Munich HighEnd 2024
- Thread starter redandgold
- Start date
In the Alsyvox/Taiko/Pilium/VYDA room yesterday it seemed like the show had started. We must of had 50+ visitors during the day from other vendors and dealer/distributors. We were doing demos since 10am. Today the real fun starts.
Amir, can you tell us anything about those very cool looking diffusers? First I’ve seen them I’m sure they’d be beneficial for a lot of installations.
How long before the honey can be harvested
A Stenheim Alumine 5 (SE?) & Nagra demo + EMT turntable.
ROOM A 4.1, F130
Being not in Munich, those little clips extracted from a Chinese livestream (no subtitles), from which I'm trying to pick up what interests me. And I share it.
This selection is not of general interest though.
The demo seems to be run mainly by EMT-tontechnik (Micha Huber & Emmanuel Huber).
Surprisingly, there is no carpet in front of the speakers:
ROOM A 4.1, F130
Being not in Munich, those little clips extracted from a Chinese livestream (no subtitles), from which I'm trying to pick up what interests me. And I share it.
This selection is not of general interest though.
The demo seems to be run mainly by EMT-tontechnik (Micha Huber & Emmanuel Huber).
Surprisingly, there is no carpet in front of the speakers:
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Odeon, German horn loudspeakers - ROOM A 4.2, E210
(from a Chinese livestream, no subtitles)
(from a Chinese livestream, no subtitles)
Aries Cerat Contendo II - ROOM A 4.1, F111
[Being not in Munich, I'm trying to pick up what interests me. And I share it.
This selection is not of general interest though.]
The guy barely opens the door of the room, and even from here (with my Sennheiser HD650 plugged into my Thinkpad), it seems to sound TERRIFIC!
But can't visitors stop SLAMMING that door ?! Help!
From Audiophile Junkie:
"The sense of scale and realism is off the charts, like a lot of these horn systems, but this one is setup perfectly in this room. Unexpected to be this good in this room. I'll definitely try to get with Stavros [the chief engineer and designer] later, and talk about that [new, Aries Cerat] turntable"
[Being not in Munich, I'm trying to pick up what interests me. And I share it.
This selection is not of general interest though.]
The guy barely opens the door of the room, and even from here (with my Sennheiser HD650 plugged into my Thinkpad), it seems to sound TERRIFIC!
But can't visitors stop SLAMMING that door ?! Help!
From Audiophile Junkie:
"The sense of scale and realism is off the charts, like a lot of these horn systems, but this one is setup perfectly in this room. Unexpected to be this good in this room. I'll definitely try to get with Stavros [the chief engineer and designer] later, and talk about that [new, Aries Cerat] turntable"
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Thanks for taking the time to post the links. Unfortunately when I tried to view one of the videos a message is displayed that the video is unavailable and might have been deleted.
Thanks for the feedback, updated (see upwards).
Nevertheless, that is strange, as I had initially posted shared links to the clips.
Now, I posted a "video URL at current time". It works. It starts at right the purposeful excerpt. But afterwards, it goes on with this uninteresting visit of the show, sorry (obviously, the reporter is ill-equipped and can't use a camera and a microphone properly). In the future, I will try to find better reports.
There is an older video think at his factory
he played a known song was blown away at you tube sound.
love posted video but I also know videos can be bad on systems being sold.
guess it cuts both ways. I’ve heard Aries at a few shows
A stand out sound especially on vinyl.
Munich ramblings
I realize that audio shows are mostly commercial opportunities for people in the business. I was also reminded that they don’t necessarily exist for the purpose of displaying something that sounds good. If that happens, great but more often one gets “show conditions” and if good sound occurs, it’s more likely an accident. So don’t yell at me when I tell you, I heard a ton bad sound today. In general, the show was plagued with Hi-Fi sound, rather than demos that sounded like music. But there were a few highlights and astonishments so I’ll offer a flash synopsis of day 1.
To begin, it blew my mind that somebody is offering this piece of crap for 4M. No idea who makes it and I don’t care. It was a sonic abomination and just horrifying.
I think the hottest product and a star of the show was the new Wadax single box combination server, CD/SACD player, pr-amp and DAC that retails for 39,999. I came across it twice. This little system with Magico S3 and ARC was quite good and very satisfying. To be honest, most folks don’t need a stereo better than this. It was also in the Goebel room with their new "baby" speaker which also sounded good.
I then found what was probably the second best sound I heard all day at the VTL demo. Luke and Bea were using their 7.5 mkIII preamp and Siegried stereo amp to drive Wilson Alexias with Nordost cabling. I returned to this demo 3 times. Its signature was that it sounded like music, and did so with analog (Kuzma arm and table w Lyra cartridge) and digital sources. Having been to several classical concerts in the past week, it was refreshing to hear what sounded like music and not Hi Fi.
I found our Taiko friends with Alsyvox and Pillium demoing the Olympus using an XDMI output early in the day and was frankly not -impressed. I told Ed I’d be back in the afternoon and would defer judgement until then. I’m glad I did. By the time I returned at 4 pm, it was a very nice sounding system. Apparently Emile was tweaking throughout the day and the results were well worth it, Most surprisingly, he told me the biggest benefit came when he took out a silver wire PC to the Olympus an replaced it with a copper wire PC. That may be as confusing to some of you as it was to me. After all, if its battery powered, why should the PC, used for recharging only, matter? Damned if I know but the empirical evidence is that it clearly does, That said, after some extended listening on 3 visits, I must say, Emile's DAC on a chip using an internal XDMI architecture is going to impress a lot of people. I then headed to the Lampizator Room and found the first public display of the Olympus with native XDMI out into the Poseidon. I was not familiar with the speakers (Dearwolf) which sounded nice, and I thought I heard enough to think that the potential here is genuine. Nothing I heard suggested otherwise,
Then came the big surprise of the day, which were the Lorenzo loudspeakers. I really don’t know what to say other than this is one very impressive sounding speaker. What stunned me is that it uses a midrange horn, and I am certainly no fan of horn loudspeakers. In fact, most the horns I heard today just sucked. When horns play strings or piano, for the most part, it just doesn't sound right to me. That's my bias and I'm stickin' to it. But I could have listened to strings and piano on the Lorenzo all day. On the other hand, the Ares Cerat was a horror show. What people see in that, I just don't get. More disappointing was what I heard a Thomas Mayer. I don’t know what they used but it was big, black and ugly. I would have guessed they would have done a better job based on their reputation for excellent tube gear. But let’s get back to the Lorenzo. This was driven by their own tube gear (and nagra DAC) and it just sounded wonderful, like music.
I had he good luck of being there for 30 min by myself and got to know the designer, Miguel Lorenzo Castro, his wife and son quite a bit, What I discovered is it is Miguel's wife that is the final sonic arbiter of the product's sound. Miguel and his son confirm this as they say she has an exceptional ear. Even better, she also sets up the room, which was clearly one of the better sounding rooms I heard today even though it was modest in size. I thought hmmm, maybe Mrs. Castro (Maria Jose, known informally as Pepa) is the EU version of Bea Lam, who has long been known for her excellent ear. Was it simply coincidence that the two best sounding systems I heard thus far were both driven by premier women audiophiles?
I simply could not believe the Lorenzo room was empty for over 30 minutes while I was given an ipad and told to play whatever. I wanted. More people really should hear this speaker. But more than just hear it you have to see the incredible woodwork to believe it. As I told Bob Visitainer, it’s genuinely cabinet art that sounds like music. One might even say its a bargain at 200K! Kudos.
Finally, I was lucky to be invited to the Goebel factory courtesy of Elliot Goldman where I heard the Divin Nobelsse (Riviera driven) and the amazing and daunting Divin Majestics with 6 subs. (Wadax and CH driven). These are special speakers but they were a treat to hear because the rooms Oliver Goebel designed for each speaker are exceptional, allowing each of them to be heard In all their glory.
I’m sure I missed some stuff which is why I going back tomorrow. But based on what I heard today, I decided to fly home on Saturday, a day early, because overall it’s unfortunately not compelling enough to stay an extra day.
I realize that audio shows are mostly commercial opportunities for people in the business. I was also reminded that they don’t necessarily exist for the purpose of displaying something that sounds good. If that happens, great but more often one gets “show conditions” and if good sound occurs, it’s more likely an accident. So don’t yell at me when I tell you, I heard a ton bad sound today. In general, the show was plagued with Hi-Fi sound, rather than demos that sounded like music. But there were a few highlights and astonishments so I’ll offer a flash synopsis of day 1.
To begin, it blew my mind that somebody is offering this piece of crap for 4M. No idea who makes it and I don’t care. It was a sonic abomination and just horrifying.
I think the hottest product and a star of the show was the new Wadax single box combination server, CD/SACD player, pr-amp and DAC that retails for 39,999. I came across it twice. This little system with Magico S3 and ARC was quite good and very satisfying. To be honest, most folks don’t need a stereo better than this. It was also in the Goebel room with their new "baby" speaker which also sounded good.
I then found what was probably the second best sound I heard all day at the VTL demo. Luke and Bea were using their 7.5 mkIII preamp and Siegried stereo amp to drive Wilson Alexias with Nordost cabling. I returned to this demo 3 times. Its signature was that it sounded like music, and did so with analog (Kuzma arm and table w Lyra cartridge) and digital sources. Having been to several classical concerts in the past week, it was refreshing to hear what sounded like music and not Hi Fi.
I found our Taiko friends with Alsyvox and Pillium demoing the Olympus using an XDMI output early in the day and was frankly not -impressed. I told Ed I’d be back in the afternoon and would defer judgement until then. I’m glad I did. By the time I returned at 4 pm, it was a very nice sounding system. Apparently Emile was tweaking throughout the day and the results were well worth it, Most surprisingly, he told me the biggest benefit came when he took out a silver wire PC to the Olympus an replaced it with a copper wire PC. That may be as confusing to some of you as it was to me. After all, if its battery powered, why should the PC, used for recharging only, matter? Damned if I know but the empirical evidence is that it clearly does, That said, after some extended listening on 3 visits, I must say, Emile's DAC on a chip using an internal XDMI architecture is going to impress a lot of people. I then headed to the Lampizator Room and found the first public display of the Olympus with native XDMI out into the Poseidon. I was not familiar with the speakers (Dearwolf) which sounded nice, and I thought I heard enough to think that the potential here is genuine. Nothing I heard suggested otherwise,
Then came the big surprise of the day, which were the Lorenzo loudspeakers. I really don’t know what to say other than this is one very impressive sounding speaker. What stunned me is that it uses a midrange horn, and I am certainly no fan of horn loudspeakers. In fact, most the horns I heard today just sucked. When horns play strings or piano, for the most part, it just doesn't sound right to me. That's my bias and I'm stickin' to it. But I could have listened to strings and piano on the Lorenzo all day. On the other hand, the Ares Cerat was a horror show. What people see in that, I just don't get. More disappointing was what I heard a Thomas Mayer. I don’t know what they used but it was big, black and ugly. I would have guessed they would have done a better job based on their reputation for excellent tube gear. But let’s get back to the Lorenzo. This was driven by their own tube gear (and nagra DAC) and it just sounded wonderful, like music.
I had he good luck of being there for 30 min by myself and got to know the designer, Miguel Lorenzo Castro, his wife and son quite a bit, What I discovered is it is Miguel's wife that is the final sonic arbiter of the product's sound. Miguel and his son confirm this as they say she has an exceptional ear. Even better, she also sets up the room, which was clearly one of the better sounding rooms I heard today even though it was modest in size. I thought hmmm, maybe Mrs. Castro (Maria Jose, known informally as Pepa) is the EU version of Bea Lam, who has long been known for her excellent ear. Was it simply coincidence that the two best sounding systems I heard thus far were both driven by premier women audiophiles?
I simply could not believe the Lorenzo room was empty for over 30 minutes while I was given an ipad and told to play whatever. I wanted. More people really should hear this speaker. But more than just hear it you have to see the incredible woodwork to believe it. As I told Bob Visitainer, it’s genuinely cabinet art that sounds like music. One might even say its a bargain at 200K! Kudos.
Finally, I was lucky to be invited to the Goebel factory courtesy of Elliot Goldman where I heard the Divin Nobelsse (Riviera driven) and the amazing and daunting Divin Majestics with 6 subs. (Wadax and CH driven). These are special speakers but they were a treat to hear because the rooms Oliver Goebel designed for each speaker are exceptional, allowing each of them to be heard In all their glory.
I’m sure I missed some stuff which is why I going back tomorrow. But based on what I heard today, I decided to fly home on Saturday, a day early, because overall it’s unfortunately not compelling enough to stay an extra day.
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OK.
Hotel is booked incl Tickets for saturday / sunday
Hifi deluxe on friday is free .
Expect no mercy
This means non commercial coverage of the high end show (not impressed by machining / extra knobs / thick cables )
Expensive set up, bad sound immediately 1 point deduction
Cheap system ,good sound automatically 1 bonus point.
Ps Special thank you to my employer who provides me a Free EU charge card
How did the Lyravox new tower speakers sound?
Marty, thank you for those impressions!
I am happy you got to hear the Lorenzo! I didn't know which would be the winner, but I believed that you were going to like at least one of the five horn loudspeakers I suggested you listen to.
I am also happy you got to hear the Divin Majestics with six Sovereigns!
I am happy you got to hear the Lorenzo! I didn't know which would be the winner, but I believed that you were going to like at least one of the five horn loudspeakers I suggested you listen to.
I am also happy you got to hear the Divin Majestics with six Sovereigns!
Thanks Marty. Can you describe the sound of the AC room? People usually rave about Aries Cerat. What did you think of the new turntable?
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