This was my first visit to the High End
show in Munich since back in 2005, and I was looking forward
to it, big time. I arrived on Wednesday the 18th, of the May
because I didn’t want to miss anything since the show
started on Thursday the 19th for press and industry people.
The weather was perfect; it was sunny and warm, just the way
I like it. The taxi ride to my hotel was a beautiful. We
drove on the autobahn, cruising at around 160 kmh in a BMW 7
series. However, when I arrived at the hotel some 25 minutes
later, I was shocked at the astounding taxi fare of 70 euros.
Yes, that’s 100 U.S. dollars, the most expensive taxi ride
I’ve ever taken. The next time I’ll take the hotel bus
shuttle!
The show was very well organized. Germans are great at
details as anyone who’s ever owned a piece of German-made
audio gear can tell you. Despite the economy, I’ve noticed
the venue has grown since I was last here, which is a good
thing. One thing that struck me though, was that there were
turntables everywhere. Germans are seriously into vinyl and
I love it! I recently acquired a turntable from a German
company called Musical Life (stay tuned for a lot of analog
reviews).
The venue was big with lots of sound rooms and I had to move
around very fast to cover them. Navigating the show was kind
of a challenge for me as it was very crowded in the hallways
and exhibit rooms. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always easy to
listen in the exhibitor rooms because of their poor sound
quality. They were very crowded and often I wasn’t able to
listen carefully and couldn’t spend too much time waiting
for a seat. Also it wasn’t easy to get product information
because a lot of rooms didn’t have cut sheets and of course
there was the language barrier. Otherwise, the show was
spectacular!
High End 2011 sponsor
Musique-Concrete/Engstrom
and Engstrom/Absolue Creations
There were horns everywhere and this room was very
intriguing, especially since I had heard the Lars Two
monoblock amplifiers at the 2011 CES but with different
loudspeakers. The Musique-Concrete’s La Grande Castine
three-way horn system, features a 1” tweeter compression
driver, a 2” midrange compression driver, and a 15”
horn-loaded cone with powered 36” open baffle subwoofer,
which covers 16Hz to 80Hz driven by Engstrom & Engstrom Lars
Type Two monoblocks, sounded superb on a Jazz sampler that I
used for the show. It sounded very lifelike. It had the
size, and scale of a live venue and it was very dynamic. All
cables were from Absolue Creations France.
Audiopax/Audiostone/Audioaero/Stealth
Audio
Audiopax introduced their Maggiore electronics line which
exemplified a cost is-no-object approach. Their
manufacturing and technical support has moved to Switzerland
for better craftsmanship and production. Only the
highest-quality tubes, connectors, and parts are used. The
Maggiore M100 monoblock amplifier (€60k) - the “Gentle
Giant,” - is definitely a cost is-no-object design. The ATMA,
is an “Asymmetrical Topology of Multiple Amplifiers.” To
produce a high power amplifier, the Maggiore M100 uses six
asymmetrical single-ended amplifiers connected only at the
loudspeaker’s output. The Maggiore M100 utilizes a
revolutionary topology to become the world’s first Class A1
single-ended tube amplifier with over 100 watts of power per
channel. Actually, there are 100 watts of power with KT-88
tubes or 130 watts per channel with KT-120 tubes. The P100
Maggiore preamp (€22k) with volume control was used. The
Arpeggione (€38k) three- way full range loudspeakers sounded
stunning using the Audio Aero LaSource SACD player and the
superbly designed and crafted Audiostone Pythagoras (€100k)
turntable (integrated with the Apeiron reference rack) made
out of Scandinavian granite with a Micha Huber Thales
tonearm.
Tidal/Ancient
Audio/Transparent Acoustic/Musical Wire
The beautiful Tidal Piano Cera (€15,500) loudspeakers are
finished in a midnight black high gloss piano lacquer and
were driven by Tidal’s own Impact stereo amplifier. The
Piano Cera is a two-way floorstanding loudspeaker which uses
two 7” woofers and a 1.2” tweeter, and all Accuton drivers.
The Tidal Impact 140 watt solid-state stereo amplifier with
extremely short signal paths and high quality gold plated
boards. An Ancient Audio Lector Air (€10k) CD player with
volume control was used as a source and all cables were by
Musical Wire. The system sounded wonderful; it was very
transparent with lots of detail, intimate and very musical
at the same time. A very nice set up, I really enjoyed it
(Clement just installed a pair of Cera's in his downstairs
system so stay tuned for an upcoming review).
Leif Olofsson of Marten Design
Marten Design/Jorma
Design
The Marten Design room sounded as impressive as it did at
the 2011 CES. It was transparent, very detailed but not in
an analytical way, and it had a beautiful holographic
soundstage that was outstanding. The Coltrane 2 (€75k)
loudspeakers were driven beautifully by Marten’s own M. Amp
(€37k) 600 watt mono amps. The Coltrane 2 is a three-way,
four driver floorstander that features a newly developed
carbon fiber laminated cabinet which is 40% larger than the
original Coltrane. The Coltrane 2 employs two 11” ceramic
sandwich woofers, a 7” ceramic midrange driver and a 1”
diamond tweeter. All drivers are by Accuton. All cables were
by Jorma Design and Unity cables (stay tuned for a full
review).
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