his had to be the largest, most concentrated and intense audio show I had ever been to. The official figures are out and show an increased number of exhibitors and visitors compared to the previous two years. And these had both been record years. The official figures on the High End 2014 provided by the always reliable Renate Paxa, responsible for public relations and press affairs, are as follows:

• Exhibition space: 26 500 m2 (+ 33%)
• 452 exhibitors from 40 countries (+ 25%)
• 5,387 trade visitors (+ 3%)
• 12,468 visitors with tickets (+ 14%)
• Total visitors number 17,855 (+ 10%); the number does not include the journalists and do not include the 2,426 exhibitor IDs issued).

As it could have been seen last year, the exhibition area and the sheer number of products were impressive. Any attempt to visit all exhibition rooms and talk to at least some of the manufacturers was doomed to failure. Of, course it is possible to stay in Munich for the whole four days. There’s a good chance then to be able to see almost everything. And there would be some time left for meetings and talks. For some time now, I have been trying to do it all in the shortest time possible. And I don’t want to do it again this way. Instead of trying to catalogue the whole show, I would like to show you those moments that caught my interest, introduce you to the people I respect and like, and to the places I came across by chance. I was trying to document these meetings with photos.

SAUNTERING AROUND

This time I decided to take flaneurism as my methodological principle. I am not the first to use this approach, but it means a significant change in my life. This type of "sauntering" is known primarily from the nineteenth century literature. The flâneur, key figure of the nineteenth-century modernist city, is "a characteristic paradigm of the modern entity," in the words of Katarzyna Kułakowska (Katarzyna Kułakowska, Miasto płci. Dyskurs miłosny Marii Peszek, Warsaw, 2013). She says, after Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish sociologist, that the flâneur has long been brought over from Parisian walkways to everyday life and played a significant role "in building a terrifying universe of the postmodern consumer order" (Zygmunt Bauman, Dwa szkice o moralności ponowoczesnej [“Two essays on postmodern morality”], Warsaw 1994, p. 21). In literature, this method has, for example, been adopted as a research methodology by prof. Dobrochna Ratajczakowa:

Methodologically, I'm a flâneur. I set out for a special kind of stroll, not only across various fields of the arts, but also in the areas of the sciences and, like the 19-century flâneurs, I visit not only the shrines of High Art, but also the smoky caffés chantants or (even worse) dubious theatrical freak shows. This flaneuring – thematic, conceptual, theoretical, methodological - allows me to exceed the rigid boundaries of disciplines and to enter fascinating frontiers, combining what is low with what is the highest.

Dobrochna Ratajczakowa, O sobie [w:] Ko-medianta. Prace ofiarowane profesor Dobrochnie Ratajczakowej, red. Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska, Krzysztof Kurek, Wyd. Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne, Poznań 2013, s. 7.

Historically speaking, flaneurism is a stroll around the city, no objective, not accidental; loitering, peeping life, "retraction" smells of the city and its moods. The enormity of modern cities does not allow for systematic in their research. To succeed, you need to be cut off from the emotional part. And it's a shame for life. So I walked Nina Simone Way, Oscar Peterson Boulevard, Ella Fitzgerald Avenue (the so-called transition between stalls in the exhibition halls during the High End), rested in the Atrium Atrium 3 and 4 I tried to capture the spirit of the place, remember how many impressions. I hear what you can.

THE COMPACT DISC IS DEAD. REALLY?

I have found that taking my working band into the studio is too much trouble these days (that is, in 1986, when the album Tutu was recorded – ed. note). The band might not feel good that day at the recording session, or at least some people in the band might not. (…) Doing it the old way, recording like we used to, is just too much trouble and takes too much time. Some people say they miss that spontaneity and spark that comes out of recording with a band right there in the studio. Maybe that's true; I don't know. All I know is that the new recording technology makes it easier to do it the way we have been doing it. If a musician is really professional he will give you what you want in terms of performance in the studio by playing off and against the band that's already down on tape. I mean, the motherfucker can hear what is being played, can't he?

One of the reasons I like playing with a lot of young musicians today is because I find that a lot of old jazz musicians are lazy moth­erfuckers, resisting change and holding on to the old ways because they are too lazy to try something different. They listen to the critics, who tell them to stay where they are because that's what they like. The critics are lazy, too. They don't want to try to understand music that's different. The old musicians stay where they are and become like museum pieces under glass, safe, easy to understand, playing that tired old shit over and over again.

Miles Davis i Quincy Jones, Miles. Autobiografia, tłum. Filip Łobodziński, Wrocław 2014, ss. 379, 401.

Little did I know that my few words in the review of the CEC TL0 3.0 transport would elicit so many emotions (see HERE). I based my evaluation of the situation with audio signal sources on practice and experience. Saying that audio files are the future, but still have a long way to go to catch up with the increasingly more mature and almost unbelievably advanced (in terms of the amount of time spent on its development) Compact Disc technology, I had no idea that the attitude towards the vinyl-CD-audio files relationship is often closer to religion than reasoning. Being called a "dodderer" or an "old fart with no understanding of the modern world" is actually funny. The only thing is that it indicates a serious deficit of synaptic connections in people who say something like that. And/or their deafness.

The above quotes from the autobiography of Miles Davis, a musician whom I greatly respect and who changed jazz several times, suggest the need for change. And he is right; it is impossible not to agree with him. It's just that on a completely different matter, to quote Janusz, the host of the Krakow Sonic Society. For Davis, the change in the way of making music resulted from his explorations, his meditation on what he was doing, on his music and the music of people he valued. In addition to Dizzy and Bird whom he adored, it was Prince but also Michael Jackson. And others. The change was never supposed to oppose anyone just for the sake of it and was rather caused by the very musician’s modified approach to playing music. In the case of changes in the recording technology, I have to say that although I disagree with Davis, I respect his opinion. What eventually won was simply practical – the new was better because it was more convenient.

These two levels of understanding of the "new" well reflect the situation with audio files and CD, because they are my main point. Vinyl status seems to be well established: it is a classic that will outlive everything and everyone. A growing movement associated with reel to reel tape is a margin, although it adds spice to what’s going on in audio. Audio files primarily mean convenience. This is how they were created and then adopted by the youth. I have nothing against convenience and this aspect is really OK. Having no physical referent is for many people a symbol of modernity and I'm not going to argue with that, either.
The second thing is the sound. Here things are more complicated. From my experience, a high-resolution file, prepared in a reasonable manner, played from a good source (player or computer) can sound very good and really interesting. For me, however, that is still not good enough. Good and best CD players, which play back music from this antiquated medium, still sound better, at least in my opinion. Differences between the CD and audio file are similar to those between the CD and vinyl, which has lasted for years. A funny role reversal, but resulting from the progress that continues both in analog and CD.

If I still had any doubts, the Munich show would dispel them in a flash. The abundance of digital music players and related accessories, so evident over the last few years, this year seemed less noticeable. Based on conversations with audio manufacturers, music lovers, audio magazine editors and dealers, I generally can say that I noticed in many of them a waning of their initial enthusiasm. Perhaps playing tracks from a black box controlled with a tablet has become so normal that there is nothing to get excited about. Walking through the show rooms I could see lots of familiarity with this type of user interface. Its convenience is beyond dispute.
And now, most of the audio demonstrations that stood above averageness, and those that were really good – with some exceptions – had a CD player (or SACD player but playing CDs) as a source or, less commonly, vinyl. I am not making this up, I’m just saying like it was. The demonstrations involving audio files were usually bland and nondescript. Not always, but generally it was true. In other words, they echoed mine and KSS’s convictions.
So what is it going to be like now? I can only repeat what I tried to communicate many times: the CD player still remains one of the best audio sources. It will eventually die out over time, but while we are still alive… Vinyl will outlive everything and everyone. As an icon, a sociological phenomenon and still paragon of sound. Reel to reel tape players, which have their own separate reference world, are a small niche that will only be a reference point for the few, a tool in the listening rooms of the best audio manufacturers. Audio files will keep getting better and better. The main stream will be 24/96 and 24/192 PCM files, sometimes 32/384, and next to them, just as reel-to-reel next to vinyl, will be a DSD niche. But I’m not sure how long it will take for engineers, sound engineers and perfectionist companies to make the sound from fixed storage memory so satisfying that we will be able to talk about a paradigm change.

BEST SOUND - HIGH END 2014
High Fidelity.pl

It was widely felt that this year saw a drop of form. Without too much fuss, I will just say that I did not find too many rooms where I heard something interesting. Most of the exhibitors put lots of effort and money into their demonstrations, and the whole show can be generally called fully professional. It was a place for meetings, for doing business and some small talk. The sound was important, but even more important was the "image": the way a given system or product were exhibited and demonstrated. I must admit that this kind of situation suits me very well. Those who were willing to fight for something more hereby receive a bonus in the form of favorable comments and awards, such as "High Fidelity" Best Sound award. However, all those who opted for contact with visitors, conversation and discussion, they have my highest respect; it was fully professional.

As I wrote in the beginning, this report is not an attempt to catalogue the show, but rather some kind of record of my impressions. As such, it is quite random and fragmented, much like the whole reality. But it is my ambition to find in this uncertainty some anchors on which to build. This will help both me and – hopefully – you. Hence, I have given awards to several systems being guided by what might be called "captured attention." If after my first or second, sometimes third and fourth, visit to a given room I had no more desire to listen to music and instead preferred talking about the products and looking at them, it was a sign that the sound was not what was most important there. As I said, I understand and fully accept this strategy. However, to those who managed to prepare something more than that: best congratulations!

“High Fidelity” Best Sound

High End 2014 Awards go to:

SoundKaos (speakers) + Trafomatic Audio (amplifiers) + Lumin (digital music player)


Ypsilon (electronics + speakers) + Thales (turntable)

Kavero Keiser (speakers) + SPEC (electronics + turntable) + Sforzato Corp. (digital music player) + Acoustic Revive (acoustic treatment, accessories, cables)


JWB Merlin (electronics) + YG Acoustics (speakers)


KEF (speakers) + Arcam (electronics)


TAD (electronics, SACD player, speakers)


Progressive Audio (CD player + electronics + speakers) + AVID HiFi (turntable)


Zontek (turntable) + Linnart (preamplifier) + My Sound (power amplifiers) + Albedo (cables) + Auto-Tech (speakers) + Sound Box (acoustic treatment and hi-fi rack)


Boenicke Audio (speakers) + Auris Audio (electronics) + Pro-Ject (turntable) + M2TECH (DAC)


TotalDAC (digital music player + DAC + upsampler) + Keiser Kawero (speakers) + Engstrom&Engstrom (speakers) + Bibacord (cables)


Zellaton (speakers) + LOIT (CD player) + Wagner Audio (turntable) + Allnico (phono stage) + Analog Domain (amplifier)


OceanWay Audio (speakers) + Viola Audio Laboratories (amplifiers and preamplifier/DAC) + Nagra (CD player) + Artesania Audio (hi-fi rack and isolation boards)


Ascendo D9 (speakers) + (amplifier) + Neodio Origine (CD player) + High End Masterclass (hi-fi rack and isolation boards)

Special awards go to:

• KLAudio for an ultrasonic cleaner with record changer
• Graham Audio for great continuing the BBC legend
• Erzetich for deliberate and consistent progress
• McIntosh for a new headphone amplifier/DAC
• Straussmann for determination in achieving goals

What’s left after the show? First, the certainty that the Compact Disc is still in great shape and will remain with us for a long time, just like vinyl. Audio files sound slowly getting better. More importantly, however, it seems to me that the whole audio industry is doing well. Just as I have been saying for a few years now, the youth listening to their MP3 players, then iPods, and now iPhones at some point matured enough to demand something more. They demanded quality. And it is these young people who will be spending most money in the next few years. The largest record companies have recognized a great potential and start to offer high resolution files. This is extremely important because their catalogues include the vast majority of classic jazz, rock and classical music. The related reactivation of the headphones as an equal way of listening to music is now a fact and has resulted in outstanding designs, mostly planar. Class D amplifiers become more refined and in the middle price range must be seriously considered on a par with class A and AB. In the beginning and top of the price list, the classic technologies seem to still have an advantage.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me during the exhibition, for their hospitality, warmth and selfless help – many thanks!