Metropolis Studios’ 5x Grammy-nominated Mastering Engineer, Stuart Hawkes, has chosen Chord Electronics’ Hugo 2 DAC/preamp/headphone amp for all of his mastering duties at Metropolis. More »
Lyn Stanley spoke to us about her work and love of Reel 2 Reel tape, just as she was about to start recording her latest album, now named ‘The Moonlight Sessions Volume One’. The album will be given a preview at the upcoming Axpona show in Chicago and is due for release in May. More »
Yep, you read it right! Gilles Milot has created the world’s first production loudspeaker that uses glass cones. I know, I know, I thought exactly the same as you and questioned whether this Gallic loudspeaker manufacturer had been on the Ricard…or perhaps something a little stronger. But no ladies and gentleman of the audio loving brother and sisterhood, he reckons that this is a logical step forward for his E2 loudspeakers.
Read the full story and interview with the designer.
Merging Technologies have said they are proud to announce that the result of a new partnership with Roon Labs will be on display on stand 3-L10/M07 and in the Special Sound Demonstration in Konferenzraum K1B at the HIGH END show in Munich. The concept of Roon’s player program being offered in integrated solutions is not new; there being many existing partners with products available, but this will be the first time that the focus will shift to a complete turnkey and networked solution offering multichannel capability up to DSD256 and DXD.
The Merging NADAC was launched at the 2015 HIGH END. A variety of player solutions including Merging’s own Emotion player can be used with an external computer but this concept is not the first choice for all users. The ‘single box’ solution with the software and the server combined with a DAC removes the need to have a computer in the living room. The system can then be controlled by tablet or smart phone. Integration details such as direct control of the NADAC volume and mute from the Roon user interface also adds to the overall ergonomics by simplifying the control of the entire system from one single page on one single tablet.
Merging also announced that this solution can be retrofitted to all Merging NADAC units already in the field and to any units shipping from now on, meaning early adopters can take advantage of the upgrade if they wish. Pricing and options for this solution, as well as cost for the upgrade of existing units and delivery date will be announced at Rocky Mountain.
Roon’s CEO, Enno Vandermeer commented; “We have admired the innovation and devotion to excellence that Merging has demonstrated with their entry into the audiophile market. This dovetails with our objective to be at the top of the performance table as well as having the best user experience.” On Merging’s behalf, Head of Software Engineering and NADAC Product Manager, Dominique Brulhart stated; “We have carefully evaluated the trends and needs of today’s audiophile and it is clear that a Roon enabled DAC is a very elegant solution. We are delighted to be working with our friends there to maximize all the advantages that we can both offer. Customers can still choose other player solutions with our technology, as well as other DACs with Roon, but we think this combination will be hard to beat.”
The FREE Hifi Pig Special focusing on this years High End show in Munich is now available for download. Find out who had Hifi Pig’s favourite room at the show and carried off the Hifi Pig Loves You “trophy”. Click on the image or this link below to start your free download and ENJOY!!!
Here’s a couple of things that caught our eye at this year’s High End Show.
First up is a new speaker from Quadral called the Rhodium.
The Rhodium’s sleek, very neat looking cabinets can integrate easily within most residential environments with raising the eye-brows of the good lady for the wrong reasons.
Quadral ‘s Rhodium speakers have a small footprint, sport titanium coated PP membrane bass drivers combined with a front bass reflex and 25 mm aluminium dome tweeter.
The semi-gloss finish is available in black or white whilst the front cover sits like a magnetic fabric over the entire front of the speaker.
From the Floor-standing 500’s to the matching 100 centre channel, Quadral ‘s Rhodium range has something for everyone and at a really good pricepoint to boot.
One of the things that we love about High End Munich is that it is a great meeting place, a hub of the Hifi and audio world…where you run into people you know well or new faces that you have only ever met through social media.
So here a few snaps of some of the lovely people we met this year at the show! More »
A slideshow of some of the great systems that were at this year’s Munich High End.
Enjoy More »
Everyone loves pictures of lovely valve kit and there was loads of it at this year’s High End Munich. Here’s a pick of some of the stuff we spotted and that caught our eye! More »
The Newcomers stand at High end Munich is a great idea we reckon here at Hifi Pig. It gives new companies the opportunity to showcase their new and often innovative products to a massive audience…and the best thing is High End don’t charge for it…which is nice.
This year was a great year for the High End Newcomers with some very interesting and novel concepts on show. Sadly, given time constraints our rime with the Newcomers was pretty limited but we did manage to speak to most of this year’s exhibitors. Read on. More »
There was no shortage of analogue kit at this year’s High End in Munich with some being readily accessible to the man in the street and with others commanding footballer or lottery winner prices.
Whatever, everyone loves to ogle at a great turntable and there were plenty to gawp at at this year’s High End. Here’s our selection of the turntables (and a few ancillaries) that caught our eye whilst at the Munich show.
Enjoy! More »
Moon and Martin Logan
I’ve always been a bit of a fan of both these brands and wasn’t disappointed with the room at High end Munich. There’s natural synergy going on here that works really well to produce a really enjoyable listen. Plenty of air and yet still power aplenty!
Harman’s room at Munich High end was really rather special and Lin and I both enjoyed a prolonged listen to the new Mark Levinson № 536 Monaural Power Amplifier feeding a pair of JBL Everest loudspeakers. The sound is distinctly up-market as you would expect from this luxury brand.
The new amp delivers 400 Watts of power (into 8 ohms, 800 Watts into 4 ohms, employs discrete class AB amplifier topology with no integrated circuits in the signal path along with Class A voltage gain and driver stages. More »
High End Munich is a show of extremes, at one end you have manufacturers trying to make everything bigger and at the other those who are trying to compress things down into a more manageable size.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the field of loudspeakers so let’s take a look at some of those ‘Big ole Horns’ and more lifestyle friendly speakers.
Someone had to do it, didn’t they? So Realhorns did.
This was probably one of the most photographed exhibits at the show and begs the question ‘How did they get it in here?’ Answer: Carefully!
Avantgarde Acoustic could probably be subtitled ‘Lords of the Horn’ if that didn’t sound really quite rude. More »
Jo Sound
Joe from JoSound must be one of the nicest folks in audio at the moment and that’s saying something as we know LOADS of really nice people who make doing what we do such a pleasure.
There is just so much to see and hear at Munich High End that in the end it all becomes a bit of a blur and so, rather than trying to cover absolutely every room and make a comment I wanted to pick out a few of the exhibitors at High End that stood out for me (In no particular order!) and some that have perhaps previously really impressed and this year didn’t quite do it for me. Of course in the show environment nothing is going to be perfect and the rooms are far from perfect, though consistently better than the vast majority of rooms at shows in hotels.
Here’s part 1 of many…
Sound Galleries in Monaco.
This was in one of the little cabin affairs in one of the downstairs halls and you could have easily missed it. However, once you got inside you were presented with a nice pair of Avantgarde Duos paired with Audiopax electronics and Tellurium Q cables along with DACs from Antelope and Lampizator. I went back to this room a good few times, the last time one of the chaps in there extolling the virtues of Windows 10 over previous versions….it was better. Geoffrey from Sound Galleries should be commended on getting such natural and unforced sound in this space.
Also in the room was acoustic paneling from GIK in the UK. 2 X tri traps in each of the corners for the low end control. On the side walls 3 X 242’s to deal with the first reflection points and ensure that stereo imaging was maintained. On the back wall was thick bass trapping to help with the room modes and stop the back wall cancellations.
This is another staple event that is always interesting to attend and judging by the ‘rammedness’ of the room every other journo in the world is in agreement. There wasn’t a seat in the house, other than right at the front oddly and so this is where we sat. As usual Gérard Chrétien gave us a warm, personal welcome and the event had been nicely organised by Steve Harris.
However, first up were Naim to tell us about what they have been up to. Needless to say everyone remembers last year’s launch of the gargantuan Naim Statement amp and pre of last year (who could forget such a statement of intent) but this year at High End Munich show their announcement was equally interesting, if not as overwhelmingly impressive!
In a nutshell the trickle down tech from the Statement will now go into the NAP 200DR, 250 DR, 300 DR and 500 DR with prices ranging from £1662.50 to £16250 and owners of the older versions will be able to upgrade with prices to be announced. The DR range will be available in June with the exception of the DR500 that will be available in August.
Steve Sells Naim’s Electronic Design Director
One of the great things about High End Munich is the fact that is a meeting place and hub for the whole Hifi world.
People that you know from facebook suddenly appear in the flesh and before you know it that ‘meet in the beer garden at 12’ has become a gathering worthy of the United Nations!
This year it was particularly nice to meet so many of our American friends …loads of them had made the journey over to Europe for the show (I think they probably heard that we have better beer than they do!) and it was fantastic to catch up with them all…..in fact it was truly awesome! 
“Why did the Hifi Journalists cross the road?”
After a really long Friday at High End Munich 2015, a weary gaggle of the world’s Hifi press gather across the road from the MOC to be whizzed en masse to Starnberg, a small town to the south of Munich, and the stunning My Sound Hifi showroom.
We are here as the guests of Wilson Audio, who want to introduce us to the latest in their line of instantly recognisable loudspeakers, Sabrina, who is officially having her European debut.
Although Sabrina is smaller than her big sisters such as Alexandria and Sasha, Wilson say that she shares a lot of the same characteristics, being simple, clean and articulate. Dave Wilson goes as far as to say she is ‘a real sweetheart’. 
Walking into the MySound showroom is more like walking into a minimal but comfortable home.
It is beautiful, sleek and modern, just like Wilson’s loudspeakers. More »
There is a problem with High End Munich…it is so big, where on earth do you start?
We now consider ourselves veterans of the show, this being our third year and we have learned (the hard way) to get to the show with a carefully organised plan of attack…which will probably go to pot pretty quickly as you run into old friends and spot something interesting just over there……..
To get the most out of the show, you really should see it all. We have a “go hard or go home” approach where we try our very best to see and hear everything on offer, but, with the best will in the world we will miss some things.
As the Head Fi market is still snowballing its way into becoming a huge force to be reckoned with, I thought it appropriate to bring you some of our thoughts and pictures of what was on offer at the show this year. More »
So, you’re in a meeting where you are discussing the name of an all singing, all dancing new product that you plan to announce to the world’s press… at the world’s most prestigious audio event (High End Munich) and someone pipes up “Hey, I know what…let’s call it DAVE”.
Now it’s a very brave person that has the courage to do that in my book and an even braver company that goes along with this suggestion, but that’s exactly what British manufacturer Chord have gone and done. Hifi Pig were at this year’s Munich High End to witness the birth of DAVE. It was a crowded event and the liquid refreshments came in the form of a VERY excitable fizz named Hugo, in honour of the company’s HUGO DAC and headphone amp. As soon as they announced the name of this new DAC I couldn’t get the famous “DAVE’s not here” sketch from Cheech and Chong out of my head.
But Why DAVE I hear you ask!
DAVE is a DAC, digital preamp and headphone amplifier. that is being hand-made in Kent, UK. Chord say that DAVE is based around their proprietary FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) offering more than ten times the program capacity of its predecessor. More »
Hifi Pig’s coverage of High End Munich 2105 starts today in earnest. Over the next few days we’ll have loads of pictures of High End as well as what we thought of this year’s Munich show. 
You really don’t want to miss this.
Here’s today’s selection from the show.
High End Munich 2015 – The Journey Begins
High End Munich 2015 – Devialet Press Conference
Munich High End 2015 – Bird’s Eye View Part The Intro
2015 : The year High End Munich turned Pink !
So, Stuart has filled you in on our adventures on the way to Munich.
Lin on the right with various members of the esteemed audio press.
We found ourselves at our hotel on Schillerstrasse, just a few minutes walk from the main train station.
At first glance this area is what might be described as ‘a bit dodgy’ ……there a more than a few ‘Gentleman’s Clubs’.
Stuart said that it might be fun to go and dance on a table but I didn’t think the regular clientele would appreciate that very much.
Actually the area is very safe, it’s a melting pot of different cultures and nationalities so it is lively, buzzy and there are lots of great places to eat.
We are really happy with our hotel, the H+ City Centre … the staff are friendly and efficient and the rooms comfortable and clean, we have managed to get ourselves a great base camp for this year’s High End Munich show.
Thursday dawns and after fortifying ourselves with a substantial breakfast we head off on the now familiar S and Ubahn route to the MOC and the show.
Now, we expected to run into lots of people that we know at the show this year but we were just not prepared for the overwhelming response that Hifi Pig got at the show …it seemed that everyone knew us.
This really was the year the High End show turned Hifi Pig Pink!
By the time we had checked our coats in we had already run into Norbert of Lehmann Audio and Armin from Avantgarde Acoustics but we have to dash for the first of many meetings with promises of meeting up later.
After the first appointment, which is the Devialet press conference (more from Stu on that later) we get the chance to really see some of the show proper.
My first impressions are that this is going to be a really big one.
There seem to be a lot of new (or new to me ) brands which I find very exciting …I always think that discovering something new at a show is one of the best bits, but I also love seeing what my favourite established brands have brought to the party.
Stay tuned for Bird’s Eye Views a’plenty!
Read all our High End 2015 coverage in one place
Lin
It’s always an early one the Devialet press conference on the first day of High End Munich, but it’s always worth dragging your weary arse out of your comfy bed and making the effort to attend and this year was no exception. Now, we live in la Belle France and so we know that the “breakfast” the French provide will be a not unwelcome cup of coffee and a croissant or pain au chocolat and so we filled our faces at the hotel buffet and then made our way to the event…but then who can resist another tasty mouthful and a cuppa when it’s there…certainly not family Hifi Pig.
Many of the great and good had managed to make it including Alan Sircom, Jason from Stereophile and Stephen Rochlin and his wife Heather from Enjoy The Music (all whom were excellent company). I think the highlight of this year’s Munich High End for Lin was when the aforementioned Jason declared Lin “The best dressed press person he had ever encountered”…I think you have a friend for life there Jason.
Anyway, breakfast over we made our way to the terraces of the Devialet room and were treated to what this exciting and forward thinking French company had by way of innovation in store for us…and we were not disappointed! More »
