Munich High End 2014

This was my first High End show in Munich, and I really had no idea what to expect. Unfortunately every opportunity I've previously had to go to a Hi-Fi show in the past has somehow conflicted with my work schedule and thus has never eventuated. The solution seemed so obvious, attend WHILE on holidays!

I arrived quite early, just after the doors opened on the first day, along with the morning rush, being squeezed into the 106 bus to Kieferngarten like a sardine in its can.

After browsing around a little, I actively sought out KEF with an intent to show my partner, who was with me at this stage, what my next speakers were to be. 

When we arrived, we saw a pair of gorgeous satin walnut floorstanders, part of the newly launched reference range being powered by dual Arcam P49 power amplifiers. From what I could tell, they had that same excellent KEF sound many, including myself have grown to love. It was a little noisy in the room, so I didn't get an opportunity to have a great listen, but it was still enough to tell they were deserving of the KEF logo placed near the top.

I wandered through a number of rooms, McIntosh, Denon and Marantz before I finally landed in Naim's room. I had an opportunity to hear their new Muso system, recently launched, and it sounded quite impressive given its size. The demonstrators seemed to be caught up with others, so I moved on to the area for Naim Label and got swiftly sold on a number of records by their enthusiastic and friendly staff member. During this bout of record purchasing, I got the chance to listen to both a Unitilite and Uniti 2. Both were great and a first experience for me with the Naim brand.

It was at this point my partner and I parted ways as she wasn't about to take a trip to Munich and NOT go shopping, which left me to adventure on my own. After a little more "window shopping" I ended up in Audioquest's room. 

I was curious to see what it was they were demoing. 

Audioquest had a pair of ELAC floorstanders connected up to an array of NAD Master Series components. The first demonstration was ethernet cables for network audio. I sat through a demo of a standard vs step up vs further step up ethernet cable. It surprises me to say it, but there was actually some difference. It wasn't night and day like some manufacturers would have you believe, but it was definitely present. 

The next test was somewhat more obvious. There we had two Apple TV units, one connected with an "out of the box" HDMI and ethernet cable, the other with Audioquest Cinnamon connections. 

The Cinnamon cables are by no means a bank breaker in the grand scale of things and fall into one of Audioquest's more price appropriate ranges. The Audioquest representative opened up his phone and began streaming to the Apple TV via AirPlay. 

When listening to the track on the first playthrough, I took note not of what sounded good, but more importantly, of what sounded bad. Listening to a track by Buddy Holly, I noticed what could be described as muffled bass during the first play that clearly wasn't present through the second playthrough. Again, given the reasonable pricing of the Cinnamon range, this seemed an affordable upgrade, given the improvement to the overall performance of the system.

I kept trenching from room to room until I stumbled into the Quadral room. I wasn't familiar with the brand, and could have easily been dismissive of it, as I discovered one needs to be when only spending a single day at a show like this. 

However, they were just about to do a presentation of two of their "Aurum" speakers, so I thought I'd sit in. The first few tracks were played through the Aurum Altan VIII bookshelf speakers. This was a two-way, bass-reflex design using what looked like a ribbon tweeter coupled with a 170mm mid-bass driver. The soundstage was very large and open, there was clear and cohesive treble, and surprisingly deep, full bass. Acoustic tracks in particular highlighted the pro's of these speakers. However, I did find that they had a gap in the upper mids which became evident during a live recording of Alicia Keys. Her vocal just seemed to fall into the background a little, though when she broke into her upper register, it was as though her voice had broken free from its restraints. This could have been partly to do with my less than ideal positioning in the room.

The Aurum Titan VIII was another story. Here we had a pair of massive floorstanding loudspeakers in a beautiful cherry finish. This unit featured the same ribbon tweeter as the bookshelf, but this time had a dedicated 170mm mid driver as well as two 260mm bass drivers. 

Now THIS was really where things got kicking. The Titan's delivered a huge full range sound with crisp clean treble, cohesive mid-range and solid, well delivered bass. I should also mention the speakers are hand made in Germany.

After hearing the ELAC speakers during the Audioquest demo, I became quite curious, so I stumbled into their room. Unfortunately the music they had playing wasn't quite as captivating as the previous demonstrations and the representatives didn't seem overly interested, chatting amongst themselves, so I moved on.

My love for KEF had me back in their room once again, this time however, I got to have a much better listen to their new reference line floorstanders. They really are an excellent sounding speaker that deliver huge amounts of detail combined with a solid authority. I was a bit surprised however that there was no demo of the new Blade Two speakers. Perhaps next year?

I made my way through various other rooms, taking snapshots of components and speakers as I passed through, but my next real stop was when I spotted Vivid Audio's room.

I knew very little of Vivid Audio before stepping inside. I knew that their Giya speakers were advertised quite frequently in Stereophile magazine and that they were also on their list of recommended components too. 

Admittedly, I had been quite dismissive of them due to their design. I thought them more of a gimmick than a real attempt at a loudspeaker. My how wrong I was. 

Chief designer and engineer, Lawrence Dickie walked me through how the speakers came to be, from the ground up. He showed me detailed testing that took place, step by step and explained that was part of the reasoning behind their unique shape. 

Lawrence, formally of Bowers & Wilkins was very comprehensive and thorough in explaining the science behind the speakers, for example, the tapered tube loading behind the drivers and he was just oozing passion about them. 

He explained that by using the dual woofer design at the bottom, it negated the need for a heavy cabinet, with these weighing in at just 22kg as a hollow body (obviously the drivers and crossovers add more mass) which was very impressive. 

More importantly though, it's no good having science in theory if it doesn't stack up in execution. So, how did they sound? In a word, outstanding. If you don't mind the appearance, or even if you aren't sure and are simply just looking for a fantastic pair of loudspeakers, they are well worth a demo.

Tannoy had on demo their new 'Ti' additions to their Definition range and after some listening I was quite impressed. I've always loved the look of Tannoy speakers, and these were no exception. A great blend of gorgeous aesthetics mixed with clean sound.

I continued to venture from room to room, checking out what each brand had on offer. I saw the new K3 series components from Roksan. This time round they have removed the mirror finish that was so 'love it or hate it' from the K2 range and have opted for a more industrial brushed metal fascia. They have also added a standalone DAC to the K3 range. None of the products however were hooked up for demo.

I got a chance to finally have a listen to some Creek product. I have been looking forward to that for some time. Unfortunately, I didn't feel as though they had the best floor space nor representation on the day. The Evolution 50 series amp and CD player were on demo with a pair of headphones, the music was running off a Mac Mini connected via USB to the CD players DAC. The sound was as I'd heard, clear and cohesive with lots of detail on offer. There was no sign however of the Destiny 2 series product.

My final little demo was at the Hegel display, a H300 connected up to a pair of KEF Blades. Not the most ideal listening environment being in quite an open area, however it was good to finally get to hear the Blades in the flesh. They are everything they're cracked up to be and the Hegel seemed to drive them comfortably.

If I had any criticisms, it would probably be that this industry struggles to attract new consumers, and this was certainly evident by the sheer number of middle aged gentlemen present on the day. Perhaps further education as to the benefits of good quality audio and why it's worth spending more is in order, rather than simply trying to engineer another "me too" wireless speaker etc.

Another thing I took some issue with was how limited the library of music on demo actually was. I heard the same tracks a number of times throughout the day and while I understand it's nice to demo music that sounds pretty and is well recorded, sometimes it would be nice to hear a little bit of Nirvana, Radiohead or Weezer playing. Some real, everyday music that the average person would listen to. Again, this sort of material really narrows down the market you're trying to cater to.

All said and done though, it was a great first time for me at Munich High End 2014. Days like these further cement my obsession with this hobby. I can't wait until my next one, and next time I'll certainly plan for the full three day session.