SV-Audio, a newcomer Danish speaker manufacturer, were in one of the halls at High End Vienna 2026. This was where the rooms were boxes are made of temporary structures, and thus ought to be inferior to the proper rooms in the adjacent building. Somewhat surprisingly, these "boxes" were generally a little better sounding than I expected.
If you watch my interview with SV-Audio Marketing Manager Lærke Vestskov Poulsen on our YouTube channel, you'll hear how the camera's shotgun microphone picks up a lot of room tone. This makes it precarious to say anything about their system's performance, so apply salt to the following descriptions as you see fit.
Driven by Vitus Audio electronics—which included the SD-025 Mk II streamer/DAC, CD-025 Mk II CD player, SL-103 line stage/preamplifier, and SM-025 Mk II monoblock amplifiers—some sounds in this room had treble crispiness that felt excessive not in amplitude, but in texture.
It's practically impossible to assess ear fatigue in a short show session like this one, but my gut feeling is these new SV-Audio Astrid loudspeakers won't be causing that kind of trouble, so I'm not describing a grating sensation here. I heard very tight and tonally pleasant bass from the Astrid's four 5" drivers working in conjunction in this 2-way design.
Room modes were evident but possibly alleviated somewhat by the Ortvik Waveform diffusor panels flanking each side to catch first reflections. Stereo image was strikingly deep and immersive.
I'm glad a stayed a little while. Though it was at first a little diffuse, later tracks I heard during my session here sounded spatially very precise, making me think the Astrid speakers do justice to whatever imaging the recording at hand has.
Compression in the recordings that were being played was ruthlessly revealed when present—in my experience, a sign of a very linear and dynamically capable speaker that doesn't mask such things with its own compression. I was surprised by an interesting sense of elevation—not that I looked for it, but I was almost startled at how some sounds appear to sit above others. The Astrid does sound like a speaker. I wasn't feeling fooled that I was hearing the acoustic event, but a very pleasant speaker despite its rigorous precision.
Cabling (from ZenSati) was the most expensive product in the room—€74,865 in total. They sure look cool, though.
Follow us on YouTube.
Driven by Vitus Audio electronics—which included the SD-025 Mk II streamer/DAC, CD-025 Mk II CD player, SL-103 line stage/preamplifier, and SM-025 Mk II monoblock amplifiers—some sounds in this room had treble crispiness that felt excessive not in amplitude, but in texture.
I'm glad a stayed a little while. Though it was at first a little diffuse, later tracks I heard during my session here sounded spatially very precise, making me think the Astrid speakers do justice to whatever imaging the recording at hand has.
Cabling (from ZenSati) was the most expensive product in the room—€74,865 in total. They sure look cool, though.
Follow us on YouTube.
