Last Sunday I spent my day at the third Audio Expo in Budapest. Yet again it was fantastic. And yet again, my favorite audio experience was in the NCS Audio room, even if I listened to lot more expensive systems.

TL;DR:

Made in Hungary audio rivals the rest of the world in quality, while often being available at a much more affordable price. My favorite of the show was the NCS Audio / Qualiton / Pixel cables room, all made in Hungary. 72 Audio was also perfect, as usual. Heed Audio Helikon with Zellaton speakers could fill the largest show room with lively sound. A pair of Popori Acoustics speakers sounded beautiful with a prototype Natural Distortion DAC and amp.

NCS Audio

This year I visited the Audio Expo with someone who prefers headphones. In her experience speakers cannot give you the level of dynamics and detail that a good pair of headphones can provide. In the NCS Audio / Qualiton / Pixel cables room this suddenly changed.

We listened to almost all the systems on the seven floors of the exhibition building. This was the one where we returned for a second round of listening. No matter the type of music we listened to, it had extreme clarity, even in the bass section. We were looking for where the band is hiding, as it sounded like an actual band was there, not just a pair of speakers.

Best of all: this was one of the most affordable systems at the expo, beating many more expensive systems in listening experience.

• https://www.audioexpo.hu/kiallitok/ncs-pixel-qualiton

72 Audio

Last year 72 Audio presented my favorite music experience at the Audio Expo. This year they presented a lot more affordable system. Still, it was one of the best sounding ones. Or, if you ask my partner, it was the best.

• 72 Audio: https://www.72audio.com/

Natural Distortion

Their products are still just a prototype, but they definitely sound fantastic. A miniature DAC and amp were driving a pair of huge Popori Acoustics speakers and provided one of the most detailed sound experiences at the expo.

We listened to some church organ music. The pedals sounded a bit weak, but for the rest I felt as if I was sitting in the church and was listening to the performance live. It is very rare that organs sound natural to me from speakers.

• Natural Distortion: https://www.audioexpo.hu/kiallitok/natural-distortion
• Popori Acoustics: https://poporiacoustics.com/

Some negative experiences

While Natural Distortion sounded perfectly natural, systems with room correction sounded completely distorted. One of the demo songs was organ music, and the presenter of the demo explained how all the hard work of DSPs ensures the perfect sound. There was more than enough bass, still the whole thing sounded to me a kind of unbalanced and processed. While listening, I did not have the illusion of sitting in the church at all.

I was looking forward listening to some of most hyped new devices developed here in Hungary. The DAC and active speakers sounded OK, but as the door of the listening room was wide open and fixed in that position, there was no chance to hear the details. Much of the music was lost in the noise coming from outside.

When it comes to music, size does not matter. There were quite a few huge speakers at the event, but most of them were just loud, without providing an enjoyable listening experience. Even my good old speakers at home provide a lot more detail than some of the giants at the event.

Some positive experiences

Talking about oversize speakers. This year the Visegrád room, the largest show room of the building, had a Heed Helikon as amp, and a pair of Zellaton speakers. In earlier years I was always disappointed in this room. Loud and slightly distorted music on a pair of very expensive speakers: not something for an extended listening session. This year the room was full of perfectly sounding music, and I only left because I wanted to visit each and every room before closing time. As an added bonus, we had Lucina Yue on site, talking about her latest album: https://tidal.com/album/450279864

Another setup on my favorites list was put together by Limar Audio. They used a pair of miniature bookshelf speakers from Paradigm, but they could fill the room with beautiful music.

I prefer speakers, but as I was with someone preferring headphones, we also listened to some. We saw some odd-looking oversize headphones at a HydraSound stand in the hall. The HEDD headphones sounded fantastic, but obviously listening to an open back headphone in a busy environment is far from optimal. After a while we learned that the stand was actually about cables, the headphones were not for sale :-)

We also visited the MUZIX stand in the basement and listened to several Final Audio headphones. Navigating a Japanese tablet was a kind of a challenge. Luckily I use TIDAL enough to be able to search all different kinds of music for testing. Final Audio excelled with each of them.

Conclusion

Obviously, we did not have a chance to hear all systems with all the different types of music we listen to: everything from classical to metal, jazz, electronica, progrock and even some pop occasionally. So, all experience depended on not just the systems, but also on the music played at the time of visit. Still, I suspect that there would not have been major changes in my review if we had had a chance for more thorough listening.

See you again next year!

• music
• tidal
• planets