Munich, Germany | 2023 – From 9 to 12 May 2024, High End in Munich offered a diverse trade fair program. 550 exhibitors presented products from 1000 brands on an area of 30,000 square meters. The world’s leading audio trade fair attracted 22,000 visitors and 500 journalists. Our freelancer Carlos Martin Schwab took a look around.
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ESD Acoustic – Dragon System loudspeakers (the biggest at the fair, 2.54 m high). It reached 18 Hz down and I could feel it on my chest. Retail price: € 1,200,000
Audiodesk Systeme Gläss GmbH – Vinyl Cleaner PRO X (the best one, in my opinion). The best “Lazarus treatment” for your 2nd hand vinyl at a good price. Retail price: € 2,799
Technics – SL-1200M7B Turntable Lamborghini Edition. The 1200 is a workhorse that has stood the test of time and is a benchmark in direct-drive turntables (available July 1st). Retail price: € 1,499
Dynaudio – Contour 20 Black Edition loudspeakers. The award-winning Contour 20i has an upgraded tweeter and a boost on the electronics. Retail price: € 7,000
Meridian – Ellipse wireless loudspeaker. Front-facing 2.1-driver design with DSP, plenty of connectivity, and big sound in a small form factor. Retail price: € 2,500
Tannoy – Autograph 12 loudspeakers. 12” dual-concentric driver with a vintage look and… vintage sound too (available fall 2024). Retail price: TBD
Pro-Ject – Debut EVO 2 belt-drive turntable. The Debut Carbon Evo successor has a redesigned ball-bearing motor and a Pro-Ject MM cartridge (available TBD). Retail price: € 650
Nagaoka – MP-500 MM cartridge. Nagaoka’s flagship cartridge has a boron cantilever and a precise line contact stylus tip. Retail price: € 899
Amphion – One25A studio monitor. Active, 3-way, sealed cabinet monitor with power, size, and weight of a midfield monitor. Retail price: € 14,900
iXOOST – AMG Performance Luxury Audio Bluetooth loudspeaker. A 2-way, 250 RMS Watts speaker made in carbon fiber and aluminum for Mercedes fans. Retail price: € 25,000
Clearaudio – Performance DC turntable + TT5 tangential tonearm + Essence MC cartridge. The entry-level tangential turntable that I would like to have at home. Retail price: € 7,300
Audio-Technica – ATH-AWKG audiophile closed-back dynamic wooden headphones. On-ear, made by Hand in Tokyo, with 53mm dynamic drivers with Permendur magnets. Retail price: € 3,500
Auris – Mystik turntable + aRIAA MC/MM phono stage. A starting set including a phono pre with precise RIAA eq, hum suppressor, and switchable setup. Retail price: € 999
AFI – Flat Duo record flattener. For LPs and shellac records, with EPP interior, and 2 LPs capacity in 105 m session. Retail price: € 1,999
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Aavik – U-588 integrated amplifier with DAC and streaming (available Sep 2024). A cooperation between Michael Børresen and Flemming Erik Rasmussen (CEO of Gryphon Audio), featuring a streaming module, DAC, and integrated amplifier. Retail price: € 30,000
Dual – CS 529 turntable A fully automatic turntable with app remote control, phono, line, and Bluetooth outputs. Retail price: € 999
Marten – Coltrane Quintet loudspeakers 4-way bass reflex system, 1st. order crossover, Jorma internal wiring, and Marten isolators. Retail price: TBD
Gryphon Audio Designs – Siren Phono Stage With true dual-mono configuration, zero global negative feedback, fully discrete balanced circuit topology, and TFT touchscreen control. Retail price: TBD
Vivid Audio – Moya M1 loudspeakers The last opus from Lawrence Dickie (the B&W Nautilus designer) is a 5-way, 13-speaker design weighing over 750lbs a piece with a frequency response of 19 Hz – 42,000 Hz (-6 dB points) and 3,000 Watts RMS. Retail price: € 430,000
Chord Electronics – DAVE reference-level DAC, headphone amp and preamp. A DAC with 1,000x the processing power of a traditional mass-produced DAC, significantly improved timing and the best noise-shaper performance of any known DAC. Retail price: € 14,000
Metaxas & Sins – Emperor electrostatic loudspeaker. This loudspeaker requires a 20W RMS minimum to deliver a 25Hz-50kHz (-3dB) frequency response and a THD < 0.05% (20Hz-20KHz). Retail price: TBD
Luxsar – Red Dragon Limited Edition turntable. This turntable grabbed my attention at the Hifideluxe show. Manufactured with CNC, assembled and adjusted by hand, it has a massive 12kg aluminum chuck with magnetic levitation, a non-magnetic steel shaft rectified, and the base mounts independent elastomers to avoid vibrations. The metal parts are plated with 18-karat gold. Retail price: € 25,000
Focal – Azurys closed-back headphones. Featuring the same 40mm aluminum and magnesium drivers as the Bathys wireless headphones and sporting a specially designed M-shaped dome, they come with their bespoke carry case, a 1.25m mini-jack cable with an in-line remote control, and a built-in microphone.
Retail price: € 549
Wilson Audio – The Watt/Puppy loudspeaker. The Wilson’s younger sibling features the same speakers as its older siblings: one Convergent Synergy Carbon (CSC) tweeter, one AlNiCo QuadraMag midrange driver, and two cellulose composite woofers to deliver a frequency response of 26Hz–30kHz +/- 3dB @ 4 Ohms.
Retail price: TBD
Metaxas & Sins – Ikarus integrated monitoring amplifier. The combination of aesthetics and technology of Metaxas & Sins products is unique. This amp with a sculptured massive CNC machined aluminum case, delivers 50W RMS per channel into 8 Ohms, THD < 0.05% (20Hz-20KHz), and a signal/noise ratio of -117dBV.
Retail price: TBD
iXOOST – Pirelli P ZERO™ Sound loudspeaker. There is no better way to recycle a real F1 tire. Available in different colors, this 2-way Bluetooth loudspeaker has a 1″ tweeter, a 5″ woofer, and a 100W power amp. Retail price: € 8,100
Western Electric – Type 100 tube mono power amplifier. Hand-built in America with a retro look, and an enormous WE308B tube, it delivers 125W of pure A-Class power per channel (available October 2024). Retail price: € 120,000
Dan D’Agostino – Momentum C4 Preamplifier. This preamp integrates Dan D’Agostino’s complementary Four Circuit (C4) topology and offers an optional DSM that adds connectivity for legacy sources, USB, and premier streaming capability. Field upgradeable, the DSM adds SPDIF coaxial, optical, USB-B, RJ45, and Wi-Fi network inputs. Supports 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet for latency-free playback of high-res network content. Retail price: € 56,000
Avantgarde Acoustic – Mezzo loudspeakers. The loudspeakers of this German company are recognized by their huge waveguides. The Mezzo features semi-active or active versions, with modular technology, and its 2 drivers are on the same axis (coplanar alignment) with the tweeter positionable on the horizontal axis.
Retail price: € 87,000
Potar – Radipotar 360° loudspeakers. Presented for the first time at High End Munich and developed by Klaus Leesemann, CEO of Potar, these loudspeakers are fully active, DSP-controlled, and have radial horns pointing upwards. Retail price: TBD
