax in one half and a more traditional set-up in the other half. I got to listen to a bit of opera, and while it’s a bit out of my musical comfort zone, I fully got what the system was doing.

The main system had Dynaudio Confidence 50i loudspeakers, pre and amps were Circle Labs P-300 and M-500, Streamer: Sforzato DSP-07EX and cabling was Siltech Legend MKII.

Inside the new Confidence 50i speakers from Dynaudio, there is a new resistor built from a whole load of little MELF resistors. We saw this first at Vienna and the benefit is said to be very accurate, with very high tolerances, very low inductance and very fast heat dissipation, which they say is very good for transients in the music.

Sunday dawned, and getting back to the Stadium early paid off, with it being (relatively) quiet on floor one…but knowing there was no way the calm would last, we dived straight into the rooms.

BOWERS AND WILKINS

Iconic British brand Bowers and Wilkins were partnering with Luxman for this event and it was a lovely way to kick off the Sunday morning at Warsaw AV. B&W were showing off their 801 DS speakers when we were in the room, along with a pair of Luxman B100 Centennial monoblocs and D100 Centennial CD, RS130 transport streamer and HiFi Rose RD160.

They made my dream come true and played a track from my old band – or we would have had the technology of iPhones get in the way.

There have been many times over the years that I’ve not really appreciated B&W speakers, but the last couple of experiences with them have been excellent.

Bowers also had a display outside with their racing simulator and a static stand too.

FYNE AUDIO, ESOTERIC & TELLURIUM Q

Esoteric electronics consisted of the F-012, the new N-01XE, F-02, K-01XD SE into a pair of Fyne F703 SP speakers, all connected by Tellurium Q cables from nose to tail.

There was a nicely put-together sky box that overlooked the ground of the National Stadium and had a well-displayed system, plus some affordable products from Fyne and TEAC…including the new, dinky little Fyne Cubitt 5.

And if you want to know more about Fyne Audio and how they make their speakers…read our Fyne Factory Visit Report here, from when we visited them in Glasgow three weeks ago.

HEGEL AND AUDIO PHYSIC

Hegel and Audio Physic are brands that I’ve a soft spot for, though I’m yet to actually own any Hegel products.

The A200 streaming amp has a DAC loop, so you can feed the digital signal into a better DAC if you like, and here they were playing into a D50 The Raven. The amp will drive pretty much any speaker you want, but if you don’t need the streaming and whatnot, you can go for the H200. The speakers are the Audio Physic entry-level Stream (a little over 3K) that uses a dome tweeter and loads of new innovations. For an entry-level speaker (with this kit) I thought it sounded really nice.

We got to listen to a version of Radiohead’s Creep, which I preferred loads over the original. We then got played a “bass track” (I don’t know the title) and these speakers can certainly energise a room of this size – about the same dimensions as a normal living room in the UK, I’d guess – though your neighbours are going to be banging on the walls if you play at this kind of volume.

The room was well set up, airy and not overly full of kit, so you got confused as to what you were listening to. As an aside, I reckon the Hegel kit is about as home-friendly a design (aesthetically) as you can get and still be called “proper HiFi” – I especially like the white version.

Excellent!

INDIANA LINE & YAMAHA

ISOACOUSTICS, NAD, ELAC

IsoAcoustics were introducing the new Gaia TITAN NEO footers that are going to be launched next month. They are also on the JBL Summit speaker range but this will be the first time they are available to the general public as an aftermarket product. These are aimed at those with heavier speakers, starting out at a max of 320 lb up to 620 lb speakers. If you haven’t tried IsoAcoustic products in your system, you really should – we have them on all our speakers, and I use the Zazen platform under my DJ turntables.

The main system in the room (obviously all supported by IsoAcoustics) was a NAD M33V2 with ELAC VELA FS409.2 speakers supported by the IsoAcoustics OREA BRONZE products. The IsoAcoustics demonstration is legendary, and the effects of their products are immediately apparent.

The room was cool, well laid out and with enough going on to be interesting, but with enough space for the gathering throngs.

MICHI, PMC & BLUESOUND

MICHI is the high end of ROTEL, with which you might be more familiar. We had the MICHI q430 CD, P430 Pre and S430 stereo amplifier into a pair of Prohecy 7s from PMC. The Node Icon from BlueSound did the streaming duties.

The room was set up by AudioKlan, who had 5 rooms at the show, and PMC had just launched with them in Poland. Judging by the way the room was looking and sounding, the partnership is going to be a good one. I liked how the room was set up across the space, with stools set up for visitors and enough going on around the room by way of static stands and marketing material to keep visitors interested and informed. The staff in this room were excellent and managed to balance the information given without annoying others in the room brilliantly!

Top Job to PMC and the AudioKlan family!

INDIANA LINE AND YAMAHA

The stadium rooms were beginning to fill up now, and this room was quite difficult to get into. The smart little system in here used the Yamaha R-N1000A with the Indiana line LIRA 6 and UTAH 8 speakers.

TAGA HARMONY

We’ve been following Polish brand TAGA Harmony around for years, and it’s been brilliant to see them grow from a fledgling company with a handful of products into a brand that clearly commands a good deal of respect and support from their home nation’s public – this is great to see!

The room was busy but not so busy that we couldn’t get a seat and have a proper listen to the Platinum F-100 mSE V3 floorstanders being powered by an HTA – 1200B hybrid amplifier, which was being fed by a TCD-70T CD player and power being conditioned by a PC-10000DC.

This was another well put together room with the system being sat at the front, enough seats and a good selection of static products along with good branding and sufficient brochures and whatnot for everyone that wanted them.

AUDIODSTYL – JBL & MARK LEVINSON

The speakers in this room were the JBL L150 Classic, which have a design reminiscent of 70s speakers and certainly delivered the metal we got to listen to with gusto! The amp was the Mark Levinson ML No5802 along with a no 5101 CD player, streamer, and DAC.

One of the hard parts of sitting with a computer at events like this is that folk think you are working for them, and one enthusiastic chap came up to me very happy and thanked me for playing the tunes and for the system. I barely had the heart to tell him I was a mere journo…

JBL & MARK LEVINSON

This system was on another level to the last room and was fronted by a pair of the enormous and horn-loaded Summit Everest speakers from JBL. I recall my first experience with the JBL big boys many years ago at Munich and remember being blown away by their dynamics when we were played a drum track – it really was a highlight I’ll remember for years. These speakers were equally impressive, but the music wasn’t so much to my taste, though it did kind of grow on me a bit.

Supporting kit was the ML6331 power amps, ML519 and ML626.

The room was really well set up, busy and had excellent static displays and eager staff.

Despite the music not being to my taste, it was clear that I was sitting in front of a system that had real power and dynamics aplenty.

STATIC STANDS AND AV ROOMS

Along this part of the show, many of the brands also had static stands in the walkways, plus there were AV rooms, attracting plenty of folk with home cinema and gaming set ups.

TECHNICS

Outside the main room, Technics had a DJ playing on a pair of the new 1200MKX – I’ve been told I’m allowed to buy a pair – which is said to be an improvement on the MK7s I own. It will be touted as. Pro player for DJs, but I still use a 1200 G as my main turntable in the big system.

The main CD streamer is the SL-G700M2, the amp is the SU-R1000, and the AL-1200GME. The speakers are the SBG – 90M2.

Look, this is a Japanese international brand that is all but a household name, even outside of audio and DJ circles and the expectation is for them to go above and beyond the usual at a HiFi show…and they always deliver, whether that’s in a smaller room at one of the UK shows, to the big room like this one at the Warsaw AV show. There were lots of helpful staff (the Polish rep I spoke to was massively helpful and fetched me all the stickers for the kit so I didn’t interrupt people, and obviously clicked that I was flagging as he brought me an espresso!

Another excellent performance by Technics!

NOWY SALON AUDIO-VIDEO

Pathos electronics were being used to power a pair of Rosso Fiorentino PISA speakers that will apparently go as low as 30Hz – and playing the dubby electronica they were, I can believe this.

Lots of branding, lots of static speakers and a well-put-together main system made for a powerful but relaxed system.

The amps were the Pathos InPower Mk2 class A monoblocks and the pre the InControl Mk2.

This was the first outing for Keith Don’t Go that we had heard at the show, and I really enjoyed hearing it. Kind of a prodigal son kind of moment.

EVERSOLO

Eversolo C10, T10, DAC-z10, AMP F10, and Starke Sound Halo M2 speakers made up this system that overlooked the pitch at the national stadium.

The room was busy and well put together, and what I noticed was that on the Sunday there are groups of friends and families that come out to the show – around 30% of the people in the room were women.

And as if by saying the devil’s name three times into a mirror at midnight – Keith Don’t Go got played again!

PARADIGM AND ANTHEM

A nice dark space that was really nicely lit and felt a cool space to walk into.

The preamplifier was the Anthem STR Preamplifier, the amplifier was the STR Amplifier, and the speakers were the Paradigm Premier 820F v2.

MEITENER, EMM LABS, FINK TEAM, IKIGAI, ACOUSTIC SIGNATURE (DWA KANALY)

This year was the debut of the Micro monoblocs from EMM Labs/ MEitner. They carry DNA from the brands MTR201 flagships and are an homage to the original amps that Amadeus’ father made 40 years ago. They design all their own switch-mode power supplies, and the amps are split into two stages. 4 pairs of MOSFETS per rail are used, and they COULD put out 64 amps. They basically don’t care about impedance variables that may appear when playing. The amps should ship in Q1 of 2027 and should be 25K USD a pair, which seems a really reasonable price for a pair. FINK Team Spot speakers made by our friend Karl Heinz Fink were fronting this system. I liked that all the people involved in the production of the new amps will have their names on the back of the amp – Amadeus mentioned that, essentially, Meitner and EMM Labs is still a family business based out of Calgary

They were using their entry-level KA3i DAC/Streamer/pre (if you need all that), but they also used their Meitner preamplifier and an Acoustic Signature Merlin Neo turntable. Cables were by Ikigai Audio.

The room was closed for an interview when we passed, but I’m so pleased we made the effort to come back and experience this lovely-sounding system in a room that was really nicely put together and was basically a room-within-a-room. Really “simple”, clean and elegant!

ANTHEM & MARTIN LOGAN

A neat system showing of the Martin Logan Tribute 5XW in-wall speakers with Anthem electronics.

Q21 SALON AUDIO VIDEO

Audiolab electronics fronted this system with a pair of Vienna Acoustic speakers making the noise.

The full setup was the Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Audiolab preamplifier 9000Q, stereo amplifier 9000P and the streamer was the 9000N.

This is the kind of kit that is affordable for most people who want to move on from entry-level products, and it’s that “proper” HiFi thing that I bang on about a lot. By proper HiFi, I mean HiFi that is aimed at music lovers looking to achieve nothing more than have a real HiFi system of separates through which they can enjoy and connect with their music.

21 DISTRIBUTION

Vienna Acoustics also fronted this system, but this time they were the new Grand Sonata. A Rega P8 turntable was at the analogue front end of this system, and other Rega kit included the Elex MK4, Elicit Mk5, Aethos, Osiris, Aos and Aura.

There was a very smart-looking Fezz valve amplifier connected to the system and supplying the juice.

Gregory Porter sounded very mellow in a room that was cool and well-lit with a good display of Rega turntables over to one side.

And now we hand over to Oscar and Kelly for the East side of floor one of the Stadium, including the large Headphone Zone.

DENON

Denon had an area showing off their lifestyle range of HEOS-enabled speakers and mini systems, great for audio around the home.

VOLUMIO / KANTO

Audiomagic had a little area with a display of a few Volumio models, as well as Kanto speakers.

TELLURIUM Q

Tellurium Q had a great stand, run by their Polish distributor, Bartek of Szymański Audio and his lovely wife Katarzyna, with a large banner showing off their many awards, apples with their logo laser-engraved on them, and some branded chocolates. They also had multiple rooms using their cables, across the different venues, you’ll see more of those in my Sobieski report, but there were many systems at the Stadium also wired with Tellurium Q.

Bartek is not only a fab HiFi distributor, but also a huge rock star in Poland!

PLANETA DZWIEKU

Big ATC SCM150 speakers in this room, with an EAT Fortissimo S turntable, CH Precision CD/SACD player/transport, and Audio Analogue pre/power combo, with Tellurium Q cabling throughout. Riders On The Storm was playing, and it was a well-balanced, musical sounding room with plenty of detail.

FIIO

Fiio had their new EA13 valve amp on demo, paired with their S15 streamer, TT1 and TT13 turntables, with SV13 speakers. This was a smooth, and full-bodied sounding setup, that was easy to listen to, whilst having good musicality. They had a few other bits of their kit at the back of the room on static display.

Ø AUDIO

Ø Audio had a static display in the hallway, with the Frigg 02, ICON 12, and Verdande – a great brand who make some brilliant speakers…also distributed in Poland by Szymański Audio.

FERRUM

Ferrum had their Broen streamer, running into a Wandla GEN2 DAC/Pre-amp, with Hypsos power supply – going to a pair of active ATC SCM100 ASL speakers. ATC speakers always sound nice and clean, and this room was no exception, with excellent technicalities and great punch.

SOUNDEMO

Soundemo had a small area with some Hisense projectors, their own brand of active speakers, and a small device that vibrates the stylus on a cartridge in the same way vinyl does, to play music. I guess you don’t get the pops and clicks from dust and scratches, but I am left wondering what the real use cases for this device really are.

WATERFALL AUDIO

Transparent Waterfall speakers in this area, and they were filling this area quite nicely, although being right in front of a huge glass panel isn’t exactly ideal in terms of acoustics. Still, they had good body to the sound, and great detail retrieval – and it the display area did look fantastic.

AUDIO SOLUTIONS / ESOTERIC / TEAC

Not quite sure what was playing in here, it was a bit tame and jazzy, but the Audio Solutions Virtuoso M speakers are full sounding with plenty of control and depth. The Esoteric kit seemed to drive them well, it was a full Grandioso setup, with Van Den Hul cabling. There were a few TEAC bits on static display at the side of this room, with a neat little small system with some lovely red AudioSolutions bookshelf speakers.

WHARFEDALE

In here you had a Quad platina setup powering a pair of Elysian 4R floorstanding speakers, they also had a pair of Aura 2 speakers but they were not playing when we were in the room. Cabling was from QED, and this system was quite engaging, with a good sense of energy and snappy transients, whilst delivering plenty of detail across the board. There was a nice sense of groove to the sound, and it was quite enjoyable sitting in this room. There were some static displays at the side of the room with more Wharfedale and Quad kit.

UNISON RESEARCH / OPERA

A bit of techno in here, and it was a blast – I do enjoy getting to listen to some more upbeat music through systems like this as gives it a workout. These speakers can deliver plenty of punch, filling the room with big, but controlled bass that had great extension. This was one of the more fun rooms we went in, with big bold sound and snappy transients, alongside excellent separation too. They were using the Opera Grand Callas speakers, with Unison Research Unico DS, Unico Pre, and Unico DM power amp, with cabling from Kimber Kable.

ACOUSTIC SOLID

Acoustic Solid turntables are designed and engineered in Germany, whilst being manufactured in the Netherlands. A lovely display area with quite a few of their models on show.

DALI

Dali had their Epikore 9 playing in this room, paired with a Marantz Link 10n network streamer, and Model 10 integrated amplifier. These were delivering room filling sound without breaking a sweat, it was an articulate and snappy sound, without excess warmth – yet they never sounding harsh either. These are well controlled speakers, and the Marantz front end paired well with them. There were some other bits on display around the side of the room.

SONOS

Sonos had a display area showing off their products, along with a little demo area showing off a surround sound system using their soundbar, and rear speakers, with subs.

MARANTZ

In here you had the new Marantz MCR 60n DAB, CD70, Model 70, and a pair of Dali Sonik 9 speakers, with QED cabling throughout. After yesterday’s spate of Keith Don’t Go, I was sincerely hoping he had indeed gone, but it was playing when we entered this room. We waited for the next song, and it was much better, the bass was nicely presented with fullness and control, whilst the female vocals cut through with great clarity whilst the treble extended smoothly. A great sounding room with the right music, and highly enjoyable. There was also a static display of a few older Marantz bits on one side of the room, with newer models on the other.

JL AUDIO

JL Audio have been making subs for a while, and now they were showing off a new range of active speakers, with a floorstander and a standmount model. They were playing the floorstander in this room, and they feature very cool removable side panels, and they had pretty awesome artwork on them. They were, however, playing too loud in here and it did come across a little harsh, even if the bass response was quite good.

HISENSE

A display area made up of projectors, TV’s, and small, discreet surround sound systems.

OPEN AREA

There was one last, open display area to cover and this had Wilson speakers (no, not that Wilson Audio), Dali, Polk, Marantz, Sonus Faber, Elipson, Q Acoustics, and QED cabling.

HEADPHONE ZONE

Unfortunately, due to an ear infection just over a week ago, my headphone coverage is pictures only – it was great to see some familiar faces, as well as putting faces to names I’ve known for years – one of those being Przem from Nyczaj Audio. Anyhoo, enjoy the pics from this zone, it’s big with a ton of kit on demo, from IEMs, amps, DACs, accessories, and tons of headphones both open, closed, and Bluetooth.

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.

Stay tuned for our Audio Video Show Warsaw 2026 Report Part Three, from the Sobieski, coming soon…for the Golden Tulip Report, click here.

Linette and Stuart Smith

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden