Hi-Files Show report in HiFi News

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe

Hi-Files Show, Serbia Words & pictures: Ljubiša Miodragović

Our shared passion for music and hi- is alive and well in every corner of the globe, including Serbia with its relatively small 7 million population. Evidently the Balkan state has a high percentage Baltic state of music lovers, for the country has its own home-grown hi- magazine, Hi-Files, which was launched in September 2004.

The success of the magazine has inspired a local hi- show, held at the plush Holiday Inn Hotel within the business district

of New Belgrade. With sparkling rooms up to 70m2 in size, it’s a great venue. The show has proved a real hit with enthusiasts, and every year new, small, local manufacturers arrive to rub shoulders with truly international brands including Dali, KEF, Naim, Cambridge Audio and Oracle.

The 8th Hi-Files Show will be held over the rst two weekends of November 2012 when the magazine will also celebrate its 50th issue.

Chinese manufacturer Opera Consonance drew the crowds with a presentation offering the widest choice of music genres, from punk and heavy metal to pop music – both English and Serbian.

On the left you can see the Cyber 100 Signature integrated amplier which uses EL34 valves, specied at 40W per channel. On the right are highly attractive Linear 7 and Linear 8 digital systems (streamer and DAC). In this room you could also hear an Audio Note system. www.opera-consonance.com

The Spendor A6 was fed from domestic tube ampliers from Pointe Audio, using the Serbian TT recycled turntable. This twoway oorstanding reex loudspeaker – seen here nished in beautiful light oak – really managed to rock the 45m2 room with no strain.

The speakers were positioned far away from the back wall and slightly toed-in. This combination sounded fantastic, and brought many favourable comments from visitors to the room. www. spendoraudio.com

8 | www.hifinews.co.uk | AUGUST 2012

Mr Ljubiša Miodragović, founder and editor, launched Hi-Files magazine in 2004 at the tender age of 24. Success followed as Hi-Files was granted EISA membership and the magazine began organising its own show. Here’s Ljubiša holding his 46th issue, featuring another great artist from Serbia – Mrs Ana Popović, the acclaimed blues guitarist. www.hi-les.com

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe

Hi-Files Show, Serbia Words & pictures: Ljubiša Miodragović

Our shared passion for music and hi- is alive and well in every corner of the globe, including Serbia with its relatively small 7 million population. Evidently the Balkan state has a high percentage Baltic state of music lovers, for the country has its own home-grown hi- magazine, Hi-Files, which was launched in September 2004.

The success of the magazine has inspired a local hi- show, held at the plush Holiday Inn Hotel within the business district

of New Belgrade. With sparkling rooms up to 70m2 in size, it’s a great venue. The show has proved a real hit with enthusiasts, and every year new, small, local manufacturers arrive to rub shoulders with truly international brands including Dali, KEF, Naim, Cambridge Audio and Oracle.

The 8th Hi-Files Show will be held over the rst two weekends of November 2012 when the magazine will also celebrate its 50th issue.

Chinese manufacturer Opera Consonance drew the crowds with a presentation offering the widest choice of music genres, from punk and heavy metal to pop music – both English and Serbian.

On the left you can see the Cyber 100 Signature integrated amplier which uses EL34 valves, specied at 40W per channel. On the right are highly attractive Linear 7 and Linear 8 digital systems (streamer and DAC). In this room you could also hear an Audio Note system. www.opera-consonance.com

The Spendor A6 was fed from domestic tube ampliers from Pointe Audio, using the Serbian TT recycled turntable. This twoway oorstanding reex loudspeaker – seen here nished in beautiful light oak – really managed to rock the 45m2 room with no strain.

The speakers were positioned far away from the back wall and slightly toed-in. This combination sounded fantastic, and brought many favourable comments from visitors to the room. www. spendoraudio.com

8 | www.hifinews.co.uk | AUGUST 2012

Mr Ljubiša Miodragović, founder and editor, launched Hi-Files magazine in 2004 at the tender age of 24. Success followed as Hi-Files was granted EISA membership and the magazine began organising its own show. Here’s Ljubiša holding his 46th issue, featuring another great artist from Serbia – Mrs Ana Popović, the acclaimed blues guitarist. www.hi-les.com

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe Beyond Frontiers Audio is a new name on the Serbian scene. It enjoyed huge success at the show, as it has at many others worldwide.

BFA presented a high-end hybrid amp named the Tulip alongside a new DAC. Products are designed in Canada by Mr Zdenko Živković and then assembled in Serbia.

BFA used Spendor SP1/2R2s with the electronics, courtesy of its distributor AV Impuls.

Later on, it presented the M2Tech Young DAC. CDs were played on a Creek Evolution 2 used as a transport. www. beyondfrontiersaudio.com Distributor Audiophile High-End presented two loudspeakers from Dali. One was the affordable Dali Zensor 1, the other the oorstanding Dali Mentor 6.

Combining the Dalis with a Cambridge Audio 350A amp and 350C CD player really showed the audience that you can get great sound for just a few hundred Euros. This may have been the cheapest system on display, but it made a strong impression on visitors. www.audiophile.rs

Enthusiast Igor Gligorov, from Belgrade, started recycling turntables a long time ago and named his company after the practice – ‘TT recycled’.

After a while he decided to produce his own turntables from non-recycled parts. Above you can see the Hermes DCX model, which was later tested in Hi-Files magazine. We are sure that you will hear recommendations for TT recycled products in years to come. www.ttrecycled.com

Player is one of the largest distributors of hi- in Serbia, with a wide portfolio of brands. At this show it presented Onkyo and Pioneer AV receivers, powering a KEF Q loudspeaker system.

This was the only home theatre installation at the show but in the same room one could also listen to Roksan and Leema electronics, imported for the rst time to the Serbian market. www.player.rs AUGUST 2012 | www.hifinews.co.uk | 9

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe

Just before the Hi-Files Show, Player became the new Serbian distributor for KEF loudspeakers, so its presentation naturally threw the spotlight on the KEF Q900, Q300 and XQ40 models. Of course, visitors could also hear other brands from the Player catalogue, like the Klipsch RF-82 II and Wharfedale speakers. www.player.rs

Pointe Audio is a small manufacturer from northern Serbia. It mainly produces tube ampliers and power lters. In the photo you can see its model Sixty integrated amplier, which uses KT88 valves. Pointe also presented its SE 288 amp, and both were easily able to drive large Spendor A6 loudspeakers.

Needless to say, all cables and power lters in the system were the company’s own.

Vox Trade has been the Serbian distributor of Dynaudio for over a decade. Its system combined the Focus 340 with VTL electronics (TL-5.5 preamplier and ST-150 power amp), Electrocompaniet EMC 1 UP CD player and Oracle Delphi Mk IV turntable with SME IV as sources. All cabling was

by Transparent Audio.

This was surely one of the most impressive systems at the show. www.vox-audio.com Besides the affordable Cambridge Audio electronics mentioned on p9, distributor Audiophile High-End also presented Densen electronics. Its pre/power ampliers and B410+ CD player were a perfect match for the Dali Mentor 6 loudspeakers. The minimalistic design and resulting high-end sound left many visitors speechless. www.audiophile.rs

As well as components, some hi- companies also import music from various record labels. Here you can see visitors checking out new CD titles from ACT, Enja and ECM. These particular labels are brought into Serbia and distributed by a company called ONE-HiFi. Next to the cases of CDs was a huge collection of new LPs and Blu-ray discs. Hardware without software, doesn’t mean much, does it? www.one-hi.com

10 | www.hifinews.co.uk | AUGUST 2012

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe

In the heart of Serbia there is a small company using the family name, Bračinac, producing tube preampliers, power amps and integrateds. All of its ampliers are nished in a red lacquer, with the product line dubbed the Red Barons.

Transformer lids are gold-plated, which gives them a very fresh and sexy look. A great sound for a romantic setting! See www.bracinac.com

The system fronted by this Oracle Delphi Mk IV turntable was arguably the most popular at the event. While other distributors served music from laptops and other digital media players, this analogue LP spinner was really refreshing. Of course, the rest of the system was great too, but it seems that many audiophiles still love the sound of the black stuff.

This room was full to bursting, seven hours a day! See www.oracleaudio.com

Naim Audio is one of the most respected companies in Serbia and audiophiles are very pleased that the brand has nally found a local distributor in the form of ONE-HiFi, which really made an effort to provide a proper set-up for the show.

As a source they used the Naim NDX, for amplication the Supernait, with Ovator S-400 speakers. This was one of the largest rooms, but the Ovators really had no problem with what were demanding acoustics. www.one-hi.com The largest distributor in Serbia is 4Audio, which boasts almost 20 brands in its portfolio. These range from manufacturers of AV components, such as Yamaha, to core high-end brands like Unison Research and Opera. Visitors to its stand could hear Bryston amps driving PMC speakers as well as more affordable fare from NAD and PSB. Pictured is MartinLogan’s Motion 12 speaker, to the left of a pair of Gold GX200s from Monitor Audio. Both speakers looked and sounded superb. www.4audio.rs 12 | www.hifinews.co.uk | AUGUST 2012

Above we can see competing domestic manufacturers working side by side, which is a rare sight, so we have to praise this collaboration. TT recycled had two models, the ACX and DCX, with Rega RB251 and Goldring arms. Phono preampliers were Pointe, but Creek as well. Ampliers were Pointe SE 288 and Pointe Sixty. Interestingly, they invited a famous local radio DJ from the ’80s to play some vinyl. www.ttrecycled.com

Next month

Weon-the-spot reveal the action winners of More from the EISA hi-fi showsAwards around 2011-2012 the globe