HIGH END MUNICH 2022

[Sloop John B]

Thanks for taking the time to report back guys.

I think you’ve made up my mind to stick rather than twist at the moment!

.sjb

[Fran]

Personally, I didn't come home with a desire for changes but then I am constantly swapping bits around here as some of the lads will attest. It wasn't hard on the pocket either - there was certainly less vinyl sellers knocking about, and some of them had crazy high prices. I bought 3 japanese pressings, at a cost of 47e for the 3. My splurge was on a new set of speaker cables for the quads from Kacsa audio. They make them up for you there and then, and it proves quite cost effective. 200e for a 6.5m pair, made with 2 parallel connections at one end to run to each stacked quad.

The prices are eye watering. A few years ago the very dearest speaker you would see in eg Stereophile was 100k. Now there are ones there for 350k (Kharma, and they weren't on their own) and very many in the 20-50k range.

Biggest disappointment? I particularly wanted to have a look at the hifi rose amp (pic below). It looks gorgeous in my view, but the feel of the thing was terrible. Plasticky, cheap feeling knobs and switches that are sure to break and be irreplaceable. Not cheap either at 5.5k - compared to the look and feel of eg Marantz or Denon it was a big let down. I didn't even get to hear it. Their streamers look very nice - and that single big screen across the front was in evidence in a few places.

[Satrus]

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[Satrus]

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[Satrus]

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The middle photo shows Michael Fremer in discussion with the folks from Norway's HEGEL, complete with his video recording equipment.

[Satrus]

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[Fran]

From memory that Dartzeel room sounded very nice.

[Satrus]

The first instalment of Michael Fremer's video coverage of High End 2022 is now up for viewing on www.analogplanet.com. There is nearly 2 hours worth of coverage in this one. It appears he will leave Stereophile to rejoin The Absolute Sound next month. This has not been officially announced yet but it was 'leaked' on Facebook. This is a big blow for Stereophile having previously lost Art Dudley in the recent past. It's a curious move in many respects. TAS is not considered a great publication as far as I can ascertain from the folks on the Steve Hoffman forum? I guess I'll just have to subscribe to TAS and give it a trial. Anyway, I wish MF well in this new chapter in his career.

[Diapason]

That's interesting. On what's best forum, it seems that TAS would be considered the premier league, so I think in the highest of the high end it has a much bigger cachet.

[Ivor]

That's interesting. On what's best forum, it seems that TAS would be considered the premier league, so I think in the highest of the high end it has a much bigger cachet.

I imagine Mikey, being Mikey, would be more concerned with circulation figures but d like to think he brings serious insights wherever he goes.
It also occurred to me that there's no real reason why he couldn't contribute to both publications. It happens a lot.
There is a "new" editor in Stereophile these days, Jim Austin, and his piss poor grasp of HiFi and music competes with his grasp of English to win the "WTF did he just say?" award.