New Acoustic Energy AE speakers launched to replace the AE1 Active. Improvements to the cabinet - looks like the gloss finish is gone - new natural walnut wood veneer, mid/base driver improvements from 40th Anniversary model.
Hopefully will see them in Vienna.
Bad joke
Hairs will be enough here .
Will be interesting to see this year if Liberty of Annette Askvik is again the most played song or perhaps now Bitds of Dominique as she is the key advertised person for the highend. I though would like more creativity and variation in the choice of the played songs.
Headphones are starting to have the crazy pricing that a lot of HiFi boxes and speakers have, without good reason.
I wonder which is higher range or better sounding, the Dexter Duo or Parker Duo.
The new Dexter Duo has dropped the passive radiator and comes standard with the diamond tweeter. The 7.5" ceramic driver in the Dexter is black while the one in the Parker is white. Interesting.
Yup no more passive radiator .. we will know in time to come where it sits, below or above Parker range
This is a really good point. This was something that always bothered me when I visited the bigger hifi shows; (almost) no one was playing music that many of us listen to at home. Just a lot of uninspired s**t that indeed shows off the system but has absolutely no soul. After all, it’s the music that we buy these systems for, isn’t it?
The Captain Nemo series would be a more appropriate name given the design!
Fairly confident they did win a title.
I think he “won” under covid rules…. Point is over the last 5 years his side were a better watch than Man City. Man City were technically better but a dull watch!
Gary
Also very curious to these new Neat Vito Classic speakers:
(too bad there is currently no distributor for The Netherlands)
Yes half Jules Verne, half ancient nuclear power station.
I do love the look though. It’s clearly not for everyone. I can totally understand why many hate their stuff, but that aesthetic, especially in silver with the copper trim, ticks all the right emotional boxes for me.
Leagues out of my affordability range though.
I get a sense that this style was sort of what Chord also tried to go for a bit but failed at with a somewhat clumsy amateurish attempt.
They won the title. There were no “Covid rules” which changed that other than the lack of a crowd. I’d even go as far as to say that Liverpool were technically at least the equivalent and arguably better as what they did they did at incredible speed.
Moving back to high end audio I’m not sure I’d accept the analogy anyway. The world is full of brilliant engaging hi-fi. There are probably far less genuinely not very good products and sterility is really a subjective matter of
20,000 leagues?
Many new launches this year 
can’t wait to listen to the DD.. wonder how much they will cost . And also against the momentum on how they will sound ? Close to momentum or? 
They changed the rules on number of substitutes but that’s getting away from my point!
My point was Man City played a perfect game of football, it was technically superior to any other team but it became a bit dull to watch. Where as the Liverpool team that were coming second more often than not were way more engaging to watch. (I don’t support either team!)
Maybe I’ll leave the football analogies of this discussion but for me Naim may not be the best technically in 2026 but boy does it sound good!
Of course different strokes for different folks so no one universal “this is the best”
Gary
