My First Hi-fi show!The build up to High End Munich has been huge and the long awaited expo didn’t disappoint. After arriving on Press day I was thrown straight into the deep-end at my first ever hi-fi show.
I’m going to talk about my thoughts on the show in general and my favorite stands and rooms. I started by going round the main halls on press day and then went around the rooms on the following days. Press day was a blast and here is a few of my favorite stands:

-The Carot One stand was small and wasn’t showing many products but they were great. I loved the inexpensive in-earphones and their preamplifier. I talked to the CEO Antonio Scialo who was very friendly and passionate about his product. So passionate that he gave me a preamplifier and some earphones to review at the end of the show. (That review will be uploaded soon).
-Another stand that stood out was the Jarre Technologies stand. Lots of color and anyone was allowed to play there own music from their phone or mp3 player.  They showed of the AeroSkull, the aeroTwist and many others. It looks like the products are very unique and personable (maybe not for audiophiles though more for teens). I wasn’t able to get a very good listen to them from all the noise of the show, but I would love to hear them again.
-Roma was another unique and new brand I saw. This time I was able to get a really good listen of a couple of their speakers including the Vario’s. These speakers were probably the most eye-catching  speakers at the show and sounded great.
There was a huge presence of headphones and wearable hi-fi at the show this year and I was able to listen to some great headphones:

-Aedle’s offering at the show were a pair of reasonably priced and expensive feeling on ears. The stand was very minimalist which let the headphones speak for them selves.
– I was able to listen to a few Monster headphones. I spoke  to Rene Erler from Aqipa who showed me the Inspiration and the Inspiration lite. Great headphones, the kind that I would buy for myself and wear everyday.
-Oppo are mostly known for their phones, but I was able to discover their (fairly limited) range of headphones. Quite expensive but sounded amazing. I spoke to James Soanes who discussed the possibility of a range of more affordable headphones.

-One of the best headphones there were the Final, great unique earphones from around £300 to £10 000. Sounded very good . Not much else needs to be said.
I also attended the Fine Sounds press conference which was a huge eye opener in high end hi-fi. If you didn’t already know, Fine sounds is a huge name in the business, it’s a collaboration of brands inclueding Meridian, Mcintosh, Sonus Faber and many others.
The folowing days I visited the rooms at the show:

-One of my favorite rooms was the Voxativ room featuring a new pair of ginormous speakers and the Josound Ra and Cartouche which I already rate very highly. The room was dark and quite small but the sound was sublime. Jo, Pierre and Holger were as friendly as always. It makes my top 3 of the best sounding rooms of the show.
That said, the stand out room for me was the Devialet listening room. (their showroom was very informative and personaly not great, but the listening room was an experience like no other)
A huge dark blue lit room where the main attraction was a Devialet amp and a pair of speakers with the new SAM technology. It made the room come alive and I’ve never heard music sound so real.
The whole experience of High End Munich is amazing and I was surprised that I was the youngest person (well… youngest person with a press pass) to be there. I will definitely be there next year and I will be attending many more hi-fi shows now I have got a taste for it.

You can read all Hifi Pig’s coverage and news from Munich High-End here.