You can complain about how busy hotel-based audio shows tend to be – or appreciate the cozyness. With temperatures around -7 °C (19 °F) and fierce gusts, we were certainly happy to sit in packed little rooms and let finely tuned setups warm our ears.
The breakfast café at the Le Méridien Hamburg is located on the ninth floor at the very top. Its large window front gave us a great view of the Binnenalster, which we were lucky enough to admire in the rare state of being frozen over, as we occasionally scanned the tables to see who else was showing up for the day’s first bite before the starting gun fired for the NDHT – Norddeutsche HiFi-Tage – 2026.
The Le Méridien is hosting the NDHT for the second time now, having already proven itself last year thanks to its central location right near Hamburg’s central train station. Visitors arriving by rail therefore only had to endure the icy temperatures for a few hundred meters, and there’s no shortage of parking garages nearby either. Organizer Ivonne Borchert-Lima also set up a free shuttle service from the Heiligengeistfeld, where additional parking spaces are available.
The somewhat unusual layout is actually more of an advantage than a drawback – you just have to remember that from the main entrance, the hotel-show section spread across two floors lies to the right, while the “Levels” with their large conference halls are to the left. Elevators exist, but in the context of the show they could safely be treated as nonexistent: three lifts simply aren’t designed for an event like this and hence understandably can’t cope. Moving between the two hotel floors via the stairwell was much easier anyway, especially since its two access points per level create additional passageways that help with navigating the E-shaped corridors.
In the foyer there were also several static displays to admire – for example from Transrotor, Elac, or Nessie Vinylcare – while various stands offered food and drinks at pleasantly non-extortionate prices.
From the very first hour the show was well attended – the fact that it now charges admission seems to deter next to nobody. Among the roughly forty hotel rooms, it was rare to find an empty one; simply finding a seat was reason enough to linger. Thanks to the building’s solid construction, the sonic results were very respectable despite the tight quarters. Exhibitors were clearly already familiar with the rooms and had their acoustics well under control.
As expected and hoped, the show offered a rich cross-section of the wide variety of technological approaches – from delightful old-school setups to DSP-controlled active systems to exotic technologies. Demonstrators didn’t let room size dictate their ambitions: finely curated systems built around small two-way monitors played alongside setups that in real-world situations would typically require rooms three or four times larger – yet still coped impressively with the limited space.
Audes, for instance, apparently had no qualms about placing a pair of its mighty M5 speakers in its demo room. With Holborne and Skyanalog at the front end, they filled the room with naturally flowing music without ever overloading it.
Analog fans were also well served in the room of Eternal Arts, where the transformer-less OTL MkIII tube amplifier in the Commemorative Edition – marking the 70th anniversary of the relevant patent – was playing. A similar but far more dynamically forceful presentation could be heard in the rooms of LampizatOr, among others in combination with Qualio.
At the other end of the spectrum, a whole series of rooms featured active systems that not only controlled the loudspeaker but also the room itself via sophisticated DSP filters. GGNTKT, for example, played its room with the compact M1 and floorstanding M3, demonstrating how the rear-mounted woofer of the smaller model cancels bass in a targeted way to allow for placement close to the wall. Similar concepts could also be heard from manufacturers such as Lyravox, Ascendo, and Loudt. In all demonstrations, it was striking how many listeners were asking detailed, informed questions about the systems.
Active systems with room calibration have by now become a familiar sight – yet in some places there was also genuinely unusual technology on display. The well-known bending-wave driver in the S1 from Manger delivered its typically transparent presentation in the active version, which pleasingly sacrificed none of its sense of physical presence. Other manufacturers also found exciting new approaches to mid- and high-frequency reproduction: ATE demonstrated its Imagine series, which from 250 Hz upward uses a relatively large driver dubbed “Ring Mode Drive,” said to play linearly across eight octaves without any surround or centering, and also – most importantly – without any breakup.
Sonically, it impressed with an exceptionally airy and refined reproduction. Equally unusual was the Linear Motion Transformer from Swiss manufacturer Rowen, whose paper diaphragm and voice coil float mechanically free, held in place inside the enclosure by extremely strong neodymium magnets. What stood out most to me sonically, however, was the sealed-box system’s extremely tight bass.
Anyone wanting to escape the cozy hotel-room atmosphere found much more spacious conditions in the Levels tower on the other side. At the very top in the grand ballroom, Audio Reference once again staged spectacular demonstrations of the Wilson Audio Alexx V, supplied with signal from dCS and VTL gear, among others – as befits their status.
Further down on level three, IAD had set up shop and demonstrated the latest iteration of the legendary ESL from Quad. Electronics from Soul Note and a turntable from Zavfino provided the signal that allowed the panel speaker to showcase its enormous soundstage and fine resolution to best effect.
Level one stood somewhat apart in that it was located at ground level at the far end of the foyer. Among others, Auer Acoustics exhibited there. As usual, in an extremely elaborate room-within-a-room concept, the young manufacturer presented its Versura V4, which despite its moderate dimensions and sealed-box design controlled the generously sized room effortlessly and with authority. The imposing electronics were visually dominated by an even more imposing Stromtank S5000 power supply unit.
The other two rooms were occupied by Danish brands: Raidho demonstrated its speakers with electronics from Leema Acoustics, along with models from its much more affordable sister brand Scansonic, which I’ve never heard sound anything but good at shows.
Past the reception desk, visitors finally reached Audio Group Denmark, which reinforced the towering Børresen T5 in the low end with a pair of its BM3 bass modules (a.k.a. subwoofers), delivering the brand’s typical free-flowing and dynamic sonic signature – and putting everyone in a great mood.
Anyone who still hadn’t had enough after eight hours of show strolling could, with a bit of luck, snag an invitation to curated evening events. Lyravox, for example, took advantage of its home-turf status to invite some visitors to a small tour of the company’s headquarters – including shuttle service from and back to the hotel.
Everyone else spent their evenings exploring the area’s plentiful Hamburg fish specialties or simply chose the much shorter walk to the hotel restaurant.