Saturday afternoon was time to pop over to the Marriott for the Hifi Deluxe Show. This runs in the afternoons/evenings on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the same time as the High End Show. With the difficulty in getting rooms at the MOC it is inevitable that a sideshow happens and you do find some interesting brands over here. There is also a shuttle bus between the two shows making it easy to get over there. Here we cover La Rosita, Knif Rauman, Viva Audio, Jeff Rowland, Fyne Audio, Cary Audio, Audio Exklusiv, Lumiks and Audio Signal Projects, Rohm,  Rike Audio, Martion and Tonmechanik Berlin, Holton Audio, Camerton Audio, Q-Tron Audio and Horn-Kultur, SottoVoce, SeaWave Acoustics, Fein Audio, AGD Productions and Extreme Audio, 432 Evo, Malvalve and MrSpeakers, Grandinote, SoundKaos and Bakoon, Aretai, Klimo and Brodmann, Totaldac and AudionoteUK.

The only criticism that I have of this show is the layout. There are a lot of floors, with two sets of lifts and some floors with just a couple of rooms but at opposite ends of the building. This does result in a lot of walking up and down to find rooms and waiting for lifts…if the rooms were grouped together more over fewer floors, it would result in a better visitor experience. As it was we started at the top and by the time we got to the bottom it was time for the show to close, so apologies if we missed your room…hopefully we will catch you next year!

Many thanks to Andreas Schlösser for performing the photographic duties for this part of the coverage.

La Rosita

French brand La Rosita make a range of digital products along with loudspeakers and their new Zardoz range of valve electronics.

Knif Rauman

Knif Rauman are from Helsinki and were exhibiting their loudspeakers and interesting looking valve amps.

Viva Audio

Viva makes very distinctive audio gear in Italy, I have always liked them when I’ve heard them…they have a great look too. This system featured their Allegro loudspeakers with ribbon super tweeters and their valve electronics. Very pleasant indeed.

Jeff Rowland

Jeff Rowland of Colorado, USA make stylish looking and great sounding electronics. The system sounded very good and was well adapted to the room.

Fyne Audio And Cary Audio

Great to see the Fyne Audio guys, they are some of the most talented and passionate people in the industry and it is heartwarming to see the brand growing so well. They had a couple of rooms featuring different models of their speakers, which sounded great and attracted a constant flow of interested visitors while we were there. Dave Waters was doing a fantastic job presenting the brand and, as always, they played great tunes…it’s kind of becoming a fab tradition that we have to hear Infected Mushroom with Fyne Audio at a Hifi Show, wherever in the world the show is!

Partnering with American brand Cary Audio, Fyne used the Cary Audio SLP-05 preamplifier, CAD-120S MKII amplifier, and the new DMS-600 Network Audio Player/DAC/Streamer with their new flagship speakers, the F1-12, which start at 27,250€. The smaller system featured their F703 which sounded excellent too. We also got to see the new F502SP (Special Production), model.

Audio Exklusiv, Lumiks And Audio Signal Projects

This was both an interesting looking and sounding room, particularly liked the ‘Made in Bavaria’ Lumiks loudspeakers.

Rohm

Rohm Semiconductors of Japan were presenting a system featuring their new DAC, MBL speakers and Tellurium Q cable. The Rohm DAC IC “BD34301EKV” is from the company’s MUS-IC audiophile brand which is shaped by the four key concepts of ‘sound quality design technology’.

Rike Audio, Martion And Tonmechanik Berlin

Very cool Bullfrog speakers in this room from Martion, Tonmechanik fettled Garrard 401 turntable and Rike Audio electronics.

Holton Audio, Totaldac And Camerton Audio

A very cool looking and sounding room this with Swiss brand, Holton’s Invisio pure class A amplifier, a raft of Totaldac gear (Totaldac d1-reclocker, Totaldac d1-direct DAC, Totaldac the amp driver and USB GIGAFILTER) and Binom-1 loudspeaker with the new Binom-A1 driver from Camerton.

Q-Tron Audio And Horn-Kultur

This room, with Q-Tron electronics from Sweden, and Horn-Kultur Corneo speakers from Germany, was lovely, really well presented, lovely looking gear and the sound was excellent.

Sotto Voce

Sotto Voce from Spain, make fantastic loudspeakers, which we met for the first time last year. They brought their Stereo 3 active loudspeaker in a new and very exclusive finishing material: HI-MACS, a material mainly used in architecture.

SeaWave Acoustics

SeaWave, from South Korea, had some, very appropriately, blue horns called Plotinus.

Fein Audio

Fein exhibited their V3, line array loudspeakers. They are designed and made in Germany and are fully active.

AGD Productions And Extreme Audio

Extreme Audio from Italy, sell a range of High End Hifi brands. They brought the Sigma Acoustics Orchestra loudspeakers and AGD Productions supplied the valve amplifiers.

432 Evo

432 Evo are a Belgian brand who produce a High End Roon / LMS music server.

Malvalve And MrSpeakers

Malvalve valve amplifiers and MrSpeakers headphones also had Audeze and Stax in their room.  I was expecting a headphone room but there was also some very interesting loudspeakers playing in there…which was odd given the layout of the room had a dividing wall between the speakers…

Grandinote

Max from Grandinote of Italy is such a lovely chap. He was very proud to show us his new loudspeakers which were rather nice indeed. The MACH 9 carbon fibre speakers have crossover-less drivers. Grandinote have previously used aluminum to produce all their MACH chassis, but after testing they have switched to carbon fibre for the MACH 9. Grandinote exhibited with their partners Luna Cables, The Funk Firm Turntables and Modulum stands.

SoundKaos And Bakoon

A Hifi show favourite of ours, SoundKaos make wonderful loudspeakers in Switzerland and are some of the nicest people you will meet. This wasn’t so much a room at a show, more a full-on, multi-sensory experience. Martin and his team had put together a great system, it was the small Vox 3f, in a stunning Walnut and bronze finish, that were playing and the Liberation was there along with a new prototype open-baffle speaker, (which Martin said had a lot more in the bass department).

SoundKaos also distribute the Korean brand Bakoon, whose compact amplifiers work so well with the SoundKaos speakers. A fab sounding and looking room, enhanced by Ursula’s ‘Essence of SoundKaos’ aromatherapy scent, which gave a magical feel to the room…and they were very generous with the Swiss chocolate too.

Aretai

We almost didn’t find the Aretai room, but I am very pleased that we did.  They are a new, young loudspeaker manufacturer from Riga, Lativa and they were presenting their first speaker, the 45000€ 4-way floorstander, the Contra. They deserve to do very well, the sound was excellent and the styling of the speaker, room and the team was fresh and modern… very professional.

Klimo And Brodmann

A lovely room this, showcasing the rather stunning Klimo turntable, Klimo performance line electronics and elegant Brodmann loudspeakers.

Totaldac

Totaldac are a French brand well known for, unsurprisingly, their DACs. This year though they launched their brand new amplifier the Totaldac Amp-1.  The system at the show featured their gear and Magico M6 loudspeakers. The development of the amp involved it being designed with the Magico M6 and Totaldac’s own huge, sensitive horns, so it sounded very good indeed.

The full system was Totaldac d1-player server/NAS, Totaldac RoonReady d1-streamer and reclocker, Totaldac d1-twelve-mk2 DAC, Totaladc one-box “live-power” power supply, Totaldac d1-driver, a volume-free preamp,  Totaldac/Bibacord AES-EBU cables, Totaldac USB GIGAFILTER and ethernet cable/filters and the new Totaldac Amp-1 power amplifier. Magico M6 speakers, Echole Limited Edition interconnect cables and speaker cable and Shunyata Hydra Triton V3 power distributor and Sigma NR power cords for the digital components. We were treated to a variety of music including Jacques Offenbach’s “Galop Infernal” …the ‘Can Can’ music, an appropriate finalé for this French brand.

Audionote UK

Unfortunately not playing Slayer this time, but the Audionote room was still sounding great and was packed with enthusiasts enjoying the sound.

So that was just about all we got chance to cover other than a quick scoot around the stands in the entrance including the rather excellent Kirmuss with their ultrasonic vinyl cleaning system and Puritan Audio with their power conditioners.

Linette Smith

That concludes this part of my coverage…but there is still much more to read, click the pink links below!

Bird’s Eye View Part 1

Bird’s Eye View Part 2

Bird’s Eye View Part 3

Stuart’s High End Munich Report Part 1

Stuart’s High End Munich Report Part 2

Stuart’s High End Munich Report Part 3

Stuart’s High End Munich Report Part 4

Janine’s High End Munich 2019 Report

And all the news from the show here!