HighEnd Stockholm 2019

 

I visited the Stockholm HighEnd Hifi show which took place in Stockholm 16-17th of February 2019.

This is a reoccurring event that always gathers some interesting designers, distributors and people from many well-known HigEnd manufacturers and Hifi shops.

I focus mainly on the loudspeakers and as always, it’s hard to evaluate a loudspeaker design at a Hifi show, with unknown music sources and Hifi equipment. I assume that the exhibitor did their best to match the electronics with the loudspeakers and if it sounds bad, it’s probably a less successful loudspeaker design and if it sounds good, it’s probably the opposite.

Anyway, you can at least get a general impression on how the loudspeakers performs and sounds like.

Here’s some short comments and photos from the show:


The Swedish “Deep Space 1” from oido audio with an open enclosure design made of steel and using an 8″ co-axial plus four 10″ woofer drivers. The electronics are from totaldac and Valvet.


The S400 loudspeaker from from Buchardt Audio using a 6.5″ aluminium mid-woofer from SBAcoustics, a passive radiator on the backside and a custom made wave guide for the tweeter. Nice sounding speakers to an affordable price.


Small floor-stand loudspeakers from neat acoustics.The height of the top left speaker is only 76cm.

Nice looking loudspeakers from VIMBERG using ceramic and diamond drivers from accuton.


The Radialstrahler mbl 101 E MK II from MBL. Sounding nice and natural as always, especially on classic music. The bass was a bit problematic in this very large listening room.

The Persona 7F from Paradigm using Beryllium mid-range and tweeter drivers.

A small Norwegian single driver full-range speaker from Hagto Audio.

The small Electa Amator III from Sonus faber and the enormous Klipschhorn AK6 retro looking horn speakers from Klipsch. The small Sonus Faber sounded ok, but the Klipsch are not my type of sound.

The Aurum loudspeaker from Quadral.

The Kii Three active loudspeaker with the BXT extension module from Kii Audio. Very nice finish and looks.

KEF, the king of co-axials. The Reference 5 and the Blade Two. In this setup, I think the Blade Two was the winner.

The large M6 floor-stand loudspeaker from MAGICO. It sounded ok, but Magico speakers has never emotionally touched me and it didn’t do it this time either. In this price range I expect more “magic”.

Electrostatic loudspeakers from Sound Lab.

Loudspeakers from Audio Solutions and electronics from Vitus Audio and Alluxity.

A small Polish stand-mount loudspeaker from Pylon Audio using SEAS and Scan-Speak drivers. Nice sound to an affordable price.

The nice sounding Swedish floor-stand “Sky High” loudspeaker from QRS using AMT tweeter from Mundorf and mid-range driver from Audio Technology.



The KIN Play (black) active loudspeaker from Totem Acoustics and custom woofers from theTotem Element series.

The massive Stella Utopia EM Evo from Focal. The sound is crystal clear as always with the high end speakers from Focal, but I wonder if listening fatigue will set in after a while. I think some warmer sounding electronics could be a possible combination with the Focals.


The retro looking L100 Classic Monitor (left)  from JBL and the expensive integrated No 5805 amplifier from Mark Levinson. A surprisingly nice sounding combination. The treble a bit hot, but it had dry nice bass.

The superb Norwegian and affordable electronics from HEGEL running a pair of Confidence 20 from DYNAUDIO. The Hegel 590 integrated amplifier was new and sounded nice paired with the Dynaudio speakers.

Some unsorted pictures….