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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2025
I don’t have any experience with Advance Paris outside of things I’ve seen and heard online—a video clip here and there, but no meaningful interaction beyond that, and certainly no hands-on time. If you’re located in North America like me, you’re likely in the same boat. That’s because, even though 2025 marks the brand’s 30th anniversary, it’s only had distribution in North America for a couple of years. The brand’s as-yet subdued North American presence has done nothing to dampen the festivities here in Munich: at High End 2025, Advance Paris announced five new products, all part of its new premium Nova line. Prices are all in euros.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
Estelon has been on a roll lately, filling in its product range with smaller, less expensive models. That makes sense to me. After all, I’ve heard its top-of-the-line speaker, the Extreme, at several audio shows, and I don’t think there’s anywhere further north to go for Estelon. The Extreme is always in the running for my best of show, and it sells for maybe a quarter of the price of some other statement speakers that don’t sound anywhere near as good.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
I got to know Jason Melman, owner of Boutique Audio (an extremely high-end retailer just north of Toronto), by chance. Fellow SoundStager George da Sa hooked us up after he discovered the store a few months ago. On my visit back in April, I spent a short spell listening to one of Melman’s systems, which was fronted by a pair of Aidoni speakers from Germany’s SoundSpace Systems. These large, expensive, beautifully finished speakers threw a huge, dynamic soundstage and really turned my crank.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
IsoAcoustics provides the kind of demo that’s unique in audio. You sit in front of two pairs of identical speakers, and the signal runs through an A/B switch so you can switch, in real time, between one pair that’s spiked directly to the floor and another pair fitted with IsoAcoustics’ footers. There are no tricks here—I’ve looked behind the rack, and both speakers are wired directly to the switcher.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
I’ve said it before. Sometimes you walk into a room, and you instantly know that this sound is correct.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
Techno is making a comeback on the show circuit. Used to be all you’d hear in the hallways was “Hotel [fucking] California,” but at the 2025 version of High End, I heard more techno than I’ve experienced in the last decade.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2025
When I set out to cover the World of Headphones section at High End 2025, I knew it’d be a major undertaking, but I didn’t think it’d stretch to three separate articles. Yet here we are—this time, I have reports on a pair of Asian companies whose new products seriously made their presence felt at High End 2025, as well as some new headphones from Dan Clark Audio that are sure to cause a stir among fans. Pricing is in US dollars, euros, or both.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2025
On the day before High End 2025 officially began, in a cool, reclaimed, hipster-infused industrial building across the street from the Munich Order Center, a bunch of audio companies, all of them heavy hitters, were presenting, well, I don’t know what exactly, as almost all of the presentations were in German. I’d catch the odd word, but it wasn’t of much use.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2025
Lest you thought I was finished after visiting just two manufacturers at the World of Headphones at High End 2025, behold this article covering brand-new head-fi products from three more companies. I saw limited-edition stuff, gear for globetrotting hi-fi nuts, and a versatile pair of pro-audio-cum-consumer-grade over-ears. All prices are in euros and US dollars, and, where available, in British pounds.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2025
If there’s any new opinion I’ve formed about audio in the past year or two, it has to do with the number of people who rely on headphones for audio. Be they friends, family, or perfect strangers, people by the millions use headphones for music, movies, calls, gaming, and more. My opinion is that headphones and wearable audio are the future of high fidelity, and it’s one that I absolutely stand by.
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2025
Sunday morning began with a bit of a surprise. After I boarded the lift to head down for breakfast, it stopped on the next floor so a group of six beautiful young women could enter. Audio shows attract a certain demographic, and let’s just say this posse broke the mold. So I felt compelled to ask them, “Are you here for the hi-fi show?” This resulted in much laughter. Apparently, these young ladies had gone away to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday and had booked into a hotel that was packed to the rafters with balding, middle-aged men. They probably wondered if they had blundered into a sales convention for incontinence products or stairlifts.
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2025
Morning had broken, and so had my head! After a truly sublime dinner with a couple of Naim friends at the end of the first day of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2025, we had unwisely decided to return to the hotel bar for a nightcap, only to find that the party was still in full swing. This industry might give the impression of being full of boffins debating the merits of different power-supply architectures, but we can party as well as any touring rock band! Catching up with industry friends over some single malts, it struck me how much I adore the British hi-fi industry and the people in it.
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2025
I have attended the Bristol Hi-Fi Show for more than 30 years, and it remains one of my favorite weekends of the audio calendar. Other shows have their merits, but there’s a real energy to the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, with its crowded rooms and corridors and the expansive bar where the public rub shoulders with manufacturers over a steady stream of ale. At the close of play on the Friday night, it seems that every single exhibitor, customer rep, journalist, and PR person who’s ever worked in hi-fi descends on the bar, creating a glorious cacophony of conversation that rises like the instrumental crescendo in “A Day in the Life.”
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
Assessing the sound quality of any system—let alone an individual component—at a hi-fi show is nearly impossible. With unfamiliar rooms, components, and music selections, it’s difficult to determine much about any specific element. The only thing you can know for certain is whether the system sounds good at that moment. Nonetheless, we still attempt to compare systems, even in unfamiliar surroundings, by playing some of our favorite tracks as we move from room to room.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
For a while, I followed Doug Schneider around, checking out systems that people could actually afford. Although the socialist in me recognized this pursuit as valuable, it was mighty boring. While looking at $1500 amplifiers and $5000 speakers, I found myself mentally rolling my eyes, knowing there were other rooms jam-packed with systems that cost more than a house.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
One of my goals for day one was to find a room that (a) sounded great and (b) would add a zero to the price of one of Doug’s sensibly priced systems. I managed to satisfy both criteria in House of Stereo’s room. House of Stereo is a Florida-based retailer, and this room featured products by Electrocompaniet, Stenheim, and Nordost.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are my benchmark products for value in the auto and hi-fi industries. A quick Google search indicates that in the United States, the 2025 version of the former starts at $24,500 and the latter at $22,325.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
That’s a whole lot of very expensive wood, I thought to myself as I walked into the Volti Audio room and took note of the large, sumptuous New Vittora loudspeaker system—an update of the company’s original Vittora—which was making its world debut here at the Florida International Audio Expo.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
Occasionally, I’ll walk into a room and instantly know that the speakers, the room, and the electronics are right. There’s a sense of cohesiveness to a room that’s right. After experiencing room after room where the music is missing that elusive something, you’ll walk into one of these magic rooms, and within a single bar, you’ll just know.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2025
From the outset, I knew that our coverage of this show would be an exercise in extremes. My sole reporting partner at this year’s Florida International Audio Expo is Jason Thorpe, senior editor of SoundStage! Ultra. So it made sense for Jason to focus on more expensive products. The subject of Jason’s first dispatch was the Oneiros loudspeaker by Oneiros Audio, which starts at $650,000 per pair (all prices in USD)—talk about extremes! After reading it, I knew I had to uncover some more affordable products.
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