HiFi Centre: Vancouver Audio Fest 2026 (September 19, 2026). And the impossibility of achieving accurate sonic impressions at shows.

Good mix of ages. Mostly guys, as expected.

Audiophiles in Vancouver know that there are a few pretty good-sized stores with decent sound rooms locally. I suspect the largest one is HiFi Centre just outside Chinatown. Not the nicest/safest locale in Vancouver and close to some of the open drug use in the city so you'll probably need to be buzzed in if coming for a visit. This location opened in 2015 and I had an article on that.

Back in 2015 and 2016, there used to be the Vancouver Audio Show (here and here) run by the Chester Group. Unfortunately since then, the closest audio show to us would be the Pacific Audio Fest with the most recent show in 2024. Supposedly, the next one is coming up January 15-17, 2027 at a new venue near Seattle; could be an interesting visit although being in January, there might be some weather considerations for those driving in.

[Also let's not forget current trade tensions, immature renaming of a lake, and basically an incompetent, classless and embarrassing (unethical and convicted felon also come to mind) president and enablers have tainted Canadians wanting to spend money in the USA. How pathetic and exhausting. I hope things get better by January.]

And so without a local audio show, it's good for a larger dealer like HiFi Centre to run their own mini-show "Audio Festival" like this one on September 19.

Audiophile Malls Asia: Highsun/Haiyin Plaza - Guangzhou, China. (And thoughts about China and the global order.)

Last time, we talked about Seoul's Yongsan ETLand, so moving along in my Asia trip, let's check out another audiophile mall, this time in Southern China, in the city of Guangzhou. I've been in this city before (as per 2016 post) but not at this exact location, the Highsun/Haiyin (name used interchangeably) Plaza.

It looks like in the last 10 years, this place has really become quite concentrated with many audiophile stores.

Audiophile Malls Asia: Yongsan ETLand - Seoul, S. Korea

I don't know about you guys, but I'm like one of those husbands/boyfriends/partners who sit outside surfing the web at women's clothing stores. So while "the girls" were out shopping and getting pedicures in Seoul, I decided to take a couple hours' detour to the Yongsan ETLand which is about a 10 minute walk away from the massive Yongsan subway station (take Exit 3).

I suspect in the Western world (North America and Europe), it's quite rare to find a good concentration of stores selling hi-fi hardware any more, if even this was ever the case. Unless one is fortunate enough to have a large dealer in town, audio shows seem to be the only place left to see a large number of brands under one roof. However, as you might remember for past articles (like this, this), in Asia, the concept of an "audiophile mall", or "hifi-mall" still exists, so let's document some of these places in 2026... this time, we take a peek in Seoul.

Images from San Francisco: Audio Vision SF, B&O Flagship Store, Amoeba Music. Question of greater importance: music or gear?

It's an interesting experience I think to pop into local "brick and mortar" audiophile stores when traveling (like this, this, this over the years). This past week, I've been in San Francisco visiting family. We happened to stay within walking distance from what I think is the most well-stocked audiophile gear store in the city - Audio Vision San Francisco - located in the Nob Hill neighborhood. They're opened on weekends, closed on Tuesday, and by appointment on Mondays.

Chatting with the salesperson, I was told the store opened about 26 years ago. I suspect most audiophiles will be impressed when you walk into the store and see their selection of gear sitting in the hallway!

2.5Gbps Ethernet in the Sound Room... (D-Link DMS-106XT & GigaPlus S25-0802 2.5G Smart Switch). And a quick peek in the Headphone Bar & Red Cat Records.

On occasion, I get a kick out of reading the audiophile media's review of ethernet switches. These are perhaps some of the most hilarious pseudo-infomercials out there as companies try to justify their highly expensive network switches in the hopes of capturing the interest of the few audiophiles who still somehow do not realize that there's no benefit to these devices (even Paul McGowan agrees, imagine that!).

Feel free to check out the reviews of such things like the Silent Angel Bonn NX Pro Ethernet Switch (asking US$4000!), or filters like the Network Acoustic Muon Pro (asking £1,329.17!). There are also now Chinese companies that make these things for audiophiles - Gustard N18 (US$370 - only 2 ethernet ports + 1 gigabit SFP) and N18 Pro (US$530 - 5 ethernet + 1 gigabit SFP) for example; sure, they're cheaper but that's still quite a bit for what you get which is just a nice looking ethernet switch with integrated power supply and an essentially meaningless 10MHz clock input! (Timing is essential inside the DAC for precise conversion to analog output, not the network switch.)

A few years ago (2020), I talked about the Netgear Nighthawk S8000 as a great choice for a high quality ethernet switch which affords features including port priority. Hey, it's still a great little switch and I see that sometimes there's still stock available on Amazon.  Over the years, I've upgraded my home network beyond 1Gbps (and update here) so I figured let's find faster switches to try out for the sound/media room.

Here are two easily available and not expensive options: the D-Link DMS-106XT (US$200), with 10GbE high-speed port to connect to your main network plus 5 x 2.5GbE ports for downstream devices with user-defined port priority, and the very inexpensive GigaPlus S25-0802 2.5G Smart Switch (US$80), an 8-port 2.5GbE switch with 2 x 10Gbps SFP+ for those who want to use fiber networking, or possibly 10GbE RJ45 multigigabit transceivers (some very inexpensive like this).

Both are fanless - essential for the sound room.

NYC Explorations: Audio46, Stereo Exchange, and dwindling audiophile stores.

New York - after the rain.

Hey everyone, it's nice to be back home on the West Coast after the trip to NYC. May is a great time to visit so long as one catches some nice weather! At least it's not too hot yet. I'm sure if it were not for the COVID pandemic, I would have visited much sooner; the last time was back at the end of 2015.

Let's see, as we await the final results to come in for the "High-End DAC Blind Listening Survey" (closes on May 15, 2024), this week let's show a few pictures from New York, and see if I had any luck finding some good audio to listen to 🙂.

A Look (and Listen) to some audio gear in Taiwan and Singapore...

Window shopping!

Hey everyone, as discussed recently, I had an opportunity to visit Asia over the Spring Break. Since it is "audio show season" with AXPONA in Chicago last week and Munich High End coming up in May, perhaps it's a good time to post up some images and descriptions of what I found in Asia this time.

While it was a family vacation, I found time to do a little bit of "window shopping" myself and check out the audio gear and stores overseas.

Local Audio Store Visits: Liquid Sound, Vancouver. (And engagement with high-end audio dealerships...)

Well, it is summer and today I thought I'd post something a little "lighter", "softer" and I think more typical of audiophile blogs :-).

I was thinking the other day, I'm fortunate to be living in Vancouver where despite the decrease in brick & mortar hi-fi audio stores over the decades, there are still a number of stores in town that have listening rooms and show off some high quality equipment. In fact, I live less than 10 minutes away from the Headphone Bar (article on Inner Fidelity a few weeks ago). Over the years, I've also talked about local places like Hi-Fi Centre and Commercial Electronics - both about 30 minutes away. If I head in a somewhat different direction from home, further west, we get to Liquid Sound along West 10th Ave.

Obviously, based on my writings, tests and listening, I have a "more objective" take on the audiophile hobby than the "mainstream". I have not seen any large polls but I suspect that the number of audiophiles who appreciate objective analysis might be rather significant.

There is something to be said about knowing about the local dealers and having the opportunity to visit, see, feel, and hear the latest on offer out there. Likewise, I think the local dealers need to check the "pulse" of the audiophile hobby and appreciate the demographic characteristics especially as the typical Baby Boomer audiophiles age. This IMO includes engaging the "more objective" folks who might be more than a little turned off by obvious hype and pseudoscience.

MUSINGS: A Technophile's Breeze Through Asia 2016...

Hey guys, as I've noted over the last while, I've been in Asia over summer. I spent some time in Taiwan, then China, and ended the trip in Vietnam. As usual, when I travel, I keep an eye open on interesting technology sights and sounds, especially what's new and available in the world of audio; if anything.

For fun, here are a few pictures and comments from the places I visited that might be interesting from the perspective of a consumer technophile... A "streetside" spectator's view if you will. Not intending to be extensive of course, but a sampling of thoughts over the month overseas.

Taipei:

Merry Christmas! 2015 (NYC)

Season's Greetings everyone! As part of my travels, this past week, I spent some time at the "Big Apple"...

As expected, the crowds were enormous this time of year in Manhattan but what wonderful atmosphere to take in! The museums, the shows, the people, the food... Remarkably mild weather too.

Greetings from Toronto...

I've been busy over the last week in Toronto - work plus a little sightseeing and visiting with family and friends. With my hotel nearby, I managed to scoot over to Bay Bloor Radio at the intersection of Bay and Charles streets downtown to have a listen.

2015-02-27: HiFi Centre Grand Reopening...

About a year ago, I reported on the B&W Nautilus demo at the HiFi Centre here in Vancouver. That was at their old location... As of late February, they're now in the new place near Vancouver Chinatown and to celebrate, they had a nice (re)opening event (February 27, 2015). It caught some publicity from the Stereophile web site as well.

I decided to go check it out after work on the Friday and see the new space. For fun, here are a few cell phone snapshots of some of the gear on display. Note that it was well attended and I purposely tried not to take shots with people in them to protect the innocent :-).

Upon entering the main building, we see a Nautilus "shell" display; HiFi Centre has always had a good partnership with B&W:

MUSINGS: Saturday AM B&W Nautilus Listening

Under immense market forces and thin margins for the majority of consumer electronics, it is no wonder that the specialist brick-and-mortar stores have gradually disappeared over the years. Big box stores are everywhere these days it seems (Best Buy and Future Shop here in Canada), and the proliferation of internet "stores" like Amazon has clearly taken centre stage for the consumer on the prowl for the best deal available. In some areas like the AV receiver market, I believe market forces have clearly resulted in marked improvements over the last 10 years in sound quality and meaningful features representing great value (think HDMI support, room correction, proliferation of lossless formats like TrueHD and DTS-HD MA). For audiophiles, I believe the main hardware developments in the last 10 years have to do with the quality of external DACs and software for better integration of computer audio into the sound room. The ascent of Class-D amplifier technology has been substantial as well but I doubt many audiophiles see a need to migrate to these amplifiers purely by virtue of this characteristic (unless of course you need higher efficiency, smaller size, cooler operation, etc...). Likewise, speaker technology has advanced especially in the material sciences used for drivers, but I think it's hard to justify new purchases based on this factor since there are so many other variables in the overall sound quality (like your room!).

I don't blame the small audiophile stores for pursuing to sell gear that have big mark-ups. Things like cables easily come to mind and it's certainly in their interest to promote these products and give them ample "rack space" for potential customers to peruse especially if there are manufacturer incentives - I just hope there is balance between the concept of aesthetics and sonic performance being presented. Likewise, magazines have to sell copy and attract advertisers, what other option do they have? And you can bet again the power of the manufacturers/advertisers in promoting products even if said product is of unlikely benefit for the customer. Without adequate financial viability, there is no business.

In Vancouver, there are probably only about a handful of hi-fi stores left where you can even have a hope of sitting down to listen in anything remotely resembling a decent listening room. Thankfully they still do exist and on occasion, it's nice to visit to check out (and of course purchase) the products, perhaps demo the exotic gear, and interact with knowledgeable salespersons (ok, salesmen - who am I kidding?!) who clearly show a passion in the hobby and in what they sell.

So, on a relatively cooler Saturday morning last week, I headed over to Hi-Fi Center (along Seymour just north of Dunsmuir) to have a look and listen to one of the most recognized speakers ever. I, like many of you probably have seen pictures of the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus speakers over the years but had never actually heard one. 2013 was the 20th year anniversary of this flagship product from B&W so they've been doing a tour through a number of cities since last year and it was finally time to hit Vancouver. The well done presentation with Q&A was made by Murray Cardiff, Canadian National Accounts Manager for B&W.

Now that's an interesting looking speaker - in "Maserati Gray". WAF was alas poor for me but I suppose YMMV.

For those who may not have looked into the specs and history, here's the deal with the Nautilus (I haven't seen any formal detailed review/measurements to date):

- First released in 1993 - no substantial change to the design / sonic characteristic since. Check out this video, and part two for more (also check out the epic background music)! I don't know how many speakers can be said to not at least have a "Mark II" by now. According to Murray, about 4 units are produced per month for sales worldwide; not surprisingly many to Asian countries. Manufacturing facilities in UK and China.

- Current list price in Canada - CAD$70k a pair (includes external crossovers discussed below). I wonder whether there has been any price appreciation; I think the list price at release was ~USD$60k.

- The shell of the speaker is made of a composite material. Each complete speaker package is about 200lbs based on the specification sheet - evenly split ~100lb for the speaker itself and the granite base it's "standing"/bolted on. They stand (only) about 4 feet tall.

- 4-way driver configuration - 12" (300mm) bass driver (with characteristic mollusk shell spiral tube), 100mm lower mid, 50mm upper mid, and 25mm tweeter. Notice the tapered "transmission line" behind the upper 3 drivers. They're absorbent-material filled terminating with a small opening in the rear. Frequency response widely quoted as -6dB from 10Hz to 25kHz. Crossover points: 220Hz, 880Hz, and 3.5kHz. The speaker impedance is rated 8-ohms, no specification provided for sensitivity (somewhat meaningless anyhow in a set-up like this with external crossovers and separate amps as discussed below).

- All driver domes made of aluminium. This gives away the >20-year old design from the perspective of material sciences.

- There are no internal crossovers for the 4 drivers. You see the non-detachable blue speaker cable coming off the base. Another clue to the 20-year old design is just how thin the cable appears to be for something that contains 4 pairs of wires; a pair for each driver. The wires themselves are multi-stranded silver, and examining them closely, I don't think they're thicker than 16AWG and come in a standard 10' length (30' length also available). Of course this is technically not a problem at all for such a short length of speaker cabling but might surprise those who expect garden hose sized wire gauge for high-end gear!

Bare silver multi-stranded speaker wires connecting amplifier to speaker (red & black).

- External active crossovers connected between the pre-amp and amplifiers. I presume the technology inside hasn't been upgraded since 1993, so not likely DSP-based digital crossovers. (In fact I hope not given the state of digital converters back in 1993!)

For the demonstrations, Murray used a combination of standard 16/44 and some hi-res played off a MacBook Pro through a full Classé (owned by B&W Group) pre-amp / stereo amp rack:

You see the black 2-box active crossover just below the computer. Below that with the LCD screen is the Classé CP-800 preamp which functioned as a USB DAC for the MacBook (it got a good Stereophile review, ~18-bit measured dynamic range, very low jitter). Below are 3 stereo class-D CA-D200 amplifiers, each 200Wpc powering the tweeter, upper and lower mid drivers. Obviously that stacking arrangement highlights a major benefit of the class-D amps - they stay cool. Finally below is the large class-A/B CA-2300 amplifier delivering 300Wpc into 8-ohms for the Nautilus woofer - I noticed a good sized fan on the back which stayed quiet.

Unfortunately, I was not able to play a CD I had brought with familiar tunes. Nonetheless, there was a good selection of music on the Mac already and the demonstration ran through a selection of familiar music - Paul Simon (from Graceland), Sting (from The Last Ship), Aaron Neville (from Warm Your Heart), Lang Lang (Rachmaninov No. 2), Rose Cousins (Canadian girl from Halifax), Beatles, Daft Punk ("Lose Yourself In Dance" off Random Access Memories), Oscar Peterson (We Get Requests). There were also a number of classical pieces I wasn't familiar with.

As usual with these demos, it's very hard to judge the sound given the importance of the room and the music used. On the whole, it sounded very nice. Good frequency reproduction from top to bottom. The upper end was very detailed and it was easy to discern low-level details including tape noise on analogue-sourced tracks and things like musicians taking breaths during classical performances (if you listen for such things!). I'm still a believer in a good subwoofer to tighten those lower registers however. Unfortunately, no hip-hop or rap was on offer in the demo so it was difficult to determine just what isolated beats down at 20-50Hz would have sounded & felt like. Another nice quality was the fact that the system could be pushed to high levels in a moderate sized room without a hint of strain with peak transients.

I was struck by the soundstage. The stereo effect was good even somewhat off center and this set-up certainly conveyed good horizontal and depth dimensions. I've seen comments from Nautilus owners describing excellent sound due to minimal rear reflections and folks placing these speakers against walls and other reflecting surfaces. Some of this may also be a reflection (pun intended) of the external active crossovers doing an excellent job with subtle parameters like time/phase alignment.

I heard a few of the attendees mentioning that the sound was fatiguing... Well, what can one expect when a good amount of the demo music was dynamically compressed?! Seriously, IMO, if these speakers did not convey the harshness of some of the tracks, then there'd be something wrong since that's just what the recordings sound like. Having said this, I did wonder if there was a bit of "ringing" from the aluminium tweeter which may accentuate the fatigue effect in some of the tracks (especially synthetic material like the Daft Punk)... I cannot be sure of this, just an impression. Obviously B&W has advanced over the years to using diamond tweeters while other companies like Focal, TAD, Magico, Ravel and Paradigm Reference are using pure beryllium to achieve higher breakup frequencies significantly above the audible spectrum. I suppose the use of class-D amplifiers could have an effect (likely not) - just don't tell me silver speaker wires sounds "bright" unless there's evidence of such a thing :-). B&W recommends at least 100W for these drivers and given the amplifier demands, I cannot imagine many folks running these with tube amps. I suppose NOS DACs and various upsampling DACs with rolled-off filter settings could tame the upper end at the expense of accuracy of course.  As I mentioned earlier, I have never seen a full review on these speakers and would be very curious what measurements look like.

The System

After the Nautilus demo, I got to wander around the store to check out some Totem speakers, and had a listen to the D'Agostino Momentum monoblock amps (yes, very pretty!). Also managed to put my test CD through the paces with this B&W 802 Diamond system:

As you can see, it's powered by a McIntosh MC302 300Wpc stereo amplifier. SACD player was also McIntosh. Really nice sounding as well, definitely goes deep although I noticed some low bass accentuation in that room (sounds nice and punchy but I would have used some EQ to tone down the bottom end a little). I had a listen to these speakers last summer in Singapore at The Adelphi, coming away with a similar impression of the excellent sound quality. I'd certainly be very happy with these at home :-).

Okay, time to wrap up! I'd like to thank Hi-Fi Center again for the opportunity to listen to the Nautilus - a classic icon of the audiophile world. To be in continuous production for >20 years in these days of perpetual upgrades and engineered obsolescence is quite a feat for anything; much less an electronic device. This opportunity is also a testament to the value of having good "brick and mortar" specialty stores where the knowledgeable, enthusiastic and friendly staff can answer questions and provide informed suggestions. Sadly, an almost extinct species in this day...

A Visit to The Adelphi, Singapore...

As promised, I managed to visit The Adelphi in Singapore to have a listen. It's quite close to the City Hall MRT (their 'subway' system), down the street from St. Andrew's Cathedral.

One day, I hope to get to check out an audio show like maybe the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Until then, it can be very difficult to listen to good high-end gear in North America. But this is thankfully not the case in other places like Singapore.

Over the years, I have come by to visit some of these stores whenever I've been in town (at least 3 times now, maybe more). Previously I have come with my dad, brother; this time with my 8 year old son to audition some of the gear. On a weekday, it's not busy and at most we ran into maybe another customer or two at any one time. Each time, the shop keepers have always been courteous and for the most part, they're happy with foreigners snooping around taking photos...  Good audio discussions with very knowledgeable folks as well - no pushy sales lines here and they're happy to let the music run while off doing something else. I suspect this is a better ambiance than what I hear about some of the audio shows :-). [I wish all the proprietors in Vancouver could be like this.]

Due to limited time, I only got a chance to check out a handful of the audition rooms. For the most part, they're set up very well and include room treatments like absorption panels and bass traps. As on previous trips, I brought my own CD to have a listen to some "standards"...

McIntosh / Focal Room (ONG-AV Specialists):
Focal 1028be paired with McIntosh MC601 monoblocks (600W). Nice sound. The beryllium tweeters sound fine. Good treble extension on pop tracks like Michael Jackson's "Black Or White" without harshness.

Love the analogue power meter on these things. Note the Richard Gray power conditioner in the back (upper photo). I can't remember which McIntosh CD player was being used.

Audio Note / Avantgarde Room (Audio Note Singapore):
On the other side of the equation there's also this room - very high sensitivity 104dB/W Avantgarde Uno Fino horns with low power Audio Note Quest Silver Signature 9W Class A mono amps.

Preamp was the Kondo KSL-M7, fed by an Abbingdon CD-777.

Sounds pretty good but I thought it was leaner than the McIntosh system above. Also, didn't push the volume too high... As usual, hard to evaluate systems in unfamiliar and different room setups.

Constellation Audio / Eggleston Room (Audio Note Singapore):

We've got the 250Wpc stereo Centaur amp up front. Virgo preamp mid-right of the rack, and an Audio Note CDT Five transport hooked up to an Abbingdon Digital Processor-777 DAC. Speakers are the Eggleston Fontaine Signature.

Sounds good to me. Similar to the McIntosh setup above I would say...

mbl Room (Coherence Audio):
One of my favorites over the years has been to check out the mbl showroom. I've heard the larger system here a number of times consisting of the Radialstrahler 101 E Mk II with accompanying dual 9011 as monoblocks (440W, 8 ohms), 1621A CD transport, 1611F DAC, and 6010D preamp. Without question, this is amazing sound. These speakers are all passive with sensitivity of 81dB/2.83V/m so a powerful amp is a must!

In the back in that picture above, you see the huge bass module for the 101 X-treme speakers:

Unfortunate these guys weren't hooked up.

I see on this visit they have the mbl "Corona" line of electronics hooked up with the 116F Radialstrahler speakers:

The 2 monoblocks in the lower shelf are 500W (into 4 ohms) C15 Class D amps, accompanied by the C31 CD player, and C11 preamp. Again, sounds great although I think they could use some more bass traps in that room; I noticed some irregularity in the bass line on Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem" for example.

Other interesting gear:

Triode TRV-88SER integrated amp. 45Wpc I believe into 8 ohms. Didn't get to hear this but very nice eye candy.

 Kondo Ongaku-Pre KSL-M77 for you boutique analogue Japanese gear lovers...

Now a couple of "omnidirectional" speakers from Duevel - the Planets and Enterprise.

Interesting looking designs. Not sure how this would sound and would love to see some measurements!

Even though I didn't get the time to peruse through the collection of goodies, there are some music shops as well carrying good collections of LP and audiophile remasterings like MFSL and Audio Fidelity...

I also had a good listen to some B&W 802 Diamonds with the Olive 6HD server thanks to the folks at Eighteen 77 but didn't get a chance to take some photos. Playing with the Olive unit, I remain impressed by the Squeezebox in terms of speed and flexibility. IMO, the Squeezebox server system remains the best I have used.

There's also a very nice headphone place which I had visited on previous trips. Nice. A good afternoon of window shopping for the boys while the girls go off to find shoes, clothes, etc. :-)

Hope this whets your appetite to visit The Adelphi for those thinking of going to Singapore.

Well, vacation time over - back to school for the kids and back to work for me :-).