Audiophiles rarely agree with one another. They even divide their community into various groups that are sometimes incomprehensible even to their members. The same kind of sound can be a true discovery for some people and a complete failure to others. Examples of such situations can be multiplied indefinitely. Therefore we found it quite strange and unique that everyone seemed to speak one voice about one of last year's exhibition at Audio Show in Warsaw. Especially remarkable that show's visitors emphasized the sonic excellence of loudspeakers made by so little known manufacturer from Poland. The name of the main company is Audiothlon but it has two brands under its wings. Historically the first one was Enerr, making power cables, conditioners and accessories. The second brand is Equilibrium making speaker and interconnect cables, and whole loudspeakers. While the cables are fairly well known and have been reviewed a couple of times, speakers evolved rather quickly. We couldn't wait to see them in the final form. The Ether Ceramique is the pinnacle among the speakers designed to fit normal and smaller listening rooms.

France is known not only for automobiles, excellent cuisine, high fashion and jammed streets of Paris. It is also one of the most important countries on the audiophile map of the world. It's the birthplace of brands such as Triangle, Lavardin, Lecontoure, Atoll, Devialet, Cabasse, Micromega, YBA, Fadel Art or Jadis. However, one of the most meaningful companies in the area of the speakers and accessories is Focal. And we are not talking only about the French, but worldwide market. Now this company, which a few years ago was known as JMLab, has several production centres. Collectively they occupy an area comparable to small refinery.

Focal is one of the most powerful companies in the loudspeaker market, making mainly domestic hi-fi speakers and car audio components. Everything is produced in France under one roof, or rather several to be more precise. The scale of production has forced the company to build a large complex of factories and laboratories and take over the cabinet factory where most expensive enclosures are manufactured. After the launch of Aria and Easya models, Focal decided to expand its line of headphones. The first Spirit One model was very successful, so engineers decided to continue this winning streak and create a whole series of headphones based on the same design. New models had to be targeted at different customer groups. Because the basic construction remained the same, functions and applications of new headphones had to be different.

The next edition of one of the biggest events in the electronics industry has been launched. IFA is the largest exhibition of consumer electronics in Europe and probably one of the two or three events of this scale in the world. The huge complex of Messe Berlin has been occupied by hundreds of companies producing almost everything, starting from accessories for mobile phones, and ending on giant TV's, refrigerators and complete home theater systems. Berlin turns into one big electronics store, but there are no sales because everything is fresh and new.