Interviews

Founded in 1998, Amphion has been designing and constructing loudspeakers from the very beginning, distinguished by something that many commercially available designs lack - extremely low sensitivity to imperfections in the acoustics of the listening room. Thanks to well-thought-out technical solutions, the brand's sets can fill any space with high-quality sound, or at least that's what Finnish designers, their foreign representatives, satisfied customers, and installers claim. Not to mention the dozens of musicians and sound engineers who trust Amphion's professional monitors to provide them best results in commercial or home studios and appreciate these monitors for their reliability, transparency, and truthfulness.

Piega is probably Switzerland's most famous loudspeaker manufacturer. Founded in 1986 by Leo Greiner and Kurt Scheuch, the company was initially a typical hobbyist, garage-based manufactory. Kurt concentrated on developing transducers, while Leo took on design matters and the company's finances. At some point, ribbon drivers became Piega's trademark and have remained so to this day. The cheapest models use drivers built with this technology to reproduce high frequencies, while the top-of-the-range speakers also use larger ribbon midrange panels. Because the designers allow them to play backward, the result is unique loudspeakers resembling electrostatic panels, supported by dynamic drivers only in the low frequency range. Piega's flagship designs demonstrate technical capabilities and audiophile splendor hidden under the guise of a minimalist design. During my test of the Coax 711 LTD speakers, their coaxial midrange/tweeter ribbons and aluminum enclosures fascinated me so much that I decided to find out more about them, which led to an interesting conversation with the brand's head of research and development, Roger Kessler.

Audiophiles interested in unconventional loudspeakers often turn their attention to Neat Acoustics - a company founded in 1989 by Bob Surgeoner, who has spent most of his life playing music in a variety of styles, such as blues, rock, jazz, folk, country, and bluegrass. Neat Acoustics has its own recording studio because the professional approach is also the benchmark for the sound of loudspeakers. Music lovers talk a lot about achieving the sound as close as possible to the original, but few equipment manufacturers can actually hear it when designing their gear. Meanwhile, a variety of musical instruments are on hand at the Neat Acoustics factory, including piano, string organ, harp, double bass, synthesizers, and a wide range of electric and acoustic guitars. High-resolution recordings can be played back instantly in the listening room. The speakers themselves are also quite remarkable. They feature various unusual technical solutions, such as speakers working in an isobaric system, cabinets made of glued birch plywood, or supertweeters mounted on the top panel to improve the surround experience.

During one of the few press conferences organized recently as a classic live meeting, not a video chat, I was particularly interested in a presentation of MoFi Electronics - manufacturer of turntables and accessories related to vinyl records playback, which stormed onto the market a few years ago, almost immediately winning many important awards. For many music lovers, this equipment is already well known but the history of its creation and the people responsible for it are not. I quickly concluded that a meeting in the real world is a perfect opportunity to find out all about it. Steve Shade, the representative of the American company, shared many interesting facts with me during a short conversation over coffee. It was not only a story of MoFi Electronics. During this meeting, I felt like I was listening to the latest news from a world that included other well-known brands - Balanced Audio Technology, Spiral Groove, EAR Yoshino, Harmonic Resolution Systems, and Fender. And that was just the beginning.

Dual's beginnings can be traced back to 1900 when brothers Christian and Joseph Steidinger began manufacturing watches and turntable parts. Ten years later, the Gebrüder Steidinger company began manufacturing power supplies to allow turntables to operate using mains electricity. It was not long before Dual started making their turntables. After the war, they became the largest manufacturer of this type of equipment in Europe, employing over 3,000 people in several factories. Later the brand expanded to offer customers complete hi-fi systems with amplifiers, tuners, cassette players, and speakers.

If we asked audiophiles which element of the stereo system is the most important in their opinion, most of them would definitely bet on speakers, an amplifier or a source, or - in some cases- on something like cables, power accessories, or anti-vibration pads. A large group will answer, however, that the room in which all this equipment works has the greatest impact on the final sound result. In a room with poor acoustics, even the most expensive and the most refined equipment will not be able to show even some of its capabilities, while in interiors adapted to listening to music, even inexpensive equipment should do well and give us a lot of pleasure. What to do to find ourselves in the latter group? There are, of course, many simple home methods to improve acoustics, but more and more people are choosing a "real" solution - the assembly of professional acoustic panels. There are many companies on the market offering specialized products for the adaptation of room acoustics - not only listening rooms, but also recording studios, concert and conference halls, offices, hotels, restaurants, and public facilities. One of them is Vicoustic. The Portuguese have long been providing audiophiles,…

Audiovector is one of the companies whose career has clearly accelerated over the past few years. I first encountered Audiovector loudspeakers when I reviewed... the first generation of the Arcam Solo system back in 2005. In the box, I found tiny monitors named Alto, built by the Danes for Arcam. If someone told me then that Audiovector's loudspeakers would be part of my reference system, I would probably have told them to knock on their head. And not with a finger, but with something much harder and heavier. And yet, here we are! For some time, everything that has to do with this company seems to be operating at an accelerated pace Some say that it is thanks to the passion and commitment of Mads Klifoth.

The most recognizable brands in the world of audio equipment are usually the ones that can set trends and focus the attention of the audiophile community and sometimes shock with original ideas or products better and more expensive than anything we've seen before. However, there is a group of companies that do the same, often outperforming the achievements of famous brands, and directing their offer to dedicated music lovers. Classé is just such a manufacturer. The Canadian company has had to deal with many turbulences recently. It was acquired by a big corporation, and it showed the world three hi-end devices made in a completely different factory. It all sounds pretty weird, but when you look at the Delta series, it's hard not to smile. They are wonderful - beautiful, powerful, modern, and made in such a way that it is hard to improve anything in their design. That is why I decided to find out what is going on at Classé.

Hi-end audio equipment is not only bought but also built by enthusiasts. Often those who used to be in a similar situation and developed their hobbies to such an extent that at some point they decided to build something of their own - better than what's offered in stores. The history of many companies involves a very important input from other people as well. Sometimes it is a friend who decided to help his colleague in developing a small, garage manufacture, sometimes an old lady who bequeathed a nice guy running a music store a huge sum of money, and sometimes a good accountant who can get one of the largest loudspeaker manufacturers out of debt. James Tanner is one of those characters. Perhaps a blind fate that brought James to the right place at the right time. It is known, however, that his contribution to the development of one of the most respected companies making both amateur and professional audio electronics was considerable, to say the least. Today he is Bryston's vice president, but who was he then? A friend of the family? An old lady? Accountant? Well, no. He was a firefighter.

Q Acoustics has been a success right from the start. Its first products, the 1000 Series, shook up the UK loudspeaker industry, received unprecedented praise from reviewers worldwide and scooped prestigious awards. More awards followed with the release of the upgraded 1000i Series, and even more for the 2000 Series. However, not satisfied with merely designing conventional loudspeakers, Q Acoustics' design team introduced Q-AV - the world's first speakers to feature BMR (Balanced Mode Radiator) drive units, enabling for the first time, the whole family to hear perfect home cinema sound, wherever they sat within the room. The Sunday Times predicted that "some day all speaker systems will be like this".