By Keijo Tanskanen
FOREWORD
Hifiguru arranged open doors
event also this year. The event was held at the same weekend with Helsinki Highend
and Hifimaailma. I think Hifiguru's event protocol is now a tradition ? they
have noticed that this is the best way to serve their customers. It is quite
simple to understand why. Naturally because this kind of event enables the first
class sound and service!
SETUP
Many enthusiasts, including
me, have listened to Acapella Violon speakers in Hifiguru in the beginning of
2000s, and missed that sound since then! Finally in this autumn Hifiguru purchased
a new pair of Violons. The whole demonstrated system consisted of brand new
Acapella Violon Mk IV speakers, Burmester's 069 CD player, Burmester 911 monoblocks
and Clearaudio vinyl equipment. Interconnects and speaker cables were Bertrams,
but the phono stage had Transparent interconnects. A power conditioner was Burmester
948 model. I am very familiar with Hifiguru's excellent listening room and I've
described it's specifications in several reviews. So, no further attention is
paid to it this time.
SOUND
It was easy to recognize
that Guru's newest purchase was excellent, and that the sound easily bet every
hotel room's demonstration at Helsinki Highend and Hifimaailma. Well, that was
naturally not a surprise, and neither were the quite heavy difficulties to find
any remarkable flaws on the sound. A plasma tweeter delivered again superior
immateriality and purity in treble. Dynamics, coherency and balance were excellent,
and tonality even better than this! Also, sound staging features and abilities
to reproduce spatial information were admirable. So, could there still be any
wishes on the sound? Well, I think I've heard couple of things being slightly
better in the other reference systems. For example, I've heard a bit more impressive
sound in some listening rooms. More impressive means a bit more dynamics, bass
extensions, control and more extensive live picture. Also I have listened to
two or three systems which had delivered very slightly better coherency. But
these minimal cons were dug out in a very critical manner, just for showing
that acoustical perfection is still further than here. Anyway the big "audio
steps", which Guru had taken by the latest purchase, have been straight to the
right direction. I recognized that the over-all presentation was nothing but
extremely clean, natural and enjoyable. A lot of music was played and actually
nothing disturbed my mind and I could easily concentrate on the context of music.
CONCLUSION
Besides bigger events this kind of open doors will give a lot of goodies for audiophiles and audio enthusiasts. One can listen to tremendous sound and get enjoyable time, probably new listening experiences, new and old stories, new friends and full stomach (kitchen services were traditional and excellent of course). Is it fair to require more? At least for me this kind of solidarity is what I greatly admire. Actually it is a little of spices for my audio enthusiasm!