Munich HighEnd 2024

Compression driver appears to be a Radian 760NEO:

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Tweeter looks like a Goto Unit:
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I'd shorten the horn according to Harsdorff's algorithm, reduce the throat to 1.4", add a roundover or mount the horn in a baffle.
Use suitable drivers from 18Sound or Beyma, et voilà. The Supravox woofer is undoubtedly good, but doesn't really offer anything special compared to similar woofers from both pro audio brands.
 
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Compression driver appears to be a Radian 760NEO:

View attachment 132321

Tweeter looks like a Goto Unit:
View attachment 132324View attachment 132328

I'd shorten the horn according to Harsdorff's algorithm, reduce the throat to 1.4", add a roundover or mount the horn in a baffle.
Use suitable drivers from 18Sound or Beyma, et voilà. The Supravox woofer is undoubtedly good, but doesn't really offer anything special compared to similar woofers from both pro audio brands.
You should hear it before suggesting "improvements". The Horn was quite free from coloration and I am not sure that you can say the Supravox woofer doesn't bring anything over the pro drivers as it is not just doing bass. Why would you consider the need to put the horn in a baffle?
 
The compression driver on that rectangular horn is a Radian…I took a look see when I was in the room.

Indeed. I didn't read your comment when I posted mine because I had to leave.
But it can only be a Radian, based on the image I attached.

You should hear it before suggesting "improvements". The Horn was quite free from coloration and I am not sure that you can say the Supravox woofer doesn't bring anything over the pro drivers as it is not just doing bass. Why would you consider the need to put the horn in a baffle?

“Knowledge is a map that guides us while imagination is the territory where we can roam freely and search for answers and opportunities. Imagination knows no restraint and it is the power that puts knowledge to use.”


1717786410131.png1717786452188.png

I'm sure the system sounds good, that's why I explicitly asked for opinions. Spherical horns usually sound good because it's the most natural form of expansion. While the KL horn is proof of these features, there's still something to be gained by shortening the horn, baffle-mounting/roundover + eliminating the tweeter. As a proponent of simplicity, seeking a well-considered balance of compromises, I'm a stickler for 'less but better'.
 
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Indeed. I didn't read your comment when I posted mine because I had to leave.
But it can only be a Radian, based on the image I attached.



“Knowledge is a map that guides us while imagination is the territory where we can roam freely and search for answers and opportunities. Imagination knows no restraint and it is the power that puts knowledge to use.”


View attachment 132337View attachment 132338

I'm sure the system sounds good, that's why I explicitly asked for opinions. Spherical horns usually sound good because it's the most natural form of expansion. While the KL horn is proof of these features, there's still something to be gained by shortening the horn, baffle-mounting/roundover + eliminating the tweeter. As a proponent of simplicity, seeking a well-considered balance of compromises, I'm a stickler for 'less but better'.
Why not go for oblate spheroid as per Earl Geddes if you want to minimize HOMs? All I can say is that with a lot of horns you hear the horn and with this one you basically didn't hear it. I was very pleasantly surprised.
 
Why not go for oblate spheroid as per Earl Geddes if you want to minimize HOMs? All I can say is that with a lot of horns you hear the horn and with this one you basically didn't hear it. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Horn technology involves much more than just HOMs. OS waveguides can work very well, but - as with any horn - you have to take loading characteristics into account.
A driver attached to an OS waveguide crossed below, say, 1500 Hz tends to operate partially in reactive mode, which can be noticeable.
I shifted my focus to other horn profiles years ago, the spherical wave horn technology is probably my favorite.

Based on that knowledge and experience, it was to be expected the Supravox would sound good. However, there's nearly always room for small improvements and Charles Azzolina-Michlin's variation on the KL horn appears to be an example.

1717800405854.png


3 alternative woofers: the first if you want to cross low, the second for xo frequency around 1000 Hz and the third driver is very similar to the Supravox wrt parameters (the other 2 are more efficient).
 

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Is Kroma Atelier quietly making some of the very best speakers on the planet in 2024 ? ? :eek::)


WOW !! :oops::oops: Look at this REVIEW below......

 
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Is Kroma Audio quietly making some of the very best speakers on the planet in 2024 ? ? :eek::)


I doubt it. I listened to these:

1717803817044.png

And thought they sound decent for speakers in the 10-15k range. Turns out they cost almost 60k :cool:

Techniques​

The cabinets are fully made from white Krion, with carbon fiber inlays on the sides. Krion is a Spanish variant of Corian, both a sort of “artificial stone” and this material that is responsible for a very large chunk of the speakers’ cost. The Krion website provides the following info: “Krion is a material that is warm to the touch and similar to natural stone. It is made of two-thirds natural minerals (ATH – aluminum trihydrate) and a low percentage of high-resistance resins”.


It is quite likely that the speakers would sound better if the cabinets were made of wood, possibly sandwiched with other materials.
A certain degree of damping is desirable, but aiming for the rigidity of an Atlantic Wall bunker often means that the system exhibits similar characteristics.
 
I doubt it. I listened to these:

View attachment 132354

And thought they sound decent for speakers in the 10-15k range. Turns out they cost almost 60k :cool:

Techniques​

The cabinets are fully made from white Krion, with carbon fiber inlays on the sides. Krion is a Spanish variant of Corian, both a sort of “artificial stone” and this material that is responsible for a very large chunk of the speakers’ cost. The Krion website provides the following info: “Krion is a material that is warm to the touch and similar to natural stone. It is made of two-thirds natural minerals (ATH – aluminum trihydrate) and a low percentage of high-resistance resins”.


It is quite likely that the speakers would sound better if the cabinets were made of wood, possibly sandwiched with other materials.
A certain degree of damping is desirable, but aiming for the rigidity of an Atlantic Wall bunker often means that the system exhibits similar characteristics.
I most definitely concur with your impressions! Some designers have very little clue of sound quality/value ratio of their speakers vs others.....
 
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Wow these $46K Kroma Atelier Jovita speakers are very VERY Realistic sounding ! :eek:


More about Kroma speakers below

 
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the new edition of Epos Speakers by Karl Heinz Fink. amazing speakers a friend buying the big ones epos es 28n. I must say one of the new best speakers I've heard in the last two years. demo little bookshelf speaker es 7n not the blue one playing
woo_Epos_86203-2.jpg
 
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Charles Azzolina-Michlin's variation on the KL horn appears to be an example.
I miss Azzolina on High End Munich. AFAIK, the last time they were there was 2018.
 
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Mono And Stereo is Reviewing these All New Audio Analogue Airtech Loudspeakers right now !

https://www.audioanalogue.com/en/products/diffusori-2



I listened to Airtech's ATS01 magnetoplanar speakers and had a brief chat with one of the Airtech engineers.

The speakers were powered by 2 Audio Analogue ABSolute amplifiers. Very simple setup with a laptop connected to a DAC and a pre amp of course.

We thought it was one of the better sounding setups at the (local) show, with a variety of music being played: some classical, instrumental, vocals (similar to Paolo Conte) and suddenly an explosive techno track at serious output level.
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of impact, the lack of distortion and the integration of the bass (165mm Morel).
The sound was quite live-like, fairly natural (though not top-notch) and coherent. All in all quite enjoyable. However, given the price of the power amps and speakers alone (100k+), I'd personally build something completely different and save about 80k.

1717873273037.png
 
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I listened to Airtech's ATS01 magnetoplanar speakers and had a brief chat with one of the Airtech engineers.

The speakers were powered by 2 Audio Analogue ABSolute amplifiers. Very simple setup with a laptop connected to a DAC and a pre amp of course.

We thought it was one of the better sounding setups at the (local) show, with a variety of music being played: some classical, instrumental vocals (similar to Paolo Conte) and then suddenly an explosive techno track started, at serious output level.
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of impact, the lack of distortion, the integration of the bass (165mm Morel).
The sound was quite live-like, fairly natural (though not top-notch) and coherent. All in all quite enjoyable. However, given the price of the power amps and speakers alone (100k+), I'd personally build something completely different and save about 80k.

View attachment 132391
These speakers were 50K?!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Add 3k for this 61.5 kg beastie and you're good to go:

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It's a fairly straightforward design by amplifier guru Claudio Bertini and some prefer the previous AA amps to the new ones.
 
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This was my 15th time traveling to the Munich show, and this year my lovely wife joined me (her 3rd time).
For many years I was entering almost every room and tried to listen to everything I could.
at the MOC and the HFD. That was when I was "just" an end customer.
But in the last few years post covid mainely, I have been traveling mostly for vacation with friends and to meet some ppl around the world that I'm friends with on the basis of our hobbies. and mainly to meet our joint manufacturer that we work with.

to take things lightly first of all - i'm a Business affiliation to High end audio located in Israel so, take it as you will. I will disclose the brands I keep (brand list*) to maintain your comments to minimum :)

First, those attending shows, not just Munich, know that. and shows are just that.
As others commented earlier, I would not slice and dice my end decision upon listening to a system, speakers, or other equipment during shows. There are so many variables and time restrictions (not to mention noise and interference) that it's just not possible to get the right choice. You can hear potential, you can listen to ppl talking, you can ask questions and see stuff that a lot of us see only in magazines and take it to your bed at night.
We know how difficult it is to set up and end up with a stereo system that we like for a long time in our own houses, so every manufacturer with numerous difficulties and variables to set up a proper system that will sound ok and up is amazing on its own.

meetings and more
It was a real pleasure for us to meet Arthur and Dominika from Arya audio (brand list)
and see some of their future exploration in the audio realm, they are the most cute and smart ppl we met. absolutely joy. We sat for two hours and just talked about everything.

We also went to meet our good friend from J.sikora in their rooms, J.sikora is one of the best analog brands today and you could see their stuff in 4-5 rooms this year. congrats to them!

Avalon (a speaker's project from fono acustica cables) had a great room with Goldmund electronics. the nicest guys ever from spain. We love them very much. and we keep FA cables. The new speaker filled the room but was a bit harsh on the highs for our taste. I need to listen to it in a proper location to establish this beauty of s speaker.

ALSYVOX with Pilium, Taiko and one from our brand list -VYDA lab cables - was a very good room, lacking some bottom end to our taste but the clarity and crispness of music was enchanting! Those guys were Very nice indeed, all of them! great room to spend time in and talking to manufacturers.

Boenicke (brand list) one of the Best rooms ever, almost the same as last year but better
the W22 is an amazing speaker and Sven is absolutely one of the greatest designers in this industry in my opinion.

Zelaton and YS were very very good. not my cup of tea usually but i know some of their speakers very well and they succeeded to impress this year! very good company and i will take it over wilson every day of the week.

Stenhiam with Dartzeel in "anna Mighty" room with csport and this year with R2R tape from French and also Mr SABAG on the saxophone were incredible also.
real music, real ppl, real shows!
We spent hours in this room several times. drinks, talking, listening to a lot of music!
very very good presentation and a great VIBE room.

Aries Cerat - (brand list) - i have a full system of AC in my demo room excluding speakers. I LOVE stavros and everything he is making. I think he is the number one manufacturer today. that said. His room was not on par with what you can achieve with the same system in a proper room and set up. I visited Stavros in Cyprus a month ago and listened to the same system in his own demo room for 3 days and could not leave it for a second. this thing plays like nothing on this earth. enough said, we've been there already.

HFD
We spend all Saturday and half of our Sunday in HFD mainely because of two people that we dearly love.
Florian from Clarisys (brand list) that became our best friend in the world. and we wanted to spend time with him and his family. We also had the honor to meet for the first time ever, Ken Stevens from CAT. was a real pleasure.
The clarisys room was great especially when the little new Piccolo played. Their "living room" 6x6x3 was difficult to figure sound wise, but the Piccolo played wonder! CAT monoblocks were excellent and you could spend hours there to have fun with the greatest ppl. Clarisys Audio is our main speaker in our demo room and we get the Auditorium for the full experience. But, the Piccolo was surprisingly almost perfect!

The other man (and crew) we headed to meet there and spend time with is ALEX from
"RAAL 1995" (brand list) and his friends from Serbia. all of them manufacturers from Serbia who got to the HFD show and had a room that was the Best you can hear in headphones world. SAEQ, SOLAJA AUDIO , AURIS etc.

Diasis audio - was a VERY good room, with enormous sound and beautiful music playing. Also a great great guy.

audio nostrum - we heard the Saturn and it was a really good, clear crisp sound which filled the room effortlessly. We spoke a bit with the designer, and looked at his beautiful speaker and finish. 80'000eu is not cheap for a "no name" company but those were amazing looking beyond a lot of speakers that you can see in those shows.
hi five for them!

FM AUDIO - as usual a very big room, very esthetics and great product display but nothing engaging when we visit, i heard a lot better from them over the past years.

i saved the best for last -
my Best room in the show goes to "Destination audio" with Lampizator this year.
this brand from Poland that I just saw a glimpse of on the internet was shockingly good.
I never got the chance to hear or know them.
we entered the room and immediately fell in LOVE. those "Nika" speakers from D.A and their GM70 dual chassis integrated amp just floored us along with Lukasz dac. with absolutely wonderful tone and music capability. We were there in their room - in and out.
The room seems almost "sad" with almost no equipment like the others, but a true system. a source, amp and speakers! that just plays music. no sales guys, no interruptions! no banners no shit. (excuse my french)
That room was a real treat and we just Loved it the MOST.

there was a lot more good, bad and wonderful all around, but for us it is always about the People and music. electronics and speakers are just wood and metal.
peace and love fro
I love what you said here about owning Aries Cerat and still praised Destination audio with Lampizator..... awesome dude (y)
 
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