Back on the road again

Welcome to the German Physiks April 2025 newsletter.

At the end of March our Borderland Mk IV loudspeakers were demonstrated at shows in Helsinki in Finland and Prague in the Czech Republic. Going by the feedback from visitors, our distributors did a pretty good job in both cases.

Is anyone old enough to recognise the reference in the title of this newsletter?

The Helsinki High End Show was held on March 29th and 30th at the Hotel Rantapuisto. We planned to arrive early the day before the show to help with the set-up. Due to our original direct flight being cancelled the day before departure and the first leg of the alternative indirect flight taking off late, causing us to miss the connection, we did not arrive at the hotel until nearly 11 pm. By this time Markus Tomson and Matti Puurtinen of our Finnish distributor Simex had done all the hard work, so we cannot claim any credit for the excellent sound this system produced.

This was not a big show, but it was well attended. We were continuously busy on the first day and even had people knocking on our door before the official opening time. The second day, being a Sunday, was quieter, but there were still plenty of visitors to keep us fully occupied throughout the day.

We don’t normally recommend tube amplifiers with our loudspeakers, so we were surprised when Markus told us that we would be using a Unison Research Reference tube power amplifier. Our main concern was that this would only deliver 80W into 4 ohms. We normally recommend that amplifiers used with the Borderland be able to deliver at least twice this much. In the event this combination worked extremely well. The bottom-end was extended and well controlled and the dynamics, stereo imaging and resolution were all excellent. The feedback from visitors echoed this. Here are some of the comments Markus found on an audiophile forum immediately after the show:

“...sound in that room was close to personal perfection.”

“The favourite was still German Physiks.”

“German Physiks. There we were, like sitting in the pew of a church when Bach came on.”

We particularly liked the last comment.

The partnering system comprised:

• Marantz SACD 10 SACD/CD player & D/A converter

• Melco N5-H60 music library

• McIntosh MQ112 analog equalizer

• Unison Research Reference tube preamplifier

• Unison Research Reference tube power amplifier

• Siltech Classic Legend speaker cables / interconnects

This was the first time to use Unison Research products and we will definitely be paying more attention to them in the future. We were also impressed with the Marantz SACD 10. It provided excellent sound and was very well built.

The Hotel Rantapuisto is situated on the Baltic coast about 15 minutes from the centre of Helsinki. The food in the hotel was excellent. They even bake their own bread. There are beautiful views of the coast from the hotel grounds.

This was our first visit to Helsinki and sadly it was only a very short one. There is a lot to see there. The food was excellent and the Finnish people are extremely friendly. We are looking forward to visiting there again in the not too distant future.

The Prague AV Show was held on March 28th and 29th. This is a much bigger show with around 500 brands on display. As this overlapped with the Helsinki show, we were unable to attend, so it fell to Jindřich Ježdík and Marek Bulíček from our Czech distributor Mareka Audio to do all the hard work. They put together a first class sounding system with the Borderlands. Jindřich told us that, “The audience for German Physiks was fabulous. Some of the visitors came back two or three times, with comments like:”

“This is the best sounding system at the show.”

“This is unique and the sound it creates is most accurate to the original.”

“This is super life-like to the concert, without any compromises with the listening position.”

“It is incredible how we can hear a steel image in any position in the room.”

It is always interesting to see the reaction of people at shows when they first experience how German Physiks loudspeakers can produce a good stereo image practically anywhere in the room. You have to keep an eye on them, as they often start wondering around behind the loudspeakers to see if they can hear a stereo image there: which they can.

The partnering system comprised:

• Moon 891 network player/preamplifier

• Moon 861 stereo power amplifier

• GMG Power X Blocker power conditioner

Hopefully we will make it to this show next year.

Our thanks to Petr at GMG Power for the use of his picture. His power conditioner did a sterling job of providing a clean source of power for the system.

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If we can be of help with anything at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us here. You can find your national distributor here.