Like elsewhere in the world, Hi-Fi shows have come roaring back here in Malaysia after a two-year absence due to reasons too obvious to need mention.

Yet now Malaysia is lucky enough to have had three AV shows already in 2022, including the just-concluded KL International AV Show (KLIAVS) 2022, which took place on 28th-30th October and is arguably the big brother to all the local shows.

Dick Tan, Chairman of the KL International AV Show, told StereoNET Asia:

After a couple of years' absence, the industry and enthusiasts are eager and looking forward to this year's show. We are also excited that KLIAV Show 2022 is held at the Intercontinental Hotel KL, which is a new venue for us and a bigger one too. The support from the industry for this year's show has been great and we look forward to a record breaking year in terms of attendees.

Held at the Intercontinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur, a new venue for the show this year, the turnout was far better than I expected. Most of the exhibitors I spoke with were of the view that each of the days had healthy crowds. Apart from the usual old fogeys one expects to see at a show related to this hobby; I saw quite a few young couples and even families with children show up. A noticeable number of young(ish) ladies were seen, too, some even seen sifting through the vinyl LP vendors' bins. Not bad for a show in which entry ticket price had doubled from the last edition (to be fair, until this year, there had been no previous increases in ticket prices since the organisers first started back in the mid-1990s, that I can recall).

It's not practical (or possible) to cover every system in every room at a show. This was not helped by my being there during some of the busiest times of the show, with conversations going on between the exhibitors' staff and showgoers and many of the home theatre-oriented rooms being in the dark. Still, I'll share my brief thoughts in accompaniment to the photos posted.

ABSOLUTE SOUND -  Linn

Several systems were on display, fronted by Linn LP12 Majiks of differing plinth colours to showcase the variety of choices available for this updated turntable. The one actually playing when I was there was a black-plinthed sample, sporting Linn's new Krane toneram and Koil (yes, it's a moving coil) cartridge. Steve Croft of Linn explained that, as configured, the Linn Selekt DSM to which the tonearm leads were connected, took the signal and digitised it (including applying RIAA EQ in the digital domain) and passed the digital signal on to the active Akubarik loudspeakers where the signal only comes back to analogue just before the drivers.

Also interesting was the Series 3 loudspeakers, sadly only on static display. It looked reminiscent of an eggshell with its top lopped off, and could stream via Bluetooth, WiFi or Apple Airplay.

AUDIO PERFECTIONIST - McIntosh, Borrensen, Aavik, Ansuz and Audiovector

If you like blue back-lit meters, this is the room for you! A pair of tall, slim (for a big loudspeaker) and handsome Borreson 05 Silver Supremes were connected to a system consisting of more McIntosh gear than many would see in a lifetime, let alone all in one room. Regardless of how it may have sounded, the J Sikora Reference turntable certainly had to use all its charming looks to compete for attention in such a setup.

In another of Audio Perfectionist's other rooms, a system consisting of components from the Aavik-Ansuz-Borreson brands sounded clear and well-integrated. I actually enjoyed the smaller Borreson 02, Aavik Electronics system more than the bigger Borresen-McIntosh system.

Audiovector is another of the Danish brands represented by Audio Perfectionist and we had the opportunity to meet Audiovector's CEO, Mads Klifoth. At play were their R3 Arrete loudspeakers in combination with McIntosh C8 tube preamp-MC830 monoblock power amps.

BLUESOUND

Bluesound launched their latest POWERNODE EDGE compact wireless music streaming amplifier and their PULSE M multi-room music streaming speaker at the show. The setup by Bluesound was simple yet impressive; with the POWERNODE EDGE taking center stage, powered by a pair of T20 floorstanding loudspeakers from PSB Speakers.

CENTRE CIRCLE AUDIO - Kharma International, Pilium, Aries Cerat, Accustic Arts, VPI Turntable, HiFi Rose, IsoTek Systems.

At more than a million Malaysian Ringgit for the pair, I suspect the Kharma Exquisite Grand 3.0s would have been the most expensive loudspeakers at the show, they were clearly among the biggest too. The speakers may be Dutch, but the amps in the Centre Circle room were all Greek to them, consisting of an Aries Cerat phono stage and preamplifier (Impera 2 Reference), fronting Pilium Hercules monoblock power amplifiers. The VPI Avenger Reference turntable, which provided the music was configured as a rim/idler drive and sounded excellent.

CMY AUDIO AND VISUAL - Dynaudio, Hegel, Wilson Audio, REL, Estelon, Karan Acoustics, ProAc, Cyrus, Luxman, Rowland, Fyne Audio and more

If ever there was a room that could give a person (of means) that 'kid in a candy store' feeling, this one surely has to be it. This room just had so many high-performance (and high-priced) brands that the CMY guys had an allotted time schedule for which systems would get played, and unless the entire day was spent in the room, one would not be able to listen to them all.

Components on display include Dynaudio, Hegel, Wilson Audio, REL, Estelon, Karan Acoustics, ProAc, Cyrus, Luxman, Rowland, and Fyne Audio. Just check out the photos below and enjoy dreaming about how to afford them if you can't already.

I got lucky that the setups I was most interested in actually got played. While it has been all-black in terms of finish since Naim first launched their electronics in the 1970s, they are now moving into a grey area (being a new colour for their casework, albeit only for this limited release). The Naim-Focal 10th Anniversary Limited Edition system sees the loudspeakers and electronics colour-coordinated, and no, it's not in all black. I was sitting at the other end of the room when Daft Punk started to come through the speakers, and quickly made my way over to it, but all seats were full by then and pretty much stayed that way.

Another of the big ticket systems was one comprising Karan Acoustics amplifiers driving Estelon X Diamond Mk II loudspeakers, supplemented by two really large, and I mean really large, REL subwoofers. I could imagine the effort that would need to be taken to optimally place and integrate them with the main speakers.

It was a shame I did not get to hear the Wilson Audio Sasha DAW-Rowland-REL subwoofer combination when I was in the CMY room, but they are visually beautiful components, no?

When it comes to turntables, CMY aims to please with an entire display of turntables in two long rows consisting of Clearaudio and Pro-Ject turntables. Also in the rows were record cleaners to keep your vinyl in pristine condition.

CREATIVE AV - DarTZeel, ELAC, Mission, Lyngdorf, TDAI

While the more expensive electronics and loudspeakers catching attention were the ones from DarTZeel and ELAC, at the time I was in the room, the awe-inspiring 21st century new 'old look' Mission 770 Freedoms were being paired with a Lyngdorf CD-2 player/transport and TDAI-3400 integrated amplifier. The sound was very entertaining, and one could see why many audiophiles who had been in the hobby from when the original Mission 770s were first introduced would perhaps be interested in this modern-day tribute loudspeaker.

DALI

DALI's flagship KORE loudspeakers made its first appearance in Malaysia at the show as part of the brand's launch event. The new DALI Kore loudspeakers looks and sounds amazing attracting many listeners. They were being driven by four NAD M23 Purifi Eigentakt-based power amplifiers with source and control from the NAD Masters M50.2 digital music player. Good music, great sound with less noise breakthrough from the other exhibitors due to the room doors being mostly shut. Certainly one of my favourite rooms at this year's show.

JW SPEAKER LAB

It is heartening to see that the "International" in the KLIAV Show also included a new hopeful in the just launched JW Speaker Lab brand, proudly local. Designer and Founder, Joseph Wong was there to introduce his new creations to fellow enthusiasts, consisting of two models, the smaller JWA-150 and its JWA-170 sibling. Driven by Kinki Studio amplification, I felt the smaller 150 sounded better in the room, but these are not ideal conditions to come to any conclusions. Lots of potential and is definitely a local brand worth investigating and supporting.

NAD & PSB SPEAKERS

No, you didn't step into a time warp back to the 1970s. The NAD C 3050 LE and PSB Passif 50 loudspeakers were deliberately styled this way to celebrate each company's coincident 50-year anniversary. The limited edition amp does have an MM phono stage and includes digital room correction and the combination sounded thoroughly modern and musically enjoyable, with NAD's Cass Oostvogel happily demonstrating the effects to the sound with room correction both engaged and turned off.

PERFECT HIFI - Sonus faber, Audio Research, KEF, Vivid Audio, NAGRA and more.

This room certainly tried to rival the CMY room in the 'go big, or go home' stakes. Brands represented include KEF, Sonus faber and Audio Research. Despite being in a room much larger than they would have been intended to operate, the KEF LS60s managed to sound substantially loud without any obvious signs of distortion or the sound breaking up.

Showcased in a separate room at level seven, the new KEF Blade 2 in white, looked stunning and sounded sublime at the end of Cambridge Audio Edge M power amplifiers. Despite its size, it did not overload the room even when the volume was turned up.

The center stage for the Perfect HiFi room consisted of a stack of Nagra electronics and Vivid Audio loudspeakers. The large white Vivid Audio Giya 2s being showcased reminded me of one of the Ghostly Trio from the Casper the Friendly Ghost comics I used to read as a kid. This was the only room in which reel-to-reel tape featured as a source, playing music from Offenbach, and it certainly sounded good to me.

THE EXPERTS GROUP - Bowers & Wilkins and Rotel

Bowers & Wilkins came to the show with their famed 801 series floorstanding monitors, currently carrying D4 designation. In tandem with Rotel's luxury higher range Michi amplifiers (here the P5 preamplifier and M8 monoblock power amps), it was an admittedly expensive system, capable of putting a smile on their owners' faces if accuracy and resolution were high on their priorities. Some may prefer a more romantic or rounded sound, though.

Also on display in another of the B&W rooms was a system which used Classe amplifiers. Despite the source being a mid-range Rotel CD player, the system sounded fine with the good old 16-bit 44.1kz physical media from the 1980s.

SUBWOOFERS - REL, Ken Kriesel, JL Audio, SVS, and PMC

Quite a few of the specialist brands were represented at the show: REL, Ken Kriesel, JL Audio, SVS, and PMC, among the more readily recognised ones. Subwoofers seemed to fall into specific trends i.e. "how big (or small) can you make them", and "how high can you stack them?".

REL had by far the largest ones I saw in the CMY room, while Dream Audio had a full Dolby Atmos set up where the Kriesel subs were stacked four high in two sets, at the front and back of the room each. I am not much of a home cinema enthusiast, and to me, it always seemed unnatural that gunshots have so much low-frequency content in the movies, but it sure adds to the sense of excitement. That aside, enjoy the various photos if you are into the subwoofer subculture, be it for music or movies.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed the KL International AV Show (KLIAVS) 2022, I was able to see the commitment of the AV industry in Malaysia, represented by many brands, distributors and players of the industry at this 28th Edition of the show. Attendees were enthusiastic about the latest in the HiFi and AV scene with many giving big smiles and thumbs-up as they went around the show. Lastly, we believe the decision by the organizers to hold this year's show in a new venue which is bigger and newer, certainly played an important part to the success of KLIAVS 2022. We are looking forward to being back at the 29th Edition of KLIAVS in 2023.

For more photos and discussion thread for KLIAVS 2022, please visit: https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/544295-kuala-lumpur-international-av-show-kliavs-oct-28-30-2022/