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High End Munich 2025 - May 15-18

poopy said:
not as ugly as they seem to be on pictures
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That's what my wife always says when she shows someone a photo of me.

This Elac (the great Genelec too)

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... looks like the Raduno (2010) designed by Frank Kuhl / Monacor

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It was my absolute first audio show and I did not at all enjoy it. Extremely crowded, chaotic and very difficult to walk, underwhelming.

Impressed by the amount of stands for cables which I completely ignored. The industry seems to flourish though. Heavily supported by the manufacturers who all used cables with a thickness of gas tubes and cable risers on their listening rooms.

I didn't audition a lot of speakers. Maybe 15.
The best speakers I listened was a Magico pair(don't know the model).
The most impressive the Perlisten S7T Black edition.
A bit disappointed by the new Mofi source point 10 and the big Genelecs, normally due to high expectations.
KII immersive room offers a life time experience. Not useful for conclusions though as the chosen tracks were not adeguate and the sound result was coming from 7 speaker's.
Some sound to be mentioned also by a pair of Marten mingus quintet 2. But these are at 68.000....

What gained my attention and I went to audition twice was a pair of Radiant acoustics 4.2 tiny speakers which produced a jaw dropping base. Their bigger siblings called clarity 6.2 were even better. It seems these purify drivers do a great job. Small ones are at 2600euros and the biggers at 4000. Not cheap for bookshelf speakers given the concurrence, but worth give them a listen if you have the chance.

What stole my heart? A pair of Indiana line Utah 8. I didn't even know the brand. Speaker's will be officially presented in Warsaw audio show. They will be available on October 2025. I had a talk with the guys and got this information. And if I did not misheard, the price will be around 1600 euros. It seems unbelievable to me given how good these speakers sounded. I also went to listen them twice, with the second one being extensive.

I have a ticket for tomorrow as well but I don't know if I will go cause as I said the experience was not good.
 
Jean.Francois said:
Hello
Here are some videos
...
TuneAudio
...
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Hey, I've got Anima horns! (Though I've taken mine fully active with DSP... the bottom-end supported by monster subs. Truly a [fully measureable] quantum leap in performance.)

Interesting that Tune Audio seem to have given up on taking their mega-priced Avalon horns to Munich. (They didn't take them last year either.)
 
fredoamigo said:
By the way, will there ever be a rational explanation for this kind of phenomenon that multiplies during these kinds of events? I would like to know who started this grotesque and ridiculous trend... Unfortunately, I noticed it in the photos of the JBL booth, which generally doesn't go for the exoti :facepalm:
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Can you explain what you’re talking about? I’m having trouble picturing. Photo.?
 
MattHooper said:
Can you explain what you’re talking about? I’m having trouble picturing. Photo.?
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Oh, sorry, but I think there was a misunderstanding with DSJR. Or rather, my translator misled me... I was talking about the proliferation of cable supports in audio shows... He, it seems, was talking about absorber supports for speakers .
 
I love going to the High-End. Is there a lot of ridiculous nonsense? Sure, but I don’t have to engage with it. I’ll walk past and roll my eyes. I’m not a speakers guy so I get spared the worst of it (will still look at some setups of course, sometimes marveling, sometimes silently laughing at expensive gadgets that then don’t even sound that good). For headphones/IEMs, it is a great opportunity to try out old and new models, with the only downside being that the environmental noise can be too loud for open-backs when not in a closed booth.

I also can’t help but notice that the headphones section keeps growing year to year and is absolutely packed with visitors. Maybe that is the future of "affordable" HiFi, in some ways.
 
Keith_W said:
We are all agreed that that "Telos Grounding Monster" is a complete waste of time and money, but damn ... look at that case! They took a huge slab of metal and machined a case out of it. Look how thick the metal is. If I was made of unlimited amounts of money, I would LOVE to have a computer case machined out of solid metal like that. Not because it's functional, but because it's beautiful.
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Slightly off topic, but if you like nicely machined things, do check out the MG34 video on the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel. The craftsmanship is impeccable.
 
My favorite item from these shows are the setups with 20 boxes of supporting electronics. Here you have ESD, at Axpona it was Magico (and others I don't remember).
Even if they get great sound, I don't know who would want to have that much gear in a huge room. My wealthy friends are going more toward simplifying, not proliferating big boxes that light up. Anyway, I'm still thinking about taking the trip over to Vienna next year.
 
Bjorn said:
How does the Aries Cerat sound?
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I would thought you would be there? Was hoping to see some of your impressions on things.
 
ShadowFiend said:
It seems that this company has fixed two weaknesses of the Naked RS speaker
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Very interesting and promising dipol + linesource concept, and the tweeter is excellent as I can say from own experience. I am a bit reserved regarding the midrange planars and how they are positioned. Anyone familiar with the x-over details?

Jeromeof said:
I took some extra picture of the cabling and the setup:
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Looks as if this room had been assimilated by the Borg doing some server wiring...

poopy said:
The Geithain RL921K sounded good, always pleased with Geithain sound (well, I'm a big fan of the RL901K)
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If that one is demoed at the show, I strongly recommend to give it a listen. Under home conditions, I found it to be the best MEG so far, even better than the bigger models.
 
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PBSequence said:
I love going to the High-End. Is there a lot of ridiculous nonsense? Sure, but I don’t have to engage with it. I’ll walk past and roll my eyes. I’m not a speakers guy so I get spared the worst of it (will still look at some setups of course, sometimes marveling, sometimes silently laughing at expensive gadgets that then don’t even sound that good). For headphones/IEMs, it is a great opportunity to try out old and new models, with the only downside being that the environmental noise can be too loud for open-backs when not in a closed booth.

I also can’t help but notice that the headphones section keeps growing year to year and is absolutely packed with visitors. Maybe that is the future of "affordable" HiFi, in some ways.
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I spent a couple of hours this morning demoing headphones from DCA, Audeze, Sennheiser. I'm on the market for a new headphones. Where else could I try all these brands at the same time, assess comfort, quality of components, FR, discussing with the reps?
I also realised that the headphones part of the show is growing each year. There's way more people.

Demoing speakers is great fun too. I probably demoed 30 speakers today, at least. I love listening to music so I don't feel bored. I also like looking at the design of speakers. Some are interesting. You can discuss with the reps or founders. Given the conditions, most of speakers won't sound amazing obviously, but I found some sounded OK. You may be surprised some time.

Also I'm not the type of guy who will purchase a pair of speakers based on Amir's blessing or praised by the ASR crowd. For instance, compared to the KEF R series, ATC SCM50 any day...
 
poopy said:
Also I'm not the type of guy who will purchase a pair of speakers based on Amir's blessing or praised by the ASR crowd. For instance, compared to the KEF R series, ATC SCM50 any day...
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As long as you do it blindfolded I’m good with it! :)
 
Jeromeof said:
They kindly switched over to the new tiny dsp speakers and given the size of the room they were pretty impressive with the sample track but obviously impossible to judge
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Very nice you to do that for a member’s request. I agree, it’s completely pointless to give an impression at shows like this.
 
poopy said:
Blindfolded tests could be a good thing. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to distinguish between Gen 8381 and 8351+W371. The best way to save 30k! :)
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I was kidding. But enjoyed your post!
 
jcarys said:
My favorite item from these shows are the setups with 20 boxes of supporting electronics. Here you have ESD, at Axpona it was Magico (and others I don't remember).
Even if they get great sound, I don't know who would want to have that much gear in a huge room. My wealthy friends are going more toward simplifying, not proliferating big boxes that light up.
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When your customers can spend an unlimited amount of money it makes sense to try to sell them as much as you possibly can.
 
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