HIGH END MUNICH 2022

[Fran]

Last few

[Fran]

Lots of very good sounding rooms this year, and where rooms didn't sound so good, it was typically because of hard/etchy upper mids and treble.

Some of the standout ones for me was:

Oswald mill audio
YG
Karma
Gauder akustik
Nagra

And there were lots of others that were really good too, just they stand out. There must have a million euros of equipment in that nagra room. And Oswald mill wouldn't have been far behind.

If your geekiness is sufficiently high, it's a great show to get to alright. The organisation is excellent, everything works and you end up quite relaxed as you wander in and out of rooms. There's no way you could see it all.

[Adrian]

Great stuff Fran, truly super photos there. I don’t feel so bad now about my own expenditure on hifi….. when I see those Hi End photos I realise a lot more money could be spent. Some really exotic stuff there indeed.
Some items which caught my eye was the Tektron amplifier…. most interesting!

For some reason I had a feeling of nostalgia when I saw the photo of the Pathos amplifier. I remember drooling over photos in various hifi magazines with exotic photos of valve amplifiers about 25 years ago…. The Pathos gear always came out very photogenic for some reason. I think Cloney’s did have some Pathos amplifiers (Logos?) at one stage…I seem to remember one in the shop when Nigel was there. Maybe it was a trade in or special order for a customer?
The Unison Research gear is aesthetically very pleasing in my opinion, I did have a UR Unico CD player at one stage…. Exceptionally good sound out of it too.

Once again, many thanks for the photos and taking the trouble / time to post them up…. Much appreciated !!

[tony]

Have to echo Fran's comments. My first visit and it was hugely enjoyable. Very easy when you are going with seasoned visitors to guide the way.
The event is really well run and the quality and scale of the kit on display is awe inspiring.
My favourite was the Oswald Mill set up. The designer was on hand to explain his products and he was certainly not a shy retiring American :)
It was fun though and he was quiet engaging. One of the lads working with or for him turns out to be from Coolock!
I had never came across this brand before, at $120k for the speakers and $350-450k for the turntable you can guess why.
See links for drooling https://www.wired.com/2016/04/oswalds-mill-audio/ https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/loudspeakers
The sound in this room was just incredible for me anyway. The speakers although a bit out there in looks were kinda small
enough that I could imagine them fitting into a decent sized living room.

There was so many highlights. Einstein Room, Nagra/Wilson, TotalDac, Magico, Kharma, Huge white PMC towers 7-8ft high, Jadis/Lampizator with Alyvox Planar speakers (bit hard on the ears on the highs)
The KAD audio room in the hifi delux sub show on a brief listen sounded promising, active speakers which appeared a snip at I think 12k.
You can see how the figures start playing with your rational view on values!

I thought the Diptyque planar speakers were interesting. Not sure of the system but they sounded hard on the ears on the highs. Would be curious to hear them on more forgiving kit as they gave a very large soundstage and looked relatively small compared to my current quad of 63's. A snip at circa 12K

The Omega audio concepts speakers and kit sounded excellent also. Garish white/red and a CD player that looked like it was a converted Weber barbeque but the sound was really good.
https://www.omegaudioconcepts.com/

Fyne audio had a range of speakers which are a take on the Tannoy dual concentric range. They looked really good. A higher quality of finish than the Tannoys but prices are high. Fran has a photo above.
The Spendor Classic200TI also sounded nice but the room had no treatment hence I reckon you could get them sounding much better.

A lot of the rooms had very sophisticated accoustic treatments and I think this is really worth considering.

Some weird looking kit one was called SoundKAOS. Again the style and size was something that could work in normal rooms. They sounded a bit harsh but I thought they had potential.

Other stuff I remember was the Omartens which looked really well finished classically Scandinavian high quality finish. A myriad of German manufacturers of various types of horn speakers all sounded good. Franco Serblin similar quality of finish as the Omartens.
You get the gist the show is overwhelming I heard other fantastic sounding kit but there is so much there it is hard to remember it all.

Claus will be delighted to hear Lars is still there playing great music. He managed to get me to leave within about 40 seconds as he cranked up the volume on one of his favourite euro thumpers.

Highly recommend it as Munich is a very easy city to get around and the show is so well run that you leave feeling a little tired but not destroyed.
One negative would be a lot of rooms played music just a bit too high. I have a bit of ringing in the ears today. Survived got the badge and could see me succumbing next year if the troops decide to mount a repeat campaign.

For the record because I don't have a vinyl set up I got away with a spend of €10 on heat shrink piping from a Hungarian company and 16 euro on a CD from discogs that I liked from one of the rooms.

[Satrus]

I too, thought the show was a great success this year. I would agree with Fran as regards the rooms that stood out. I was very taken with Zellaton's room. When I visited on Thursday, they were playing music by Chantal Chamberland, a female Canadian jazz vocalist with whom I was unfamiliar. The realism and presence of her vocals through the Zellaton speakers were the best rendition of vocals that I ever heard. I went to look for the CD/SACD, "Temptation", but it's unavailable at the moment. It's on my list though once it is remanufactured. It is also available on vinyl.

I was in the Bacch Room on Friday and they played Led Zeppelin's 'Good Times, Bad Times' on their system and it sounded very impressive if a little loud and definitely raucous, as it should be, of course. That is something you don't hear very often at audio shows. It is usually jazz and 'audiophile' type music, most of the time.

I looked in on the Classe Audio room on Thursday and was surprised to see a pair of the company's monoblock power amplifiers paired with B&W loudspeakers, just like in the old days. I wondered if B&W is now under the umbrella of Sound United? The system sounded very good on the morning I visited. One room that I didn't particularly like was the Harmon Audio one which had Mark Levinson and JBL products. JBL speakers always sound hard and etched to me? I have heard JBL speakers before at previous High End shows again paired with ML electronics and I didn't particularly like them either.

I think it is fair to say that most every room had very good sound. It seems that Swiss HiFi components are at the forefront currently in high performance audio? DarZeel, Soulution, CH Precision and Nagra to name a few were very prominent at the show. I have been going to Munich since 2006 and I would say to anybody who is 'sitting on the fence' to grasp the nettle and go next year. It is a great experience and gives you a glimpse of what is possible when budgetary restraints are not an issue. On a final note, I didn't see any of the usual record dealers there this year? Sieveking Sound had no record sales stand and Da Capo Records from Furth were absent as well. I wonder why? Da Capo has been a constant at the show since 2006.

[markof]

Many thanks for the reports and photos.
Sure whets the appetite.

Mark

[Diapason]

Yes indeed, thanks so much for those comments.

Be honest, now. Did anyone come home with a goo for something else? Any changes on the cards??

[tony]

Well Simon it looks like all that Nordost skinny stuff will have to be used as a clothes line and waste pipe sized cable is the new must have thing. There was a bit of a cable lifter fad going on as well which sets the mind racing. Other than that unless I keep the budget to the odd cable lifter everything is out of budget range unless I trade in the Tannoys for Mission 770's

[Diapason]

Yeah, if one thing has changed as I get older it's that my interest in cables has gone from "low" to "nonexistent". I definitely won't be joining the cable lifter team, although if anyone would like to tidy up the nest behind the rack I could offer a beer or two...

[tony]

There are a lot of us in that space Simon. Common sense has caught up. Better to shell out the money on the next model up the speaker range rather than blow it on cables.

I was just chatting to a guy who is buying a pair of Diptyque speakers and not 100% sure as I forgot to take a photo but he pointed out that the reference model costs £38K sterling. If that was the pair I was listening to I will get my coat now. I had thought they were circa 12k :)

One take away from the show is the importance of diffusors, bass traps and other sundry acoustic items. I have tons of it now all got second hand. Problem is I have to do something to try and neutralize the various colours and some how make them disappear as any sighting of them in the man cave generates lots of steam and consternation.