laughterhouse is the word that I used to describe the High End exhibition in Munich last year. What I had in mind was the fact that the number of visitors per square meter at that time exceeded human perception capabilities. As Kurt Hecker, the Chairman of the High End Society (the organizer of the exhibition), said, the whole exhibition area offered by the Munich Order Center was used then. This year there were even more exhibitors willing to participate in the event. As I had predicted, the only possibility left for the organizer, i.e. the High End Society, was congestion – both in halls and in open areas in the so-called Atria, i.e. areas between rows of rooms on the first floor.

If there is demand, it is easier to control supply – by raising prices, for example. This year they rose by 15% for exhibitors. However, no one made any special complaints – the fact was accepted with dignity and/or resignation, because, as an owner of a famous brand told me: “In fact, we have no choice. High End is the most important audio event in the world. We have to be there.”

It must be a coincidence, but the rise was accompanied with a change of the Managing Director of the High End Society – during the 36th edition of the exhibition that originated in 1982, Stefan Dreischärf was appointed to replace Branko Glisovic. As we read on the Society’s website, he is responsible for “organizing the High End exhibition and the relationship with our partners and exhibitors” as the “project manager” (The Team [accessed: 22.05.2017]).

As I knew beforehand that the two days that I had were not enough for me to see everything, i.e. were enough to see just a little part of the exhibition, I gave up running, barging and hunting – that would have resulted in nothing good, anyway. On Thursday I only went to the presentations and meetings that I had planned to attend, while on Friday I just had a cursory look at the whole exhibition. So, I only saw a fraction of the stands and systems, and I hope you will forgive me that. Then we also awarded the Best Sound High End 2017 awards.

PRESENTATIONS

Audionet STERN | HEISENBERG

I will start with a presentation that I was late for and only managed to take a picture of the Stern model through glass – I am talking about the Audionet Stern preamplifier and Heisenberg power amp. I talked to engineers later and got some literature, so I know something about the devices. They are intended to become top high-end products, embodying all of the company’s knowledge. Apart from a lot of interesting system and mechanical solutions, it is worth paying attention to the design, which almost always constitutes the weakest aspect of audio devices.

In this case, the person responsible for the look is Hartmut Esslinger from the Cupertin studio, one of the most famous German designers who had worked for Sony and Apple, among others. It was a good idea – Heisenberg got the National Design Award, one awarded in the USA to the best designs, and then his work was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution. The devices look amazing and produce organic, almost warm sound. I must listen to them at my place, but I can already say that they are the current top high-end.

Dynaudio SPECIAL FORTY

The premiere of the Special Forty speakers, as you can easily guess, was intended to honor the 40th company anniversary. Dynaudio decided to celebrate with speakers that are small, relatively cheap and available to everyone – i.e. it is not a limited edition. The Special Forty are standmount two-way speakers that crown the whole series of such a type of products, with the Special One, Special Twenty-Five, Crafft and Contour 1.3SE in the lead.

There are two exclusive finishes available for the speakers: Grey Birch or Red Birch. Veneers are cur cross grain, so they look different than usual. Both the woofer and tweeter were made especially for this model – the former is a new version of a bass-midrange speaker with a diameter of 170 mm and an MSP cone, while the latter is the latest Esotar version. It has a hybrid magnet, which allows more space in the rear chamber, thanks to which more damping material can be packed in.

They are connected using a first-order crossover that is complex as it incorporates 6 Ω Impedance Alignment and Phase Alignment technologies. The suspension of the woofer is asymmetrical in order to improve the linearity of membrane excursion, while the AirFlow Basket, i.e. asymmetrical basket arms are to help air flow freely.

The speakers were connected to a NAD system, with a file player as the preamp and a D-class power amp. The sound we heard can be described as dark, large, full, dense and detailed. It is unbelievable how fast audio companies have moved from “detail” to “general”, maintaining all the advantages of both reproduction methods. The thing is that high-end sound now is sound which is dark at first sight, until instruments operating in the treble enter, as then it becomes strong and detailed.

“Darkness” tells us about minimizing noise that used to create the impression of “openness” and “detail”. It was fake. Real sound reproduced in home conditions and from any medium is, in my opinion, more similar to what I heard in the Dynaudio room than to sound from hypercorrect, hyper-clear systems where you seem to have everything, but the listening experience is just unbearable.

The Special Forty speakers produced very big sound. They created a lot of space in a few dozen square meter high-ceiling room, with very low bass (as for standmount speakers). Its lower edge was not clearly controlled, but, in the end, that was an exhibition. Anyway, the Special Forty are beautiful speakers that sound “my” way.

dynaudio.com

Crystal Cable | THE ULTIMATE DREAM

International Audio Holding, the company behind the Crystal Cable and Siltech brands, had two important premieres this year: speaker and power cables from The Ultimate Dream (Crystal Cable) series, and power cables completing the Triple Crown series (Siltech). The Ultimate Dream series is the greatest achievement of the company. Each cable consists of seven different conductors: a monocrystal silver and gold alloy, a silver and gold alloy, a gold-plated one, monocrystal silver on the outside and a silver-plated monocrystal copper screen. The Triple Crown Power is a cable made of monocrystal silver, using the latest Furutech connectors from the NCF series.

The CEO of Siltech, Mr Edwin van Kley (a member of the Krakow Sonic Society) and the presenter, Mr Lincoln Cheng, the editor-in-chief of the “Audiotechnique” magazine published in Hong Kong.

However, the presentation that I participated in included both cables and electronics (the Crystal Cable Integrated amplifier and the Crystal Cable Minissimo Diamond speakers with a special top, minimizing diffractions) in the background. The sound source was the dCS Vivaldi transport with an external clock. The main theme of the meeting were so-called “glass discs”, i.e. CDs made not of polycarbonate (ordinary CDs) or plastic used for LCD production (SHM-CDs and HQCDs), but of glass.

The production of such CDs is very expensive and time-consuming, so they cost a lot – from 2000 to even 6000 PLN per CD! The presenters were: Mr Edwin van der Kley (Siltech) and Mr Lincoln Cheng, the editor-in-chief of the “Audiotechnique” magazine published in Hong Kong, the owner of the CDs. As he told me after the presentation, he has 45 of them...

However, it was enough to listen to an ordinary version of a given CD and to its glass counterpart just for a moment to understand the whole thing and see how much is lost between the mastering studio and the consumer. It is a thing that I have been repeating for years, presenting Master CD-Rs burnt at a studio. Glass discs have incredibly filled sound and a very silent “background” – it seems that their sound is velvety and soft, but only because we get plenty of information. In contrast to them, an ordinary CD seems to be very euphonic and colored.

All of this was clear and obvious from the beginning, since the Crystal Cable system that we used to listen to music is both characterized by incredibly high resolution and wonderfully “musical”. The latter means that we did not focus on details, but synthesized the overall picture in our heads, without a loss of information or blurring the differences, exactly because of the fact that these differences were so perfectly clear. So, I had no choice and the Crystal Cable & Siltech room received the Best Sound High End 2017 award.

crystalcable.com
siltechcables.com

TechDAS AIR FORCE (almost) ZERO

However, in an alphabetical order, the last of the four described presentations, held by Mr Hideaki Nishikawa, the head of designers, opened the whole exhibition. On Thursday, the day intended for the so-called “industry”, at 10 o’clock I sat in the first row next to Michael Fremer (“Stereophile”), with Ken Kessler (“Hi-Fi News”) on the left and Robert Harley (“The Absolute Sound”) behind.

The topic of the presentation was supposed to be the latest and the most expensive (two times more costly than the Air Force One) turntable from the Japanese company TechDAS. The presentation was untypical in the sense that Mr Hideaki Nishikawa talked in Japanese, which was interpreted into German by one of his colleagues and from German to English by our friend, Volker Bohlmeier, the owner of the Einstein company and the German distributor of the TechDAS brand.

Michael Fremer (“Stereophile”) is trying to hold the upper part of the plate, made of tungsten.

It was supposed to be a presentation of the Zero model and it was, but not completely, as only the Zero motor module was delivered to Munich. So, the listening session made use of the Premium model, i.e. an improved version of the One, with the Zero motor. We could learn what the complete Zero is supposed to look like by looking at pictures from a tablet. Not much can be said about details, but it is known that the artistic design is a lot different from earlier TechDAS devices. It is also known that the plate will be the same as in the Premium model, i.e. with the upper layer made of a tungsten alloy. “Tungsten” seems to be one of the new “magical words”, replacing “titan”. The thin thing was so heavy that Mr Nishikawa-san’s assistant (just like Michael Fremer) could hardly carry it in both hands.

However, we could see the most important element – i.e. the motor – live and listen to what the Premium model sounds like with it. In fact, the motor resembles a highly advanced turntable, as it has a large-diameter plate floating on an airbag, just like the main plate in TechDAS turntables. The whole thing is large and looks like, let me repeat myself, a small turntable standing next to a big one. The motor got another box with an air pump – the same as the main plate. Pneumatic decoupling is to eliminate speaker vibrations (their impact on the motor) and motor vibrations (impact on the main plate).

The turntable operated in a full, top-of-the-line CH Precision system, with enormous Vivid Audio Giya G3 speakers having a brilliant yellow color. It appeared very quickly what the greatest advantage of the new motor is – after a few bars of the first musical piece, one metal woofer grille fell off – the woofer excursion was simply incredible. Then, another one fell off and the remaining two were quickly removed by Mr Nishikawa-san’s assistant.

It is all about incredible dynamics. It is a turntable that produces unbelievably clear sound, characterized by almost as good resolution as a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Anyway, dynamics was number one. Takeshi Inomata’s album The Dialogue, released in 1977 by a Japanese specialist in “absolute sound”, Audio Lab Record, was played at the end of the presentation. The percussion sounded live. What I always hear while listening to recordings, i.e. compression and a characteristic “microphone” sound did not exist there. It was real, live percussion – one of its best reproductions I have ever heard.

techdas.jp

BEST SOUND | HIGH END 2017

NAGRA | WILSON AUDIO | KRONOS | TRANSPARENT | AIR TIGHT

A visit in the Nagra company room is always an important event. This time, René Laflamme chose top-of-the-range Nagra HDamp power amplifiers and Wilson Audio Alexx speakers. There were four sound sources: the Kronos Pro turntable, Nagra T R2R reel-to-reel tape recorder, Nagra Seven file player and Nagra CDT CD transport. For me, the most beautiful sound was produced by the tape recorder, but it was closely followed by… the CD player.

It was coherent, but also incredibly dynamic sound. I did not even hear a shadow of what the Wilson Audio speakers usually sound like at exhibitions, i.e. sterility. What we decided to give our award for this year was this sound from a classic CD. What is interesting, when we were placing our sticker on the door frame, we found a sticky spot that remained there after our sticker from last year was removed :)

René Laflamme with our sticker :)

• Power amplifier: Nagra HD AMP ($82,500)
• Digital-to-analog converter: Nagra HD DAC ($30,000)
• Power amplifier: Nagra ClassicAmp ($17,000)
• Phono stage: Nagra VPS ($7,650)
• Compact Disc transport: Nagra CDT ($14,000)
• Reel-to-reel tape recorder: Nagra T R2R
• Digital recorder: Nagra Seven
• Speakers: Wilson Audio Alexx
• Turntable: Kronos Pro http://highfidelity.pl/@main-2968&lang=
• Cartridge: Air Tight Opus 1
• Cables: Transparent Opus; all prices in US dollars

LYRAVOX

Lyravox, a company with a seat in Hamburg, came across as brilliant when it offered integrated music systems completely different from any other ones (at least at first sight), during the High End 2015 exhibition two years ago. Perfectly made and designed, they were a sort of “soundbars” for people with imagination and money. In systems hung on walls, there was a CD player, a Bluetooth receiver, a set of amplifiers with DSP correction and speakers. The sound was simply charming.

This year, when I was going to a meeting with Mr Götz von Laffert, who founded the company with Mr Jens Wietschorke (Wieczorek in Polish maybe?), I thought that he wanted to show me another version of the concept. Imagine my surprise when I saw enormous floor standing speakers at the entrance to the exhibition room. Karl, accompanied by its smaller version – Karlotta, is a technologically advanced active system based on ceramic Acuton speakers and a Scan Speak woofer. The system is equipped with an audio file streamer, eight D-class amplifiers, (500 W each) and a DSP system, correcting the phase, amplitude and crossover filters.

Mr Götz von Laffert at the entrance to the Lyravox listening room

Of course we know such systems, for example the already iconic Beolab 90 speakers, but Lyravox added sound to technology and design – sound that was surprisingly mature. “Surprisingly”, as we are talking about a company that was set up in 2013 – one that has not had any experience with such projects so far. What a surprise! The sound resembled what we get from high-class tube amplifiers and a good turntable. If this is what digital audio is to look like in the 21st century, we are at home… The system costs €43,000.

AEQUO AUDIO | AUDIOPAX | SOUND GALLERIES | TELLURIUM Q | INFINIT!

I happen to know almost all the components of this system – except for the server and the rack – from tests in my system. In Munich, the Aequo Audio Ensis speakers produced free, spatial sound with really few colorings at the bottom end, which is a nightmare in all exhibition rooms, especially such ones (with thin walls).

It shows how well the bass correction system in the active part of the speakers and the midrange/treble system work. The amplifiers were more than good as well, guaranteeing coherence, a breeze of warmth and density. The Tellurium Q cables prevented speed and resolution from being lost.

Gentlemen (from the left): Ivo Sparidaens (Aequo Audio), Paul Rassin (Aequo Audio), Silvio Pereira (Audiopax)

• Server: Sound Galleries SGM 2015 (€16,000)
• Preamplifier: Audiopax Maggiore L50 (€18,000)
• Power amplifier: Audiopax Maggiore M50 (€31,000)
• Speakers: Aequo Audio Ensis (special copper-plated anniversary edition, €28,800)
• Cables: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond + Ultra Silver Power
• Rack: iNFiNiT! (€9,800); all the prices include 20% VAT

KONDO | KAISER ACOUSTICS

It is another room that we gave our award to for the second time in a row, officially giving our Statement Award 2016 for the Kondo OnGaku amplifier at the same time. It was impossible to do it in a different way. Ongaku electronics in combination with speakers, a rack and Spline diffusers made by the German company Kawero! create a show that is going to be difficult to forget. Beauty, a story, flow – these are the first words that came to my mind.

A moment for a selfie with the “High Fidelity” award – Mr Reiner Weber, a constructor from the Keiser Acoustic company (on the left) and Mr Masaki Ashizawa, a constructor and the CEO of Kondo

• Turntable: Ginga
• Cartridge: Kondo IO-M
• Preamplifier: G-1000
• Power amplifier: Kondo Kagura
• Speakers: Kaiser Acoustics Kavero! Classic C3 (Kondo)
• Rack: Kaiser Acoustics Leading Edge

AYON AUDIO | LUMEN WHITE

It is not that Gerhard Hirt is able to prepare a system worth awarding the Best Sound Award for each exhibition, at least not in Munich. In Warsaw, however, he seems to have a patent for preparing one of the best exhibition systems. The problem with exhibitions in Munich is a very small room with thin walls. This year, however, everything was very, very pleasant, mainly thanks to “the smallest” speakers from the Silver Flame series. “The smallest” because they are still quite large five-speaker speakers, based on ceramic drivers. Anyway, they are the smallest in the series.

The sound was so good, i.e. coherent, dynamic and characterized by very high resolution also thanks to the source – the CD-35 player, the Conquistador preamp and Orthos power amplifiers. However, the speakers themselves let the system sound in such an open and unconstrained way. The Lumen White are one of those constructions characterized by the highest resolution that I know, showing every error on the way. They clearly found nothing in this system. It was interesting, at least for me, that Gerhard placed all his devices on Harmonix decoupling feet.

Mr Hartmut Roemer (Lumen White)

• Super Audio CD player: Ayon Audio CD-35 ( €10,000)
• File player: Ayon Audio S-10 (€7,500)
• Preamplifier: Ayon Audio Conquistador (€60,000)
• Power amplifiers: Ayon Audio Orthos (€25,000)
• Speakers: Lumen White Kyara (€48,800/pair)
• Cables: Ayon Pearl Cables

ayonaudio.com
lumenwhite.com

SOUNDSMITH | VPI

Mr Peter Ledermann himself

In this tiny room, where the Soundsmith company celebrated its birthday, Mr Peter Ledermann presented the most expensive cartridges incorporating the Strain Gauge technology, using the VPI turntable and the Alto tone arm designed by Frank Schröder, built under a licence by Soundsmith. The sound was presented using speakers designed and built by Peter Ledermann himself. These tiny devices produced fantastic sound. There was everything that I already know from cheaper designs of this manufacturer, i.e. warmth and almost no crackling sounds, with an incredible insight into a recording.

All the best!

• Cartridges:
  Soundsmith Strain Gauge 810 Signature with the SG6 needle (Schroeder)
  Soundsmith Hyperion (VPI)
  Soundsmith Paua Mk. II (VPI)
  Soundsmith MIMC Star (VPI)
  
• Turntable: VPI HRX + VPI JMW 12" + Schroeder Reference
• Phonostage/Line preamplifier: Soundsmith MCP-2 Phono
• Power amplifier: Soundsmith HE-150 Signature Amplifier
• Speakers: Soundsmith Monarch + Dragonfly
• Cables: Transparent Cable

sound-smith.com

SFORZATO | FIDATA | SPEC | HARBETH | SINE

The room I am talking about was mainly occupied by Japanese companies, with Sforzato – a manufacturer of top high-end file players and Fidata – a manufacturer of top high-end servers in the lead. They were supported by the SPEC company whose amplifier was being used, and Harbeth speakers from a new anniversary series. Let me add that the speakers stood on really beautiful TonTräger Audio.

I still have reservations about files played at home (in contrast to files played at a studio from a computer system in which they were recorded or mastered), but if this sounds like in the system with Sforzato and Fidata devices as the sound source, I’m in. That was incredibly communicative and cultural sound – very transparent, with a lot of information, but unbelievably smooth at the same time. There did not seem to be a lot of bass or treble in it, but only until a moment when something hit and rang – then it all sounded almost like from an analog mother tape. Bravo!

Panowie Omata Kyochi-san (Sforzatto, CEO) oraz Tomoyoshi Sugimori (Fidata, szef sprzedaży)

• Audio file player: Sforzato
• Server: Fidada HFAS1-XS20U
• Amplifier: SPEC RSA-F33EX (Polish)
• Speakers: Harbeth Super HL5+ Anniversary Edition

sfz.co.jp
iodata.jp/

EINSTEIN | TECHDAS | ARTESANIA AUDIO

Volker Bohlmeier and Annette Heiss are two sides of the same golden medal: the Einstein company. Volker is responsible for the inside of their devices, while Annette is in charge of the artistic design and the company’s finance. Together, they create something special that I was able to witness during this year’s exhibition. The system that they compiled was very similar to that from the last year, but something must have changed in it, because the moment I entered the room, I instantly heard very good sound on the right.

The source in the system was the TechDAS Air Force Two turntable with an Einstein cartridge and arm, an Einstein preamplifier and power amplifiers, but mostly the company’s speakers prepared in cooperation with the creator of the AudioMachina speakers (Polish). It was fast dynamic sound in which an important role was played by warmth given by the amplification system. The bass was excellently controlled, even in such a small room.

A perfect duo: Volker Bohlmeier and Annette Heiss

• Turntable: TechDAS Air Force Two
• Arm: Einstein
• Cartridge: Einstein The Pickup
• Amplifier: Einstein The Preamp + The Silver Bullet OTL
• Speakers: Einstein The Pure
• Rack: Artesania Audio

einstein-audio.de

PYLON AUDIO | FEZZ AUDIO

Pylon Audio and Fezz Audio are companies that I tour Poland with, conducting workshops that aim to explain my way of testing, my choices and “biases”. At the same time, I try to talk about how recordings are made, how one is supposed to listen to them and what to look for. So, it can be said that I know the sound of these companies’ products. Each time I hear sound as good as I heard in Munich, I get confirmation that it is possible to prepare an audio system which won’t ruin a home budget, but is absolutely satisfactory – as the one in the photo above.

• Amplifier: Fezz Audio Mira Ceti
• Speakers: Pylon Audio Opal 20
• CD player: Lector CDP-7T
• Rack: Pylon Audio Elegance T3

MONITOR AUDIO | ROKSAN

At the end of the list of awards given during the High End 2017 exhibition, I have left some space for a big surprise: the new Monitor Audio speakers from the Silver series. I must say that the new series is much better than the previous one, in every respect. First of all, it looks better, but it mostly plays better. It is assisted by electronics from the Roksan company that has recently been bought by Monitor Audio, but, mostly, it is driven by new thinking about sound, which could be felt. The sound is open and fast, but it has depth, good resolution and selectivity. At the time when I was there, the sound source was the Roksan K3 player.

• Electronics: Roksan K3
• Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 200
• Rack: Blok

THE WHOLE REST

If I were to summarize this year’s exhibition somehow, I would have to refer to a few different trends. On the one hand, it is visible that audio is fashionable again and important in people’s lives. It was possible to see when one looked at visitors, but mostly due to the fact that a lot of money has been injected into the industry. The money comes from a few different sources, mostly from big companies and capital funds, etc. that are buying individual brands – e.g. Samsung that acquired the Harman company, or D+M Holding, i.e. a company which includes Marantz and Denon (among others), acquired by the private fund Sound United, a part of DEI Holdings. This is real money and if there was no development potential in audio, nobody would even think of investing.

So, one should expect more acquisitions and a concentration of brands under one “roof”, but also the emergence of new ones. Apparently, banks and investors now believe that it is possible to get a return on investment here. Therefore, many talented engineers are looking for a seat at our table. Good examples of companies that have successfully entered the audio industry are Lyravox and Aequo Audio. I think there will be more such companies in the future – ones with excellently qualified constructors, money and ideas. It is also important to us that their products look great, which differentiates them from 20th century designs.

Another strong trend is connected with headphones. Every single manufacturer wants (must) offer headphones, a headphone amplifier or a DAC with a headphone amplifier. On the one hand, the mobile aspect is developing, with the Astern & Kern company in the lead – one that exemplifies a successful combination of audiophile ethos and a pragmatic approach to products. It demonstrates that mobile audio can cost as much as or more than non-mobile devices, which was confirmed by the Audeze company offering magnetostatic “earphone” headphones.

Another variation of this trend are stationary headphone systems. It is closely connected with what is happening in classic audio, i.e. audio with a focus on prices. Thanks to it, we get such incredible creations as the HiFiMAN Shangri-La system, the Edition 8 EX Ultrasone headphones, or the new Octave V16 amplifier. They are great, sound excellent and are slowly creating a separate top high-end category in the headphones domain. However, it does not change the fact that prices offered by companies in the lead are growing faster than one could have expected, compared to other firms in the peloton.

It is something that was much more visible in Munich when one looked at classic systems – something that could be called “gigantomania”. It is because audio devices are becoming larger and larger, while their prices are also growing. The prices of top-of-the-line audio devices have rocketed with the speed of light and finally left Earth. It is true that many of these audio stratosphere products sound brilliant. However, their price is connected with a new vision of the audio industry as a luxurious niche rather than with companies’ overheads. In the past, one could dream of slowly progressing on the price and quality scale, and perhaps one day reaching the top in a given company’s offer, now “Abandon all hope – Ye Who Enter Here”, it will never happen.

How about the source issue? I have been attentively following trends in this domain for years, since it particularly interests me and, as I think, I know something about it. This year I could observe no regularity. CD, SACD and file players, streamers, reel-to-reel tape recorders and turntables were presented on an equal footing. There were a lot of turntables, some of which cost very little. Among the rooms we awarded there were ones where CDs, LPs and files were played, so no ultimate opinion can be formed on this basis. It seems that, at least for now, we are dealing with a plateau, i.e. stabilization of the situation. It is fantastic news for clients – everyone will find something for themselves, adequate to their beliefs and habits.

I wonder whether this will change next year – perhaps the exhibition itself will change. As I heard at the backstage, the possibility of moving it to a different venue is being considered, where all willing exhibitors could be accepted. I do not know whether it is going to happen or not. However, I know that the audio industry firmly stands on its feet and, if it does not stumble because of exaggerated prices, it will return to the entertainment mainstream for good. See you next year!