One of the furthest and most recent parts of the world by discovery, even by native peoples, modern New Zealand was established during the last days of Empire. Nurtured by isolation the populance wrestled a life from an unbrokened land fashioning solutions from modest means. AG Lifter true to this can do innovative spirit has fashioned technologies from fresh perspectives of exceeding elegance to form the firm foundations of hi-end audio systems.
Specialising in engineering for systems dealing with vibrational energies and the demands of motorsport, Andre Gil has brought lessons learned to the audio domain with the goal of producing genuine reference level noise floors. After much research and development, AG Lifter has developed unique materials to dissipate unwanted energies from sensitive audio components while not interfering with the core audio signal. The results create reference level noise floors adding no time smear freeing up the sound space of a performance and liberating the full performance of components.
Situated in the heart of Spain, Madrid is the cultural centre of a vibrant articulate country. Aurea dedicated home cinema speakers have built their reputation on the effortless ability of their speaker designs to distinguish vocals amongst the myriad sound effects of a cinema soundtrack. Luis Wassmann the founder of Aurea explains “Intelligibility in the near field has always been our top priority since 2015 when we launched Aurea, our residential cinema product range. And we are happy to say that we have achieved our goal”.
Drawing on 20 years of experience in commercial cinema with their founding brand, LW Speakers, Aurea have developed a state of the art domestic dedicated cinema speaker and amplifier range that excels at price points that make it achievable for both compact rooms and state of the art no holds bar installations. Literally, bring the cinema home with Aurea!
Located 1,655 metres above sea level with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains glistening in the distance through the bright fresh air of Boulder, Colorado, Avalon Acoustics not only knows what purity is, but the grandest scale of the firmament itself. Pouring their considerable intelligence into speakers that transmit every last detail of information presented to them, Avalon Acoustics speakers are hailed as the most neutral and dimensionally accurate loudspeakers being built today. As Neil Patel CEO and Founder states “Music is the passion in our blood, and the muse of our intellect”.
Producing a reference range of loudspeakers from the sublimely compact PM1 to the ridiculously ambitious Tesseract, the culmination of 25 years of experience, Avalon Acoustics offers a range of speakers that almost literally bring your favourite performances etched in time into your listening room.
Back in the glory days of cinema, the Bel Air Movie Circuit was an exclusive club for Hollywood producers, movie stars, and business magnates who had private home viewings of newly released movies within the luxury LA suburb of Bel Air. Today this concept has been extended globally to allow full day and date movie releases utilising the highest quality commercial cinema grade 4K picture and full Dolby Atmos surround sound for those who demand the very best.
Situated appropriately in Ciutat Comtal, or the City of Counts, Barcelona, Spain, Bel Air Cinema is nestled within a sophisticated area at the heart of Catalan where the jet set indulge in the cultural riches of that region. In order to provide the highest quality service and support Bel Air Cinema also have representatives in Los Angeles, Dubai and London to provide seamless coverage for all territories.
If you wish to experience the ultimate movie performance on the opening night of a movie’s theatrical release in the format required by directors, capturing the full capacity of your theater......you need a Bel Air Cinema.
Dohmann Audio is situated in Melbourne, a modern, diverse and bustling Australian city full of fresh ideas and self-confidence. Built on a pioneering spirit of ‘can do’, the city has quickly grown to be the cultural capital of the country rich in great cuisine and a major tourist destination featuring some of the great sporting events in the world.
Mark Dohmann during his time as an engineer and reliability analyst at a major Australian airline, was focused on aircraft systems and components to ensure reliability. It was here that he understood the importance of the principle that “good design is as little design as possible”. Incorporating this spirit of approach to turntable design and manufacture, Dohmann Audio have produced some of the greatest performance vinyl replay systems in the world. featuring an elegance that only comes with the strictest of discipline.
Placed on the rural outskirts of the cultural and technological centre of Toulouse France, Metronome and Kalista’s quest for naturalness is inspired daily by its surrounding pastoral beauty. Producing distinctively and quite literally state of the art digital source components, owner Jean Marie Clauzel explains “When we say in French ‘le son vrai’, it means that we try to reach as much as possible the original recording, the studio recording, or live recording, and we try every time we develop a new device to be as analogue as possible.”
Representing the highest form of digital to analogue conversion technology on the market today, Kalista and Metronome have brought studio sound into a living room in as natural and organic way possible eschewing sterility in the search for greater detail and retaining the fully fleshed sound of the original. Ranging from the attainable with Metronome and the truly aspirational with Kalista, both offer digital transport, DAC, and dedicated streaming platforms.
Venice was once the most powerful trading hub within all of antiquity. Strategically placed between east and west, it developed out of an intoxicating melange of exotic ideas, technologies, and goods. Officina Acustica, situating itself just north in the bustling modern manufacturing hub of Thiene, similarly brings modern ideas, technologies, and materials together to create beautiful acoustic environments for Home Cinema and audio applications.
Often overlooked, room acoustics play a hugely important role in the realisation of the ultimate performance of any immersive or two channel audio system. Bringing together many years of study and its application, Maurizio Conti, the founder and CEO of Officina Acustica, has perfected Interior Acoustic Design. Using only the finest Italian materials handcrafted to meet even the most demanding design briefs, Officina Acustica maximises both the aesthetic of a room and its acoustic properties to create profoundly ‘human centric’ entertainment spaces.
Copenhagen connects Scandinavia to Northern Europe by way of the Oresund Bridge
facilitating a rich cultural exchange between the regions. Oephi Performance Cables
is based within this nexus developing unique technology to faithfully transport information
from one device to another.
Focusing on parameters above and beyond current cable manufacturers, Oephi Performance Cables
catch phrase is ‘Timing is everything’. While others focus on prosaic aspects of cable construction such as
inductance, capacitance and impedance, Oephi ‘utilises bandwidth and phase linearity potentials that were
previously hidden within the predominant theoretical model used to predict cable parameters’ to produce cables
with the timing element resolved. The result is a transparent window into a recording that releases
the full musicality of its performance.
When you consider engineering excellence one country comes to mind immediately; Germany. When you consider turntable and tonearm technologies what comes to mind is meticulous engineering. Therefore, you would expect that the two were a match made in heaven, and in the case of Thiele you would be absolutely right.
Thiele is the brainchild of Helmut Thiele one of the audio industries most experienced audio engineers. Beginning his career with studies in Industrial Design culminating in a Phd. on turntables with a unipivot tonearm, Helmut has had a long and illustrious career with a variety of iconic audio manufacturers such as Thorens and TAD. Forming his own company and launching the TA01 Tonearm after a decade of development in 2020, Thiele has produced an exemplary range of tonearms and turntables setting new standards of performance with an overall elegance that borders on art.
Nestled in the heart of Zeeland Denmark, Herning historically was a centre that produced the finest textiles. Attracting many boutique artisans, Herning became a centre for creativity producing much innovative architecture and design furniture. Inspired by this heritage, Vitus Audio produces unique audio components of the finest quality with a distinctive design flair. As Hans Ole Vitus CTO of Vitus Audio himself describes “‘We put technology at the service of the music.’.
Vitus Audio are very different; where other manufacturers peak they only just begin. Their ‘entry level’ range is the Reference Series consisting of class leading components built with the sole goal of reproducing music in as natural a way as possible. Established by musicians, Vitus Audio constantly reference their products against live performances and utilise Class A amplification to achieve uncanny reproduction. Realising the investment their customers make, they also build their product to last, terming their ethos as ‘Forever Now’. As they say, ‘The day Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sounds dated, so will your Vitus Audio equipment.’.
Every now and again an audio company comes along that shakes up the status quo producing product that is both innovative and possessing surprising quality. Waversa is one of those players set to disrupt the market and change its course for the good. As the CEO Collin Shin remarks “We are looking to have a completely different paradigm and do things differently”.
Hailing from one of the most exciting emerging tech capitals of the world, Seoul, South Korea, Waversa have developed a range of product based on its core specialty semiconductor design and software development for digital sound systems. Mastering both their own proprietary digital processing and discrete analogue amplification systems, Waversa is a name you will definitely hear more about.