The Best-Sounding FIAE To Date!
Florida International Audio Expo 2024 high-performance audio show coverage.
SWAF 2024 Show Report By Maurice Jeffries

  Wynn Wong, the top man at a Toronto-based Wynn Audio, stunned with his Karan Acoustics amp'ed, Métronome CD player-sourced, Vimberg speaker-fronted system. Utterly enchanting, and gifting delicate tonality and poise, this big room system (Room 918) played with all the focus and intimacy of a small two-way fronted setup, but with air, bloom, broad frequency extension, and impressive scaling. Loads of attendees described the sound as the best at the show. Stevie Ray's gravelly tenor and greased-lightning quick guitar licks on Tin Pan Alley filled the back third of the exhibition room with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling sound, plus more than a healthy dose of bluesy funkadelic magic. One of my top three BOS contenders.

Late last year, I reviewed a lovely Métronome CD Player & Streamer that Wynn sent me and have marveled in years past at his ability to craft musically satisfying systems under sometimes hostile show conditions. It goes without saying that I had pretty high expectations when I entered his room this year. Nothing I heard (or saw, for that matter) disappointed me. The music in this room materialized out of thin air, with nary a hint that I was listening to electronically reproduced sound versus the real thing.

As an aside, those of you unfamiliar with the Vimberg speaker line should know that these beauties are essentially scaled-down versions of the celebrated and considerably pricier Tidal (pronounced "tee-dal") speakers from Germany. However, nothing about the Vimberg models screams budget or scaled-back in any way.

Be warned, the system isn't priced for the audio faint of heart. But one absolutely gets what one pays for in this rarified strata: Vimberg Mino speakers ($40K the pair), Métronome AQWO 2 SACD / CD player and Music Streamer with vacuum tube output stage ($24,300), Serbian-based Karan Acoustics Lineb Preamplifier and Stereo Power Amplifier ($29k and $43K respectively), a lovely loom of Fono Acustica cables (Armonico speaker cables starting at $24K, Armonico balanced interconnects starting at $7,700, Armonico power cables starting at $7,500, Virtuoso and Grandioso power cables ($15,350 and $23,800), the Entreq Olympus Infinity Groundbox ($4,750), plus Critical Mass Systems Sotto Voce rack (from $3,150), and CMS footers ($595 to $825 per unit).

Down on the 8th floor (I did a bit of bouncing back and forth between floors depending on how busy a given floor or room was) Japan-based and analog-obsessed Haniwa Audio's single-driver full range speakers, now bolstered by stereo subwoofers, with a Haniwa turntable, cartridge, tonearm, current mode phono amp, system equalizer, control system amp sounded fantastic in the near field. The top end may have been a touch hot, but the absence of a crossover and related phase distortions proved revelatory. Haniwa's total system approach makes so much sense in a universe overrun with overly complex systems. A very clean LP version of Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing (I didn't catch the precise pressing info) bobbed and weaved like a flashy middleweight, full of swagger and moxie.

The hyper-near field experience was akin to listening to a fine headphone setup. Once one gets past this direct sound-dominant approach, listening can prove loads of fun. Vintage jazz tracks like Thelonious Monk's Bye-Ya jumped out of the speakers like a thoroughbred straight out of the gates, full improvisational speed ahead. I should note that this is not a warm and fuzzy system. Instead, Haniwa approaches music reproduction with a "warts and all" directness and honesty. At times the system veers slightly north and cool of neutral, especially up top. The flip side is that you hear everything on your discs both good and bad.

American Sound and their imported Avantgarde Acoustics UNO SD speakers ($35,000 the pair) on the 7th floor took the top prize for most dynamic sound at the show. The 107dB/W/m efficiency Avantgarde horn-loaded speakers soared on a scant 10 Watts per channel of Phasemation 300B-powered tube amplifier glory. The MA-1500 mono amps ($30,000 the pair) and Phasemation CM-2200 Preamplifier ($26,000) looked and sounded marvelous. To my surprise, I detected no saccharine midrange tones and syrupy highs here. This system was about as neutral and "down the sonic middle" as I have heard any tube gear sound in recent years.

OTOH, at times I thought that I detected a touch of glare up top, perhaps a smidgeon of horn-induced sparkle, but this proved very subtle in effect overall. Imaging and staging were distinctly "between the boxes" affairs, but stable and reasonably precise. But, oh, the bloody dynamic expression and energy (all music was Qobuz-sourced while I was in the room). This was a truly wonderful sound. Sorry, Angie (as in Angie Lisi of American Sound) yet I forgot to get the specifics on the digital front-end gear. My bad and contact them for more details.

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