This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below Avantgarde Acoustic showed their new G2 Series Duo Grosso horns with silver hookup wiring and new Neodymium-powered woofers [starting at €25,000/pr]. The first time the room played no music at all, the second time it was rather too loud. The third time likely would have aced it but we sadly didn't stay around long enough to find out. Ayon Audio showed their new CD5 with 4 x Burr-Brown PCM-1704K DACs in dual-differential configuration into a 6H30 dual-differential output stage. USB input, analog inputs, remote volume and more round out this machine which I highlighted in an industry feature here. Ayon also showed the massive 4 x 62B power triode 50-watt Odin amplifier with 6H30 drivers. Mystère floating-platter direct-drive turntable and Aquila speakers on active display were by LumenWhite. Ayon Audio's Firefox 2 x 12" speaker with hornloaded treble and midrange units sat on static display as did their single- ended 2 x 62B Crossfire integrated.   Sven Boenicke showed his €12.500 SLS speaker which combines a 1.5-way passive top—the paralleled Tangband tweeters run a single capacitor high-pass while the upper sidefiring Monacor midrange runs wide open—with sidefiring woofers one per side, the latter requiring his miniature outboard active crossover. Specs are 6 ohms, 89dB and 10 x 150 x 23.5cm WxHxD. Do you recall the hilarious Bridget Jones Diary "stick insect" tag for Hugh Grant's skinny Amercian girlfriend by the plumper Renée Zellweger? Or Sweet Home Alabama's "sex on a stick" description by an old flame for its Reese Whitherspoon lead of Melanie Smooter? The SLS speaker's ultra narrow profile surely invites similar sexy stick connections. Far from cheap, its designer however promises very serious performance. A review in these pages is planned. Long live DAF, the domestic acceptance factor! Bow Technology's Wizard 2 player from Denmark is as serious a fashion design statement in audio sources as its predecessor was when it first - um, bowed. Bryston's small-room exhibit with PMC speakers used a laptop with the same Duet DAC which WLM had exploited to such good effect at the Munich show in the spring. Burmester opted for the massive static display instead. So did Canton with this behemoth of a flagship. That the Chinese refuse to conveniently "go away" was demonstrated by Cayin with this massive remote-controlled class AB 500MK integrated selling for a remarkable CHF7,500 and fitted with 4 x GU-29s—and 4 x 12AU7, 2 x 12AX7 and 2 x 6N6— for a claimed 75wpc. Conrad-Johnson and Audio Research on the same rack? Civilized Swiss neutrality had no issues. Copulare's Gerhard Brandl harhumphed at the mention of Finite Elemente as a competitor. "Mass production. What I do is hand crafting one customer at a time." His stands combine welded struts and uprights filled with lead shot or sand with various shelves which themselves could be filled or fitted with his artificial coral. That's a fibrous material doused with a chemical, then oven-baked at above 1000°C to end up lighter than lava, highly porous and apparently very effective at vibration absorption. There's a whole range of Copulare footers which employ this black material at low cost. The green stand above supporting a DaVinci Audio Labs deck includes similar technology that's simply been concealed from view behind a period facade replete with miniature paintings of Wolfgang Amadeus, father, wife and sister. If it's performance audio furniture 'to size', Brandl probably has a solution - including wall-hanging units.