Winners Announced: Public Vote Reveals Top Sound at Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025

It's an annual public poll conducted during the Australian Hi-Fi Show, aiming to address the query: Which room did you think had the best acoustics, and what made it stand out?

To motivate participation, we feature this query as the 'grand prize question' on the Competition Cards handed out in visitors' Show Bags. These cards allow participants to gather stamps from different rooms at the Show for a chance to win an array of excellent hi-fi and audio-visual prizes.

Gather the stamps, pick your favorite room, join the contest.

If you joined as a guest and took part in the competition but haven't received any news from us yet, unfortunately, it means you didn't win. :(. However, rest assured that all votes for your room have been tallied!

As we tallied the votes, four rooms stood out from the rest—though several other spaces received notable mentions due to substantial voting, which we'll highlight towards the conclusion.

An intriguing pattern emerged: out of the four leading spaces, three featured active speakers with built-in amplification, often coupled with streaming capabilities, resulting in notably straightforward setups. It appears these uncomplicated systems also garnered significant approval for producing excellent audio quality based on voter feedback.

Let's dive in and discover those highly voted rooms for the Best Sound award...

• Refer to the complete Show Report for the Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025

Winner of Best Sound Design in Show: WINNER

Westan Australia’s Focal room

Westan Australia brought the remarkable Focal Diva Utopia speakers to their big room on the Ground Floor, with Melbourne’s Premium Sound store working the room, and clearly living up to their name, given the votes that stacked up for this room to give it the win.

Yet this was an unusual system – no supporting stack of electronics required for these streaming active Focal Diva Utopia speakers, though they were given the slight sprucing of Atlas power cables. Otherwise the Divas worked entirely alone, the ultimate modern high-end system, using their streaming smarts, built-in amps and impressive driver arrays to impress visitors with their solo performances.

This room came absolutely top of the votes, so we congratulate Focal, Westan and Premium Sound, winners of Best Sound of the Show at the Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025.

Best Sound of Show: SECOND PLACE

Audio Marketing & Len Wallis’s Triangle Demonstration

In the Corridor of Sound on the ninth floor, room 902, distributor Audio Marketing along with personnel from Sydney’s Len Wallis Audio gathered an array of Musical Fidelity components. This included the eye-catching M8xTT turntable made of acrylic alongside its companion piece, the updated M8x Vinyl phono stage.

However, one thing left no room for ambiguity among those who visited the chamber: every vote highlighted Triangle’s active streaming Capella speakers. The remarkable dynamic range and powerful bass emanating from these beautifully finished bookshelf monitors were particularly noteworthy.

Similar to the Focals, the Capellas have the capability to form their own system by streaming through AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Bluetooth, or Roon. However, their accompanying 'hub' further expands connectivity options with additional features such as USB-B, three optical ports, one HDMI port, a coaxial connection, and analog inputs.

Top scores for performance, power, and wow-ing the guests here!

Third Place for Best Sound Design in Show:

Dutch & Dutch with Magenta Audio

Magenta Audio introduced the acclaimed Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers at the Corridor of Sound event, marking this as the third space acknowledged for featuring active speakers equipped with built-in power and streaming capabilities—plus additional innovations from Dutch & Dutch. Despite appearing like conventional two-way systems boasting magnesium-alloy dome tweeters alongside eight-inch midranges, these speakers actually house two extra eight-inch long-throw woofers positioned at the back. Encased within 49-centimetre-tall oak enclosures, each setup includes three amps delivering a combined output of 1000 watts.

"Terrible Room? Incredible Audio," declared Magenta’s pull-up sign – though we trust the Show hotel's accommodations are far better than suggested, Magenta undeniably validated this claim and earned acclaim, securing third place in the public vote for Best Sound of the Show.

Best Sound of Show: IN Fourth Place

Masimo Consumer by Bowers & Wilkins

The delightful tones emitted by a pair of exquisitely finished Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 Signature speakers secured them the fourth spot in the public Best Sound poll. Their impressive sound quality was bolstered by dual Bowers & Wilkins DB3D subwoofers along with Marantz 10 Series components, including the Link 10N network audio player, SACD 10 reference CD player, and two channels delivering 250 watts each through Purifi amplification housed inside the Model 10 integrated amp. Perched atop this setup was Denon’s top-of-the-line DP-3000 direct-drive turntable equipped with a DL 103R cartridge.

With votes also garnered for outstanding performance in an adjoining space featuring a Denon electronics setup coupled with Polk speakers, Masimo would climb at least one position in our rankings were we to combine the scores across all three of their rooms — though this isn't what we do. Nonetheless, hearty congratulations go out to Masimo for delivering exceptional audio experiences throughout multiple venues at the Show.

Honourable mentions

There was barely a room which didn’t garner at least one vote from impressed Showgoers, but the following rooms were knocking on the doors of our top 4, so congratulations to:

- Yamaha: Both its primary space and its area for headphone demonstrations

- Serhan Swift

- Elementi/Wavetrain

- HeyNow Hi-Fi

Also soaring high with a robust number of votes were:

- Richter

- MaxMedia

- Vivid Audio /Avation

- DanA

- Synergy.

We extend our gratitude to all participants who displayed their work at the Exhibition, to every visitor who attended, and particularly to those who cast votes for determining the top sound of the event!

• Check out the complete Show Report for the Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025

• Showcase! - premier Australian home theaters & intelligent residences

• Check out all our reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines in Australia

Enjoying this article? To read more pieces like this, follow us on MSN by tapping the +Follow button at the top of the page.