Warsaw Audio Video show October 2023

My short journey Through the Warsaw Audio Show

I had just one brief afternoon, approximately three hours, to visit the Warsaw audio show. My mission was ambitious: to search for potential upgrades to my current audio system without exceeding a $10,000 total budget. And my clear focus was Susvara.

• My current system is the cleanest, most transparent setup I have ever owned. Pi2AES, Soekris 2541 DAC, SPL Phonitor 2 with 4x stereo XLR switch, and HEKSE, HD800S, 2021 LCD-X.
  
  
• The SPL Phonitor's performance is particularly good when paired with the HD800S, delivering a sound clarity I prefered to the Bryston BHA, which I subsequently parted with.
  
  
• Although the Liquid Gold X has a special place in my heart for its performance with planars, it is the Phonitor that truly brings out the full resolution and perfect tonality of acoustic instruments of HEKSE.

• - My time at the show was short; I dedicated a mere 5 to 10 minutes per setup audition.
  
  
• My selection of test tracks was predominantly strings, including Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 to test each system's handling of abusy material.
  
  
• Firsts I found the Nimbus amplifier, which I always considered overpriced, I tried it with the Dan Clark Stealth headphones, it simply lacked power, there was no point connecting Susvara.
  Everything,including violin solos, was delivered with the reverb like in a big church, and with low volume. Maybe the amp was just broken.
• 
  
• Next was ZMF Caldera, just to compare with something good, paired with Chord Hugo TT and the Burson Soloist 3X GT, great detail, capturing the strings' true tonality with precision. Everything was just right. Perfect reference point.
  Upon switching to the 2021 LCD-X, the sound quality perceptibly diminished, way below the LCD-X sound quality on my own system. It was clearly the Caldera's performance making this setup so appealing.
• That was one caveat: I almost could not tell the difference with my current setup. Caldera setup was just a touch slightly less resolving than HEKSE with Phonitor, on the other hand I liked Caldera treble more.
  
  
  
• On the Hifiman table I found Susvara , conencted to a lofty $15,000 EF1000DAC. Great details, a profound bass, and huge disappointment. They did not deliver the transformative experience that I had anticipated. Far from it. The sound was syrupy warm, the whole thing sounded not even at the level of the Susvara performance when I tried it with my basic ADCOM speaker amp. WTF? Why?
  
  
• Switching chairs to the Shangri-la on , it was a revelation in sound, an experience that was very natural but incredibly engaging. Irrespective that it was a mismatch, Shangri-la headphones, but Shangri-la Jr amp. My search for upgrade was done, except.. it was beyond my financial reach.
  
  
• I did not give up on Susvara. - That led me to the Ferrum Audio table, where the Susvara was paired with their HYPSOS and OOR, plus their DAC. Here finally I found an exquisite balance of tonal accuracy, fantastic low end, and microresolution. It was exactly what I thought I would get with Susvara. Ferrum setup was way beter than Susvara with EF1000DAC, at 30% of the cost!
• I would love to try the Ferrum amp with HEKSE but just did not have time to find it and bring to the Ferrum table
• 
  Conclusion:**
  
  
• Among all the setups,it is the Ferrum Audio with Susvara is the clear contender to enhance my audio rig at home. It was better listening experience, roughly fitting within my budget, provided that I sell the other stuff.
• Their factory is in small city of Pruskow 20 mins from where I live here.
• I talked to their rep about using the HYPSOS for non Ferrum stuff and this power supply is what I will most likely buy in any case.

I wished I could have more time there but those three hours were well spent, and the next year I will certainly allocate a full day. It is a big event, every audio shop I know was there. Did not even have chance to listen to any two channel system.

PS
My last 5 mins stop on the way out was with Dekoni X Hifiman Cobalt. Do not bother.
At this price range I want my Fostex TX-000 back.

 

@wormcycle You should have a chat with @wbass who has also recently compared the Ferrum and the Enleum.

 

@wormcycle Various notes about both amps in my most recent status updates.

I think the Ferrum stack is pretty solid all around, though slightly prefer the Enleum with the Susvara thus far. Still, if Ferrum is local-ish to you, I say go for it. Maybe you can also audition their new Wandla DAC, which I bet would be a great (and natural) match.

Otherwise, sounds like you got some solid and well-targeted listening in at the show. I'm pretty curious about the expensive Hifiman amp and would love to hear it. I never have particularly good listening experiences at shows, particularly with HPs, so it'd have to be a home audition for me. Which will probably never happen!

I think people end up doing a ton of amp rolling with Susvara, which is maybe natural since it's challenging to drive and seems to respond in interesting ways to various amp types. For myself, if something equally or more appealing than the Ferrum stack or Enleum comes along, at a non silly price, I'd happily audition it. But for now I'm just chilling and enjoying some good listening.

p.s. https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/ferrum-oor-hypsos.56381/

 

Very interesting link, thanks

It is impossible, people I waiting for interesting setups and even if not, there too many intresting things to check, and it is impossible to go through all the steps needed to form a clear opinion. I was focused on Susvare and it helped a bit.

If I go this path I will start with Susvara, try it on the system I have, and I can go to Ferrum showroom, which is close, to check again if I am really willing to go with entire setup. The only thing I am certain is that if I buy Ferrum amp I will buy HYPSOS as well. They were kind enough to connect OOR through the standard PSU for me and, even being sceptical because of the confirmation bias, the backgroud changed just slightly but not in a good way.

 

I too have the SPL Phonitor 2 w/expansion rack. My main dacs are the SPL Mercury, and the RME Babyface Pro FS (and most of the time I go pc->usb->RME->optical->Mercury because I can't be fussed to change cables).

I don't have Susvara, but my main headphones are the OG HE-6. Currently I just push them from the Phonitor 2 headphone jack because I'm lazy and don't want to set up the SPL s800 power amp. I currently have a Nitsch Piety, and a DSHA-3FN incoming. Both the Ferrum and Enleum are on my shortlist of curiosities that I'd want to try out if the opportunity presents itself, but I'm not chasing hard.