Tír Na HiFi

Well done SJB, Leo is the man alright.

Will try and get to Kii tomorrow but there is a whole floor I have not even got near yet, if they are on 4.2 atrium then I will get to hear them Simon.

Were those Darius speakers on page 2 of Leo's report, they certainly look a lot like the big ones, hope to get around there tomorrow.

Those speakers at the top of page 10 are the best I have ever heard but would not even dare to ask the price. Goebel are the name I think....only in Munich!

Some great sounds today from Vandersteen speakers, Wilsons, Ryan Speakers, new Martin Logan's, Grimm Audio all in one system and Kaweroo speakers.
Lynn Stanley was there in the Audio Note/Kaweroo room today with her latest album cut in Studio one in LA with a mega band and she was singing along to the album....not sure which sounded better!!

May need to attend myself next year, I'm struggling with the envy here.

No sign of Kii Audio here this year Simon.
Reading up on them it appears they are an offshoot of Grimm Audio and the system I head from them was very impressive.
Again all enclosed in the speaker units, the latest Grimm system comes in at about 36k and there is an earlier incarnation for about 20 something k, it appears from reading that the Kii system was about 30k.
The Grimm system I heard yesterday was playing 16 44 tracks off a spinning hard drive and sounded really good.

Kii Three is meant to be closer to 10k, but it's been expected for so long who knows? Anyway, hope you're enjoying yourself!

Awesome show, what a great couple of days!

Will post more later!

So, now that I've recovered a bit:

The thing is HUGE. I went in via the main entrance and thought holy shit, I'll never see this in 2 days. Pearse then informs me that this is only hall 2 (and there are halls 1, 2, 3, 4, along with 3 different upstairs floors!). The way its mainly laid out is that the main halls have open stands where you can ogle and touch (usually) and talk to salespeople/manufacturers etc. A small number of them have closed of listening booths (smallish, think 10 people) where the sound tends to be very good. That area is probably 3 or more simmonscourt pavilions. Then upstairs (atria on 3 levels) there are corridors of rooms, about the size of classrooms where most of the equipment was being demoed. Some rooms were sole manufacturer, and others were by distributor, so mixed brands there. These were to my eyes very well managed... although I don't think I can listen to take five for a long time. In most cases there was a local german distributor and a rep from the company. Surprisingly to me, there was very little retail. There were about 5 or 6 sellers of vinyl/cds/small accessories, (the prices on the vinyl were eyewateringly high) Many audiophile copies at €80-€90 and SACDs at €38. but that was more or less it. Of course if you wanted to buy a set of speakers or something like that, the local dealer would have been happy to talk to you. The people I met on stands were very courteous and welcoming and although they must have been absolutely sick of it, they never failed to be nice.

I spent the first day walking around ogling and finding my bearings, noting bits and pieces I wanted to come back and spend more time with. I did of course do some sitting on as well, but largely just finding where everything was. I didn't actually bother taking pictures, the Leo fella linked here earlier has done a sterling job in that regard, and there are already a run of slide shows on youtube. There was a large variety of gear there, a good proportion I had never heard of, and lots I had but never got to see in the flesh. Along with some massive turntables and speakers, there was a high number of huge solid state and valve amps that were uh, excessive.

So what were highlights for me?

1. The kondo/audionote room had the best sound of show for me. Just jaw droppingly awesome, the best I've ever heard anywhere.
2. The Einstein room had great sound
3. The Harbeth room had great sound
4. The Nagra room was pretty awesome
5. The lads from Smyth Realiser were there with their new piece of kit, the a16. Awesome for headphone people.
5. Then there were a whole load of other rooms with varying degrees of preference for me. I found there were quite a few setups that to me sounded a bit hard - maybe the speakers were new etc etc. every bit of equipment was high end that I could see.


Other things I noted and would be remiss not to pass on:

1. If you use IEMs at all, commute/run/gym/plane, then you absolutely need to get some comply tips for them. Had a long chat with their sales man, an irish fella, about them and having tried them out on the plane, I am most impressed. Easy to get in, tight seal, excellent isolation and you wouldn't know they were in your ears. First time I had experiences that
2. Smyth Realiser - the A16 is their new processor/amp and its something else. They ran a demo with a 7.1.4 setup, sat you in a chair, ran the calibration for you (about 3-4 mins) and then they could play a piece of music or movie and by taking the headphones off it would switch back and forth to the speakers. So you could A/B easily and quickly. I swear to god, you could not tell the difference. It was that accurate. Its not to market yet, but they are going to run a kickstarter soon, with projected retail of $1500 (which gives you everything except headphones). It was one of those things where I put on the headphones and was thinking to myself, they're codding me, the sound is still coming from the speakers. I'd say the confusion on peoples faces was funny all weekend.


A great show/weekend!


Fran

Great stuff.

Here's a contender for the most expensive piece of hifi!!

Good stuff Fran, I'm a particularly deep shade of green!

Diapason wrote:Kii Three is meant to be closer to 10k, but it's been expected for so long who knows? Anyway, hope you're enjoying yourself!

Simon, there's a pic of the Kii Three around 3/4 of the way down http://www.my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread. ... how/page15

BTW the next pick includes Ludwig Beck's store , the best music store I've ever seen.