Munich High End 2025 Show Coverage

Hello SECRETS Readers!

Get ready — the world’s biggest audio event is back, and SECRETS is on the ground to bring it all to you! The Munich HIGH END 2025 Show is taking place May 15th through 18th at the massive MOC Convention Center, and it’s shaping up to be the most ambitious edition yet. With over 500 exhibitors and more than 1000 brands representing the very best in high-end audio, this show is the undisputed heavyweight of the global hi-fi calendar.

Once again, SECRETS Editor-in-Chief Carlo Lo Raso will be your eyes and ears on the show floor, delivering in-depth coverage, breaking news, and live impressions directly from Munich. You’ll find daily updates right here on our website and across our Instagram and Facebook channels as we explore everything from landmark product debuts to hidden audio gems.

Expect surprises. Expect innovation. Expect to see gear you’ve never heard of — yet. The HIGH END show has a reputation for revealing future trends and introducing brands that often go on to make waves in the U.S. market. This will also be the last High End Show in Munich as in 2026 the show will have a new home in Vienna, Austria. So in some respects this is the end of a Hi-Fi era.

And just like last year, our 2025 coverage is proudly made possible through the continued support of our friends at Fidelity Imports — U.S. distributors of exceptional audio brands like Perlisten, Unison Research, Opera Loudspeakers, Michell Audio, Wilson-Benesch, Diptyque Audio, among others. We sincerely thank them for helping us deliver the detailed, passionate show reporting that SECRETS is known for.

So bookmark this page, follow us on social media, and stay tuned as we dive into the spectacle, the surprises, and the sonic bliss that is Munich HIGH END 2025. We hope you enjoy it.

Note that all prices, unless otherwise noted, are in USD.

AVM / YG Acoustics

On the afternoon before the official start of Munich High End 2025, AVM and YG Acoustics teamed up for a major product reveal. The covers came off to unveil the flagship speaker of YG’s new “Ultimate” loudspeaker line.

Called the Gemini, this monsterous polished chrome set of monoliths featured all newly developed drivers including a new tweeter in a novel spherical waveguide, and a dedicated sub-bass driver. It had massive external crossovers connected by reams of Crystal Cables and the whole shooting match was controlled and driven by a substantial stack of AVM amplification and electronics. Bling! Bling!

ATC / Rotel MICHI

German distributor ATR, handles several brands for their home market, two of which are ATC and Rotel. In this room we had the beautiful passive ATC SCM 150 Classic speakers on stands which were sourced and driven by equally beautiful Rotel MICHI gear.

This consisted of the P5 Series 2 Preamp, the S5 Stereo Power Amp, and of particular interest, the new Q5 CD Transport/DAC. Get a load of the substantial and heavy metal disc clamp with integrated windows. I almost lost my grip on it, not being prepared for how weighty it was! Our Craig Chase will be having a full review on this latest physical media playing beast dropping on the SECRETS website soon.

Advance Paris

Advance Paris unveiled a new series of audio components at Munich High-End 2025. Called the “Nova” line, this new series of components features a fresh, elevated design language and several new internal part and design refinements to set it apart from the existing “Classic” line which will continue alongside Nova.

Some examlples of new Nova components include the A-I190 integrated amplifier which maintains the solid-state, Class AB, Dual-Mono amplifier design with tube input stage. It has an upgraded DAC, onboard DSP which supports room correction for a 2.2 channel system using Room EQ Wizard free software. As the name implies it puts out 190 watts per channel into 8-ohms. Both it and the similar-featured, but lower powered, A-I130 come with a snazzy rechargable dial-type volume/input remote control.

There is also the substantial A-M220 Monoblock power amplifier which delivers 220 watts per channel into 8-ohms, and the A-S160 Stereo Class AB power amplifier which puts out 160 watts into 8-ohms.

For the Custom Install market, Advance Paris also introduced a 2-zone, 60 watt per channel, Class D professional amplifier called the A-PRO2 along with 2 sets of matching loudspeakers, the A-SP4, and the A-SP6 for business and service applications. Both speakers are two-way designs with a 1-inch dome tweeter and either a 4.5-inch or 6-inch woofer, respectively. The A-PRO2 amplifier has an optional on-wall remote that connects to the amp via ethernet cable.

And speaking of Advance Paris, Cédric Léon gave me a nice walkthrough of the new Nova line and specifically the A-I190 Integrated Amplifier.

Unison Research and Opera Loudspeakers

I visited with Bartolomeo Nasta from Unison Research and Opera Loudspeakers and we shot this fun little video about their display at the show.

TAD

TAD was in fine form at this final Munich show. In play during my visit were the Grand Evolution One tower speakers which were being driven by a pair of TAD’s new M2500TX stereo power amplifiers and the C1000 preamplifier. An elegant and beautiful sounding system. On static display was the TAD ME1TX Micro Evolution speakers.

JBL

Longtime JBL fans recall the company’s previous high-end loudspeaker models such as the D5500 Everest and the K2. Well continuing on that theme, JBL unveiled three new speaker models in what the company has named it’s new Summit series. They are the two-way Summit Ama stand-mount speaker, the three-way Summit Pumori mid-sized floor-stander, and finally the larger three-way floor-stander, the Summit Makalu.

All three speakers use a version of JBL’s dual-diaphram, dual-motor compression driver set within their HDI waveguide (a 1.5-inch driver in the Ama and the Pumori, with a 3-inch version inside the Makalu). The Summit Ama adds an 8-inch woofer to complete the picture, while the Pumori adds the same 8-inch driver as a mid-woofer and another 10-inch bass driver. The Makalu swaps the Pumori’s 10-inch woofer for a 12-inch driver in a larger enclosure. All the speakers are rear ported (single ports in the Ama and Pumori with duals in the Makalu) and are available in elegant piano black or ebony wood finishes. The speakers also incorperate custom IsoAcoustics Gaia Neo isolation feet.
Availability will be in Q4 of this year with prices yet to be finalized.

I got a chance to listen to the Summit Makalu at the show and was impressed with the balanced tonal presentation they were able to achieve in the room. No gaping sonic holes to speak of and an impressive bass reach to seal the deal. Looking forward to finagle a review pair out of JBL’s hands for an extended evaluation at some point. #JBL #secrets #hifi High End Society JBL Synthesis IsoAcoustics

Genelec

Another impressive listen at the show was to be found in the Genelec room. Long known for their reputaion in the pro audio world, the company made a tageted play for the advanced home audio consumer at this year’s Munich High-End. Genelec was featuring their 5-way 8381A Master Edition Active system (also known as “The Main Ones”) in a beautiful piano black finish that was more suited to a home environment. The speakers use a coaxial driver with a 1-inch tweeter set within a 5-inch midrange cone. This driver is positioned behind a large wavguide for superior dispersion. At each of the four corners of the waveguide is a 5-inch dome midrange driver. Below this midrange/tweeter array is a single 15-inch forward-firing bass driver. All this sits upon a matching subwoofer/stand type module with two-additional side-firing 15-inch bass drivers. The system used four bespoke Class-D amplifiers wih onboard control DSP for a total of 5926 watts of power.

This Genelec system has it’s own customized calibration software with an included microphone for full room optimization and plenty of resources for tweaking the final response to taste. At a cost of roughly $60K for the whole system, all one needs to add is the analog or digital source of your choice. The room acoustics at an audio show are at best a moving target. The 8381A Master Edition however had successfully bent the room to it’s will and it was one of the more a convincing and satisfying experiences that I had during the entire 4 day event.

Meze

While at the Munich show I dropped in to visit our friends at Meze Audio for a few reasons.

First was to get a listen to the newly unveiled Meze 105 Silva headphones. From what I can tell these combine some of the best design and sonic qualities of the original 105 model and the recent 109 PRO into a desirable and relatively affordable open-back package. Meze headphones always feel good to the touch and the 105 Silva are no exception. With their walnut ear cups and and other quality materials they exude a sense of craftsmanship and pride when you pick them up that it adds to the overall experience. Sonically the 50 mm dynamic driver and the headphone’s acoustic tuning delivers a warm, musical presentation with an appealing sense of spaciousness. Nice rendering of both male and female vocals too. I suspect the 105 Silva is going to be a popular choice when it officially becomes available in the next few months. US pricing is TBD.

My second reason for visiting Meze was that I got a chance to sit and have a lengthy discussion with company founder and lead designer, Antonio Meze. Having an art background, I’ve always appreciated the design aesthetic and material choices that go into Meze products. That creativity is one of the things that sets them apart from most other brands. In our discussion, Antonio Meze confirmed just how much these factors are considered and explored during the development phase. He and his team are all very mindful of not just the overall sound profile of a new headphone, IEM, or cable but also how that product looks and feels when you interact with it. They are very particular in that the product in question has to satisfy on every level. Antonio Meze made it clear that they have no interest in creating just another commodity product. It has to be something a user will appreciate and covet, for all the right reasons.

I got a first hand look at this fastidious attention to design and quality while at the show as Meze had set up a private “Innovation display” where guests could get a glimpse of what goes into designing a Meze product. While I was not allowed to take pictures of what I saw, I can tell you that the small room had dozens and dozens of color renderings, inspiration photos, technical drawings and even napkin sketches tacked up on the walls exploring every possible design detail. Team members Vlad Toca and Alexandru Grigoras proceeded to open up about a dozen individual drawers that revealed several 3D printed explorations of earcup designs and finishes, metal and leather samples, headband designs, grille inserts, driver samples, diaphragm samples, and earpad materials. It was a fascinating glimpse into the hundreds of hours involved in taking a design from initial conception to final production, often with a lot of little detours on the way.

Loewe

German electronics manufacturer Loewe is one of the earliest developers and makers of television technology in the world. They have had spotty representation in the US market over the years with almost no trace of them in the past decade. From my discussions with the brand they are looking to change that, making a major move back into the US as of later this year. From a standpoint of displays, Loewe specializes in OLED technology, purchasing raw open cell panels from LG, then engineering, manufacturing, and assembling all the processing and digital electronics along with the cabinetry in their facility in Kronach, Germany. In this way the company can tailor and customize the performance and features of it’s panels to it’s own targets and thus further stand out from competitors. The Loewe’s Stellar 65 dr+ Ultra HD display that was being demonstrated had a superb looking image with inky blacks, outstanding contrast, and excellent color rendering. It comes with an integrated 80 watt soundbar and 4 HDMI 2.1 inputs that each support 144 Hz VRR at full resolution for fast gaming performance. The cabinet is also interesting in that Loewe offers a array of designer finishes including one that mimics stone, called Lava.

But while I expected seeing displays from Loewe what I didn’t expect was seeing high quality HiFi speakers and amplifiers. I discovered that the company’s Inicio bookshelf and Grand Inicio floor-standing speakers are designed in house and use PuriFi sourced midrange drivers an a custom AMT tweeter in nicely braced, rigid cabinets. The Inicio bookshelf is a sealed two-way bolstered with two side-firing passive radiators. The Grand Inicio is a two-way vented tower with an MTM driver arrangement. Both speakers are rated at 4-ohms nominal impedance and will be made to order, being produced in limited quantities. The Inicio will cost 4,999 Euros per pair and the Grand Inicio is priced at 9,999 Euros for a pair. US pricing is TBD.

DALI

One of the surprises that DALI premiered at Munich High End this year was the slightly insane-looking V-16 F powered subwoofer. DALI has decided to throw the gauntlet down with this bad boy. This quad-ported, 90 Liter cabinet sports an in-house designed and produced 16-inch driver with a 70 mm peak-to-peak excursion. DALI also took the extra step of licensing PuriFi’s CSS rubber surround technology and incorporated it into the driver design. There is an onboard 1500-watt (2500-watt peak) Class D amplifier section and some interesting DSP features available to choose from through front panel display including a Constant Group Delay mode, and a Room Mode Attenuation feature. DALI wants to make clear that this sub has an ultra wide bandwidth and ultra low distortion through its entire operating range. We cannot wait to get one of these babies in the house to review! Price is 4,999 Euros. US pricing is TBD.

IsoAcoustics

Isolation and vibration control specialists IsoAcoustics were in Munich taking the lid off their latest creations for the show attendees. Of note were the new Gaia Neo and Gaia Titan Neo series of isolation feet. Each is available in three different sizes to accomdate various loads ranging from a maximum of 70 to a maximum of 620 lbs. Several refinments over the original Gaia design have been incorperated into the new models. These include a more substantial size, simpler overall installation, better protection for the underside of your speakers/equipment, up to 8 mm of height ajustability achieved by rotating an integrated ring clutch, and included furniture mover style discs. The new feet wil be available in the standard polished nickel finish and a polished black finish too. Availability will be in the fall with pricing yet to be determined.

STAX

At Munich High End 2025, it was a pleasure to present our 2024 Best Of Award to Audrey Felix of STAX Headphones for their SR-X9000 Electrostatic Earspeakers. Having both personally reviewed these headphones and visited the factory, all I can say is… there are headphones and then there are STAX!

Diptyque Audio

Checking in with French brand Diptyque, I sat in and listened to their updated flagship DP Reference mk II Planar loudspeakers. These were being controlled and driven with electronics from another French brand, Kora High Fidelity. I thought the combination sounded excellent with just a wonderful sense of detail, space, and bass impact.

It was also a pleasure to present our SECRETS 2024 Best Of Award to Eric Poix and Gilles Douziech of Diptyque Audio for their 140 Mk II planar magnetic loudspeakers, at Munich High End 2025.

Marten Loudspeakers

Swedish manufacturer Marten Loudspeakers unveiled their new Coltrane Supreme Extreme loudspeakers at Munich High End in a static display. This flagship speaker system is priced at 950,000 Euros per pair and used some pretty advanced design and driver technology. Those features include (per speaker):

– A 1 inch pure diamond tweeter.
– A 3 inch pure diamond upper midrange dome driver.
– A 7 inch pure beryllium midrange dome (the largest ever built).
– Four 8-inch Crystalid mid-bass drivers.
– Five 10 inch aluminum sandwich bass drivers.
– Ten 10 inch aluminum sandwich passive radiators.
– First Order crossovers.

For sheer spectacle it’s one of the coolest looking speakers I’ve seen!

Kii Audio

Who said that Munich High-End was just for 2-channel HiFi? Kii Audio had a 7.1.4 channel immersive audio system set up in a large room on the main floor. Consisting of Kii Three speakers for the front Left, Center, and Right channels, each sitting on a matching BXT active bass stand. Two Kii Seven speakers were used as side surround channels with two more being used as rear channels. Four additional Kii Seven speakers were used as the height channels. The LFE channel was being routed to the the BXT bass stands in front.

Since Kii Audio speakers are completely active, the signal routing went like this, a multichannel Pure Audio Streaming source track was sent from a streamer, via HDMI, to a Lyngdorf MP60 processor. The processor converted the signal to AES67 Audio over IP (similar to Dante) and this was sent to the speakers via Ethernet. No additional processing or upmixing was used. All this resulted in one of the most successful immersive music listening experiences that I have had. The demo music was sort of new age world music with some vocals interspersed at times, so not stuff I was familiar with. But there was no mistaking the way the music seamlessly traveled from channel to channel and enveloped all the listeners in the seats. It was all quite brilliant.

Perlisten

Our friends at Perlisten had a couple of interesting developments to share at Munich. First was the introduction of a new S7t derivative known as the S7t Black Edition. It incorporates the same existing tech as the current S7t but with black aluminum side panels in place of wood veneer. These were being run in a 2.2 channel stereo configuration with a pair of Perlisten’s D8is subwoofers. Rather lovely sounding if I may say.

Second was the introduction of the new A Series of loudspeakers. This line is meant mainly for the Asian and European markets. Whether it will be seen in the US later this year is still an open question. The assortment consists of the A4T 3-way tower, the A3T mid-size tower, the A3M monitor, and the A2S on-wall speaker. The most notable differences are the use of an MTM array with a tweeter recessed in a significant waveguide instead of the DPC array from the R and S series. I found the speakers to also to look better in the flesh than I’ve seen in photos. Perlisten had the A4T towers on demonstration, hooked up to a Krell integrated amp and a Magnetar UDP-900 mkII Universal player. The overall sound was quite balanced with some excellent extended bass.

Magnetar

Magnetar was quietly debuting MkII versions of their UDP-800 and 900 Universal Disc Players. The main differences that I could determine were upgraded DACs for the multichannel analog outputs of the UDP-900 and additional provisions for better custom install integration and control. Hopefully they have improved some if the excess distortion I measured in the stereo analog audio output from the XLR jacks of the UDP-900 but the reps were kind of cagey when I asked the question.

Technics

Lots of goodies in the Technics room here at Munich. The SC-CX700 Wireless Music System, the SL-1200M7B Lamborghini turntable for starters. But the Technics SL-1000R turntable with an SME, Clearaudio Linear tracking, and stock tonearms was particularly impressive.

SimAudio/Dynaudio

The Moon 641 Integrated Amplifier and the 681 Network Player/DAC sounded lovely through the Dynaudio Contour Legacy speakers. It was a very nice-sounding room with real world equipment that has a real world footprint!

T+A

Dropping in on the T+A room, the company was teasing an early version of a higher power “Multi Source Receiver.” Called the R 1200 E, it is a step-up model over the existing R 1000 E. Complete with a built-in CD player and streaming client, it is a one-box solution that can accommodate a variety of analog inputs too. T+A has also seen fit to equip it with a larger high-resolution color screen for good measure. The R 1200 E will see the light of day sometime in 2026.

ELAC

At Munich, ELAC made a big splash at the Munich show this year with the release of a new flagship speaker to celebrate its 99th anniversary, the Concentro M 807.

The organic, sculpted enclosure features one of ELAC’s latest JET 6 AMT tweeters surrounded by a circular array of six 1.5-inch drivers that cover the upper midrange. ELAC calls this assemblage of drivers its “Variable Coaxial Electric” (VXe) technology. The M 807 also features a 5-position dispersion control (on the back of each speaker) that allows the user to contour the dispersion characteristics of the VXe array, tailoring it to suit the room. The two flanking 4.5-inch drivers cover the lower midrange band which passes off to two side-firing 10-inch woofers for the bass. The M 807 is ported out the bottom and the cabinets have no parallel surfaces inside to help control any internal standing waves. If the sound quality at the demo was anything to go by, ELAC has a lot to be proud of for their 99th year. Wonderful clarity and dynamics. US price looks to be $45K for a pair of these audio spaceships.

Aries Cerat

Cyprus-based audio brand Aries Cerat, maker of statement-level tube audio gear and speaker systems, brought what amounted to the “Moby Dick” of audio systems to the Munich High-End show this year. Their prototype Pallas semi-active speaker system pretty much checked all the upper-crust audiophile boxes in its design brief. Needing 16 (count ‘em, 16) separate power amplifiers for the 16 12-inch woofers used “folded open-baffle bass chassis.” According to the spec sheet, the beast uses a field coil mid-bass horn, midrange compression drives, and a “dipole long-throw horn-loaded ribbon driver.”  The most stunning thing to my eyes about these speakers was the swirling pearlescent white finish on the Pallas. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and this is before we get into all the associated tube equipment and the statement Pandora turntable and Hermes phono stage that were on hand. A mind-bending assemblage of equipment and squarely in the category of “If you have to ask the price…”

Audiovector

Danish brand Audiovector took the cover off their latest flagship addition to the Arreté line, the R10. This tall, lithe beauty of a speaker features dual AMT drivers for a claimed extended treble response out to 53 kHz and a rear-facing 8-driver bass line array for more uniformly distributed bass in the room. The fit and finish of the speakers were outstanding, and the piano gloss Bird’s Eye Maple finish was stunning. Sonically, the brief room demo was exceedingly enjoyable with excellent bass reach, a nice high-end extension without any harshness, and no noticeable holes or gaps in the frequency range.  I definitely could have sat there much longer!

Gryphon Audio Designs

Visiting the Gryphon Audio Designs room, I was met with the new Antileon Revelation Class-A power amplifier. With a fully dual-mono architecture and claiming huge current reserves, it is rated at 160 watts into 8-ohms and is stable down to 2-ohm loads, remaining in Class-A mode the entire time. Both a stereo and a mono version of this amplifier are available. A pair of these beasts were playing through a set of Gryphon EOS 5 loudspeakers and sounded perfectly lovely doing so.

Eversolo

On the opposite end of the price scale, Eversolo has gotten rather serious with their HiFi game. They were showing off the DMP-A10 streamer/preamp ($3,999.00) with a pair of their AMP-F10 power amplifiers ($2,480.00 each) running in bridged mono mode through a set of Fink Team Epos ES-28N loudspeakers. The A10 is a veritable “Swiss Army Knife” of a preamp, featuring a relay-based volume control, an 8-channel ESS ES9039 PRO DAC, built-in room correction, parametric EQ, and Eversolo’s streaming architecture. The F10 are Class AB amps that put out 200 watts into 8 ohms and claim to be stable down to 2-ohm loads. The equipment looked to be very nicely put together, and the sound through the Epos speakers was exceedingly enjoyable.

Fink Team/Canor

And speaking of Fink Team, they were sharing a display with Canor Audio from Slovakia, making great sound with the Canor TP101 A30 30th Anniversary integrated tube amplifier driving a pair of Fink Team Kim stand-mount loudspeakers. Canor was also debuting their new Virtus I4S solid-state integrated amplifier and Verto D4S DAC on static display. These are new components in their Basic Line, and I really liked the overall design aesthetic and feature set. The DAC sports dual ESS ES9038 chips in mono configuration with all the current PCM and DSD data rate support and fully discrete analog output stages. The Integrated amp is a slimline Class AB design rated at 75 watts into 8 ohms and 120 watts into 4 ohms. It also has both an MM and MC phono stage, a headphone output, and a trick rotary volume control/input selector with an integrated display.

Klaudio

The Klaudio Magnezar turntable is one of the more interesting vinyl spinning contraptions I came across at Munich High End. With a fully magnetically suspended and driven platter, it claims to be quiet and has exceptional speed and accuracy. It will play 33.3, 45, and 78 RPM speeds and has an auto-clamping feature that claps both the center and periphery of the LP to the platter. It is designed to work with the matching Klaudio 12” Tangential Tonearm, which is sold separately. To top it off, there is a fluid-filled reservoir in the platter that is said to help stabilize the platter during rotation. All this goodness can be yours for $50K for the turntable and another $18K for the tonearm.

VTL

VTL had their new Lohengrin, tube amplifiers ($100K per pair), running with a set of Wilson Audio Alexx V Carbon loudspeakers ($157K per pair). The Lohengrin uses eight KT88 tubes in its output stage and is said to put out 400 watts. Great sounding setup and nice work, if you can get it!

Marten/Audia Flight

Sweden’s Marten Loudspeakers and Italy’s Audia Flight made a very useful “European Union” in two rooms at Munich High-End. One had the Coltrane Quintet Extreme Speakers and the other the Mingus Septet Statement Edition Speakers. Both rooms featured the Audia Flight’s Strumento No 1 Signature Series Preamplifier and a pair of Strumento No 8 Signature Series Monoblock Power Amplifiers. Having visited Audia Flight and seen what goes into the design and production of their Strumento Series components, I don’t know what improvements they could have made to create the Signature Editions but apparently, they found things to further refine. Whatever they did, the combinations in both rooms sounded excellent. My personal favorite was the room with the Mingus speakers.

Aequo Audio

A new audio brand hailing from the Netherlands, Aequo Audio was demonstrating their new Ensium semi-active loudspeakers ($44,900 per pair). The midrange and treble portions of the speakers were driven by external amplification (in this case a set of Westminster Labs Rei Monoblock amps) but the bass section is driven by an on-board 500-watt amplifier. The company claims that the speakers use a “placement correction system that operates entirely in the analog domain” involving a pair of dials on the rear of each speaker. One appears to adjust for room size while the other for relative placement in relation to a wall or other room boundary. The speakers themselves had an elegant, canted shape and felt extremely inert when I tapped all along the sides with my knuckles. The sound in the room was nicely presented and seemed very expansive while maintaining a nice level of detail. Bass felt deep and powerful to be sure. Additional supporting equipment in the room was provided by VPI Industries, Taiko Audio, Playback Designs, and AudioQuest.

Audio Research

Audio Research was demonstrating some new solid-state components to the Munich showgoers. In particular, their new LS-3 Stereo Preamplifier ($9,000.00) and S-100 Stereo Power amplifier ($9,500.00). These are two integral “mainstay” components in Audio Research’s future, and they mated very well (as one would assume) with the Acora Acoustics’ new MRC-2 Floor-standing speakers ($12,990.00 per pair).

Canton

When I finally was able to get in and visit the Canton room (their demo was constantly packed with showgoers every time I tried to swing by) I was richly rewarded by the experience. When I sat down Canton had their Reference Alpha 1 speakers queued up and playing various cuts of music and boy did they sound lovely! Driven and sourced by a full Rotel MICHI setup these speakers threw out an impressive image while exhibiting no gaps in the frequency range that I could hear. I consider these big Cantons to be the Sophia Loren of speakers, class, curves, and a fiery disposition (in a good way) when pushed. I want a pair!

Ø Audio

The Norse gods were speaking at Munich High End this year where Ø Audio was debuting their largest speaker to date, the Verdande. Similar in concept to their Icon 12 speaker but bigger and more efficient, it is a two-way design that uses a larger horn driver with a customized waveguide and a 15-inch low-distortion woofer to cover the bottom end. But not content to debut just a new speaker, Ø Audio also snuck in two additional behemoths at the show. A pair of slot-loaded subwoofers each with four 15-inch drivers called the VARG. Listening to the Verdande on their own was a very enjoyable experience. Definitely smoother than what my preconceptions were expecting, adding the pair of VARGs into the mix was just stupid fun! Somewhere, Odin is smiling.  

Esoteric

I loved running into the gang from TEAC/Esoteric at the Munich show. After visiting their facilities in Japan last year (a video of this is coming and yes, I know I am slow) and seeing the passion and fastidious attention to detail that goes into perfecting these components, one cannot help but respect the quality and sound targets that they can achieve. This Esoteric Grandioso gear paired with the Marten Mingus Quintet II Statement Edition speakers sounded sublime and I could have easily wasted away the whole day just sitting and listening in that room.

Not to be outdone, the TEAC 500 and 700 Series stacks that were set up for headphone listening were also sounding superb.  

EMM Labs/EgglestonWorks

For whatever reason, I never get a chance to spend time listening to EgglesonWorks speakers. I don’t know why that is, but the opportunity just never seems to arise. That changed at this Munich show where I got to sit and listen to the Andra 5 floor-standers connected to some serious electronics from EMM Labs, DS Audio, and J.Sikora Turntables. A very impressive and lovely-sounding setup that demands attention.

Grandinote

Italian manufacturer Grandinote was debuting their ALFA DUE multi-amplifier system at the show, connected to their Mach 2 Estrema loudspeakers and additional bass array in the corners. I loved the sound in here and the giant graphic displays on the components are a thing of beauty!

Silent Pound

Our friends at Silent Pound not only had their Challenger 2 floor-standing speakers at the show but also took the wraps off the Challenger’s new smaller sibling speakers, the Bloom. The Bloom is a unique-looking stand-mounted speaker that uses an 8-inch midrange driver with a coaxial compression driver tweeter AND somehow those clever folks at Silent Pound have jammed a pair of 12-inch bass drivers in a “V” shaped baffle. Check out the video for more on the Bloom. Very intriguing engineering and I would love to get a set of these in for review!

SVS

It somehow warms my heart to see home turf brand SVS make a splash at the Munich show Their demo room was constantly busy when I came by, and people seemed to be digging what they were hearing.

ReVox

ReVox was making waves with tape aficionados at the Munich show with their new B77 Mk III RTR deck. Available in both standard and Alice Cooper special editions, along with the AC T77 turntable. We are working to secure a B77 Mk III for review by our resident RTR tape-head JJ.

Amphion/Nuprime

Finnish brand Amphion was another company that stood out at the show with a multichannel immersive audio setup. The demo system was anchored by the new Argon 7LX floor standers for the front left and right channels, the smaller Argon 3LX floor standers for the rear left and right channels, and multiple Argon 3X bookshelf speakers for the center, surround, and height channels. All of this was coordinated by a Nuprime H16-A Immersive Audio Processor ($799.00) and an MCX-800AD multi-channel DAC ($3,995.00). The results were seamless, convincing, and impressive with the multi-channel classical tracks that were being played. A really musical and enjoyable experience.

HIFIMAN

Our friends at HIFIMAN had a consistently busy display and a lineup into the demo area. Once I made it into the listening room, I made a point to take a good listen to the HE1000 Unveiled. After reading the review from our Dr. Eric Hieger I wanted to take a closer look at these so I found a free set and paired them with the Goldenwave GA-10 Headphone Amplifier. I have to admit that Eric was right, these are an exceptional set of cans, and the whole “Unveiled” aspect of these cans does not seem to be a gimmick but a legitimate way to free the imaging of the headphones even further. Definitely for listening only in a quiet home environment. But wow, very, very nice sounding!

Topping

Topping had a solid display at Munich showcasing some of their latest products. Of particular interest were the Topping D900 1-Bit DAC/A90 Discrete Headphone Amp combination along with the Centaurus R2R DAC/A70 Pro Headphone Amp combo. Both sounded very good and are different spins on DAC design that I am used to seeing from Topping who has mostly worked with ESS and AKM reference chip designs as a starting point. Very curious to see what this brand continues to have up its sleeve in the future!

Spirit Torino

The gang at Spirit Torino wee at Munich in force with several of their headphone models having undergone a host of technical and aesthetic design updates. All seem to add up to an increase in tactile quality, and sonic refinement. I sampled the updated Centaurus open-back headphones and the updated Pulsar. The Centaurus sounded nicely clean and spacious with a really appealing sound signature. The Pulsar had some exceptional bass impact without sounding overblown and the new headband is a serious step up in comfort and quality. “Buon lavoro, amici!”

Audma

Our “Mistress of Headphones” Lory Hawley waxed poetic to me about the folks at Audma and their HPA1 Maestro DAC/headphone amplifier/sonic processor when she demoed it at CanJam SoCal last year. Besides being able to drive pretty much any pair of headphones available, it also does some very effective spatial processing that feels more granular and effective than the typical cross-feed filters that some amps and playback software use. Having listened to it at the show, I can confirm that Lory’s excitement about the product was well warranted. Being able to adjust the width and sense of immersion individually, depending on the headphones in use, was a powerful and addictive tool. The Maestro is not a cheap date however at almost $10K to purchase.

The team at Audma had a surprise to share while I was there as they were also debuting a seriously portable version of the HPA1 technology. Called the PHPA1 Brioso, it has a very similar feature set and flexibility as the big unit at about a projected half the price. Sampling the Brioso was a convincing experience, it sounded exceptional, and I loved the complete sonic control that the unit was able to bring to the table along with adding an adjustable bass control, some gain options, and keeping the analog and digital inputs. Again, it’s not an inexpensive item, but if you are a serious headphone collector/listener….

FiiO

It was a pleasure to present the folks at FiiO with a 2024 SECRETS Best Of Award for their SP3 Active Desktop Speakers.

Klipsch/OJAS/Onkyo

Premium Audio Company was featuring the limited edition Klipsch OJAS k0 R1 speakers along with the new Onkyo ICON series HiFi electronics. We have the ICON P-80 Network Preamplifier ($1,999.00), the M-80 Power Amplifier ($1,999.00), and the A-50 Integrated Amplifier ($1,499.00). The P-80 Preamp comes with HDMI ARC, MM and MC phono stages, has built-in streaming compatable with all the major services, and DIRAC Live (limited bandwidth) room correction on board. The M-80 Power Amp is a Class AB design that puts out 150 watts per channel into 8-ohms and 200 watts into 4-ohms. The A-50 Integrated Amp combines the best features from both the seperates but has just a little less power at 140 watts into 8-ohms. These components were very remeniscent of Classic Japanese HiFi designs but with a modern twist. The Onkyo ICON components will be available in Q4 of this year. It was also a pleasure to meet Devon Turnbull, the creative force behind the OJAS brand. His collaboration with Kilpsch on the limited ko R1 speakers was an interesting one, and hopefully a sign of other novel HiFi projects to come.