Warsaw Audio Show 2024

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.

A chance after-dinner encounter with Jacek Grodecki, owner of Warsaw-based Closer Acoustics, impelled me to visit their room. So did my memories of the positive listening experience I had with Closer Acoustics in 2023.

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.

My goal, in writing reports on the Warsaw Audio Video Show, may be to mix products from Polish brands with a few noteworthy premieres. But when a chance meeting during dinner led to the discovery of Mozzaik Audio, headquartered in Croatia just a few countries south of Poland, my interest was piqued.

Polish company J. Sikora belatedly premiered in Warsaw what they had unveiled at Chicago’s AXPONA six months before: their new Standard Max Supreme turntable. Only one table below the company’s top of the line, Standard Max Supreme reproduced music with the help of J. Sikora's Kevlar tonearm and an Aidas Mammoth Gold cartridge from Lithuania.

A new Polish turntable brand, BennyAudio, is poised to enter the United States via the Supreme Acoustic Systems distributorship. Given what I heard in BennyAudio's room at Audio Video Show 2024, aka The Warsaw Show, my audiophile buddy Scott might have gone to heaven and back if he’d been able to join me.