Too Loud Fest, a festival of good sound and good music was held this weekend in Zagreb for the first time.
The festival is synonymous with the Too Loud Blog, the long existing blog focusing on hi-fi experiences which has become a central go-to place for Croatians who love to hear great music on great gadgets, as it is organized by Nebojša Uglješić who writes the blog. He has managed to offer quite a wide variety of hi-fi related stuff for people of Zagreb to see (and hear, of course) and enjoy in the few days leading up to and during the festival. The main event was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, and an original exhibition was held in Oris – House of architecture gallery in the city centre. There the public was able to see the best examples of innovative product design on audio solutions designed by world famous designers – Italian, Finnish, Danish, American, French, English, Japanese and German. All of the products have been carefully selected from the catalogues of Croatian distributors and exhibited in Croatia for the first time ever in one place.
The main event of the festival managed to bring to one place almost all of the relevant manufacturers and distributors of the products interesting to hi-fi enthusiasts: KEF, NAD, Dali, Tannoy, McIntosh, Bang & Olufsen, Wilson Audio, Yamaha, Technics, Sonus Faber, Naim, Sony, Blackwood and many others (over thirty exhibitors). They presented their speakers, amplifiers, DACs, turntables, systems for wireless sound and home cinema. If you’re like me and are wondering what was the most expensive piece of equipment and setup presented at the festival (and which car one could buy for the price-tag), the answer lies in the system built around the Sonus Faber speakers, created in the extremely limited series of around 30 pairs and presented only for the third time ever anywhere in the world. The price of the system built around them is around 500,000 Euro, so the answer to that car-question is “you can get two Aston Martin DB11’s, but can’t really get a Rimac Concept One”. Other impressive and novel systems were also presented, such as Dali Phantom and Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 50, as well as the whole range of more accessible speakers that aim to cater to those who do not want to spend that much money, but still want great sound. Several workshops were also held, where hi-fi enthusiasts tried to teach the visitors the basics of how to set-up their home cinema for best results, how to set-up your stereo system and how to carefully choose your vinyl records and avoid traps.
A few concerts were also held during the festival: Doris Karamatić on her harp and jazz-duo Lela & Joe Kaplowitz got the opportunity to perform and have their music heard on Croatian-built Blackwood speaker system, while the young Croatian singer Lu Jakelić got the opportunity of the lifetime, as her performance was delivered by the already mentioned Sonus Faber speakers.
