Munih Hi End Show 2013 – a small photographic reportage

(20130522)

Dear audio friends,

Once in a life I had to visit the Hi-End Show in Munich. It is the largest hi-fi show in Europe I in the 3 days that I spent there I wsa not able to see everything. Here you can find a short report only of some of the interesting things that I saw there.

My first pictures are for the Silbatone Japanes Company, because these crazy guys really love music!	They brought one of the very few Western Electric Alnico big speakers, made many years ago to make music for thousand of peoples...
Records were not “audiophile” but true music treasures: from Maria Callas mono recordings to heavy metal.	The enormous power conditioner was surely playing an important role in the final result.
Old turntable and new Silbatone electronics.	Gorgeous 300B.

Next one of probably the best sounding system in the Show: the big TAD system.	The medium range TAD speaker.
Music selection was really well done and the system was well presented (not so obvious...)	The medium range TAD speaker.

Probably the most expensive system of the show: the 250kE big Kharma (subwoofer not included) were not sounding as good as the price would call.	The Kharma preamp.

The Soulution system with the big Focal speaker was also not sounding so well as the price of these electronics would call.	An open Soulution amplifier.

The Magico speakers with Spectral electronics.	Also the huge MBL system was sounding very well!
Big Rockport speakers with Absolare electronics: both very expensive.	Absolare tube gears and CEC cd player.

Also the cost not object Constellation was using the big TAD, but the result was not so good as in the full TAD room.	The big TAD are really nice!
The top of the line Constellation are really massive.	The original design of the Constellation preamp.

Audio Power scaring amp with Vivid speakers.	Vivid Giya speakers.
Rosso Fiorentino and Wod electronics were sounding quite well.	The nice Bergmann turntable with tangential air tonearm.
Cessaro horn speakers with Tron electronics.	Brinkman turntable.
Air Force one turntable.	The heavy plate is sustained by a few micron high air-layer.
Viola electronics for the Broadmann (Bosendorfer) room..	Wilson speakers with huge Pass amps.
Many system had the Estelon speakers: here they are coupled with Orpheus electronics	The Marten Django seems to me a good value for the money.
Raidho C1.1 on their incredible good sounding stand.	The JMR Concorde are always sounding very well.
The Harmonix Remyo small room was sounding very well.	The expensive Leonardo electrostatic speakers with GrandiNote electronics and Vyger turntable.
The Kondo room was not sounding as well as one may hope.	The very nice Kondo Ginga turntable.
Kharma speakers also for the Metronome room.	The spatial Metronome CD player.
The Stein Music room was filled with room treatment devices.	The wonderfull Pyon Sound turntable with Panzerholz wood (and Cocobolo tonearm?).
I liked very much the Kaiser Acoustic Chiara stand speakers, that are also made in Panzerholz wood.	Sperling truntable with Ortofon Anna cartridge..
Chord has always the most futuristic design.	Living voice top speaker.
Also in their small system...	Nola AR room.
MSB room.	The Naim Focal room was also sounding well in my opinion.
TuneAudio with the Total DAC digital source.	Great Auris Audio tube gears handmade in Serbia!
De Paravicini turntable.	AMG Viella.
Medium YG speakers and Auralic electronics.	Big YG speakers with Qualia electronics.
G9 tube electronics from Russia were playing with Aures speakers from Estonia..	Kronos turntable, note that the plate below was rotating in the opposite direction...
The big Ayon system.	Only static exposition for the Kuzma Stabi M.
SPEC Corp is a young Japanese company able to make sounding well a class D amplifier and the Amphiom speakers. They uses special quality caps that eng. Yazaki will let me try: thank you!	To explain how good SPEC works just look at the small wooden box that is the remote control receiver: so there will not be any noise due to hi-freq signals inside the alluminium chassis (and note the 3-type of wooden integrated bases). I'll tell you: these are good gears.

Now just a few speakers:

I liked very much the impressive soundstage of the German Physiks HRS120 speakers (14kE).	The carbon fiber resonant transducer used to replace midrange and tweeter in the German Physiks.	The italian Montagna speakers were not playing.
Kef Muon.	I didn't like the partially active new Gryphon speakers.	That was the strangest speaker I saw and... there were also some bass response!
Lawrence speakers are nice and well sounding.	Legacy speakers.	Cristal cable Arabesque are transparent...

Two medium-price systems that I liked were the following:

I liked very much the Lawrence speakers from Taiwan.
I liked also the active Manger speakers.

We went also to the “alternative” Marriot Hotel Show, but most of the set-up there were not satisfying. For me the best sounding room were the following two:

Einstein electronics.	The all Lindemann system.

For my DIY friends a few interesting images:

Inside a Qualia electronics.	An Alluxity chassis drilled from full aluminum body.	Clarity caps.
ASR basis.	Inside ASR integrated amp.	Duelund, Jensen and Shun Mook jewels!
Inside a Nagra Melody.	Inside an Onix amp.	Inside a Plinius amp.
Inside a Van Den Hull amp.	Among the many record shops there was also one from Tacet.	Fortevita preamp.

And now the most important part, that are the “complements”, room treatment devices and a few interesting persons:

Faber showing his Faber Four and Faber Six power distributors with Oyaide plugs: they are incredible.	The Frank Chang tricky resonators from Acoustic Systems. I believe that the cheap Sugar Cube are mandatory to treat each glass surface.
High End Novum resonators.	I have tested them and know that Audio Eckslusive complements really works.
Tim De Paravicini really exist.	In the Phonosophie room there were demonstrations from Giulio Cesare Ricci (Fonè).
Ed Meitner told me that the future of SACD is... the download files. I asked why I should re-buy all my collection of almost 300 rare SACD as download instead than using a good player with DSD interface for the new DACs and he answered that I must ask that to Sony & Philips! Believe me: they are bastards...	Holger Stein is prod of his Harmonizer H2: I can no more hear my system without it!
Joachim Gerhard and other DIY-audio designers met during the show.	The all-capable AMI Purist server/amp can be offered also as OEM products.

As usual with these Show I have spent all of my money... That is one of the reasons why I'll not return!

recors	Great room tweakings	Speaker tweekings.

Friends had to survive also with German food...	During the trip back we enjoyed Austrian landscape (and snowstorm near Kitzbuel)!

Once in a life...