HIGH END MUNICH 2022 BIRD’S EYE VIEW PART 1

Linette goes solo around the Atrium and rooms on 4.1 at the MOC covering Nagra and Wilson Audio, ELAC, Harman brands JBL and Mark Levinson,  Chord Electronics, Melco and Spendor, Steinway Lyngdorf, Einstein, Q Acoustics, Cambridge Audio, Sound United and Gryphon Audio Designs.

There may have been some well-known exhibitors missing from the High End Munich 2022 rooms and stands this year, with a few empty spaces, several due to last-minute covid infections taking out whole teams that had planned to be there, but the organisers had done a great job filling the space and getting in brands that maybe had not had the chance to exhibit at the MOC before. Of course, some of the last-minute cancellations could not be filled but to be honest, that did not seem to impact the show. It was still huge and there was still so much to see that we were very pleased that we had several people there to cover the show. Even so on Saturday afternoon Stuart and I split up and took different areas each. He went down into Hall 4 while I stayed up on the first floor of Atrium 4.1 and the rooms in the corridors around it. With the first two days of the show being trade/press days we had plenty of time to catch up with friends we had not seen for three years, but Saturday was really, really busy, with visitors queueing up the stairs and out to the doors to get in…this was High End Munich as we knew it, big, bold and very popular. Tickets had sold out completely and when I saw Stefan from the High End Society who was over the moon with the popularity of the show.

My first port of call was to see Gryphon Audio. Denmark has more than its fair share of high-end HiFi companies and some of my personal favourites come from there. This year, a few brands just went with static displays due to the uncertainties in the run-up to the show. Of course this has left us eager to hear the new products in the future. The Gryphon electronics are no less impressive when they are silent, but my eye was caught by a smaller than usual (for Gryphon) loudspeaker, the new Gryphon EOS2 loudspeaker, there as a prototype and scheduled for release later this summer.

Gryphon Electronics on display

Benno B. Meldgaard, is Gryphon’s Chief Loudspeaker Designer., coming from his own company of GamuT and Raidho he has applied his talents to develop a Gryphon speaker for small rooms, an entry-level into the Gryphon ‘whole system’  universe. I had a chat with Benno, who is obviously very happy in his new position at Gryphon Audio. He told me that the Gryphon EOS2 features several new design features that allow it to be adaptable to smaller rooms, making near-wall placement possible for example. these include the ‘Stealth’ enclosure and front baffle that aid smooth dispersion of standing waves. The other very interesting new technology is Line Porting, which is a new way of directing the back wave of the mid-woofer towards the ports, ensuring low frequencies exit the enclosure easily while providing efficient damping of frequencies above 60-80 Hz.

Gryphon’s proprietary “Line porting” technology, a new way of directing the back wave of the mid-woofer towards the ports, ensures a perfect path for the low frequencies to exit the enclosure while providing efficient damping of frequencies above the 60-80 Hz region. EOS2 can be either front- or rear-ported by means of removable port plugs, while a three-position switch to optimize high-frequency dispersion and ensure ideal response at the listening position, is located at the rear panel next to the binding posts. Benno told me that the EOS tweeter is also proprietary, with a 34mm Beryllium dome and the speaker has Gryphon’s PCS (Progressive Curved Slope) crossover. Specs for the Gryphon EOS2 are 91 dB efficiency and 4 Ohm minimum impedance making for an easy amplifier matching.

The new Gryphon EOS2 loudspeaker is designed for easy room placement and amplifier matching

Next, I had a scoot around the Sound United room featuring their brands Bowers & Wilkins, Marantz, Denon, Polk and the rather stylish Rotel Michi range of electronics, it was packed with punters.

Very popular with the punters who were enjoying the Polk, Marantz, B&W, Denon and Rotel gear on show

Next, I popped into Q Acoustics, where they had their Concept 50 speakers on show, with Cambridge Audio Edge Electronics, the kind of system you could happily see in a modern living room.

Einstein were next, a German company, who were premiering their Monolith system. This included the Aerolith record player and Megalith loudspeakers. very unusual and imposing looking but with a detailed sound, not playing my taste in music but you could hear this was a well put together system.

A lot of care had been taken with the room with room acoustic treatment from Herten and fancy rugs from carpet designer Jan Kath which made what was a pretty ‘out there’ system seem more accessible.

Steinway Lyngdorf were exhibiting their recently launched Model A speaker that is designed to be put flat against a wall. It has been interesting to see that a lot of brands are adapting to give audiophile levels of sound in typical, smaller rooms rather than just enormous listening rooms. The Model A worked very well and looked cool…also Steinway Lyngdorf win the ‘Best Remote Control’ that I saw at the show…perfectly coffee table worthy!

Steinway Lyngdorf Model A worked perfectly against the wall

And their remote was super cool!

Melco, Chord Electronics and Spendor had a small room with mainly static displays (though we did hear Chord in their main room too)  where they were launching the new Chord ULTIMA PRE 3 preamp.

Harman’s room had the latest from JBL and Mark Levinson with the Mark Levinson ML-50 anniversary amplifiers glowing red in the system.

Focal and Naim had a smaller presence than usual at the show, but were just as popular as usual, making it impossible to get into the listening booth in their room, however, the lounge part was nicely set up to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the French and British alliance of these two brands.

ELAC were next and after braving the crush of the crowds their room was a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the music they were playing which was Human Nature by Trijntje Oosterhuis. The new ELAC Concentro S 509 speakers were excellent and very stylish looking too, they have a coaxial midrange/tweeter unit featuring a JET 5c tweeter, stepX-JET technology for adjusting midrange directionality and four impulse-compensated 180 mm woofers, which you can see are side-firing. They also had the new Miracord 80 turntable in the room.

Nagra and Wilson Audio was one of the statement rooms that was not to be missed. the Swiss brand had said that they were bringing their most ambitious system ever to the show, and they did not disappoint. Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX loudspeakers were matched with Nagra gear including the new super-turntable, the Nagra Reference Anniversary Turntable celebrating their 70th birthday and limited to 70 units with pricing in the region of 170,000€. The system also included the new Nagra HD PHONO stage, HD DAC-X, HD PREAMP and two sets of Nagra HD Amplifiers. Nagra’s René Laflamme was running the show when I was in there and I was suitably impressed, they had obviously taken great care to make sure the system sounded right. carrying on the anniversary theme they were playing the Nagra 70th Anniversary album.

A very High End system to celebrate Nagra’s 70th Anniversary

Linette Smith

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