Thursday afternoon Mono & Stereo was at the Danish Clarion hotel to listen to the new stuff from the Danish audio connoisseurs and manufacturer of some of the worlds finest HiFi products, Raidho, Ansuz and Aavik.
We came quite unprepared to the Clarion Hotel next to the Copenhagen Airport, where we met some of the guys behind these Danish high-end systems.
The ever nice and sympathetic Lars Kristensen has welcomed us with open arms, as well did Frits Dalmose and Thomas from the Danish HiEnd dealer Lydspecialisten.dk
We were shown some of the new cables as well as the new integrated U-150 Amp (10k Euro for the basic version), in a stunning enclosure and all based on Aaviks own racks, supported by their own range of support-feet.
We had some warm chats, a cold Carlsberg and of course some great sounding music. The Spanish singer Bebe was with us in the room (at least it sounded so), and some rock-music (YES, some HiFi systems can actually perform like at live system), despite it was only the small Radio D1.1 speakers we listened to.
The most eye-opening experience though, was when we listened to the new English shooting star Ed Sheehan and his song “Shape Of You” loaded with the all-Danish system – except the CD player from Primary and the American power cable from Nordost, called Odin2 (in the price range of a family car). The sound was quite muffled though. I told Lars that I would have made a new mix in the recording studio if I were Ed Sheeran. Frits and Thomas quickly changed the power cable feeding the whole system from the Odin2 to the new Ansuz, and with my eyes wide open I regretted my comment on making a new mix. The vocals, because the track is made mostly of vocals, now was clear as on a spring morning, and as we went up on the range of power cables, the song was getting better and better, with more dynamics and transients and with a bigger soundstage. So no need for a new mix in the recording studio.
I only had two hours on my schedule, I´d wish I had a month. This humble system was doing it good, VERY good. So please, if you need a new viewpoint about how far the audio range these days is capable of going, give yourself the treatment of an evening with this new amp, speakers or cables. You won´t regret it, I swear.
Kurt Lassen