[ High Fidelity ‘s BEST PRODUCT 2014 Awards had been announced ! ;]

As always beginning of the New Year asks for summing up the most significant achievements of the passing one. At High Fidelity this is an annual Best Product Award, which list of had been already published online. Please follow the link to find more about that what are the rules of making editors choices as well as about those products which had been chosen as an OUTSTANDING ones ;]

We are proud to say that many of those products in our portfolio, which had been chosen by us for their quality, before they even gained wider recognition are now given this fantastic award, which confirms both – their OUTSTANDING quality and the fact that we made a right choice using only our common senses to judge that. But obviously the most important fact is that they in FACT represent the best value for the money, which now is a confirmed. God Save Alternative and Artisan Audio forever !!!

So in category ANALOGUE SOURCES we have 3 products which belong to our portfolio. Two already there [ Zontek and Fonika] ,and one awaiting launch [ PTP ].

ANALOGUE SOURCES

Turntable + phonostage

Zontek ZONTEK
Linnart P-1 X

Considering a limited number of products that can be awarded choosing few of them is always difficult. Marek gets to nominate 3 while he’d rather named most of them. This year Marek Dyba was particularly happy giving one of the awards to these two products as they were made in Poland, as some other products he awarded in previous years like Ardento speakers and Amare Musica electronics. Of course it was not just about these products being designed and made in our home country but also about outstanding performance and world-class fit&finish they offered. This year this choice was one of the easiest – Zontek turntable and Linnart P-1 phonostage get a shared award for 2014. This duet seemed to come always together during shows, presentations and other events with music played from vinyl. These devices had matching looks, and what was even more important – matching top level performance, which, as Marek had written in his review, meant that there finally was a Polish high-end analogue system available for purchase! These were products we, Poles, should be proud of and should brag about around the world! Way to go Mr Paweł and Mr Mirosław! Way to go!!

Review was published in issue No. 125, September 2014
See HERE

Turntable + tonearm

PTP Audio SOLID9
Audiomods SERIES FIVE

Years old technologies seem to be triumphantly coming back these days. After a period in recent audio history that was driven by coming up with and developing modern solutions, a return to “old ways” was inevitable. Usually it is caused by a “nostalgia” for “good old times”, and probably this element played some role in reemergence of tubes, turntables and different NOS elements, too. But what really matters is going back to the truly valuable “old” things, that after their prime time were never brought back to their full glory, or were transformed into something else, less valuable.

An idler PTP Audio Solid9 turntable is a an example of a proper usage of an “old” solution. It delivers outstanding performance and some virtues of its sound are matched only by some very expensive belt-drive competitors. The Audiomods tonearm is an excellent addition to this drive and it allows the deck to truly shine.

Review was published in issue No. 126, October 2014
See HERE

Turntable + tonearm

Fonica
F-901 VIOLIN + F-03 rev.3

The idea was to create an interesting design that would catch people’s attention by its looks. But in fact the Violin, one of latest additions to revitalized Fonika brand offer, seems to be, according to Wojciech Pacuła, their top achievement so far also in terms of sound quality. Despite the fact that other mass-loader models seem to offer more in terms of bass performance and scale of the sound, it is the sound of this key-note-shaped like model that is most coherent and most complete. A wonderful appearance, beautiful sound, Polish design and a cult brand. It’s all right there.

Review was published in issue No. 125, September 2014
See HERE

In the next category : Amplifiers , we got two brilliants : Linear Audio Research’s latest 120 Hybrid Integrated amplifier [ LAR was in our portfolio from the start ] & The most interesting Debut of 2014 Munich AF G Block [ Launch announced ; ]

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

G•LAB Design Fidelity
BLOCK

The appearance of completely unknown brand, G•LAB Design Fidelity, in Munich at HighEnd 2014 Show took many people by surprise, us included. We never knew neither founders of the company, nor designers, nor people responsible for the concept of G•LAB products. So these people seemed to come from nowhere and maybe that gave them a chance to think outside the box.. The Block amplifier looks like nothing else we’ve ever seen. The point is – most people, once they saw it, started to wonder why nobody had come up with such an idea before?

It’s a puristic tube (triode) low power amplifier capable of driving even large speakers. Brilliant combination of design and outstanding sound. And it comes from Poland!

Review was published in issue No. 125, September 2014
See HERE

Linear Audio Research
IA-120H

Wojciech Pacuła has known Mr Czyżewski, the founder and chief engineer of Linear Audio Research for many years. Mr Czyżewski is a well-mannered man with principles that he holds really dear, but he is a very warm person too. His products reflect his personality. A hybrid amplifier IA-120H, for the moment his newest creation, is, in our opinion, also the best one ever created by Mr Czyżewski. It offers fast, colorful, dynamic sound. And at the same time it is a remarkable headphone amplifier. And it is a Polish design!

Review was published in issue No. 125, September 2014
See HERE

Next category there is something again is CABLES :

Power distributor + power cables (system)

KBL Sound
REFERENCE POWER DISTRIBUTOR + RED EYE

KBL Sound power distributor looks like it was made by a company with several years of experience on audio market that just prepared its newest, top model. Fit&finish, packaging and sound – all these features of this Reference Power Distributor are great. That is amazing especially considering that this is in fact one of the first KBL’s products. Together with Red Eye power cables it creates a complete power system that should work very well in every high-end system. Reference Power Distributor and Red Eye power cable are now elements of „High Fidelity’s” SYSTEM B.

Review was published in issue No. 117, January 2014
See HERE

And finally ;] ANTI-VIBRATION SYSTEMS:

Anti-vibration platform

Rogoz Audio
3RP1/BBS

The platforms “offers” rich, warm sound, with tonal balance slightly shifted towards bass. It’s a rare achievement as usually using anti-vibration elements results in a more precise, though less rich sound – but not in this particular case. A patented decoupling solution offers deeper, richer sound. This platform should give any system more authority and more “weight”.

Review was published in issue No. 125 September 2014
See HERE

We are really finding our self privileged to work with such an excellent manufacturers.