Brodmann Acoustics was demonstrating their pretty little Festival Series loudspeakers. The Austrian company has a background in piano manufacturing as well as sound engineering, and the FS speakers ($3990/pair) have an interesting design: 8-layer piano lacquer works to stiffen the speaker’s wood enclosures while dried oak sound rods are situated in front of the speaker’s side-firing drivers for dispersion. The cabinet is completely empty; it uses no dampening.

The Brodmann FS speakers were mated to an all-Electrocompaniet system: ECI-5 integrated amplifier ($4990), EMP-1/S SACD player ($8250), ECD-1/A DAC ($2490). The sound was silky smooth and well-balanced.