Show report: Sound & Vision Bristol Show 2008 pt4

ADAM Audio Classic Pencil £1,875 Making its commercial hi-fi debut at this year's show was ADAM Audio, a company that has achieved much success in the professional audio monitor market with the likes of Beatles producer Sir George Martin, the BBC, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. On show were three models from two series, the first of which is the Classic Pencil (far right in the main pic). The Classic series is available in both passive and active versions with a smaller two-way Compact model. The Classic Pencil is a trad floorstander built around the ART tweeter, with two seven-inch Hexacone woofers to target the ultimate home cinema enthusiast as part of a multi-speaker set-up.

ADAM Audio Tensor Gamma and Beta loudspeakers From £5,405, £9.635 The Gamma and Beta represent the smallest and middle members of the Tensor range, ADAM's highest-end speaker technology. Both can be delivered active or semi-active and feature detailed controls for input and a parametrical equaliser while fully active models also offer control over middle and high frequency ranges. The Gamma (on the right) houses a nine-inch Hexacone woofer at the front and another at the back, each driven by a 250-watt amp. X-ART transducers are used for mid and high frequencies. The fully active version houses two more 250-watt amplifiers and premium balanced input connectors. Pricing is an eye-watering £5,405 for the semi active and £6,228 for the fully active model. The Beta (on the left) has two electronically equalised 11in Hexacone woofers front and rear mounted with each again driven by a 250-watt amp. The upper unit features a seven-inch Hexacone woofer midrange, X-ART midrange and X-ART tweeter. The fully active version has three more 250-watt amplifiers alongside premium balanced input connectors. Pricing is, gulp, £9,635 for the semi-active and £10,810 for the fully active model. High end stuff indeed, but if the company's professional reputation is anything to judge by, they will be worth the money - if you have it of course.

MJ Acoustics Reference 800 subwoofer Price £3.000 A gargantuan, family-sized car of a subwoofer, the good folk at MJ Acoustics were actually unwilling to plug it in and let it loose at the show because the venue was simply not big enough to deal with the sound levels it can produce. This 800-watt digital amplifier sports an 18in ultra long-throw radial driver with heavy-duty cast radial alloy chassis and high intensity magnet with triple suspension. Frequency response is listed as 10Hz - 200Hz Dynamic Intelligent Protection with an infinitely adjustable phase control between zero and 180 degrees. But as one jaw-dropped dealer commented on seeing this beast, 'there's no way my missus would let me have one', even with the variety of real wood veneer finishes offered.

Vienna Acoustics Aluminium Line Price £TBC If TV technology is anything to go by then Vienna Acoustics' Aluminium Line catchphrase 'the future is flat' may well be true. This gorgeous and quirky looking speaker range consists of the Berg, Webern, Schönberg and Subson. The diminutive two-way Berg is the baby of the bunch with a single six-inch transparent-XPP cone mid-woofer and one-inch three-magnet neodymium ventilated-chamber silk dome tweeter capable of handling 30-180-watt recommended power. Ideal for wall mounting or a bookshelf. The two-way Webern sports the same tweeter set-up but this time doubles the number of mid-woofers to handle 30-200-watt recommended power. Also ideal for wall mounting or a bookshelf.

More Vienna Acoustics £TBC Vienna Acoustics' floorstanding Schönberg features the same innards as the Webern but operates a bass reflex system as opposed to closed cabinet and benefits from a slightly extended frequency response. Rounding out the set-up is the Subson active subwoofer with a single 12in air-dried carbon-filled paper cone and zero to 180 degree phase switch. At only eight inches deep, it has been dubbed a 'flatwoofer' optimised for near wall application. We didn't get to hear them in action sadly, but from an aesthetic point of view, the Aluminium Line was one of the best looking speaker set-up we saw at the entire show.

YPSILON CDT-100 CD player £10,000 Greek AV specialist YPSILON Electronics unveiled a new high in the CD player market with the astronomically priced CDT-100. It looks like nothing else on the market, and at that price had better sound like nothing else too. Using two thick solid aluminium plates (it weighs a whopping 20kg) and a sophisticated system of support spikes, YPSILON claims to have achieved totally vibration free operation. Combined with the Philips CD-PRO II mechanism, the company claims 'music reproduction like no other transport has ever achieved'. Crikey.

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