STU AND LIN OF HIFI PIG REPORT FROM HIGH END MUNICH 2024

Roll-up roll-up for what is arguably the greatest (audio) show on earth, High End Munich, and enjoy the first part of Lin and Stu’s High End Munich 2024 report.

If you are into audio and HiFi then you will, of course, be more than familiar with High End Munich and we have been covering it now for around 12 years, though every year we arrive and look at the spectacle before us and think “WOW!”…and then “How the hell are we going to get around and see everything and everyone we want and need to see?” 

I called it a spectacle and it truly is just that with brands and manufacturers flying in from all corners of the globe to take part, demonstrate their wares to both the public (Saturday and Sunday) and, importantly, to potential business partners (Thursday and Friday). It’s a great show to conduct business at given the pretty central location and the fact that Munich is a bit of a hub – I’d suggest that pretty much every major brand around the world is represented in some way at Munich High End. 

We would also like to say a huge thank you to our High End Munich 2024 coverage sponsor, Tellurium Q!

TEAM HiFi PiG

This year HiFi PiG didn’t have a tower outside Hall One, but we did have a massive window display and on the Saturday we gave away a whole load of our HiFi PiG record mats, thank you to Doris and Heddy, our pink haired PiGlets who did a fantastic job handing out the mats!

High End Munich is a massive event as I’ve alluded to and this year we came armed with a team of PiGsters to enable us to cover as much of the show as possible over the series of reports that we will be putting together. 

This is the first part of Stu and Lin’s report and we will be covering as much of the bigger rooms and booths as we possibly can whilst Oscar and Kelly will cover Headfi and Headphones and many of the stands in the halls, Andreas and Kirsten will do a photo report, and Eric will cover the stuff that most interests him. There may be some overlap but we will try to keep that to a minimum! 

SILENT POUND

Our Munich High End 2024 journey began with a trip out of town to a separate venue to see Martynas and Audrius, the guys from Silent Pound who were partnering with New Zealand brand Perreaux and Titan Audio who supplied the power and other cables. 

Silent Pound are a relatively new brand that make Open Baffle loudspeakers and I think having their products on show at a different venue was a bit of a stroke of genius as you are tied into listening only to their products. 

We got to listen to a good few tunes including the live version of Radioactivity and also Sadness as a Gift. The room is less than ideal and quite bright but the OB and directive nature of the speakers ensured that they sounded fabulous with great sound staging and accuracy…stunning really! 

The new finish on the speakers is oak and made for the UK market…beautiful! The speakers are a euro less than 28K euros and I think that represents pretty good value for money for the sound you are getting. 

You can also find more info in our preview here.

Now watch HiFi PiG’s Stu talk to Audrius of Silent Pound….

MOTORWORLD

KUDOS 

Over to Motorworld (what a cool place and if you get a chance to visit then do!) on the Thursday afternoon to see the launch of the KUDOS SIGAO DRIVE which you may well have read when we previewed the new product prior to Munich High End. 

So what is the KUDOS SIGAO DRIVE? So we got to hear the passive crossover with one Chord amp and then with the new Active Crossover with three Chord amps. So basically, the SIGAO  (Greek for silence) DRIVE is a passive active crossover that sits outside the loudspeakers. So basically you get an amplifier that drives a specific driver/set of drivers in the loudspeakers. The SIGAO can also be modelled with a series of simple plug in units that are specific to your amplifier or your chosen speakers. This means that you should be able to change your speakers or amplifiers and still use the SIGAO. 

Interesting stuff!

I’m not going to get into the whole trying to review a new bit of kit at an event like this (I’ll leave that to others) but there is a distinct change in the sound when fully active using SIGAO DRIVE and the passive. 

Price on the SIGAO DRIVE is around £6K and will be available from July. 

REVIVAL AUDIO

Revival, also at Motorworld, were showing off their prototype of their Caravelle range of loudspeakers that unfortunately we aren’t allowed to photograph or really talk about…but it’s a very cool looking thing and a much bigger speaker than the previous Revival Audio offerings. The front end of the system was Electrocompaniet which we know very well as we own the AW 800 M power amplifier.  There are also small speakers in the Caravelle range that make use of a passive radiator and uses an interesting “wing” on the front/side of the speakers. The big floorstanders use a downward firing waveguide kind of arrangement. 

The big news that we are able to speak about was a new finish for the Revival Audio Atalante speakers called EBONY which is a very nice finish on these speakers. It looked very nice indeed and the speakers (we’ve reviewed them)  do sound excellent! 

LINKWITZ

Linkwitz were calibrating the room when we arrived but it was quite an interesting process to watch. If you don’t know the speakers need 8 – 10 amps and have onboard Analogue Sound Processing (ASP as opposed to Digital DSP). 

This is a very interesting loudspeaker and on that I know that people who “get it” really rave about. 

Also in the room was an Audio Analog Reel to Reel player that we have been following now from well before it was an actual product. It’s made and designed in Brittany (France) and it’s very, very cool. 

VERTERE

Another launch over at Motorworld was Vertere. Touraj announced the new phono stage from Vertere.

Touraj told the assembled press that CALON has been designed to ensure that all the performance gains enabled by recent improvements in Vertere Record players, especially the new XtraX cartridge, SG-II PTA HB, and Reference tonearms, are not lost. The presentation was pretty technical and so I will refer to the company’s press release for the sake of not missing the detail. 

The case is machined from non-magnetic (Austenitic) Stainless steel, which brings a high level of shielding without the ferromagnetic eddy current and field hysteresis problems iron or steel would bring. The knobs are super-polished stainless steel.

Each part of the circuit has been created to maximise performance and be part of a high-end whole. The gain structure has been carefully calculated, designed, and implemented to deliver the best transparency, detail resolution, and dynamics from any cartridge.

The cartridge input first enters a gain stage with user-selectable gain (default, +10dB, +20dB). Then, it is subjected to an RIAA ‘filter’ where, in an ideal manner, the HF section is passive and the LF active. After this is another user-selectable gain stage (0dB, +2dB, +4dB, +6dB, +8db) leading to the output RCAs and the balanced output line driver stage. Both outputs are on (except when muted), but connecting and using one at a time is best.

CALON includes a switchable subsonic filter to reduce the wasted energy and headroom caused by (subsonic) noise below normal audibility, which some turntable/arm/cartridges generate in excess. The circuit is linear phase and has a practically unmeasurable effect above 20Hz. In addition, the output of CALON can be 180° phase inverted for those rare records recorded/mastered with incorrect absolute phase.

CALON is user-configurable for most Moving Magnet and Moving Coil Cartridges available.The front panel knobs allow the choice of nine input impedances and nine options of capacitance together with 15 choices of gain. 

CALON will be available in July and sell for £15500; €18998; $19995. CALON is available in either silver or black.

PMC provided their Fenestria speakers. 

PMC GET IMMERSED WITH STEVE WILSON

12:15 on Friday we joined the great and the good of the audio press from around the world for an event that I have to say I was quite giddy about experiencing. We were promised a fully immersive experience with the legend Steven Wilson who has pioneered the use of Dolby  5.1 and Atmos mixes with his own work and remixes for others. 

The system was absolutely NUTS! Look at the pictures and was made up of lots of PMC monitors at the front and throughout. It’s an 11.1.6 Dolby Atmos rig with PMCs BB6 XBD studio monitors Four mahoosive BST subs and 13 surround/height channels with a huge 48K watts of power that will go down to 15Hz and will set you back 300 000 euros…which seems incredibly reasonable when compared to some of the systems we have seen previously at the show. Yep, I’m sort of saying that over a quarter of a million quid is kinda good value! 

Ollie from PMC introduced the event and told us all about the history of PMC which if you don’t know is run by music fanatics – we’ve talked about the history many times but the common theme with their speakers is an iteration of transmission line speakers called ATL. All speakers are designed and built in the UK. They also have a history in surround sound going back to 2013 and Capitol Studios and later building the first Dolby Atmos immersive system. Dolby also use a PMC 9.1.6 system in their studios. Plus PMC have their own studios in London, LA, New York, and Nashville.

Steve was introduced and set out a program where people that are 2 channel enthusiasts would be eased into the concept of immersive audio. 

We started out with Nothing Compares To You (Sinead O’Conner) that started off with the stereo version and then eased into the full immersive Atmos mix. There was the moment and t brought a smile to my face. Impressive. Nothing changes in the fabric of the music it just becomes more immersive. It is incredible and I thought it would be a bit gimmicky, but it’s just not! 

Steve then played his own track Staircase which he says is pushing the immersive experience as far as it can go. Again, even sat at the front right (less than ideal) the surround and immersive experience is obvious and impressive. 

After the event I got to have a brief chat with Steve so do take ten minutes to watch the video of that interview. 

PMC

Upstairs, and with a room sign that could not be missed, PMC were also showing off their new (launched at the Bristol HiFi Show) Active twenty5i series of loudspeakers to which you need only add a preamplifier and sources or for an über-stripped-down system, a streamer with preamplifier functionality. 

For me this was a logical next step for PMC and by all accounts the active part was always meant to be, with the “normal” twenty5i series of loudspeakers having a panel already in place to accommodate the necessary electronics – which can be user replaced very easily or upgraded by PMC dealers for those less confident in this kind of thing. 

These are true actives rather than powered speakers with each amplifier in the unit only being fed frequencies (via the crossover) relevant to the driver it is responsible for.

The Active twenty5i range includes two standpoint loudspeakers and two floorstanding loudspeakers, though, as suggested, the active unit can be bought and added to existing passive PMC twenty5 loudspeakers. 

The flagship fenestria and entry level prodigy made sure that all budget bases were covered by PMC.

INNUOS

World premieres abound at Munich High End and Innuos were not to be outdone bringing two new products to the show in the shape of the ZEN NG and ZENith NG music server and streaming models featuring the new Sense 3…read on! 

The two new models draw on elements trickled down from the STATEMENT NG and extend the ZEN series  – the NG series being higher end than the straight-up ZEN range. 

Nuno Vitorino (co-founder of the Portuguese brand) doesn’t mess about and plumbs the old and new products onto the system for direct A/B comparisons. If you haven’t seen these dems then you really owe it to yourself to do so! 

The NG versions bring new electronics and a new software platform with innovations such as the PreciseAudio mainboard, NGaN regulation module and Sense 3. We are told that thee upgrades and improvements have been three years I the making and that they offer an upgrade in sound quality over the standard offerings. 

The PreciseAudio mainboard is tuned and customised for low latency and noise minimisation as is the new NGaM power regulation model – users of laptop chargers will be well aware of NGaN technology and their uses. 

You also get a new Expandable Storage Management System that allows for (unto) 16TB of internal storage 

The amplification in the room was by Gryphon. 

The guys at INNUOS indulged me and played Sadness as A Gift and it sounded fabulous (chicken skin) on the ZENITH NG and then on the STATEMENT. Both have a slightly different sound with the SATEMENT NG being a little more fuller sounding to my ears –  a smidge more “refined” perhaps and perhaps a little more air in reverbs and sounds further back in the mix. I’d LOVE to have the opportunity to have this demonstration done at home and on a system I know very well. 

Both NG models will be available in July and we hope to get to visit INNUOS  in their Portuguese facility later this year…all being well.  

AUDIO GROUP DENMARK

Audio Group Denmark is the umbrella group for the brands Ansuz, Aavik, Børresen, and Axxess and at Munich High end they had something from each of these brands at their rather nice and well presented stand. 

We were fortunate enough to se the launch of the new Børresen C loudspeakers at AXPONA 2024 and it was at Munich too making its European debut. This is a very nice standmount loudspeaker that to my ears brings a lot to the party that the much more expensive M1 loudspeakers from the Danish brand. However, we also got to see the new C3 at Munich too.

Not content with these European debuts we also got to take a look at the new Børresen T5 (200K euros) speaker which represents the first speaker in the brand’s T series of loudspeakers. The shape and styling is classic Børresen. They are a 2.5 way system that to my ears in this booth sounded really excellent with that tight bass sound that I think is a characteristic of Børresen speakers. They use a Titanium basket for the drivers rather than the Zirconium basket on the M series of speakers. The carbon fibre inserts in the cabinet not only look cool but stiffen the structure.

There was also the chance to have a listen to the AAVIK U-588 (30K euros) amplifier which is a collaboration between Michael Børresen and Flemming Erik Rasmussen (previously of Gryphon). 

But it wasn’t all bout the electronics and speakers with Audio Group Denmark presenting a full loom of their Ansuz Generation 3 cables too.

I quite like that AUDIO GROUP DENMARK are in a series of booths that represent different levels of their kit. Each room is really well set out and dressed…which is important. 

AXXESS, as the name might suggest, is the entry level into the Audio Group Denmark ecosystem and whilst at last years Munich High End we were introduced to the AXXESS FORTE series. This year there was more from the AXXESS series in the shape of the stand mounted Axxess L1 and the floorstanding Axxess L3 loudspeakers. Again, the characteristic Børresen sound was well evident, though the floorstandning L3s are only 5K euros which I reckon represents ecxcellent value for money! 

Resonance control products feature widely in the Audio Group Denmark portfolio (we use some in our main system) and at Munich High End we got to experience the AXXESS Noir resonance control products. 

Now, to find out more about all this new gear, watch our video with Michael Borresen at Munich!

LOEWE

Q ACOUSTICS

I’ve a lot of time for Q Acoustics who make excellent sounding speakers that seem to offer excellent value for money, though it’s many years since we had a pair in the house for evaluation. At this years Munich High End Q Acoustics were launching their 3000c loudspeakers that they say is “The perfect entry-point into a modern audiophile world…”

The new series of speakers is made up of the 3010c bookshelf, the 3020c standmount, the 3030c that is also a standmount but a bit bigger, the 3050c floor stander, and a centre channel speaker. 

Pricing is very keen on this range of speakers with the smaller bookshelf costing just £329 and the floor stander £899. And I have to say I applaud Q Acoustics for this pricing – it’s real-world and affordable audio that on this brief look and listen delivers both sonically and aesthetically, though the music was very quiet and folk were chatting in the room…one of the pitfalls of audio shows for serious listening sessions. 

Talking about aesthetics take a look at these M40s designed by artist HATCH that were making their only public outing at Munich. After the show they will be heading to UK charity The Music Works in Gloucester, a charity working to transform young people’s lives through music. Very cool! 

SONUS FABER AND MCINTOSH

Sonus faber were launching the new Sonetto G2 Collection, this new generation of the Sonetto series features seven new speakers. Every driver in the Sonetto G2 series is designed specifically for this collection, the first to incorporate acoustic technologies developed for Sonus faber’s groundbreaking flagship Suprema system.

Sonetto G2 starts from £1,150 and will be available to purchase in the UK from July 2024.

STEINWAY AND LYNGDORF

We got a listen to the Model C playing PRINCE and with the subs and open dipole speakers you get the best of both worlds. Very nice sounding, indeed. 

CHORD COMPANY

Another company I’ve a soft spot for is Wiltshire-based cable maker Chord Company. At Munich this year they were demonstrating the differences between their non-ARAY and Tuned-ARAY/Super ARAY cables as well as the differences between shielded and non-shielded speaker cables. 

They were also using their PowerHAUS power distribution blocks and the English Electric EE1 noise reduction device, of which we will have a short review on HiFI PiG shortly, though we have heard its efficacy at demonstrations in the past and been suitable impressed. 

Chord Electronics (not the same company!) provided the juice for a pair of Spendor A7 speakers in the form of their Ultima Integrated amp, whilst an Aural Altair G2.1 streamer provided the front end.

Always and absolute pleasure to meet up with Alan and the whole Chord Company team and the dems they do are always absolutely spot on and differences made very clear. 

FOCAL NAIM

A NAIM UNITI and a pair of FOCAL UTOPIA SCALA EVO playing in one room really demonstrating that a great sounding HiFi system in the home doesn’t need to be a million and one boxes.

In the second area of the space were standalone wireless speakers and headphones. 

ACCUSTIC ART

ELAC

NAGRA AND STENHEIM 

The Streamer from Nagra was making its debut at Munich High End and the CD Transport is no longer produced. However the turntable is a beast in the form of the REFERENCE with the new tonearm and REFERENCE MC-4 cartridge. Phonostage was the NAGRA HD and the DAC was a HD DAC X. The amplification was fronted by the HD PREAMP connected to 4 X HD AMP Monos.  Needless to say there was a NAGRA IV-S reel to reel player. The speakers are the somewhat imposing but really beautiful STENHEIM Reference Ultima Two.  This room is always absolutely packed at High End Munich such is the reputation of this Swiss brand. 

PURITAN, LYRAVOX ACOUSTICAL SYSTEMS 

Fantastic to see the guys from Puritan and it seems that they are doing very, very well with their mains products. The PSM 156 Power conditioner with ULTIMATE mains cables and a range of grounding solutions. 

This is an imposing system in terms of size and the record players are equally imposing. Prices are somewhat spendy but what a beautiful system to have the opportunity to sit in front of for a few moments. A female vocal was playing on vinyl the I sat down and the delicacy of the vocal came across wonderfully. 

There was a couple of rather substantial turntables from Acoustical Systems, the one playing was the A*Stellar Reference, pre, phonostage and amps were CH Precision, speakers were Lyrovox Karlemagne Monolith system with crossovers etc, Lyravox digital source, AudioQuest Dragon and Firebird interconnects and power cables and Puritan Audio mains purification and power cables.

ORTOFON

Ortofon unveiled a new Concorde Music cartridge range dedicated to HiFi users. Now recognised typically as a DJ cartridge, the Concorde shape was originally designed for HiFi turntables, and in an era where more and more manufacturers use tonearms with SME-style headshell mounting, it’s also now an even more convenient system upgrade.

The Concorde Music range features Red, Blue, Bronze, Black and LVB 250 variants, all of which make use of the same body but feature different stylus systems.

I use the Concorde Elite every day on a pair of TECHNICS turntables and LOVE them!

In the demo room we got to listen to the CONCORDE MUSIC BLACK (599 euros) bolted onto a TECHNICS turntable and AUDIOVECTOR speakers and then through the 149 euros MUSIC RED.  

DS AUDIO, EXPOSURE AND GRADO

ORIGIN LIVE 

Origin Live were partnering with a whole load of people including MoFi, AESTHETIX, Musical Surroundings, PATHOS, EXPOSURE, DS AUDIO and HANA. 

ELECTROCOMPANIET AND AUDIO PHYSICS 

Audio Physics Tempo speakers were being partnered by the excellent AW300 M mono blocs (27 K a pair). The EC 4.8 MKII preamp (4,799) EMC 1 MKV CD Player (6,799) and ECM 1 MKII music player (5,249). 

Reader will be aware that I’m a bit of a fanboy of the Electrocompaniet amplifiers and use one of their bigger stereo AW 800M (you can mono it) in our main system.

The room was lovely and sonically it was very nice indeed, even though the TEMPO speakers are pretty small. 

TOTAL DAC

I use the D100 speakers and AMP1 in one of our systems but the truth is when I first heard TOTALDAC many years ago I wasn’t a fan. However, the Breton (France) brand has developed their products by constantly updating and testing and I’m most definitely a fan now…and its great to see them getting the attention they deserve from around the world. 

The new Totaldac d120 speakers feature a new curved cabinet, they were partnered with the Amp-1 Sublime, d1 Sublime DAC, reclocker and streamer, d1 player MK2, d1 switch, Totaldac cables, feet, crossovers and power distributors…the total system came in at just over 285,000€.

The room was big and empty (it was lunchtime on the Sunday) but the sound was wonderfully easy to listen to and fall into. 

Very nice!! 

ALARE, AUDIA FLIGHT AND SIGNAL PROJECTS

Alare are the sister loudspeaker brand to the Audia Flight electronics brand, so it makes sense that they have a lovely synergy. Everything looks very expensive and sounded excellent despite the very loud people running the room.

LINN

Much like the Munich High End show, Linn of Glasgow in Scotland need absolutely no introduction…even though I’ve given them one…and the company did have a part in how HiFi PiG came about all those years ago. 

At this years show they were showing off their flagship Exakt Klimax system. This gives you a Klimax LP12 record player along with 360 PWAB speakers being driven by not less than six Klimax Solo 800 mono bloc amplifiers using a Klimax Exaktbox. This system is certainly a long way away from when I spent my first terms student grant on a used LP12 back in the late 90’s.

I guess this is a case of “if you have to ask…” but it did sound very impressive indeed to my ears. Look, I know LINN has lots of fans and a lot of folk that also knock the brand but whichever side of the fence you sit, there is no denying that they must be doing something right and for me, I’d be well happy to have this gargantuan system in our listening room. 

GERSHMAN ACOUTICS AND KRONOS

The Black Swan speakers from Gershman is essentially a 30 year old design that has been update by everyt8ihg the brand has learned of that period. $95K is the asking price.

The rest of the system is TRUE LIFE AUDIO 350 monos and SSP1 preamplifier. KRONOS PERPEPTUAL turntable from Louis lejardin with the KRONOS phono stage. On the digital end was the ANTIPODES streamer and MSB CASCASE DAC. Cables were CARDAS throughout with the racks coming from Artisania Audio. 

This was a VERY good system indeed when playing vinyl. Sadly we didn’t have the time to hear the digital front end. 

MARTEN

MARTEN were playing the COLTRANE QUINTETS (170K) with HALCRO ECLIPSE MONO amplification (78K) and JORMA PARAGON cables and power management. The vinyl front end was a TECH DAS AFP#S but we got to listen to the digital front end of ANTIPODES OLADRA media player (37K) and the new MSB CASCADE DAC.

These are very, very good loudspeakers paired with an equally good set of electronics that really delivered at High End. They go very low but even in this room didn’t seem overblown and always seemed in control. 

Excellent and I could have stopped a lot longer. A favourite room! 

CH PRECISION AND WILSON

An absolutely packed room (not surprising) meant that we didn’t get to sit and listen, but even playing my ledss than favourite genre (opera) it was pretty clear that this was a very high system. 

GOLDMUND

GOLDMUND were playing their pretty new ASTERIA loudspeakers. We got them to play a bit of Daft Punk and this relatively compact system really sounded quite splendid. 

MELCO AND S BOOSTER

All the latest Melco gear on display.

MAGICO, PILIUM AND WADAX

A very well dressed room with all the room treatment built into the room within a room walls. Difficult to really get a sense of the sound because folk involved in the room were chatting but given most folk stopped in the room for a couple or so tunes, I’m guessing it was very good. The Magico S5 2024 were doing the business in this room.

MCINTOSH AND SONUS FABER

Splendid sounding room other than the very loud air-conditioning. 

NAGRA AND STENHEIM 

Another more manageable room from STENHEIM and NAGRA and I was immediately impressed by the way this listening space had been kitted out to look like a comfortable living room. The prize for the best dressed room so far goes to this one. A nice Chesterfield sofa and a bookcase printed backdrop is not difficult to do but it did make a huge impact! 

Very cool and personally I preferred the sounding this room over and above the sound in the bigger and more expensive NAGRA and STENHEIM room. 

The speakers were the brand new Stenhem Alumine Five LE with a luxurious gold finish, they come in a tad over 100,000€. A Thales turntable with Nagra electronics and Crystal Cable wires made this a high end and expensive but more real world system than the larger room with system.

ZEN SATI, BRODMANN, SUPREME ANALOGUE, VIOLA LABS AND RUI BORGES 

This room was very busy and very high-end in both looks and sound. It was also very nicely put together and dressed. The ZEN SATI cable loom was insane…in a good way!

The full system was as follows, Streamer: Aurender N30SA. Dac: Metronome AQWO 2. Pre Amp: Viola Labs Cadence. Power Amp: 2x Viola Labs Cadence Stereo Amp (one for each tower)

Loudspeakers:Brodmann Signature Series JB205 two Main Towers, both double amped plus two active bass towers (1000W per channel).

Cables: Zensati X

Turntable: Rui Borges Pendulum Reference. Tone arm: Supreme-Analog Tangenta reference tonearm. Cartridge: Clearaudio Goldfinger and Phono Stage: Joaquim Pinto, Model Brutus.

Fantastic to see Zoran with his rose gold tonearm on the deck in this room.

TIDAL

Yep, I find it confusing too. However, this TIDAL make loudspeakers including the TIDAL BUGATTI speakers. We heard the smaller speakers (still not that small) which were tight and big in scale. 

PIEGA AND HiFi ROSE

It was getting on to the end of the day on the last day of the show and we were flagging a bit but this really perked us up, HIFI ROSE RA 180, HiFI ROSE RS 150 the speakers are PIEGA COAX 611 (16K euros). These are an unusual looking but very elegant looking loudspeaker. That sounded very good despite my ears suffering from a bit of audio-overload. 

FYNE

The VINTAGE CLASSIC GOLD XV 15 were making their debut at the show and go done to 23Hz. They £15grand and basically have Vintage tech in a more affordable cabinet. There are speakers from the 8 inches all the way to the 15 and are about a grand an inch. – ooh err missus. This brings them down to about half the price of the VINTAGE range and I can see a lot of folk going for this…and I am very tempted to get myself a proper listen as a punter. 

Got to listen to the new 703 SP (15K in the UK) and the new SUPERTRAX super tweeter in black that will be available later in the year, though you can get the normal finish now. They were been driven by a Unison Research amp, along with Rega P10 and electronics, and sounded excellent. The room was very busy and the guy next to me was clearly getting into the Dire Straits that was playing given that his feet didn’t stop tapping the whole time the track was playing. This was also the debut of the new cable designed for the SUPERTRAX, the SC1.

SuperTrax Walnut – Price: GPB 3,499,99 / EURO 3,999,99 / US$ 4,599,99 – per pair

SuperTrax Gloss Black – Price: GPB 2,999,99 / EURO 3,499,99 / US$ 3,999,99 – per pair

SC1 Cable – Price: GPB 349,99 / EURO 399,99 / US$ 449,99 – per pair

As an aside I really don’t know how the FYNE guys manage to stay so upbeat this whole time. Yep the room sounded fab but they have been doing this for 4 full days and then all the entertaining in between that. Fair dos to them for being so chipper!!! 

GOBEL HIGH END, KRONOS AND PILIUM 

Goebel High End launched their new, more compact loudspeaker,for smaller listening rooms, the Divin Comtesse in a together with Pilium, Wadax and Kronos.The price for the speakers starts at 59,000€.

AUDIO REFERENCE

Wilson speakers in a fabulous blue colour with VTL amplification and dCS digital front end. KUZMA STABI R with a Lyra Etna cartridge was the analogue front end. 

LANSCHE AUDIO, THRAX

The 8.3 speakers from LANSCHE are completely passive and have a plasma tweeter. We were treated to an analogue NAGRA Ti reel to reel recording and this BIG speakers really threw up a huge soundstage, even in this room. The R2R had a full valve head amp that also doubles as a phono pre – it has a valve PSU. The THRAX PHOENIX was making its debut at Munich to drive the speaker. 

KAWERO, TECH DAS AND YPSILON

WOD AUDIO, BERGMANN AND KUBALA SOSNA

BRINKMANN, HRS AND ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES

There was a very interesting talk by the producer of Fink which I would have loved to have listened to. He told us in the short time we could stay that the whole recording front to end is analogue and analogue tape…and only available on vinyl. I love this! We got to listen to the test press which is a real treat. 

The turntable was the BRINKMANN TORUS turntable and Pi cartridge and indeed, the rest of the system was BRINKMANN.  

Speakers are the Rockport Technologies AVIOR II. 

SOULUTION, AND GAUDER AKUSTIK

FONO ACOUSTICA, GOLDMUND AND AVALOS SOUND DESIGN

The AVALOS loudspeakers from their Wave Series certainly looked the part. Cables throughout were the Fono Acoustic Grandiosso. Amps were from Goldmund. All beautiful looking a very nice sounding system, though the music wasn’t exactly to my taste. 

ELECTRIC AUDIO

There was a listening room next door for Gauder Akustik but the bouncer, I kid you not, blocked our entry. You names not down you’re not coming in would have been an apt track to play.

VIENNA ACOUSTICS, MONTAUDIO, CH PRECISION AND SUPERTRAC

MBL

WIENER LAUTSPRECHER MANUFAKTUR

This very large room was playing a sound track when we came in and often the sub bass on soundtracks can be overwhelming but this system controlled it really well. The model of the WLM speakers is the MARIA. 

CHORD ELECTRONICS

Oscar and Kelly had already covered Chord, who were launching the brand new Suzi amplifiers…we popped in to catch up with Colin, Moz and Doug.

EPOS AND FINKTEAM

EPOS are headed up by the legend that is Karl Heinz-Fink who is the designer behind a whole lot of loudspeakers that you will be very well aware of, including his own FinkTeam brand. This year EPOS used the High End show to launch their new ES-28N loudspeakers to the world. 

The EPOS ES-28N is a three way design, which is a bit of a departure for Karl-Heinz who is most well known for his design of 2-way loudspeaker systems…but he says a 2-way system doesn’t work well with two woofers in the system – far too tech to get into here but I’m sure Karl-Heinz will explain everything when we interview him on video. 

So, the new EPOS ES-28N has woofers that are derived from the ES-14N speaker with the size being the same but with different internals. The cone on the new speakers is stiffer and has a larger inverted dust cap than those used in the ES-14N and the magnet uses aluminium demodulation rings to stabilise the inductance of the voicecoil. The coil former is made of a non-conductive Epoxy’Glass fibre material with the aim being to reduce Eddy currents. 

The mids (this is a three-way, after all) is based on the woofer from the EPOS E7-SN but has a few minor mods done to it. It uses a Mica filled polypropylene cone made by injection moulding and has a low hysteresis rubber surround. The spider is Nomex and ensures the suspension is linear even when the cone is at higher excursions. Again the former is glass fibre/Epoxy which works with a impedance control ring in the magnet system. 

The tweeter used is the same as in both the ES-14N and the ES-7N. The tweeter is at 1m high in the cabinet with a separate enclosure below that houses the midrange driver and then there is a ported enclosure for the pair of bass drivers. The cabinet itself is made of a sandwich construction and the front plate is a 50mm thick and made of two 10mm sandwich panels with a MDF panel of 30mm. The new speaker will go down to 30Hz and is 86dB sensitive. 

Colours available are Walnut, A Semi-matte white and a semi-matte Black, though my favourite is the Jade green colour. Price is around 8000 euros. 

I got a brief listen to these speakers with CANOR amplification and I have to say that there is a reason Karl-Heinz is employed by many brands to design speakers. To my ears they seem to offer a lot of speaker and a great sound for the money! 

Also in the room was the flagship Luphonic R3 turntable with K2 12″ tonearm, we came across this brand on the Start-Ups stand at Munich a while back, they are now distributed in the UK by Bill at Auden Distribution. Down in Hall 3 they were launching their new model, the R2.

GOLDENEAR AND AUDIOQUEST

HiFi PiG recently reviewed the Goldenear T66 speakers that were being demoed at Munich and you can read the full report here. The speakers were being driven by Soul Note electronics and Silent Angel network-audio equipment, all wired and powered with AudioQuest cables. 

Throughout the show there were timed seminars/talks on different aspects of cable design and the AudioQuest philosophy behind their design. 

“Would you like to hear something dynamic” was the question and who am I to refuse. I really do think that the GoldenEar speakers represent excellent value for money (READ THE REVIEW FOR MORE). For 7K a pair with he 7K SoulNote amp playing Make Us Stronger (the new Keith Don’t Go for the 21st Century) the bass was visceral and tight and without wanting to get into the whole trying to review a product at a show, I would suggest that they offer a fantastic value proposition. 

VERY much my kind of speaker! 

EVERSOLO

Karl-Heinz has raved about the EVERSOLO products (AMP F2 stereo amplifier and DMP A8 streamer ]) and so its natural to partner with the EPOS brand! Set up on what looked like IKEA shelf units and being part of the Sounds Clever initiative that I presented last year at High End really makes sense in pushing the accessibility of this kind of set up. Lovely sounding too. More to follow from Oscar on this room too…

BECKES AND MULLER (AUDIOPHILE MANUFAKTUR)

German brand had some very interesting and very different looking loudspeakers. The NEO loudspeakers were playing when we were in the room (35K) in black and white or other colours at a premium. 

AVANTGARDE ACOUSTIC

The new MEZZO is 80K and including the itron single ended zero feedback amplification for each channel, 100K. They have a new horn for the mids and tops and the bass is horn loaded so you get the benefit of the speed of bass horns without having to buy the bass bins …and they go down to 28Hz. On the rear there is an ONKEN sub arrangement. Esoteric electronics were also used.

Colibri is the smaller speaker and named after the hummingbird that was in its development phase last year.

It’s no secret that we love Avantgarde speakers and own the DUO XDs. 

WBT

ADVANCE PARIS

FURUTECH AND PROGRESSIVE AUDIO

AURALiC

I’m very much a bot of a fanboy of AURALiC and at High End the brand used the event to launch their S1 streamers plus updated versions of their ALTAIR G2.2 and V10 software. 

S1 is the latest entry-level audio streamer that AURALiC offers and is  powered by AURALiC’s Tesla G3 streaming platform.  S1 inherits tech’ from the G2.2 reference products, including Direct Memory Access (DMA), Direct Data Recording (DDR), Fusion DAC, Galvanic Isolation, and more. The S1 streamer is available in two variations.  The ARIES S1 features USB and digital outputs, while the VEGA S1 offers XLR and RCA analogue outputs. Both models support streaming via Ethernet through AURALiC’s Lightning DS, AirPlay 2, TIDAL Connect, Spotify Connect, Internet Radio, and a range of digital input channels. Additionally, the S1 will be Roon Ready upon completion of Roon certification which is good to know. You can also add an external PSU to both versions of the S1 streamers in the form of the S1 Pure Power

Prices for the S1 streamers and the PSU are: ARIES S1 and VEGA S1 $1999 | €1999 | £1999. The optional S1 Purer-Power External Power Supply Unit is $999 | €999 | £999.

The ALTAIR G2.2 is powered by the Tesla G3 streaming platform but introduces updates over and above those of its predecessor. These include: Direct Data Recording, Fusion DAC and Galvanic Isolation. The G2.2 also has an HDMI eARC input and is priced at $6099 | €5999 | £5299.

Finally, AURALiC has released version 10.0 of their Lightning Streaming platform that adds PureDAC mode and Tone mode to the platforms feature set. 

I really like the new format of the new AURALiC gear. It’s compact (shoebox kinda size) and the aesthetic will fit in very nicely with modern homes and music lovers that don’t want to have masses of massive boxes. Very cool! Obviously it’s difficult to get a feel for the sound (and the room was very busy) but if we can judge AURALiC on previous performance, they will sound excellent and will sell very well. 

ODEON 

Rega front end (with some interestingly impromptu isolation), Lyra Telos cartridge, New Audio Frontiers 845 amplifier and the speakers (the main event for me) was the Carnegie and Esprit cables from France. 

The speakers are a three-way high sensitivity (97dB) with an 18” paper cone woofer, that is bottom loaded (reflex) with a 60cm waveguide and a 40cm midrange with a paper cone woofer with alnico magnet. The tweeter is a 9” horn with a 1” compression driver that works up to 16KHz. Price is 97.5K Euros. They are an 8Ohm flat design which makes them very easy to drive with triodes and flea powered amps. 

Sonically this is a lovely system that was unforced (again) and very relaxed.

VITUS AUDIO

Vitus Audio were showing products from their signature series at Munich High End plus a number of products from Alluxity. The system you can see in the photos is: SCD-025 MK.2, SD-025 MK2, SP103 MK1, SL103 Mk1, SM-103 MK2.

As well as Vitus and Alluxity the ancillary kit was a real to reel player in the shape of a Lyrec Frida, An SME 60 record player and Monitor Audio’s flagship Hyphn speakers finished the system off. I think this is the first time I’ve heard the HYPHN speakers and whilst they look decidedly different, they sounded very nice with the Vitus electronics. The new products in the Vitus room were the SM-025 Monoamplifier and the SIA-030 Phono Module.

WILSON BENESCH

Wilson Benesch are based in Sheffield in the UK and being a Yorkshireman born and bred I tend to follow what this brand do pretty closely. I find it fascinating and inspiring to see a brand from what was very much an industrial heartland of England (steel production) forging a name for themselves on the world stage with high-end audio. 

At Munich Wilson Benesch were premiering their Prime Meridian turntable from their GMT System Collection. This is a stunning looking spinner of vinyl and was fitted with the Graviton Ti Armwand (tonearm) and Tesselate Ti cartridge – both from Wilson Benesch. 

At the noise end of the system we got to hear the Omnium loudspeakers (and the IGx infrasonic generator). Ypsilon amps were used to drive the speakers and a Taiko server dealt with the zeros and ones whilst the whole system was wired with Stage II Concepts and grounding was by Telos. 

This was a very serious looking system and that turntable is something else. The turntable uses a drive the brand are calling the OMEGA Direct Drive which is 15” in diameter has zero cogging and has zero torque ripple. The Prime Meridian turntable (not the top of the range) is £170K with the Graviton Ti arm want costing 15K and the cart costing 8K. 

VOXATIV

Berlin-based Voxativ were showing of their new Anadagio horn-loaded loudspeaker that has been specifically designed to work with the company’s field coil drivers. The Andagio costs just shy of $33K when it is equipped with the AC-X field coil driver but other options are available at extra costs. Specifically, if you were to go for Vocativ’s AC-XHB “hybrid field coil driver” (as shown at Munich) the price shoots up to a hundred dollars away from $70K though if you want the new power supply for the drivers you will need to find another $12900. 

The system was being driven by a T805 SET amp also made by the company and costing $34900.

Voxativ were still putting the final touches to the system and fine tuning but the system sounded fab to me! Very natural sounding, relaxed and unforced. 

RAIDHO

Raidho were demonstrating their latest offering to market at Munich High End in the shape of their new X.2.6  loudspeakers. Raidho tell us that the X in the X2.6 stands for eXtreme and that the tweeter is derived from the one used in the 230K euro TD6 speakers, though the X2.6 costs a more modest 21,000 euros. 

The tweeter is a Planar Magnetic design, is a proprietary model built by hand I Denmark and the bass drivers are aluminium coated in a thin layer of ceramic – you get 2 x 6.5 inch bass units and the crossover points are 140Hz and 3.5kHz . The idea here is that the bass drivers are as fast and agile as the tweeter unit. Inside the speakers the crossover is point-to-point wired by hand and cable used in it is from Nordost, just as all the internal cable is in these loudspeakers. 

The attention to detail extends right down to the feet of the speakers which have their own integrated decoupling in the form of ceramic balls. This is a bass reflex design but they are designed so as not to overpower smaller rooms, though Raidho do say they will go as low as 32Hz. Custom colours are available on request but the standard colours are a black piano and a white piano finish. 

Moon electronics fronted this system and we got to listen to the BIG TD6 speakers that were very impressive and sounded…well…BIG! A quarter of a million quid (give or take) is a lot of money, but like anything spendy, if you have the means then why not?

A quick change around of speakers and the X2.6 were plugged into the system and whilst not quite having the scale of the TD6, were still very impressive sounding. And they did go very low! A big sounding speaker in a relatively manageable package! 

SCANSONIC

We got a chance to listen to the new MB8B speakers (15K euros in Walnut and 13K in matte black) with PILIUM front end and they seem to offer a good deal for the money. 

The new speakers are an 88dB sensitive three-way design that has three bass reflex ports. You get a a ribbon tweeter, 2 x 5.25” mids and 2 x 8” woofers. 

CRYSTAL CABLES AND HMS

Gaby at Crystal cables was keen to tell us about their new cables and a partnership with cable brand HMS. But that wasn’t the only news from Crystal Cables because they were also launching their very own record label…

WADAX, AUDIO RESEARCH AND MAGICO

Nothing else in the world looks like WADAX and it is seriously speedy, but if you have the money…why not. 

With a digital front end of WADAX’ new STUDIO PLAYER, Audio Research amps and Magic loudspeakers this was a real audio treat.  Drawing from the technology of the Wadax Atlantis Reference series, the Wadax Studio Player made its debut at Munich and is, a user-friendly component for both streaming and optical media. Its modular design “ensures upgradability and generational advancement”. The Studio Player boasts an optical transport capable of playing CD and SACD discs, as well as a streamer certified for Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect, and more services in the future. It is set to commence shipping in Q2 2024 at a retail price of $39,800/€35,000.

BOENICKE 

SOULNOTE

I reviewed a couple of SOULNOTE products (and integrated amp and CD player) a god few years ago and immediately fell in love with their sound. The company have kind of rebranded themselves as a much higher-end proposition and I think this was a very good move on the part of this Japanese brand. The products look excellent and sounded equally excellent with the YG speakers. 

There is much more still to come from Team HiFi PiG at High End Munich 2024…stay tuned!

High End Munich 2024 Report – Headphones And HeadFi

Women In HiFi High End Munich 2024

Linette and Stuart Smith

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