Jason Victor Serinus

It is unusual to begin a review with a detailed discussion of setup. But setup protocol for the Moon 861 power amplifier ($22,000 each), the top-level amplifier in the North Collection from Moon, which I reviewed bridged in mono, proved crucial to its sound.

The setup saga began when Moon co-owner Costa Koulisakis traveled to Port Townsend from Quebec to help remove two 861 amplifiers from their sturdy flight cases and set them up.

Sisound of Poland's Product Manager Rafal Wofczyński presented the world premiere of his 3-way Sisound Solidus S loudspeaker. The speaker, which is currently available only in Poland, claims a frequency response of 26Hz-20kHz, a 4-ohm nominal impedance that dips to 2.5 ohms or lower in the extended LF setting, and 90dB sensitivity.

Hailing from Lithuania, which lies right across the Northeast border of Poland, one-year-old audacious speaker company Silent Pound made its second consecutive appearance at the Warsaw Show. The company returned to the same large, irregularly shaped room that allowed them to place four listening chairs, one behind the other, in a straight line, midway between the standmount speakers on active display.

Perhaps my biggest discovery at the 2023 Warsaw Audio Video Show was Fezz Audio's reasonably priced line of excellent-sounding electronics.

Although I did happen upon Peak Consult speakers in Munich and Southern California in 2023, we last reviewed a Peak Consult speaker almost 18 years ago. Hence my excitement when I encountered genuine full-range sound (albeit too loud) in the room that paired a new reworking of the company's El Diablo loudspeakers ($79,000/pair) with Extraudio electronics.

It felt like a homecoming, albeit a strange one—in that just as I began to sink into or groove on what was playing, the track abruptly shifted to another. Such demos, alas, always strike me as more about sound than music. Even with that reservation, the sound on Camo & Krooked's "Witch Doctor" and Hugo Barriol's "Hold My Hand" was sufficiently engaging to make me wish I could have heard far more.

Bruckner: Symphony No.4 "Romantic", Anima Eterna Brugge/Pablo Heras-Casado; Brahms: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos.1 & 2; Works for Solo Piano Opp.116–119, Igor Levit, piano; Wiener Philharmoniker, Christian Thielemann, cond.; Dvorák: Symphonies Nos.7–9; Nature, Life, And Love, Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov; The Kurt Weill Album: Symphonies Nos.1&2; The Seven Deadly Sins, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz, cond.; Katharine Mehrling, vocals.