Tír Na HiFi

Satrus,


Given your experience at the show - any tips to follow? Any "not to be missed" things?


Fran

Fran wrote:Satrus,


Given your experience at the show - any tips to follow? Any "not to be missed" things?


Fran

There is so much to be seen and heard really. It is no coincidence that people like Michael Fremer, Art Dudley (both of Stereophile) and others regards this show as the high end's premier event nowadays. I was sitting across the table from Paul Messeneger (HiFi News and Stereophile) at my hotel a few years ago.

You should single out the manufacturer's whose products you want to hear and take a note of where they are at the MOC. Last year, I quite liked the Mark Levinson (Harmon) room and the Devialet. I always seem to like Plinius and Balanced Audio Technology which is exhibited by the German distributor, Audioconcept. They seem to get very good sound even using CD as a source. Nordost is a room that is worth visiting as is Raidho. DarZeel, Soulution from Switzerland are worth a look too but only those people who won the Euromillions in Carlow should visit with serious intent!

Audio Reference from Hamburg import many of the big ticket U.S. brands but they have a static display in most cases although in the last two years Dan D'Agostino had a demo of his latest amplifiers in their space. B&W Germany no longer attend Munich so do not expect to see/hear Classé/B&W etc. Again, they had a large static display in previous years as opposed to a proper demonstration of components. There are lots of indigenous German brands too (e.g. Trigon) that do not have representation here or in the U.K. Vandersteen loudspeakers usually has a good demo on hand. It disappoints me that Ayre/its German importer does not hire a dedicated room. They are usually on the ground floor (Halle 3) and while they were playing music through their AX-5 Twenty integrated last year it was in the midst of a very noisy ground floor. It was therefore impossible for me to make any serious appraisal of its sound quality. Jeff Rowland amplifiers, Goldmund, Transrotar turntables, Audio Physic loudspeakers etc. are always represented as well. Really, there is so much to see and hear and whether you are into solid state or valve amplification, digital or analogue source components, you will find most of your favourites there.

Da Capo Records (from Furth east of Munich) sells audiophile LPs and CDs on the ground floor along with many others (Sieveking Sound, Fenn Music etc.) Prices are not cheap though. A standard single Mofi LP will set you back €38.00. Saturn in Munich sells new LPs also and you can find some records a little bit cheaper there.

Great info there Satrus.


Are any of the rooms ticketed/access controlled?




Fran

Fran wrote:Great info there Satrus.


Are any of the rooms ticketed/access controlled?




Fran

Mostly they are not and you can go in without any problem at all. There are a tiny number where you will need to keep an eye out. You will see something like 'next demo at 12 noon' so if you arrive a few minutes beforehand you'll be fine. The rooms at the MOC are quite large so there isn't the same pressure with regard to space as maybe we are used to here and in the U.K. where high end shows are held in hotels, for the most part. It's a really good event and I am sure you'll enjoy it very much. Many of the manufacturers launch new products at the show as well so it is interesting for a whole host of reasons.

You will see people for all over the world, Japan, U.S.A., Europe, Asia and a few from Ireland too. Last year there was a fellow working with Harmon in the Mark Levinson room with a distinct Irish accent, Dublin I would say. There was another man I came across over the years who did his degree at CIT, Limerick and who subsequently worked with Krell in Connecticut and who is now with Pass Labs as head of industrial design. If you get bored at the show, you can always visit the Bayern Munich stadium which is just three stops up from the Kieferngarten Station at the end of the U6 line or go into town and shop for vinyl! Germany is, in very many respects, a very impressive country and a great place to shop for vinyl and audio components. When I first went to Munich in 2006, I visited HiFi Concept on Worthstrasse and the store owner spent a half an hour talking to me and showed me their store and demo rooms. They carry Ayre, Classé, B&W among many other leading high end brands. It doesn't hurt to be Irish either. If you make sure to tell German people that you're Irish (they assume you're English) you'll detect a warm welcome immediately. I have been telling my friends for years that the best place to buy Irish music is in Germany. They love Irish music there. I have seen Plaxnty, Wolfe Tones, Dubliners, Rory Gallagher/Taste, Clannad, Christy Moore, Moving Hearts, Terry and Gay Woods albums on vinyl in Munich over the years.

Satrus wrote: And how can you not want to see and listen to Lars Christiansen (formerly of Nordost) who now works with Denmark's Raidho Acoustics.!

He must be a better salesman than we give him credit for Satrus :-)
One of the occasions when I seen him here in Ireland other than in Cloney's was at the show in the Burlington in 2011 when he was still with Nordost I think.
I went in to the demo and he had a pair of Raidho C1s with all the Nordost gear on them and was doing all he could to sell cables and power conditioning devices....quantum something or other ands all I was interested in was the Raidho's as they sounded amazing to me that day.

Anyway he must have found his calling moving to Raidho as just this week I finally found a second hand set of Raidho C1s and could not resist the temptation as they never seem to come up second hand.
I am looking forward to hearing the other Raidho gear at Munich but unfortunately they will be way out of my price range, but we can dream.

Looking forward to the show and I am sure all of us can hook up for a few pointers over the course of the show.

Cheers,
Pearse.

Fantastic, Pearse. I've heard Raidhos only once, at the same dem you're referring to, but I've been fascinated by them ever since. Congratulations!

Good luck with those Raidhos Pearse - I heard them and thought they were just fantastic as well.

Sligolad wrote:

Satrus wrote: And how can you not want to see and listen to Lars Christiansen (formerly of Nordost) who now works with Denmark's Raidho Acoustics.!

He must be a better salesman than we give him credit for Satrus :-)
One of the occasions when I seen him here in Ireland other than in Cloney's was at the show in the Burlington in 2011 when he was still with Nordost I think.
I went in to the demo and he had a pair of Raidho C1s with all the Nordost gear on them and was doing all he could to sell cables and power conditioning devices....quantum something or other ands all I was interested in was the Raidho's as they sounded amazing to me that day.

Anyway he must have found his calling moving to Raidho as just this week I finally found a second hand set of Raidho C1s and could not resist the temptation as they never seem to come up second hand.
I am looking forward to hearing the other Raidho gear at Munich but unfortunately they will be way out of my price range, but we can dream.

Looking forward to the show and I am sure all of us can hook up for a few pointers over the course of the show.

Cheers,
Pearse.

Lars is the real deal and entertaining with it. I was at that Cloney Audio Show in the Burlington in 2011 that you mentioned. I think he was demoing Pulsar Points (or something similar) and he said that they cost €900. So some innocent soul in the group asked if that price was for a pair but Lars quickly clarified that the price was €900 each! There was a collective but suppressed chuckle in the room. Nordost now has a new [scandanavian] guy with the same affable type of disposition, a winning smile and long hair doing their demos. The disposition must be a Scandanavian thing!

As for Raidho, I was at their demo last year and also in 2014. At the 2014 demo there was a U.S. audio journalist present who was positively intoxicated with Raidho. He said that they had the best 'articulation' of any loudspeaker he had ever heard and congratulated a man called 'Michael' whom I suspect is the owner/designer at Raidho. They were using the MoFi Keb Mo' vinyl LP for that demo which both I and a friend subsequently bought at a store in Munich. I think they used your speakers (are they about €24k?) and a larger model that were about twice that or more, also. They sounded very good. I was very much taken with Audio Physic speakers last year (can't recall the model number just now) and they were about 24k or so. I soon forgot about them! Buying a Mint Used pair is the way to go.

Denmark is such a fascinating country with such a great indigenous specialist audio industry. Vitus Audio is another brand that I like also from Denmark. They (the Danes) supposedly invaded us in the distant past, so how come we have no specialist audio industry?

We do it is in Meath!

Its Munich Germany Tony
not Moynalty Co Meath the high high high end show
We wouldn't lower our expectations enough to go there ;)