Know this: when Paris and hi-fi collide, I’ll at all times need to be there. And so it got here to cross, on the Paris Audio Present, which ends right this moment (October 27).
Wish to hear multi-driver towers of energy from the likes of Sonus Faber? (The very new Amati Supreme audio system had been on present, see the principle picture of this piece, yours for a cool $78,000 / £75,000 / €78,000).
How about Magico (above, you may see the Magico S2, priced from £41,500, so round $55,400 or AU$84,500, earlier than taxes), lit from under and hooked as much as a system that may come dwelling with you – for a charge you’d have to debate together with your financial institution supervisor? Possibly you simply desire stay DJ units on the second ground?
Benefit from the concept of passing by alien-like spherical Planet L Efficiency audio system from Elipson (see under) and the latest multi-room package from WiiM? How about wandering into rooms with excellent 5.1.2 surround-sound programs and outrageously large screens simply because the atomic bomb drops in Oppenheimer – or Timothee Chalamet offers with a very tricksy sand worm in Dune: Half 2? Or do you merely need to hole-up in somewhat sales space with the latest set of outrageously costly open-back headphones and a stunning provided supply gadget, simply to make mates with music once more? It is all right here.
And as luck would have it, so was I. This is one of the best I noticed and heard on the present – however do be aware that I am unable to cowl each single product and expertise. Wish to know concerning the latest and finest headphones I heard on the Paris Audio Present? Click on the hyperlink, pal. In any other case, let’s get going.
1. Adele’s L-Acoustics Syva efficiency – on Syva-Syva Sub stereo audio system
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For me, watching recorded gigs on TV can typically be a sport of ‘spot the Syva’ or ‘spot the road array’ – each L-Acoustics creations. However on the Paris Audio Present, I used to be in a position to take heed to Adele carry out utilizing L-Acoustics’ Syvas, on an L-Acoustics Syva-Syva Sub stereo system – even whereas they had been nonetheless setting the room up (hurrah for early press entry).
And let me let you know proper now: the sound blew me away. It is the primary time I’ve heard these audio system purely in a stereo setup and never in L-Acoustics’ phenomenal Highgate facility, the place a number of of those identical Syva-Syva Subs (and dozens of different L-Acoustics audio system) are squirreled away into the partitions and overhead to create an extremely immersive gig house.
My colleague Jamie skilled Max Cooper’s new album On Being on the house earlier this 12 months and instructed me he by no means needs to return to stereo, however having heard these audio system purely in that manner now, I like how they sound for influence, readability, expanse and dynamic nuance.
In case you do not know (I didn’t), Adele held a particular live performance on the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory for her 2021 CBS tv particular, Adele One Evening Solely – sure, the identical observatory that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone danced by in La-La Land. And as you watch her at full voice, the digicam pans out to disclose L-Acoustics’ Syva-Syva Subs dotted across the open-air auditorium.
Oh, to have been there… however actually, this setup (I am instructed in hushed tones they go for round $26,500 per pair) is an in depth second, and one you possibly can take pleasure in every single day…
2. Oppenheimer on Valerion’s 200″ dwelling cinema and Thunderbeats sound system
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Think about having a 200-inch dwelling cinema system of your very personal. Effectively, Valerion can ship it with ease, and even priced all of it up for me as I stood there.
You have bought your VisionMaster Max for $4,999 / £4,349 / €4,999 (about AU$10,312); your Thunderbeat Speaker System, a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos answer that’ll set you again a not-unreasonable £1,499 (so, possibly $2,000 or AU$3,050) and Valerion’s 200-inch ‘Matte White’ display screen, for £899 (round $1,199 or AU$1,830). Clearly there’s extra to contemplate right here, however that is the fundamentals lined.
I sit with two different individuals in Valerion’s screening room throughout the early-access press night time. Cillian Murphy is on-screen. Because the room turns into a bomb web site and the primary ever atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima, I understand Valerion did not name them ‘Thunderbeat’ audio system for nothing. It was an emotionally charged efficiency for these of us fortunate sufficient to have been within the room earlier than the massive present bought underway.
3. WiiM’s new Sound audio system used as rear channels alongside Elipson towers
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We lined the launch of the WiiM Sound simply days in the past and, curiously, any worth data on the present stands in Paris had been eliminated – they’re so new that pricing in all probability hadn’t been finalized when the setup was conceived. Nonetheless, WiiM is eager to point out them off, as a stereo pair but additionally as rear channels in a house cinema setup that additionally contains the WiiM Sub Professional and Elipson Status Aspect II 24F – June 2025-release audio system that promote for round £1,000 per pair.
I stood and watched a key part of Dune: Half 2. First, a disclaimer: it was somewhat too busy and noisy to actually appraise the sound from my standing spot, this being my second day on the Paris Audio Present and, to my dismay, in addition they let regular individuals in – a lot of whom had taken up residence on the seated sweet-spots – alongside the esteemed audio fourth property. Nevertheless, I can let you know that purely owing to the impartial quantity readings on every WiiM Sound’s display screen, I feel I would favor them to utilizing to Sonos Period 100s in an identical setup…
4. Bowers & Wilkins and Marantz, sure, however have a look at the elevated AudioQuest cables
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If you understand me, you may know I’ve by no means met a Bowers & Wilkins speaker or Marantz amplification answer I could not get together with.
However this room was completely different, as a result of on the early-access press night when the room was nonetheless totally lit (and never 100% completed) I bought to see the total extent of audiophile perfectionism: AudioQuest cables and precise AudioQuest cable risers, to raise your fastidiously organized, high-quality audio cables off the ground. Why do that? To scale back potential vibrational nasties within the audio sign and enhance readability, focus and element.
Once I was nonetheless a really inexperienced audio journo in 2019, I wrote a whole roundup on ‘hi-fi myths that really work‘ – suppose enjoying a CD from the start (reasonably than pausing it and resuming) to get higher timing, listening at midnight, listening at night time, working in your hi-fi separates and, sure, elevating your cables from vibrations.
That piece nonetheless hounds me to at the present time – and but I preserve that protecting your cables off the ground helps your system sound higher. And having heard it once more on this excellent system, I will not be altering my thoughts (or that piece) any time quickly.
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This isn’t a devoted entry – suppose extra a ‘better of the remainder’ I noticed in passing on the Paris Audio Present – however I am unable to let such a roundup finish with out mentioning these hi-fi morsels of pleasure.
First up is the truth that I’ve seen Professional-Ject’s new Elvis-themed turntable and it seems to be even higher in actual life than I might’ve imagined – as does the AC/DC deck (which annoyingly I did not handle to {photograph}).
Elsewhere, I am joyful to report that McIntosh’s amplification remains to be glowing gorgeously inexperienced in a hi-fi listening facility close to you, and Koss remains to be making gloriously retro headphones, which is sensible – the corporate invented the primary true stereo headphones designed for private listening, the SP-3, in 1958.
Oh, and on October 15, Danish hi-fi outfit Eltax launched a turntable referred to as ‘Spinster’. Why no person has considered naming a deck thus earlier than is one thing I contemplated for many of the Eurostar prepare journey again to London…
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