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AV News

What Hi-Fi? Show Mumbai 2023 – Part 1

The 2023 edition of the What Hi-Fi? Show took place at Hotel St. Regis, Mumbai between 25th & 27th May and we were present to cover the show, the details of which follows as under:

As is now customary with this show, the exhibitors are divided between the 8th floor & the 14th floor of the hotel, the 8th floor mainly having large staterooms whilst the 14th floor has small rooms & 2 suites.

We start our coverage on the 8th floor, which comprises of registration space, followed by a small room that was taken by Headphone Zone, that was pretty much in a corner that most wouldn’t even know of, had the door not been open.

8th Floor:

Headphone Zone:

A variety of headphones, amplifiers and digital audio players were at hand for the visitors to listen to. Well managed by the HPZ staff and owner.

BenQ:

BenQ launched a couple of projectors at the show along with the existing range of models were showcased by the personnel. For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

AK International:

Pretty much the entire range of Focal was showcased mainly via Static displays, alongside live demos of Naim’s Muso, Littora Outdoor Speakers, Focal AVR powered home theater as well as Maestro Utopia Speakers powered by Naim Pre/Power Electronics. A large room was well packed with the above, though a lot left to be desired when one is showcasing the flagship series of Focal Speakers & Naim Amplifiers! The pictures should speak for themselves. A solo display of Monster cables was also part of this room. For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

MZ Audio Distributions India + Viewsonic:

A bazaar setting of static displays consisting of Marantz, Q Acoustics, Mission, Heco, Magnat, Loewe, Velodyne, Episode with a sprinkling of Viewsonic Projectors covered the entire room. For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

Cinebels:

A corridor setting was chosen to static display models from Onkyo, Integra & Pioneer AV Receivers, alongside a pair of Klipsch & Jamo Speakers. For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

Audio Nirvana:

Rotel, Sonus Faber, McIntosh electronics and speakers were static displayed alongside a live set up consisting of all 3 brands. For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

Sound & Vision:

Live demonstrations of Sim2 Projectors on Screen Research Screens, plus Artcoustic speakers on static display as well as live demo were part of this room. Sim2 projectors definitely were some of the best one can buy but then at a steep price so definitely for the chosen few only. The owner of Sound & Vision was giving the demos of all the brands and did so happily.

For more details contact us at – hifihunt1@gmail.com

Categories
AV News

RIP Ken Ishiwata

Audio publications, journalists, audiophiles, HiFi enthusiasts and legions of music lovers around the world have just come to know the passing of one of the Icon’s & Stalwarts of the Audio Industry, Mr. Ken Ishiwata, who made his journey to the Valhalla of HiFidelity, on 25th November 2019.

It is immediately not known of the cause of his untimely death as of yet, but he surely lived a spritely life of 72 years, influencing & bringing joy to countless people around the world. His 41 years association with Marantz was a massive contribution to the world of HiFi, resulting in many a happy music enthusiast enjoying music reproduction via one of his Marantz signature models. He was equally popular at the HiFi Shows around the world, where he very uniquely demonstrated his flair in setting up Marantz equipment with speakers being placed in a very unconventional way. We were fortunate to experience one of such set ups when he visited Mumbai, India, almost a decade ago! Mr. Ken Ishiwata was passionate about his craft, his music and was extremely friendly & generous in sharing stories and making an end user aware about what he kept in mind when he was designing new models of Marantz Amplifiers and CD Players, besides getting on board with streaming & lossless music reproduction.

For his long standing association with Marantz and being brand ambassador of the same, it was unfortunate when he decided to leave the company which he nurtured as his own child, earlier this year.

Good bye Mr. Ken Ishiwata & thank you for bringing musical bliss to countless people around the world.

Rest In Piece!

Categories
AV News

11th Edition What Hi-Fi? Show 2019 – Hyderabad

PTC presents What Hi-Fi? Show 2019 in association with Marantz|Q Acoustics and powered by BenQ, from 30th August to 1st September 2019, at Trident, Hitec City, Hyderabad.

Currently, we only know that the above entities are part of the show and that the show timings are from 11am to 7pm. We shall update on the brands participation and other allied information, once we are privy to the same. Till then expect it to be a khufiya show with one getting to know the rest only when one lands up at the Trident Hotel.

Stay tuned!

Categories
AV News Reviews

WHAT HI-FI? SHOW 2019 – MUMBAI (SHOW COVERAGE REPORT / PART 2)

14TH FLOOR

1401 – KEI

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

NAD

FYNE AUDIO

Fyne Audio’s F502 Speakers were paired with NAD’s M10, the new BluOS Streaming Amplifier that was launched internationally, a couple of months ago. The Alexa enabled M10 as a one box solution has a lot to offer, with the added advantage of being part of the Bluesound BluOS ecosystem. The gent conducting the demo had attached a hard drive to the M10 and was controlling the playlist via an iPad.  We enjoyed the simplistic setup and ease with which the music was played. Also interesting to note were the King & Queen showpieces that were placed on top of each speaker, were they just for show or were they doing something sonically??? We will leave this question to be answered by the good folks at KEI. The very fine Fyne Audio F502’s continue to impress us with their abilities and we look forward to hearing them more for a future review.

Pricing of the above equipment as follows:

Fyne Audio F502 – 1.9L

M10 – 2.8L

1402 – MONEE & DIVINE MUSIC

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

KLH AUDIO

PEACHTREE AUDIO

AUDIOART CABLES

KLH, the newly launched loudspeakers company was present in the form of their Kendall & Albany. Paired to them were Peachtree Audio Amplifiers Nova 300 & 150. We were advised that the KLH speakers were brand new out of the box and had arrived just in time for the show. We liked what we heard in the brief period that we were in the room and the synergy with the Peachtree Amps was good. Thanks to the new distributors – M/s. Root Note Audio, we shall be listening to the Peachtree gear in future. Hopefully, Monee the distributors of KLH will oblige as well.

Pricing as advised for the above equipment as follows:

KLH Kendall – 1.55L

KLH Albany – 56k

Peachtree Nova 300 – 1.85L

Peachtree Nova 150 – 1.37L

Peachtree Deep Blue 3 – 45k

Peachtree Deep Bluesky – 47k

Audio Art Cables used were as under:

IC3 1.0M – 9K

IC3 TECHFLEX 1.0M – 10.5K

SC5-GB 3M – 20.3K

SC5-SB – 21K

SC5-SP – 20.3K

POWER 1 2M – 18.5K

1403 – AVAAA

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

THONET & VANDER

TECHLY

SWEEX

PROFIGOLD

BANDRIDGE

Mostly all static equipment in the form of cables placed on racks. Thonet & Vander Kugel Bluetooth Powered Speakers(30k) and Dunn Soundbar with Sub(15k) were on demo. We liked the Thonet & Vander equipment for being value for money and serving the purpose very well.

1404 – KEI

BRANDS SHOWCASED

THORENS

ELAC

AUDIO TECHNICA

In this room, KEI showcased a few Thorens turntables, Elac’s well engineering Miracord 90 and an Audio Technica LP60BT, by means of a static display. We are not fans of static displays so post clicking the mandatory pics, we had nothing else to do here. What was noteworthy was that KEI had taken pains to display the prices alongside of each of the models on display, across all their rooms. We really appreciate this gesture as it makes it easy for all concerned, so kudos to KEI for doing the needful.

1411 – KEI

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

TOTEM

BLUESOUND NODE2i

What was going to be an active speakers with a turntable set up turned out to be an active speakers with digital source setup, due to certain technical issues in setting up a turntable. Nonetheless, we focused on the Totem Kin Play, which are getting very well reviewed internationally. Unfortunately, we could not hear them sufficiently to be able to write more about them but whatever little we heard, we liked. Hopefully, we shall be sent a pair for review in the near future.

1412 – M.Z. AUDIO

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

MARANTZ

Q ACOUSTICS

M.Z. Audio had taken a suite which had the inner area with equipment as under:

Marantz SA10 SACD Player – 5L

Marantz PM10 SACD Amplifer – 6.35L

Q Acoustics Concept 500 – 4.10L

The flagship Marantz Amplifier and SACD Player with Q Acoustics Flagship Concept 500 Speakers were showcased as a stereo set-up.

The outer area had 2 set ups of Marantz + Q Acoustic + Morel in home theatre configurations.

Set-up one had:

Morel CW525LCR – 3.15L

Morel CW600 – 85k

Morel MSP10 – 60K

Marantz SR7013 – 2.15L

Set-up two had:

Q Acoustics Concept 40 Tower – 1.23L

Q Acoustics Concept Centre – 34K

Q Acoustics Concept 20 – 48K

Q Acoustics 2070Si – 49K

Marantz SR5013 – 1.10L

Source used for both was a Marantz UD7007 – 85K

We were glad to see that the clutter of static display was non-existent in the room, save for a set of Q Acoustics 7000 LRi(36K) & Ci(19K) placed at the entrance of the room. Q Acoustics Rock Speaker – QI65LW(27K) was also on static display.

1413 – VIEWSONIC

MODELS SHOWCASED:

X10 4K

LS800HD

M1+

We Started off with the M1+, an ultra compact and portable projector that features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, along with built in Harman Kardon speakers. Ideal for sharing multimedia anywhere, even outdoors thanks to a built in battery power supply. The form factor is really small, making it a breeze to carry around in its own pouch that is part of the M1+ which also has 16GB inbuilt memory.  The M1+ makes it easy to share and view a variety of multimedia content, as it comes with multiple connectivity options including HDMI, USB 2.0 and USB Type C, Audio Out and a MicroSD card reader. We look forward to reviewing the M1+ in the near future.

 The next projector we saw was the X10-4K LED portable projector with LED technology, the projector offers up to 30,000 hours of operational life. The X10-4K projector includes Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility, and an integrated Smart TV interface for easy streaming of TV shows and movies from popular content services, while a built-in OS provides access to popular apps via the Android Aptoide store. The X10-4K features 125% of Rec.709 color accuracy and Frame Interpolation technology, which reduces motion blur and ensures fluid multimedia content projection. The connectivity options include HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2, USB 2.0 Type-A, Type-C, Audio In/Out, and RJ45. This too has speakers from Harman Kardon, a lightweight design, easy carry handle, and short throw lens, the X10-4K can be conveniently moved from room to room, indoors to outdoors. The projector features 2,400 LED lumens of brightness, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

1414 – MILAN SALES CORPORATION

MILAN SCREENS

Milan Art Screen with Leather Finish

Size:-92″ Diagonal

Surface:- Micro Perforated Silver 3D

Mrp:- Rs.2,00,000

Milan Motorized Tab Tensioned

Size:-92″ Diagonal

Surface:-Grey

Mrp:- Rs.60,000

Milan Zero Edged Screen

Size:-92″ Diagonal

Surface:-Optical (Ambient Light Rejection)

Mrp:- Rs.90,000

As always, Milan Sales Corporation was fronted by the bossman Milan himself, who kept us entertained with the demonstration of the 3 types of screens on demo and their attributes. For the pricing, Milan Sales Corporation always provide value for money and that is precisely why they sell a lot of screens year on year. We were particularly impressed with the Art Screen with Leather finish, that not only looked beautiful with the now customiseable leather wrapped border in a variety of colors, but also with any type of picture/artwork that one can custom design to their liking.

1415 – VINSHEK MARKETING

ELAN HOME AUTOMATION

Vinshek Marketing focused on providing a hands on demo of Elan based home automation to one and all, thereby educating not only an end user but also those who are part of the automation installation industry. We couldn’t sit through one of their sessions as had other rooms to cover as well.

1416 – LITTLE NAP RECLINERS

Little Nap had a few new models of recliners to showcase, one which we have shared the video of was very comforting to sit on and attractive to look as well, what with a pleasant red textured leather used to wrap the same. We spent a good 5 minutes relaxing in the same post which it was time to hit the next room.

1417 – CINEBELS

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

KLIPSCH

Klipsch Forte III Speakers

Balanced Audio Technologies (BAT) Pre/Power Amplifiers

Klipsch Debut Carbon Turntable

Cinebels showcased the above models as their demo set up, which sounded great when they played a record, which was rare as they mostly played music via Bluetooth, which was quite a turn off for us. We were atleast glad to hear some music on vinyl for a few minutes to note that the Balanced Audio Technologies Pre/Power indeed drove the Klipsch Forte III Speakers rather beautifully. We wish we could hear this set up more, sadly not! The turntable looked familiar as it is none other than the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with Klipsch badge engineering. Anyway, as per the Klipsch website, this is now a discontinued model.

Pricing of the above models as under:

Klipsch Forte III – 4.95L

Static Display Models:

Klipsch Heresy – 2.68L

Klipsch Sixes – 89.8K

Klipsch Three – 46.8K

Klispch One – 28.8K

Theatre Bar – 1.5L (Fully cusomiseable as it is made to order and delivery schedule is 12 weeks)

1418 +1419 – VU TECHNOLOGIES

BRAND SHOWCASED – VU TV

VU Technologes showcased their new range of TV’s, ranging from sizes 75, 86 to 100 inches from their pixelight & quantum pixelight series.

Unfortunately, no one was made aware of them being offered at special prices if booked during the show! The star of the TV’s on display was the 100” 4K TV that retails at 20L, but was available for a very special price of 13.5L!!! This is the world’s first 100” 4K LED TV and does it look good or what? Fantastic we say and worth buying if you have the real estate and financial ability to buy the same. VU Technologies are truly showcasing quality and value for money at the moment. We certainly believe in their products as we also happen to use their TV’s and have been very satisfied with their quality and price to performance abilities.

1420 – AUDIOVISION INDIA

BRANDS SHOWCASED:

BOWERS & WILKINS (B&W)

VIVID AUDIO

JEFF ROWLAND

ROTEL

ARTISANIA AUDIO

KIMBER KABLE

MELCO

SOUNDCAST

As is customary with Audiovision India, this year too they had lined up their room with products from the brands named above by means of static displays, except for Soundcast portable speaker models, which they played intermittently inside and outside their room. Most of the visitors were disappointed, including us for not being able to have a chance to hear their great line of brands, such as B&W, Jeff Rowland, Melco, Vivid Audio, to name a few. We hope that next year they will change the system and get active from static!

1423 – AERO

BRAND SHOWCASED: AERO

Aero showcased their range of water proof Mirror TV’s, LED display video walls, LCD monitors, digital posters, along with their flagship product called Aeroscape, a 176” smart LED TV, which is the world’s largest LED TV.

All in all, the products on display were well displayed and their functionality was perfectly explained by the team at hand for doing so. We were surprised to see a few digital posters used in the marketing of the show this year, at the hotel venue, which is a good sign and hopefully will be used in a full fledged way for the ones to follow. We look forward to learning more about Aero’s product range in the near future.