Kudos Audio On Tour – Japan & Australia!

It’s been an absolute sprint-start to 2025 for us here at Kudos Audio. 

Following the launch of our SIGAO DRIVE unpowered active crossover late last year, our mission for 2025 became to spread the work of Kudos Audio far and wide – visiting music lovers in countries the world over, all of whom remain united by a quest to unearth the very best listening experiences. 

Throughout the year, this goal is set to take us to a whole host of exciting new places. And first up, we’re chalking a big one off the list!

Last month, Kudos made the long-overdue hop to the southern hemisphere, visiting our many friends and leading distributors in the Asia Pacific region. While we were there, our team assembled this fascinating trip report, which we offer up for your reading pleasure. 

It’s a joy to discover such passionate Kudos Audio fans so far from our home in North East England. Thank you to our Japanese and Australian partners who welcomed Kudos Audio products and personnel so warmly and openly. 

Enjoy!

LEG ONE: Japan & Timelord

First up, we made our way to beautiful Japan to visit with the team at Timelord Ltd – our peerless Japanese distributors, led by the legendary Al Hirano. 

In a previous life, Al Hirano worked in the automotive industry with Pioneer, and spent 10 years at Pioneer automotive technology in the US for customers Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM. In the US, he made many high-end audio industry friends like Charles Hansen at Ayre, and David Chesky at HDtracks. He then moved TADL, which represented his move from automotive into home HiFi. He has a serious, unyielding passion for high-end HiFi and has a lot of vintage and esoteric equipment at his home.

Timelord is around 38 years old, the name comes from Dr Who, as the original owner’s husband was British. Their office is in the beautiful Roppongi prefecture in Tokyo.

Al Hirano took over Timelord 8 years ago when the previous (wife and husband) owners retired. Originally, Timelord specialised in pro-audio equipment, but when Al Hirano took over, the company pivoted into premium home HiFi. Their office is quite the Aladdin’s Cave of creative endeavors – it also serves as the home for their own speaker brand, ‘Architectura’, manufacturing their own ceramic/pottery speakers! Al Hirano also designs and builds his own Roon Core and Roon Bridges from this office space. 

Stereo Sound Magazine

We were invited to meet with Stereo Sound President, Tomoyuki Harada and Editor-in-Chief, Hajime Someya – an honour, thanks to Al Hirano’s relationship with them both. We had a friendly chat about Kudos’s history, philosophies, and about the enjoyment of music – our philosophies seemingly aligned as they professed a passion for the enjoyment of music over technical perfection, and a preference for the human ear as the greatest judge of sound.

After this, we ran demos of Titan 505 loudspeakers in both passive and active, and Titan 707s in passive and active with SIGAO DRIVE for hifi critic, Mr Tadashi Yamanouchi; we took the lid off SIGAO, and everyone was impressed with the internal electronics, and of course the casework. They all seemed very impressed with the sound quality of the system with SIGAO DRIVE implemented, too.

To the Timelord Office

The afternoon was spent with Miss Mana Chikui, Phileweb Audio Channel Chief Editor.

She conducted a quick interview about the history of Kudos, and as she had already heard Titan 505 & 707s in passive configuration, we ran the demos of both speakers with SIGAO Drive. She was blown away with how much more music and emotion she got compared to when she’d first heard the speakers in passive configuration! After she’d listened to a lot of her own music choices, we put on Roger Waters’ “Ballad of Bill Hubbard” and “Too Much Rope” – she asked if we were just playing the two speakers due to the surround effects from both tracks. A fun afternoon.

We then spent time visiting some of the many incredible retailers that Timelord oversees, including Audio Union, Dynamic Audio and SIS Audio, and offered up Kudos Audio demos at each showroom. 

Timelord is committed to growing Kudos in what appears to be a challenging space for brands that are new to the market. They are measured in their approach, and want to do the right thing by visiting dealers, putting products in front of the press and helping to grow the presence of brands they believe in – we are very lucky that Kudos Audio is one such brand!

Al Hirano was a wonderful host; he took time to plan and join us for sightseeing around Tokyo during the weekend of my arrival, and we were lucky enough to arrive during the middle of the cherry blossom bloom, which was beautiful.

LEG TWO: Australia & Audio Magic

Following the conclusion of our brief but wonderful stay in Japan, we made the relatively short hop down to Australia – an opportunity to meet with our friends at Audio Magic and Krispy Audio, and experience our first ever Southern Hemisphere HiFi show!

About Audio Magic

Aleksandar Maksimovic, founder of Audio Magic, is originally from Serbia, and moved to Australia 11 years ago. He had both a hi-fi business, and CCTV/security business in Serbia, which he left behind to start afresh with Audio Magic.

He firmly believes in customer support and ensuring that customers are always treated well, building long-term relationships and loyalty from them.

About Krispy Audio

Cameron is a hi-fi enthusiast who set up Krispy Audio after casually selling his own handmade ‘Krispy Kables’ a few years ago.

He runs the business from a discrete, unbranded appointment-only shop just by his home in Berowra, north of Sydney. The attitude is relaxed, and he only sells the products he likes and believes in, and spends time getting to know what his clients want; building long-term relationships and repeat business.

It was interesting talking to both Cameron (based in Sydney) and Aleksandar (based in Melbourne) as to the different dynamics within the hi-fi industry between the two cities; business seems to be bigger in Melbourne as the climate is much cooler than Sydney, and we were told that there’s more of an end-user community in Melbourne with consumers organising events in their own homes.

First up, we had the pleasure of making our way to the Sydney HiFi Show!

Sydney HiFi Show

Held in the Sydney Central Hotel in the heart of Sydney’s China Town, this is ‘What Hi-Fi’s’ Australian Show. The show was held over a few floors – it had a buzzing atmosphere, and a few exhibitors mentioned that it appeared to be the busiest they’d seen in a few years.

Audio Magic and Krispy Audio had collaborated on the room, as Krispy carries a few of Audio Magic’s brands, and they are good friends, sharing a deep passion for good coffee (they both roast their own beans).

We worked the show on Saturday and Sunday, having arrived on Friday night, and we ran Titan 505s on Saturday, switching over to Titan 606s on Sunday, in a system that included a Bergmann Magne turntable, Aqua Formula XD DAC, Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference MKII hifi support, and Tellurium Q cables. 

On Saturday morning, we were greeted by Edgar Kramer, Editor-In-Chief of Soundstage! Australia, to present us with the physical Outstanding Performance Award for the Kudos Titan 808s, which we’d won last year. It was a real honour to accept this award on behalf of the whole team!

After a break, we flew to Melbourne to visit Audio Magic’s offices and visit Klapp Audio in Windsor.

Melbourne: Audio Magic & Klapp Audio

Aleks runs the business from a small but modern office in a suite of buildings annexed to the hotel we were staying in. The space presents a really nice atmosphere to bring dealers to on a one-to-one basis.

Klapp Audio is located in a very trendy part of Windsor, one of Melbourne’s suburbs. Klapp Audio is an unassuming, but massive store (Tardis-like), with multiple demo rooms and offices where they offer everything from high-end hifi to home cinema and custom installation.

We were greeted by Jason, whose family hails from Newcastle, as he visits every now and then. He was very keen to visit Kudos the next time he’s over here.

We got to meet Director Sean Mattiacio, and we spent some time casually discussing business as Aleksandar left him with his demo 606s. The store is moving to bigger premises in the coming weeks, as Sean showed me the piles of boxes tucked in everywhere, they’ve just outgrown the current store and need to expand.

Everyone we met in Australia had such a fervent passion for hi-fi and Kudos Audio more specifically. We’re so excited to continue working with our Australian partners to strengthen Kudos’ presence in such a strong market!

After that, it was time for us to head home! It was a quite incredible couple of weeks, and we can’t express enough gratitude for the great generosity from all our hosts.

Here’s to next time!