Hifi show Leiden – An exciting line-up of the latest HIFI technology

This year, on the 30^th of November and 1^st of December, the 4^th edition of the Hifi Show from The HIFI Studio Number One was held at the Holiday Inn at Leiden, Netherlands.  Former years when the show was held were 2012, 2014 and 2016.

There were 12 rooms booked at the Holiday Inn to present the latest in hifi development and a lot of high-end brands were presented. Among the brands there were a few of my favorites:

Accuphase

Dynaudio

Monitor Audio

Naim Audio

Anthem (Paradigm)

Roksan

Yamaha

We arrived at 11:00 on Saturday. We were invited at the welcome desk to enter our names for a lottery, with a chance of winning a nice prize! Well, that is a small effort, so why not?

The real hot items during the show were the audiophile digital music streamers and servers. There was a lot of choice and it seems that a lot of brands are making their own software and hardware these days, with a comprehensive number of features and functions.

Monitor Audio (room 10)

Monitor Audio Gold 300

First room we entered was taken by Monitor Audio where the new Gold Series were presented. The demo was consisting of the Gold 300 series speakers, powered by a Roksan Blak Series amp (140W p/ch), Wireworld Cable Technology and Torus Power (Toroidal Isolation Power Transformer)


The real beauty of this demo set was the Transrotor Alto Pick-up system. A very well-designed high-end vinyl record player with a magnetic drive system. This system is designed by Jochem Räke and it’s a handmade German product. Very beautiful to see and a very high-quality running machine with the lowest possible wow and flutter.

The presenter( I think he was representing Watson’s Vinyl Care) was promoting the Dutch band/artist HAEVN with a vinyl record. A very nice warm sound indeed! 

Transrotor Alto record player

The Gold 300 Series speakers were put to the test with an instrumental version of the “Sound of Silence” (Simon & Garfunkel) and Roxy Music’s “Avalon”. This time, the source was not the record player but some digital source. Do not know if it was the CD player or a streaming audio source/service. I could not tell at that moment. Anyway, the sound quality was not optimum. These songs lacked the finesse from the Transrotor and the mid frequencies were a bit harsh. Later on, I heard something about a Sirius Server that was used as well.

Jeremy Brown from Monitor Audio was telling the audience that the new Gold Series presented in the demo are from early 2019. The older Gold 300 Series has been discontinued in 2018. For the latest Gold Series, they developed a combined mid-range with tweeter unit. A total new design which would give an open top end frequency response. The new premium driver technology is also used in their Platinum II Series speakers.

The description from their website about the excellent Gold 300 Series:

“Gold 300 is the pinnacle of the range. Its deceptively large cabinet houses a 2½" (64 mm) C-CAM mid-range driver with a MPD high-frequency transducer above and a pair of 8" (203 mm) RDT II bass drivers below, in a true three-way arrangement.


Also featuring a pair of rear-facing HiVe II ports delivering smooth airflow and ample bass reinforcement, Gold 300 is the ideal speaker for larger rooms. Its punch and dynamism are matched only by its subtlety and fidelity – Gold 300’s effortless authority, from a crisp 50 kHz at the top end to an earth-moving 30 Hz at the bottom, makes it perfect for any and all listening requirements.”

The other Gold 100 and Gold 200 Series were also on display during the show and the 200 Series carry the same C-Cam and MPD transducer combination, but are in the lower price range. These speakers were on demo in the next room at Yamaha.

Lumin and Anthem (Paradigm) (room 12)

Anthem & Martin Logan setup

After the Monitor Audio experience, we were entering the next room with a setup of Lumin, Anthem, Martin Logan, Sbooster and Thorens. The totally re-engineered Lumin X1, a new streaming flagship was presented as well as the more affordable Lumin D2. (Both include Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal steaming services and are Roon Ready) Both devices can be controlled with Apple and Android devices.

The X1 contains Dual ES9038PRO Sabre DAC with 140 DB dynamic range, Dual network ports (1x Optical, 1x RJ45) and XLR balanced outputs. Also supports DSD512,22.6MHz, 1 bit stereo


We were surprised by the elegant electro-static speakers in the room. The Martin Logan ESL15A speakers were powered by Anthem STR PRE, STR Power Silver Series.

I personally, usually, do not like the mid-high and high frequency response of electro-static speakers, but, driven by the right amplifier(s), this kind of speakers could give a very good sound. This good sound possibility was definitely proven by this setup.

The combination with the Anthem amps was a very steady warm sound, especially with classical music! Also, with a nice piece of acoustic folk guitar music, this was a real pleasure to listen to.

In the Martin Logan brochure it says that the ESL series, with an impressive frequency response of 42-22000Hz +-3dB and sensitivity of 91dB/2.83 volts/meter, the new EM-ESL performs more like a mini-flagship than an entry level audiophile speaker and is the most compelling ‘affordable’ audiophile speaker brought to market. That is a very bold statement, considering the price is around 15000 EUR a piece for the ESL15A, so not affordable for my audiophile wallet. However, Martin Logan has the more exquisite ESL-X series, with a larger XStat electro-static transducer and Airframe technology than the ESL series has.

Anthem STR setup

Anthem is a Canadian crafted brand of amplifiers and receivers. The demo was provided with the STR series. The pre-amp has onboard Anthem Room Correction (ARC®®), customizable bass manager for mono or stereo sub outs, MM and MC phono inputs—far more than the average preamplifier (as so they claim).

The STR family consists of an integrated amp, a pre-amp and a power amp. The room correction is especially important for the lower frequencies. The STR Preamplifier gives you more options for subwoofer configuration. Use one subwoofer or two for both channels, or two independent right-and-left channel-specific subwoofers.

The bass management in conjunction with ARC® is uniquely engineered for seamless subwoofer blending, achieving incredibly accurate and lifelike performance.



In any way, considering the combination of fine audio engineering, these two brands; Martin Logan and Anthem go very well together to bring out the best performance you could wish for, in the particular price range. I was personally charmed by this combined set.

Anthem STR Family

Yamaha (room 11)

Next room in our afternoon delight tour was Yamaha. Now, I cannot deny that I am biased when it comes to Yamaha. I love this brand for the price/quality ratio and I have a R-N500 amp and WXC-50 at home, where I run a MusicCast setup.

The Yamaha crew were presenting a Dolby Atmos 7.2.4 surround setup with small movie projection. Included in the movie demo we found the Monitor Audio Gold 100 and Gold 200 Series speakers (As mentioned before) driven by the Yamaha MX-A5200 and CX-A5200 from the Aventage Series.

Yamaha MX-A5200

The MX-A5200 offers 11 x discrete channels of amplification with flexible configuration options. To further enhance power capacity, the MX-A5200 supports Bridge Tied Load (BTL) configuration for the front 2 channels. This allows for a major improvement to the front speaker performance.

The power amp employs a double bottom construction consisting of vibration control plates made of 1.6 mm steel. Must be a pretty heavy beast to carry around! Designed with a symmetrical power amplifier layout, there will be ideal channel separation with left and right sides being both physically and electrically isolated.

The MX-A5200 utilizes balanced XLR connections for all 11-channels.

Yamaha CX-A5200

The 11.2-channel CX-A5200 AVENTAGE pre-amplifier has Yamaha’s renowned CINEMA DSP HD3 combined with Dolby Atmos® and DTS:X™. SURROUND:AI automatically optimizes the surround effect in real time.

YPAO R.S.C. (Reflected Sound Control) analyses the acoustics of the room with the included YPAO microphone to automatically tune your system for the best sound in your room. Furthermore YPAO R.S.C. optimizes the listening environment and takes full advantage of the detailed spatial localization capability of Dolby Atmos.






During the demo, there was a scene from a WWII movie which showed air to air combat with lots of mid-low and sub-low frequencies. Bullets and bombs flying through the air. It was a short spectacle of surround sound and pristine projection technology.

I liked the tight low frequency response in the room. I think the room itself was meticulously customized with acoustic materials and maybe even room correction on the setup.

Anyway, it sounded really good! (maybe the Studio-grade ESS DAC (ES9026 PRO x 2) in the CX-A5200 was a big help in the sound quality) The Sub-low frequencies were provided by the Monitor Audio GXW15.

Next demo was more of a music scene or an actual video clip from Kraftwerk. This showed the musical capacities of the surround setup, but I was not really amazed by the musical sound quality.
Usually, I do not prefer a surround setup for music and in this case, I was not charmed by the demo.

The other side of the room had a stereo demo setup with a R-N803D with Pure Direct Mode (which I love) and more Monitor Audio loveliness, but unfortunately, we did not have time to go through that, because there was so much to see and so little time to see it…

Naim Audio (room 9)

Well, I heard of this brand a long time ago. After that, it disappeared from my radar, until this show when they appeared right back.
Naim even brings out it’s own magazine; Connection. By their own words they say that;

“Connection explores the boundless potential of Naim’s network-connected range to unleash your digital music and reveal it’s true depth”.

As Naim defined the world of digital music playback back in 2008 with the HDX hard disk player/server, they have been working on the refinement of these kind of products ever since. And do not forget their NAP and NAC power amps.

So, here we are in 2019. What do they have for us?

· ND5-XS2, NDX2, ND555 Network players


· NAIT-XS3 Integrated amplifier (Also with Phono connection)


· Uniti Core Music Server


· Acoustics Ekstra (speakers on demo)

Naim setup

In the demo they had a variety of music genres passing by; pop, jazz with an emphasis on piano and percussion. Probably some features in music where the speakers would flourish. I probably heard some songs from Fink coming by as well.

Anyway, the music sounded a bit compact and compressed with a limited stereo image and too much bass. Later, I heard that their music source was Tidal. By my taste, this could explain my listening experience. I do not like the sound of Tidal (being a Qobuz user myself).


Too much bass, that part could have been the two 134 mm bass drive units facing downward in the Ekstra speaker mounting, in a small room. I learned later that day, that my disappointing listening experience was not due to the quality of the Naim streamers…

Ekstra bottom woofer

The Uniti Core caught my attention. This thing is one of a kind. It is a seriously powerful machine that will allow you to rip your entire CD collection, store up to 100,000 tracks, serve files to Uniti all-in-one players or other Naim streamers and create a back-up for all your music. You can also use Uniti Core as a standalone digital source. A one stop no-compromise solution to ripping, storing, cataloguing and playing your entire music collection. Support for many file formats.

The NAIT XS 3 has received significant performance upgrades, including a built-in phono stage, making it a perfect partner for turntables, as well as for streamers, CD players, or any other music source people want to enjoy with the signature Naim sound. The XS3 also has a class A headphone amp.

Alongside digital and USB inputs, the ND5 XS 2 uses a new streaming platform with an expanded feature set, High-res UPnP™ streaming, AirPlay, Chromecast built-in, Bluetooth (apt X HD), Spotify Connect, TIDAL, Roon compatibility, internet radio and multiroom streaming. Supports a broad range of music formats: WAV, FLAC, DSD, Apple Lossless, AIFF, AAC, Windows Media-formatted files, M4A and MP3. Gapless playback on all file formats. So, this is as versatile as streamers can come. 

With only native support for Tidal, this streamer would not be my choice, but of course, this is based on personal preference. This is Naim’s entry-level network player.

The most advanced network player would be the ND 555. The ND 555 marries the Naim innovative new streaming platform with classic Naim analogue technology. It features a 40-bit SHARC processor with advanced signal processing, a suspended brass sub-chassis to isolate sound-critical circuits from vibrations and lets the music flow with astonishing ease and uniquely engaging musicality. According to their own website that is.

The Naim App for iOS and Android gives you complete control over individual or multiple Naim products. You can access all your music including radio pre-sets, streaming services and playlists, sync several Naim players for multiroom playback or explore artist discographies and biographies. 

The app also controls the Uniti Core music server (so there’s no need for two separate apps) and allows you to update your system wirelessly with a single tap.

Primare and Audio Physic (room 8)

This Scandinavian brand was presenting their amps together with Audio Physic speakers.

Lagom (“laah-goam”) is the Swedish word for this: roughly meaning “just the right amount.” Not too much. Not too little. Everything in perfect balance, harmony, and proportion. This is also the way Primare design their products, in the sense that no aspect of a Primare product, in either appearance or performance, should draw attention to itself – that the music should be the primary experience and the perception of technology at work should disappear.

Audio Physic Midex

On demo was the Primare PRE-35 stereo pre-amp, the A35.2 amp and the German Audio Physic Midex speakers. The presenters were playing EDM music genre (not my favorite) and I was sitting in the back of the room. The bass was too much and the setup sounded quite muddy. It did have a nice stereo image in the mid and high frequency range. I changed my position later more to the middle of the room, but still the bass was to undefined and muddy. I do not know what kind of source they had there, but I suspect a CD player.

Strangely enough, on the Audio Physic website they claim the contrary to my listening experience: “Take the position of the woofers, for instance. Instead of placing them next to each other below the tweeter and the midrange driver, they flank the other drivers, with one woofer on the top, the other at the bottom of the baffle. This placement helps avoid uncontrolled effects of room acoustics in the bass region, enhancing low-frequency fidelity significantly.” And they go on: “We have designed the new MIDEX to provide unimpeachable sound quality with any kind of music and in any room”. 

Could it have been a crappy audio source or maybe bad mixing/ mastering? Who knows, I was not amused.

In addition to fully balanced circuitry, with dual XLR inputs and outputs, the Primare PRE35 Prisma includes a DM35 full-featured DAC stage enabling up to PCM 768kHz/32bit and DSD 256 conversion, as well as Prisma connectivity and control, and WiSA high resolution wireless speaker connection technology (available in future update).

Prisma, provides multi-room/multi-zone connectivity and control for playback of stored and streamed media, wired or wireless, all managed from any mobile device through a dedicated system control app. In addition to Bluetooth, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect, Prisma features Chromecast built-in.

PRE35 is an all analog version of PRE35 Prisma. DM35 digital to analog conversion and Prisma plug-in modules can be added later.

Primare A35.2 Amplifier

The Primare A35.2 is the most powerful amplifier. A real beast. A35.2 features balanced inputs and 200 watts of output power into 8 ohms, with the ability to be bridged to mono for 800 watts of output into 8 ohms. With this level of truly massive power output, A35.2 can drive even the most demanding stereo speakers, or for an awesomely powerful multi-channel system array.

The next part of the demo was more interesting. A demonstration of a new noise dissipation system by AudioQuest together with NRG Power cables. 

The man was showing a simple test by plugging the main in the 220V socket (with and without the system in between). Of course, there is a lot of audible noise coming from a power outlet.

With the AudioQuest Niagara 1200 in place, the noise was almost gone. 

A big reduction in noise and a big increase in stereo image, clarity in instruments and vocals and better low frequency response. 

Is it worth the money? If you ask me, I would only buy this stuff if I had a very expensive Hifi installation at home.

Dynaudio and Auralic (room 7)

I have some fine Dynaudio emit M30 floor standing speakers at home and these are already real audiophile level speakers, because Dynaudio put their 28mm dome tweeter from the more expensive range in this ‘budget’ speaker. The voice coils are bigger than actually needed, so you can put a lot of power through the coils without overheating them. You can play them louder for longer. That is what I like about these speakers.  

I always find Dynaudio speakers to sound very alive and colorful.

Dynaudio Confidence series

At this demo the representatives were showing the Evoke and Confidence Series. I thought I saw a Moon amplifier there in the demo rack, but I am not sure. It was pretty crowded in the room when we got there.

Let’s just presume that it was a Moon Amp, I know this was driving a pair of Dynaudio Confidence 30 speakers. These speakers sound very lively and colorful indeed. Very broad dynamic response in classical music. You could hear every little thing in the ensemble of the orchestra. Later on, also a few jazz songs came by and it sounded like the musicians were sitting right there in front of you.

Dynaudio about the Confidence 30 speakers:

“Like the rest of the range, the Confidence 30 features the brand-new Esotar3 tweeter. This takes lessons learned during the development of the award-winning Esotar Forty anniversary tweeter – including optimised airflow technology, a new neodymium magnet design and the ingenious Hexis resonance-busting inner dome – and takes things up a notch or three.

Also on board are two all-new 18cm NeoTec MSP woofers (which also feature powerful neodymium magnet systems and some intensely clever airflow tech); the new, ultra-stable, ultra-rigid Compex composite front baffle; a completely new 15cm midrange driver with the new airflow-correcting Horizon Surround ; the new down-firing bass port … and the next generation of the DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control) sound-beaming technology, including the brilliant DDC Lens around the tweeter.”

To put it in musical terms, with the new Esotar 3 tweeter the whole listening experience won’t sound as if it’s been divided into distinct frequency areas. You get the whole picture; it’s like listening in enhanced color. This perfect description of what I heard was written in this review. So, I decided to use it here.

Auralic Aries G2 Wireless Streamer

The Auralic presentation was concise and to the point. Their new products were on display at the side of the room. They presented:

· Vega G1 Streaming DAC.


· Aries G1 Wireless Streaming Transporter. The ARIES G1 offers nearly universal connectivity for access to all your digital sources. Tri-band Wi-Fi and Ethernet open your system to UPnP/DLNA media servers, shared network folders, high-resolution Internet Services, and Internet Radio, as well as RoonReady, Bluetooth, AirPlay, and SongCast control.

· Aries G2 Bigger brother of the G1 and double the price.

· Leo GX basic and premium Reference Master Clock. “the first master clock ever that can feed a DAC directly with a working signal so precise we had to use new benchmarks to measure its performance.” So says Auralic.

· Altair G1 Digital Audio streamer (You can use it as a DAC, pre-amp, server, wireless streamer and storage device)

Then there is Lightning OS (and DS), which Auralic claims is the highest-quality streaming environment you’ve ever heard. A meticulously crafted software architecture designed specifically to work hand-in-hand with the powerful Tesla hardware platform found in AURALiC streaming products.

Acoustic Engineers (ATC) and Cyrus (room 1)

The letters ATC stand for Acoustic Transducer Company, which was founded by Billy Woodman in 1974. This is a dinosaur company in audio world. 

The first product they put on the market was the PA75-314. A 12 inch speaker unit for the pro-audio market. After this followed the famous hand-made SM75-150 3 inch soft dome unit and SCM50A loudspeaker system which is very well known in the pro-audio and broadcasting environment. 

So, what are they doing at this hifi show?

ATC started to bring more “household friendly” versions of their successful pro-audio SCM speakers to the market, which became the Classic, Tower and Entry Series. They also serve the home theater side of hifi with their HTS line and center speakers and subwoofers.

ATC has a hifi components line as well. In the years they have grown into a serious hifi competitor, or should I say that they have created a benchmark? The standards they work with is beyond normal, as so we could hear from the demo in their small living room setup at the Holiday Inn.

ATC SCM100 SL- Classic

On demo, ATC was presenting SCM100 SL (passive) and 100 ASL (active) loudspeakers. A wonderful sound! The room was very small and crowded, so we could not stay there for long. Next show, they should get a bigger room. This kind of quality deserves a bigger room.

Cyrus was presented in the small room as well and they had the Cyrus One and Cyrus One HD, streamer and integrated amplifier on display.

The Cyrus ONE series is conceived as an accessible range of products designed with very high hi-fi credentials, but in a very practical and modern configuration. Designed with contemporary music sources in mind, such as streamed blue-tooth (atpX) from phones, Chromecast audio and with the classic sources, such as vinyl.

To me, the Cyrus One boxes looked very cute and compact.

Hifiman and Burson (room 2)

The sub-heading for this room is Hifiman and Burson, but there were other brands like Meze, 64 Audio, Shanling, VivA Audio, Campfire, and Final Audio. This room was all about headphones and headphone amplifiers.

Hifiman HE1000SE Headphones

I did not listen to all the combinations of headphone and amp, but there were a few that I tried. My favorite combination was the Hifiman HE1000SE headphone with the Feliks Audio headphone amp. Wow, this was incredibly good! These headphones have a frequency range from 8Hz – 65KHz! That is enough range to give these headphones for your cat’s birthday. 

The Jade II headphone & amp was also driving an incredible sound. I did not know about this brand (probably because of the price tag), but I am a big fan now!

Feliks Audio tube amps were there with their new hand-crafted range and brochure.

Burson was presenting the Conductor 3 headphone amp (Or C3 Reference). Incredible sound as well. This room was hifi heaven. No wonder people behind us were stand in line for a listen.

Burson C3 Reference

The C3 Reference is the best of the classroom. With two ESS9038 DAC chips in our C3 Reference and its USB receiver with customised driver by Thesycon, Germany, the result is unsurpassed processing power, perfectly playing back DSD512 and 38bit/786khz audio. The C3 Reference also features a Bluetooth 5.0 receiver Qualcomm/CSR8675 [+] with aptX HD audio codec. It pushes Bluetooth playback beyond CD quality and ease of use to the highest level.

Meze Audio had their awards winning and affordable 99 Classic headphones. This headphone put Meze on the audiophile map back in 2015.

But again, I was baffled by the sound quality and build quality of the equipment. This room was my favorite, but that would change soon enough when we entered room 6…

Accuphase (room 6)

Paul Hattink on guitar at Accuphase demo

The Benelux import manager Paul Hattink had booked a big room. Maybe to follow his big ambition as a performer?

The guy picked up his guitar and played along with a song on his laptop. His performance was to show how true to nature the Accuphase sound actually is. His point was well made when we heared the live played acoustic Spanish style guitar blending in perfectly with the recorded guitars via this very fine hifi installation.

Accuphase is not a stranger in town in hifi audio world. On the main website you can read:

“The name ACCUPHASE was adapted by taking the prefix ACCU from the word "accurate" and combining it with PHASE which is a most important factor in audio technology. We feel it is a very fitting brand name to describe our products that fully portray this and other important characteristics, which penetrate the innermost depth of audio technology.”

After the live performance, Paul also mentioned that the music that was played at the intro when we entered the room, was from radio. We couldn’t believe the quality we heard was actually a radio source. Hi Online Radio, with 8 streams of high-res radio, is also available on TuneIn and Vtuner. A good source for audiophile music.

There is also an app available in the app stores of Android and Apple called Hifine. This is named after the importer’s website Hifine.

The demo was all Accuphase equipment; A48, C2150, DC37 and DP560 with big Audio Vector speakers.

Accuphase demo setup with the Audiovector speakers

We also had the opportunity to listen to some pristine 60s sound. A song from Harry Belafonte; Try to Remember, recorded very well for that time. Really nice sound coming from this hifi combination! Next song was Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t she lovely” cover from Livingston Taylor. The air from the whistle was in uncanny detail. Also, the dynamics in the vocals was huge.

After this, we had 2 more rooms to visit, but the quality of the day was set right there in room 6. Nothing could tip over the Accuphase sound the rest of the day.

The Hifi Studio and Esperio (room 5)

The organizer of the hifi show resided in room 5 where the setup was a combination of the top segments we encountered trough-out the whole day. The Hifi Studio Number One is a family business from Leiden and was founded in 1982. 

They offer Hi-Fi equipment, streaming audio, record players and speakers, but also provide Multiroom solutions, Home Cinema and home automation.

The demo set contained the Naim ND555, Accuphase E480 amp and the Dynaudio Conference 20 speakers and a Dynaudio subwoofer SUB6. They streamed music from Qobuz and Tidal.

Demo setup at Hifi Studio number One

This set was the ultimate combination of high-res stream quality music through the best equipment we have seen that day. At least, this was the culmination of highest quality to my taste. A set I would like to have at home if I could afford it. AudioQuest cables were used and the room had acoustic baffles at the back.

Esperio had a big banner installed at the side of the room and when we left, I took a brochure to see what they had to offer. They seem to deliver the acoustic wooden baffles (diffusers and absorber panels) I saw in the room, giving the room the perfect acoustics for the demo set. Esperio is part of Rivasono.

The sound was so good, when we left the room to visit the last room of the show, our ears were spoiled from the Accuphase sound.

Kii and Innuos (room 4)

Kii Three speakers

First thing that took my attention when we entered the room was the look of the Kii speakers. The round shaped design and the screaming red color were certainly good for catching your attention. These active Kii 3 speakers have DSP on board to regulate the timing of frequencies reaching your ears. Due to the active and reactive technology imbedded in the speakers, the speakers can be installed close to a wall without destroying the bass response. You can get these speakers in many colors if you wish.

I found this set of speakers to have a more analytical sound character than a smooth hifi sound. The mid-frequencies of the guitars in Lenny Kravits’ “Are you gonna go my way” were stunningly accurate for hifi and these guitars were blasting out. The sound was compact and not really open and lively. But that can be due to Accuphase spoiled ears I had at that moment.

Funny fact I picked up on their website. Jacob Collier is endorsing and using this speaker series in his home studio. I presume that the analytical character probably appeals to Jacob as well

“The Kii CONTROL turns the Kii THREE into a complete playback system of highest sonic quality and usability. It offers a user interface for your speakers and works like a digital preamplifier.
Only connect your analog source, CD player/drive, server, streamer, TV set or set top box to enjoy a breathtakingly audiophile full range system in a stunningly small footprint.
The Kii CONTROL offers three additional digital inputs for the Kii THREE: Coax SPDIF, Optical TOSLINK and USB (up to PCM 24/384kHz and DSD64/DSD128 on USB).”

In the demo room, the set was completed with the Innuos Zenith server/streamer and Phoenix USB reclocker.  Hans Beekhuysen reviewed the Zenith MK3 on his YouTube channel.

This demo closed off a fantastic and exciting day. The show was a complete success. Some brands were rocking my world, some were a bit disappointing. The real surprises were in the small things and most of the time in the smallest rooms. If they organize this show next year, I sure want to visit again!

Reported by Ralf Neels

Many thanks to Michel Berkhout for taking pictures that day and for letting me use them!