High-End Munich 2019

[Fran]

I thought it was sort of hollowed out when I was listening, bass was well enough controlled etc, and in fairness to them there was quite a bit of harsh digital at the show. The Kii people were using an Intuous server as source IIRC (quite a few were using this) so its hard to know. I know the advantage here is that you only have 2 speakers and the amps etc are all built in. But if you have eg a turntable then thats not really such an issue. As an example, I would be pretty confident that an old laptop with the Daphile linux distro installed, controlled from a phone and running into a John Kenny dac would comfortably meet it for a fraction of the cost and all the functionality. You'd buy a very nice amp and speakers for 3 or 4k on top of that.......

[Fran]

Si - see the comments here:

https://hifipig.com/high-end-munich-2019-show-report-1/

[Diapason]

Si - see the comments here:

https://hifipig.com/high-end-munich-2019-show-report-1/

It's funny, but that's the kind of thing you always read from the hifi press, but not always from the punters. I appreciate your comments here, and I think "hollowed out" matches my sense of the slight oddness I heard back in the day. I know they come more from the studio side so I'm not exactly expecting warmth, but I didn't always hear the listen-through, crystalline clarity the reviews had promised.

Of course, the good news is that they're so far beyond my current means that it doesn't matter, but there's a (large) part of me that has really started to move away from hifi fuss and wants to see a simple system compete at the highest level. Seems to me that the hifi "fuss" still pays dividends in terms of sonics for the moment, though, and as you say, if you're going to be spinning vinyl this just won't do at all at all.

So never mind all that, what were the genuine highlights from the show?

[Fran]

Right - show report;


First off - I think everyone who is into hifi should try and get to this at some time. Its just such an over the top thing of all things audio with so much to see from the weird and wacky to the sublime. The show is excellently organised, and for the cost of a return flight, a hotel room for one night and whatever you want to spend on a meal, beer and a few records etc you get a great weekend. There are free shuttle buses everywhere so they really make it easy for you.

The thing is huge, and there is no way you could see it all in the 3 days that its on. That leaves something for the next year though. So you can either plan your visit or just wander as you might see fit.I more or less wandered.

There is a large amount of complete wankery around cables, things to keep your cables off the floor and the like. There was one room with huge sonus faber speakers and the cables were arranged all across the floor with spotlights - not far off what Hannibel Lector might do with someones entrails. However, in amongst that kind of stuff there is fantastic stuff to be seen and heard.

So to start at the top, I would say my stand out sound of show was the demo of a new cartridge by Ortofon which was run in the ATC room. They had a fairly high end Project turntable, with a Swedish Audio Technology tonearm and the Ortofon MC Anna Diamond cart. I don't know how much the turntable was, but that tonearm is close to 30k and the cart is 8.5k. That went into an ATC preamp (6k with phonostage) and then on to active ATC speakers (new model, big size, the fella said retail as 36k). In a very well done demo, using a good mix of music types, the sound was astonishingly good. Like seriously good, probably the best vinyl I've ever heard - and I've heard some very very good vinyl set ups.

Another feature was the almost complete lack of, or lack of use of CD players. In the Chord room, they had one, but when someone asked them to put on a CD he explained they didn't have any and the player was only there because it had a USB input and they ran all the files from a server. I thought much of the digital demos i heard were quite harsh - even from very high end brands that I know sound much better.

Another feature was that there were quite a few reel to reel decks knocking about. I always think these are objects of desire, and are impossibly cool but are ultimately toys as there is no way to obtain source material unless you record it from another source which you already have or are willing to shell out hundreds per tape for wanky jazz played in a church. They do sound lovely though!!

The pics on myhiend are a really good guide - and there's a great bonus in that often the makers are there and usually available to talk to. Myself and one of the lads sat beside Jason Victor Serinus from stereophile on one of the bus journeys and it was great to chat to someone like that. His knowledge of music was fantastic. He's a classical buff ( which I know nothing about) but I was wearing a t-shirt with Freddie Mercury on it and he was asking who he was.... that morphed into a conversation about Monserrat Caballe which was just great, peppered with anecdotes and recommendations etc. Such things make a show very enjoyable.

There are also a host of talks/lectures etc. I went to one on "Simple 2 step loudspeaker placement" which I thought was good and made a lot of sense. These are roughly every hour or so in typically German and English.

Not much equipment is for sale at the show, but there are some sales. There is quite an amount of vinyl, CD, SACD, and so on, plus the likes of Tonar selling their range of accessories, but you can't go up and buy an Astell and Kern player, or a pair of speakers etc. That helps limit the damage a bit!

As I said, i think its a great weekend. There were 5 of us there from here, so it was great to meet up for a coffee and compare notes, and debate the inner workings of DACs over a few weissbiers into the early hours. Book your weekend with the powers that be now for the second weekend in May 2020.

[Ivor]

Excellent travelogue Fran! Almost like being there!

[Diapason]

I say this every year, but next time I'll DEFINITELY go.

Probably.

[Sloop John B]

Typical I suppose but I always fear I’ll come back and my system will not compare well to what I’ve heard in Munich and most likely cannot afford and so as good as the experience might be the other 362 days of the year will be less enjoyable due to comparisons.

.sjb