High End show, Munich, 2025
The last High End show to be held in Munich proved to be as lively as any that preceded it, with new products from a wide range of brands and only a few omissions in the exhibitor list. If there was a theme it was not obvious but an awful lot of people played Dire Straits or covers thereof, but plenty put on less obvious music and some even distracted us on this count. This is the first tranche of our coverage of this massive event, make sure to check back for more.
Innuos
Innuos launched its most ambitious server/streamer yet in the very elegant form of the Nazaré. The name and styling come from a famous surf beach in Portugal where the waves reach 30m high and a light house sits on a promontory. Nazaré is the first element in a three box system and has significant upgrades over the existing Statement Next-Gen model, these include a more direct signal path, GAN power rectifiers and a proprietary USB Pro output for MSB DACs. It will in due course be joined by a dedicated Flow output stage and Net network switch.
Innuos used a three box MSB Cascade converter with Gryphon Commander and Apex amps driving Marten Coltrane Quintet speakers to demonstrate the sophisticated, refined sound of the Nazaré. Imaging was ultra-focused and precise with excellent depth, Bon Iver’s Speyside sounding very much like we were in the studio control room, the acoustic guitar being particularly crisp.
Revival
Revival showed a special edition of their Atalante 5 stand mount called Reserve. This has upgraded drivers and crossover, with Mundorf and WBT parts, and a much heavier front baffle, this is 25mm thick and has a sandwich construction made of CDF (compact density fibreboard) and MDF. The tuning is in the monitor style for greater precision, they certainly sounded tight and juicy with Electrocompaniet electronics, the combination of definition and warmth with good timing was outstanding. Price will be around the €9,000 to €9,500 mark with a limited run of 200 to 300 pairs.
Oephi
Danish speed meister Joakim Juhl demonstrated his new entry level Oephi Lounge 2.5 floorstanders, the idea being to bring some of the qualities of thrill power of the more pricey Oephis to a broader audience. With a Lucas Audio streamer and Moonriver 404 Reference amp the result was very engaging, tight, immediate and well extended in the bass. Given that this system was one of the least expensive at the event the result was very impressive. The Lounge 2.5 cost £4,500 per pair.
Gold Note
Italian brand Gold Note builds everything from cartridges to speakers and most things in between, last year they showed a prototype of the HP-10 headphone amplifier, this year they have the finished item. Notable for the absence of DSP and use of analogue circuitry throughout the fully balanced HP-10 has four outputs, crossfeed, fine balance control and extra gain in order to drive “almost any headphone on the market”. It comes in three varieties, the standard analogue amp is €1890, with Bluetooth for €1990 and with onboard DAC in Deluxe form for €2390. Gold Note have consolidated its power supply range as well, there are now three options: PSX 5, PSX 10 and PSD-X.
YG Acoustics
Matthew Webster revealed the substantial YG Acoustics Gemini flagship speaker (tope of page). Standing 2.15m tall with eight drivers and an external crossover Gemini is the first of a new range from a brand that now does its R&D in Cambridge, England. This system has an outboard crossover in a substantial POM case and comes in at $880,000 in passive form, an active sub version is $910,00 while the fully active variant hits the magic $1,000,000 mark. We heard the passive Gemini with eight AVM monoblocks and Siltech cables and have to say that it’s the most relaxed and calm YG speaker yet encountered, the number of people in the room undermined proper listening but for a gigantic tower of aluminium Gemini sounds unusually natural.
Auralic
The Aquila is Auralic’s most ambitious design to date, this modular streaming transport has a CD transport and the option to add a phono stage and a Fusion DAC 2 with onboard Leo clock. It has a separate regenerating power supply and is available with a range of top plate finishes. More details can be found here but initial impressions with a pair of ATC SCM50A active speakers were very positive. Price will be from £13,000 depending on which add-ons are required.
Soulnote
Soulnote usually make a good noise at High End and this year they did so with the help of their M3-X monoblock power amps (c.£40,000), these are an enhanced version of the standard M3 with double the current capability and negative feedback free circuits. With the aid of YG Sonja speakers and a big Techdas Air Force One Reference turntable they managed to make Oscar Peterson sound both fluent and engaging, which for this listener is quite an achievement. Interestingly the M3-X were sat on sprung bases which is a good idea and a rarity for any component at this event.
Luxman
The E-07 is a new MM/MC phono stage from Luxman, features include variable input impedance, phase inversion and an ‘articulator’ alongside a handy mono switch and subsonic filter. A solid state design it nonetheless has four step up transformers for MC cartridges, there are also solid brass ground terminals for each input and Luxman’s petal grounding structure which is akin to star earthing. The price will be £5,500 (€6,490) when it arrives later this month. This was just one of the products created to mark the brand’s centenary, others include the P-100 Centennial headphone amplifier (£9,000) which leaves no stone unturned in the quest for the ultimate head-fi experience.
Wolf von Langa
German field coil speaker specialist Wolf von Langa was making a good job of Kraftwerk’s Tour de France with his latest and most compact speakers to date. The Serendipity has a partly integrated crossover, certain components can be left on the terminals to allow a degree of tuning, and combines two way AMT tweeter and Purifi woofers with a pair of passive bass units in the sides. The cabinet is made of solid surface artificial stone with the drivers mounted on soft gaskets to reduce energy transmission into the box. These cost €11,000 and sounded very good with Airtight tube amplification from Japan.
Electrocompaniet
In prototype form at High End was Electrocompaniet’s most ambitious preamplifier to date. The EC5 is a dual mono design with a chassis that’s split into two levels. The top half contains the analogue circuitry while the bottom is taken by the power supply and processor, the latter required for app control. So far it has four XLR and two RCA inputs but there are phono and DAC modules on the way. The preamp has pure resistor inputs with no op-amps in the signal path and a 930 step resistor volume control where only one resistor is in the signal path at any given setting. The output stage has plenty of power to drive long cable runs and Electrocompaniet hopes to have the EC5 on sale this year for around €15,000.
CAD
Computer Audio Design partnered with Trilogy and Peak Consult to deliver one of the most emotionally powerful systems of the High End this year. Using the 1543 MkIII DAC that we reviewed recently, this system delivered an expansive and detailed soundstage with Mop Mop’s Spaceship earth and a that a lump in the throat impact with Gillian Welch’s April 14th (Part 1); that’s what I call range. Naturally there were plenty of Ground Control devices in the system, including the substantial GC-R Reference seen between the Trilogy 995R hybrid power amps and Peak El Diablo speakers.
Network Acoustics
Streaming specialist Network Acoustics brought along their Origin hybrid power supply to demonstrate at High End. This is specifically for network routers and modems and has many similarities to the power supply built for the Tempus network switch, a reference component at the Ear. The Origin alongside many of Network Acoustics components and cables were behind a system built around Perreaux amplification, Antipodes streamer and Silent Pound Bloom loudspeakers (€14,900). This latest ‘standmount’ from the Lithuanian brand has an integrated stand built into its stainless steel ‘cabinet’, drivers include two 12 inch internal bass units and an 8 inch midrange with coaxial compression driver tweeter. The system produced impressive imaging and scale with James Blake’s Retrograde as well as serious low end power.
Fezz
Fezz Audio from Poland unveiled their Supernova line of tube amps at High End, these have glass and aluminium cases that are very distinctive and superbly finished. The Magnetar Preamplifier and monoblock power amps (4x KT150 tubes each) are priced at between €60 and €70,000 for the set and were making some sweet sounds with the aid of a Lampizator Pacific 3 DAC and Amethyst Gamma speakers in one of the more challenging booths on the ground floor of the M.O.C. We are looking forward to testing something more affordable from the Fezz range soon.
Chord Electronics
Chord are getting into vinyl in a big way if the Ultima Phono is any indication. This reference level beast has many features not seen on its kind, such as a rumble sensing filter that only cuts common mode frequencies, auto gain matching over 20 levesl, wide load matching with impedance from 12 Ohms to 2.2 kOhms and DC servos to eliminate DC bias. And that is just the tip of the phonoberg. Due to ship in late summer the price will be around £18,000. Using Rega Naia and DPS turntables via Peak Consult speakers the results were pretty convincing, a sample has been requested.
Vertere
Not satisfied with their flagship X-Trax cartridge Vertere have created the R One, this moving coil has a ruby cantilever with a micro ridge stylus and a lightweight generator inside the distinctive red body. Compared with the X-Trax it delivers a cleaner, faster sound with more power in the bass, at least it does on a Vertere RG-1 turntable with Vertere and FM Acoustics electronics and PMC MB2 XBD se speakers played at full bore.
JBL/Mark Levinson
JBL announced three new models in its flagship Summit range, the standmount Ama (£15,000 inc stands), Pumori (£27,000) and Makalu (£37,000). Sister brand Mark Levinson also had new range toppers in the form of the No 626 preamp (£24,000), No 632 stereo power amp (£30,000) and No 631 monoblock (£38,000 each). With Summit Makalu on the end of the No 626 and No 632 using a No 519 streamer as source the sound was polished, easy and imaged well despite being in a noisy room, which bodes well for its potential in the home.
Onkyo
Onkyo have been beneath the radar for sometime but the latest Icon A50 streaming amp could help to change that. This has a wide range of inputs including wi-fi, Bluetooth, HDMI ARC, MM/MC phono and the ability to stream all the key services natively. Power is rated at 110W/8 Ohms from a Class AB output stage and price looks to be €1,299.
Klipsch
Sister brand Klipsch has a new La Scala AL6 horn loudspeaker which has been redesigned using Mumps technology, which means that despite having a smaller bass driver than its predecessor this model delivers deeper bass. It can also be actively driven with the Klipschorn AK7 active crossover and suitable amplification. The three-way combines compression driver powered mid and treble horns with a 12 inch woofer in the tractrix bass horn that forms the bulk of this almost manageable looking speaker.
Soulution
Renowned for its electronics Soulution demonstrated its first turntable at High End. The 787 takes the unusual step of moving the platter beneath the arm and cartridge, so that the stylus traces the groove in the style of a parallel tracking design. Nakamichi once made a motorised turntable but that was intended to deal with eccentricity in the vinyl, this is something else.
The cartridge is allowed up to 0.5mm lateral movement to cope with eccentricity issues but tracks the vinyl in a straight line rather than the arc of a pivoted arm. The plinth has a constrained layer damped case and the platter is made of POM. With an overall weight of 35kg the 787 sounded very calm playing a 12 inch version of Dire Straits’ Private Investigations, with impressively wide dynamic range thanks to a DS Audio cartridge and Alsyvox ribbon speakers.
See pt.2 of our High End coverage here