Part One of my wrap up of the Munich High End show 2018. Mostly pics with details of what you are looking at. There will be a second and final wrap up tomorrow and then a special E Mag publication early next week. 

The T+A room is always very cool looking and their kit certainly looks the part. This all in one unit caught my eye; it’s the Cala SR Streaming Receiver and is part of a growing trend in all in one boxes. You get a CD player FM, FMHD, DAB, it will serve you all the usual streaming services and it delivers 100 watts into  4 Ohms. Audiophile snobs may well suggest that this kind of thing is not really relevant at a show like this but personally I think this, and products like it, are the future of mass market audio in the home; how many of us grew up with and all in one music centre in the living room?

These are the Dali Callisto speakers that are wireless and connect to the Dali Sound Hub which again allows you to conveniently stream wirelessly whilst controlling the whole caboodle from an app on your mobile device.

No visit to High End Munich is complete without a look round the Audio Reference room which is always packed with people and packed with high end products from the likes of Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Audio Research and many others. The Relentless amp from Dan D’Agostino is a real beast of an mono amp that will deliver up to 1500 watts into eight Ohms or 6000 into 2. It weighs 220 Kg. Dan kindly let us take a pic of him with his creation.

The AVM room was very cool with the German brand showing off their new speakers and turntable.

The Technics room sounded pretty good too. Again, no esoteric horns or valves, just straight forward Hifi that sounds very good and is domestically appealing.

This is the new ATC CDA2 CD, DAC and preamp all in one nice looking unit.

The Amphion room was nice sounding and very nicely put together as usual.

Kondo and Kawero. Hugely expensive but sounded very nice on the day.

This is the first time we have gone in the MBL room on press day and managed to get well lit photos. Normally we leave it til the open days and the room is packed and dark with no chance of getting photos. I’m sure the dem was very interesting but it was in German and for me there was too much talking and not enough playing of the system. When it was playing it did sound very nice.

This is the Western Electric room using Gauder Akustik speakers. Good to see the company producing valves and amps again. The 300B amp looked fantastic but unfortunately was a pig to photograph.

Avantgarde Trios and a pair of bass horns with the digital electronics being from WADAX’s Atlantis range that includes a two box DAC, transport and server.

Brinkmann turntable and electronics with Vandersteen loudspeakers. Racks are by Harmonic Resolution Systems.

These are the new Eminence loudspeakers from Wilson Benesch costing £140 000 and making their debut at Munich High End. Power amp is from Ypsilon.

The Harman International sounded brilliant to my ears; dynamic and punchy. Electronics and turntable are Mark Levinson but it was the speakers that really caught my eye. They are the JBL L 100 Classics that use a new 1″ Titanium dome tweeter with a waveguide, a five inch mid driver and a 12″ driver for bass. They are bass reflex and the grill you can get in a variety of colours to match your decor. Around $4000 a pair in the US.

Soulution electronics from Switzerland with De Baer turntable and Rockport Technologies speakers.

Constellation electronics and Wilson loudspeakers. Always a good room this.

The little red speakers are the Wilson TuneTots, the company’s smallest loudspeakers and newly announced at the show. Below those are more conventional Wilson speakers being powered by Pass Labs electronics.

TAD Reference One loudspeakers along with TAD electronics sounded very good.

Goebel Divin Majestic loudspeakers which were frankly humongous and the company’s new flagship along with CH Precision M1 amps and the wonderful Kronos turntable and phonostage. This room looked as though the speakers would be total overkill but they were refined and very well behaved. Loved this room as usual when Goebel and CH Precision come together.

Lansche Audio loudspeakers are interesting in that they incorporate a plasma tweeter. Emm labs provide the juice in this room.

Block Audio amps along with Audiodata loudspeakers.

Paradigm loudspeakers using, oddly, Pass Labs amplification rather than the Anthem amps more usually associated with the Canadian brand…whatever, it sounded great.

Martin Logan Impression ESL 11A loudspeakers along with EmmLabs electronics and Anthem amp and pre. I made the comment that I certainly could live with these speakers but was greeted with the response “Cats”. Ah well.

The affordable Magico A”s about which you can read more about here This is the first time I’ve heard these speakers and was very impressed indeed.

Audio Flight loudspeakers, Verity Audio electronics, Cardas cables and a Quadraspire rack. Simple elegant and great sounding room.

Elixir are an interesting speaker company in that all their speakers are made of Corian, more often associated with kitchen worktops. Looked and sounded greqt but then I don’t think i’ve heard a speaker using Accuton drivers sound anything but very good.

The as always wonderful Silbatone room.

Equally wonderful was the Nagra room using Wilson speakers and a Kronos turntable.

Accustic Arts massive Mono III amps, pre and Reference CD player etc. Speakers are by Fischer and Fischer and are interesting in that they are made from solid sate. Lovely sounding room.

Great to see Chord Cables representing at High End. You can read more about the Chord story here where we interview Sally Gibb, the founder of Chord. Thanks to Alan Gibb for the back advice too!

Lab 12 are a Greek company owned by Stratos Vichos. This year they launched a new amp using the KT150 tube called Suara and a phonostage called Melto 2. The Lab 12 products are affordable but always deliver from personal experience.

Sveda Audio loudspeakers and the most excellent Lampizator electronics. The DAC on top of the rack is the Pacific.

Read all the High End Munich 2018 coverage here!