he sound of a fast-moving train is already audible in the room where Dirk Sommner has set up his mastering system. You have already seen it in a photo in the interview which Dirk gave for “High Fidelity” in August 2013 (read HERE). I cannot believe so much time has passed! Since then, we have already met the editor-in-chief of hifistatement.net a few times. Together with his wife, he is also in charge of Sommelier Du Son record label (more about Dirk and Birgit HERE).

Similarly to all previous meetings, the last one also turned into a long session. It all started with excellent beer served at the lovely Haderecker pub. I am talking about Märzen – beer brewed by Thoma Bräu at a local brewery, owing its name to Ludwig Thoma, a poet and writer who wrote in the Bavarian variety of the German language. We cannot forget that the High End exhibition, which was a pretext for our, i.e. me and my son’s (Bartek) visit in Munich, is located at the heart of Bavaria.

Anyway, after another round of “Thoma”, we all moved to the Sommners’ flat. It was hard to stand up, as both the food and the beer were excellent, and the company was extraordinary. Apart from the hosts, other guests at the table were Wolfgang Kemper, a journalist for hifistatement.net, and Peter Banholzer with his wife. Peter was the only one to know the Bavarian dialect and he translated the names of dishes for everyone. Haderecker is a place visited by locals, situated outside Munich. Apart from the fact that local dishes are served there, its official language is Bavarian, just like the outfit. Fortunately, we did not have to wear it – it is good to be “strangers” sometimes :)

Two representatives of producers also raised the glass (or rather beer mugs) with us: Volker Bohlmeier with Annette Heiss (his wife) and Karl Schuemann. Volker, who is going to visit Poland in some time, is the owner of Einstein company which manufactures high-end tube devices, but mainly OTL amplifiers. Dirk uses them in his mastering system, although his acquaintance with Volker dates back many years, when they were young and played together in a band – Dirk on the bass guitar and Volker on the guitar. They say it would be hard to estimate the amount of wine that was drunk at that time.

The last guest we met was Karl Schuemann, the owner and designer of AudioMachina speakers. We used speakers manufactured by this company, the semi-active GSE model driven by Einstein amplifiers, to listen to music played from master tapes on a Studer tape recorder (one of two that Dirk has in his room), with the recurrent accompaniment of humming trains, rushing towards their destinations behind the window. It was simply a wonderful time.

AGORA

The exhibition in Munich is, first and foremost, a place to meet – the only place in the world where you come across almost everyone seriously involved in the perfectionist audio industry, in each of its aspects. Although audio exhibitions are normally regarded as places where you can LISTEN to audio devices and formulate your opinions about them on this basis, reality is completely different. Exhibitions are an opportunity to MEET and are a place where you can SEE audio devices and talk to their manufacturers.

However, playback as the basic assessment tool and listening to music (conceived as the reason for the whole fuss and as the aim of the audio industry existence) are deeply encoded in us – in those who do care whether the guitar sounds like the guitar and the violin like the violin, or whether it is just inharmonious noise with a melody line in the foreground and mechanical rhythm. So, I am aware of the dissonance between experience and knowledge, and the atavistic urge which forces us to sit on chairs and armchairs and listen to what exhibitors have managed to set up in their rooms.

To feed, or even tame that primeval part of my nature, I will try to describe a few systems that seemed especially interesting to me. As usual, it is a very subjective selection. It is because the sound in rooms often changed hour by hour, not to mention the following days. It was often the case that music was the deciding factor when it came to perception. So, what I liked is a combination of many factors. However, there must have been something good in those systems, as otherwise they would have been as mediocre or bad as the significant majority of the remaining presentations.

I will write more about that later on. Here and now, what seems more important to me is what I was able to gain with regards to the whole exhibition, by distilling what was most important from it. I am talking about trends – the direction that the audio industry is heading towards and is going to follow in the next few years.

TRENDS A.D. 2015

Files

A few things are clear. First of all, files have permanently settled in in the high-end audio world (including its extreme corners), almost always in the hi-res form. However, there is still no single main method of reproducing them – some companies use computers and external digital-to-analogue converters, and some use specialized file players for this purpose.

Among the former, it was worth seeing the presentation of Devialet company which powered the icon of our industry, the original Nautilus Bowers&Wilkins speakers, with eight bridged amplifiers. It is known that these constructions do not have in-built switches, so they require external filtering. It is provided in different ways – the French company has chosen active filtering, using a correction circuit applied in its amplifiers. Signal was sent through a USB cable from a laptop.

Other companies opt for integrated file players – both very expensive and surprisingly cheap ones. As for the former ones, I stopped for a longer while to look at a new device produced by the Swiss company Orpheus Labs – the Absolute Mediaserver player. It has been constructed with as much attention to detail as other products of the Swiss manufacturer and it looked great. Let us admit that it looked as well as The Beast, which is very popular, looks like a small tank and constitutes the main source in the Vitus Audio system.

At the other end of the price range there are devices which are many times worse on an absolute scale, but subjectively seem to give us as much joy. A system with the new Paradigm Concept 4F speakers (semi-active ones, with the Anthem room correction system) delivered exceptionally good sound. Even more emotion was connected with listening to the Pioneer budget system which consisted of the A-70 integrated amplifier (which powers the Dynaudio speakers) and the N-70A file player, with Dynaudio speakers. That was really good fun, especially because most visitors despised this inexpensive system, which was a mistake!

It seems that almost all manufacturers nowadays, both small and large ones, offering their products to both high-end users and beginners, want to have a file player in their offer, or at least a DAC with a USB input. Some manufacturers have been more successful in this field (for example, Cambridge Audio with the new CX series) and some – less successful (let us not elaborate on that…). Here we can mostly rely on proven manufacturers, such as Aurender. The company has prepared its smallest player so far – the N100X, which is a step towards the medium price range. An excellently fine-tuned user interface (i.e. a tablet application) is also a strength of this manufacturer.

However, the way musical material is delivered to a player is becoming more and more polarized. Until recently, the most popular method was to download files onto a device and play them at any moment. As statistics show, the situation is changing rapidly – the number of files that people are buying is decreasing quickly, while streaming, i.e. playing files as if from the radio, has become very popular. So, what does the future hold for us? It seems that, as the name would suggest, streaming signal from external music services such as Tidal, also in hi-res quality, will become the mainstream, but “professionals” will hold on to “their” files.

Companies such as Fidelio are dedicated to these professionals. 2xXD, a new brand of the company’s founder, Mr. René Laflamme, is a good example. While Fidelio deals with releasing new material recorded by the company itself, 2xHD aims to publish material from other companies, starting with Naxos. The record label offers musical material on the web only, instead of characteristic USB flash drives of the size of a credit card (Masterflash) that are avl. with Fidelito music.

René and I have known each other for years, but only via email. However, he accosted us in the corridor, apparently recognizing the High Fidelity logo, and asked us if we were interested in listening to the sound of a new sampler and then, perhaps, other recordings. We were, of course. We will soon try to prepare a separate article on the new undertaking of the friendly Canadian.

The analogue domain

Analogue sources: the turntable and the reel-to-reel tape recorder have gained equal importance. The number of available tapes is still not impressive, but recently some fantastic tapes have been released by such record labels as Deutsche Grammophone, Parlophone and Decca. I have also seen Diana Krall and many, many more tapes, with both classical music and jazz. This is perhaps the next step that companies will have to take – obtain catalogues that are really valuable.

So, there were a lot of tape recorders at the exhibition: from enormous Studer devices, through their smaller “cousins”, up to tiny Nagra and Stellavox recorders. Believe me – the sound of such a machine is completely different from what we have got used to while listening to vinyl records. You have to get used to it. Perhaps this is the reason why some record publishers, critics and music lovers are so enchanted by DSD files. A direct comparison with a master tape shows that DSD best reflects its specific character, especially in 2xDSD, and even better in Quad DSD quality.

If we look at the matter without emotion, it will quickly appear that this is fun for rich people and for those who are ready to accept problems related to this format. Tapes need to be rewound to the end before being put on a shelf, so that there is no print-through. Before listening, you have to rewind tapes back to the beginning. However, at the same time, a top high-end system without a reel-to-reel tape recorder (especially a big studio recorder) seems incomplete nowadays. The trend had already been visible earlier, but nobody knew that it would have so much impact on the audio industry. It looked like a fad that would pass quickly, but it became a top trend – perhaps an unattainable one, but still present. When it comes to our imagination, it is mostly influenced not by what we can touch, but by what we can dream of, isn’t it?

Vinyl, in turn, is now an “almost mainstream” source. I have seen turntables with amplifiers on eBay that cost 60 American dollars. They are made of plastic and devoid of sense, but this shows that music lovers are very interested in the ‘black disc’. Vinyl discs are present everywhere nowadays. So, the number of turntables shown in Munich was incredibly big.

You will see some of them in the photo gallery, but let us say something more about a few of them. Mark Doehmann is the man who was responsible for the iconic design of the Continuum Audio Labs turntable. Having completed that project (the company does not exist anymore), he came with a completely new turntable in which he has used a unique suspension mechanism. He put the device on a flimsy Ikea-type table, but without proper assembly. I moved the table and the turntable base stood still – a miracle! It was possible thanks to a special construction which decoupled the whole device from the surface on which it stood, like an anti-vibration platform. Another novelty was a new arm created by Mr. Doehmann, which was mounted next to the Schroeder arm that you had an occasion to see in the test of the TechDAS Air Force Two last month.

The Lumen White turntable also looked amazing. The company is known for its speakers which took German audio magazines by the storm twenty years ago. The speakers were regarded as the absolute top by all the (five) magazines and they have almost constantly remained “number one” ever since. The company is now returning with their new version, the 15th Anniversary, but I will say more about that in a moment.
Now it is time to talk about Reed company from Lithuania. I had tested arms manufactured by this company before, but that was the first time I could actually see the Muse 3C – the design which was awarded the Red Dot, a prestigious award for artistic design. It looks really impressive, but it is also unique when it comes to the technical side of things – it can work with a belt drive or with an idle wheel.

However, if I were to give awards for the most heart-moving turntables, then I would also place the latest TechDAS turntable, the Air Force Three and the Polish JR Audio next to the Muse 3C. The AF3 is tiny and lovely, but it still has four arms. Although it does not include the most important technologies that we can find in the previous versions, it still looks great, just like the turntable made by Mr. Józef Radzimski. Mr. Radzimski attended the exhibition and explained how both the turntable itself and the original arm that he had invented work. The Polish turntable played music in the “Polish” room, with horn Autotech speakers, a Zontek phonostage and My Sound amplifiers. I think that was one of the best looking rooms – the products looked as if they had been made by the best craftsmen from Japan and Scandinavia.

Compact Disc Redux

The influence of modern high-resolution digital signal reproduction systems, as well as the triumphant comeback of analogue sound sources in the role of the ultimate standard are things that we have known for years. This year we have simply witnessed the confirmation of their status and the formation of status quo.

Renewed interest in CDs and CD players could be a complete surprise for some people. I was quietly satisfied after manufacturers had told several times how good sound obtained from a well-prepared CD can be and how good it is to have a CD around, as it is the quickest way of obtaining sound from a device which neither requires any special preparation, nor holds any unpleasant surprises. Compact Disc has proved to be a kind of a solid basis and relief after dancing around files, vinyl discs and tapes.

Looking at what is happening, I think I can say that a little renaissance of the format is going to take place. It will naturally be limited, as it will never be the dominant format again. However, it will have a similar status to turntables and reel-to-reel tape recorders.

The rest

Of course, signal sources were not the dominant topic of the exhibition, because its most visible element were new speaker models. However, it seems that the most intensive processes are taking place at the very beginning of the audio chain and this is where I would look for the most interesting phenomena.

When it comes to amplifiers, things have stabilized – we can choose between tubes and transistors, class A, AB and D devices, linear and switch-mode power supplies, in any combination.

The absolute high-end is still dominated by tube devices, and there are some transistors in A and AB class with linear power supplies, but switch-mode devices can also be more and more often found there, and this trend will continue. It is similar in the case of speakers. Paper, plastic, metal, ceramic and even diamond converters can be found in most price ranges. I would pay attention to how popular Dr Heil’s AMT converters have become – they are being used by more and more companies, with good results.

However, there is a direction that speaker manufacturers seem to be heading towards: using active room acoustic correction systems and speaker correction systems. Devialet company which equips its amplifiers with programs that correct specific speaker models has had clear influence on that. I have already talked about Paradigm speakers with the Anthem correction system, but most companies offered something similar.

The importance of this issue was even easier to notice in the room with enormous Audiograde Calora speakers powered by the Esoteric Grandioso M-1 power amplifiers (in a quad-amp system). Behind a wall which consisted of speakers and amplifiers, there was a tiny device on a Copulare table: the Fouraudio HD2, meaningfully called the “Loudspeaker and Room Processor”. Digital correctors seem to have become a thing of the past, both in the case of budget and top high-end systems. Not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, but already today.

BEST SOUND HIGH END 2015

Remembering what I said at the beginning, i.e. how the nature of such exhibitions suits me (as a place for meetings), I also have to write about a few places where the sound was simply perfect – exactly as it should be.

PIONEER A-70 | N-70A | DYNAUDIO FOCUS 260
Amplifier + file player + speakers

Me and Bartek (who is in charge of the news section in HF) entered the Pioneer room located at the Atrium level without any special expectations. We asked the company representatives to play some music in the system which they had set up in the corner and they asked us what we wanted to listen to. That was a huge plus that became even larger when we answered: “AC/DC” and were asked which song we wanted – of course, we chose Back in Black!
The system that I have already mentioned before provided incredibly good sound – that was real fun. There was no nonsense, pomposity, pseudo-intellectual reasoning – just pure energy. That was a budget system and I still knew that, but I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for something within this price range.

LUMEN WHITE | AYON AUDIO
Speakers, turntable, electronics

The fact that there is something special about Gerhard Hirt’s hands and that he knows who to choose to work with, is known to anyone who has had the opportunity to get acquainted with his amplifiers or digital devices. There are some examples of really outstanding engineering craft among them. However, we have not forgotten that Gerhard used to be involved in another project – the Lumen White company. Its offer only included a few speaker models based on ceramic speakers, operating in a special housing. It had a characteristic shape which resembled an ocean ship and it was open, with a long slot in the “keel”, i.e. at the back of the speaker.

The Ayon owner told me: “It was a good time to come back when we decided to design the new White Light version to honor the 15th anniversary of the original creation.” He was talking about Eton converters with the “honeycomb” diaphragm that were introduced for sale some time ago.

I do not know whether it was because of these converters or whether that was a stroke of genius, but the speakers, powered by the new Ayon Audio Crossfire Evo monoblocks and headed by the Lumen White turntable, delivered fantastic, dense, saturated, muscular and memorable sound. That was neither hi-fi, nor high-end, but just music. So, it is not strange that the speakers which Dirk Somner has been using for years in his mastering and testing system are Lumen White speakers.

HiFiMAN HE-1000
Headphones

As regards the latest HiFiMAN headphones, one might say they are a small thing, but give a lot of joy, except for the fact that they are much bigger than all the earlier company designs. However, they are also much nicer, more elegant and simply have a much better look than all the previous versions. They also deliver exceptionally good sound. What struck me in the sound which I heard after putting on the headphones (I have been using different headphones of this manufacturer for years) was its richness and simultaneous purity. I liked the sound very, very much and I cannot wait to hear it at my home. The headphones were powered by the latest company amplifier – the EF-1000.

AMG | AESTHETIX | VERITY AUDIO | HARMONIX
Turntable, electronics, speakers, cables

A system with an AMG turntable has probably been awarded by us every year. This year we listened to a new cheaper Giro model with Aesthetix electronics. I listened to music from Harmonix speakers for the first time in such a combination and I liked what I heard. A part of the system were Harmonix cables.

YPSILON | PERFECT8 | BERGMANN
Electronics, speakers, turntable

As I have written in the photo description, that was one of the better-sounding rooms of the exhibition. It was prepared by the Greek company Ypsilon. Either the company’s CD player or the Bergmann turntable that I once tested played music at its front. However, its most interesting component were the glass Perfect8 The Point Mk III speakers with a ribbon tweeter. The people in this room knew what they were doing.

WOLF VON LANGA | THOMAS MAYER | PRIMARYCONTROL
speakers, electronics, turntable

It is all about the incredible Wolf von Lang Swing speakers with electromagnets instead of magnets, with Thomas Mayer electronics and a PrimaryControl direct-drive turntable. Huge packages in a small room are a recipe for a failure – but not in this case. There was no chance factor here, but a consciously finalized vision of soft, dynamic and tangible sound.

TRILOGY | BOENICKE AUDIO | ISOL-8 | CAD
Amplifier | speakers
Mains filters | file player

Although it was hard to expect anything of the exhibition for sure, I could be sure that one system would deliver excellent sound. It was a system whose heart was the Trilogy 925 amplifier combined with Boenicke Audio speakers (the W8 model). The amplifier had been created by Nic Poulson – I had known his products for some time, whereas the speakers had been my favorites since they got our award at the Audio Show 2014. Anyone who knows Mr. Poulson, is aware that he is an incredibly modest and warm person. His designs are like him, too – they have a beating heart that we can hear in the music that they reproduce. However, I am unable to explain how such little speakers can provide such full-range sound so well and completely. The source was a CAD file player.

TOTEM | ATOLL
Speakers, electronics

That was a surprise (and a very nice one). It happens very rarely that something reproduces music so well that I am able to hear it in the corridor and then feel like looking for the sound source. It was Pink Floyd from The Wall, something that is known and liked, but here it was all about the sound! The drive, density and energy were coming from Totem speakers powered by Atoll electronics – wonderful, wonderful!

CRYSTAL CABLE
Speakers, electronics

The room prepared by Gabi van der Kleij-Rynveld assisted by her husband Edwin wins my recognition every year. This year we listened to a complete Crystal Cable system in which (apart from the company cables, which is rather obvious) we had the Cube amplification system and a DAC, as well as the Minissimo Diamond Edition speakers with Absolute Dream cables inside, assisted by a prototype – the Crystal Cable Deep Bass – a bass module.

We met Michael Fremer (“Stereophile”, “analogplanet.com”) in the room. He told me that his “fan base” includes many HF readers. Nice :) A moment later I was able to invite Gabi and Edvin to a Krakow Sonic Society meeting in Cracow, and my invitation was accepted. So, it might seem that one of the factors which influenced my choice was the good atmosphere. However, listening for a while is enough for an audiophile to learn that we are talking about a very serious system here. These tiny speakers assisted by the subwoofer delivered crystal-clear sound of a “honey” tone color – a combination which is hard to beat.

AUDIO PHYSIC | PRIMARE
COCKTAIL AUDIO | ACOUSTIC SIGNATURE | FURMAN
Speakers | amplifier
File player | turntable | mains filter

It is an example of how to combine devices from the medium price range in order to, simply, obtain nice sound. The system that I am talking about was very nicely set up using, as it might seem, very different elements. The main source and the amplifier was the Coctail Audio X30 file/ CD player. It controlled a Primare power amplifier, which, in turn, controlled the Audio Physic Avanti speakers. An alternative signal source was the Acoustic Signature Wow XL turntable.

KEF | ARCAM
Speakers, electronics

A few years ago I witnessed the first public presentation of speakers in a carbon fiber housing, with an external crossover. When their production started, they were called “Blade”. The solutions that were used in their design turned into the new excellent Reference series, and now into their smaller version – Blade 2. Oh, how beautifully they played music with Arcam electronics, the C49 preamplifier and the A49 power amplifiers! That was full-blown sound characterized by outstanding dynamics and subtlety. I also liked the Reference series very much, but the Blade 2 speakers were simply the best.

A FEW FINAL REMARKS

I partly have to give up my opinion about the dominance of what is happening in the domain of sound sources over anything else. In the end, something else proved to be more important to me – new speakers. Harbeth presented a new version of monitors that I have been using for years – the M40.2. As Trevor Butler, the company’s PR and marketing specialist told me, the difference between the new and the previous version lies in the crossover – so, it is both a small change (in just one component) and a big change (in the outcome). The prototype of these speakers, the BBC LS5/8, was designed to monitor recorded broadcasts. To compensate for track deficiencies, part of the speakers’ bass range was a little :) boosted :). Now, as Mr. Butler says, it is not necessary. Therefore, the crossover has been redesigned and the “peak” has been eliminated, while the effectiveness has been increased and impedance has been linearized.

I am not sure whether I should be happy or worry – I will have to check it personally. When someone becomes so attached to an audio product, any change of its sound may appear unacceptable. Time will show. The same question emerges in the case of the new version (the LS5/9) of the iconic LS5/8 monitor, prepared by Graham Audio: will it be better than the original? When the new speakers were placed in a system with Tim de Pavaracini’s DPS Ear Yoshino electronics, the Ear Master Disk turntable and a Denon reel-to-reel tape recorder, they were impressive when it comes to their tone color. However, exhibition conditions are not favorable for the speakers and it is necessary to listen to them in proven conditions.

See you next year!

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