Warsaw 2017: Blumenhofer, with a little help from a friend

Blumenhofer’s formula of square shaped horn speakers has drawn many eyes and ears, they perform anywhere from good to excellent depending on partnering gear. In Warsaw they were showing in a rather big room at the Polish National Stadium where acoustics were not bad at all, except maybe for the huge glass window behind the system, which one would expect it to give a hard time on speakers and horns in particular way, by adding some glare to the top extension.

When I finally made it in the full packed room I noticed nothing like glare and after taking a few pics I grabbed a center seat and listened to some Branduardi, a great cantautore as Italians describe singers/ songwriters. Known for being picky I went on and requested Accardo playing the Campanella on Fone LP, waiting to hear some squeaky sounds coming out of the Gran Gioia mk2 horns, still nothing. The SME V tonearm had an AS MC cartridge mounted on, probably a Benz design which are far from being my favorite so curiosity got me thinking, what was the phono stage that was making this great music. Found out moments later, looking behind the rack there was an Ypsilon VPS 100 phono with matching step up transformer, among the best out there.

Another Ypsilon product, the famous pre amp was driving a pair of Cary monos for an end result that was pure horn bliss.