Munich Hi-Fi Show 2017

[jandl100]

Great pics and vids, Justin.

[User211]

Great pics and vids, Justin.

I'm enjoying posting it. I just like re-considering what I have just experienced, and by posting it I am doing exactly that.

Enjoy the ride Jerry

[jandl100]

I'm happy to visit the Munich Show vicariously, I'm damn sure I'll never go in person!

Oh, and Justin, there will be a little parcel on its way to you shortly.

[User211]

Really? I like a surprise (I guess I am supposed to wait to find out?).

[jandl100]

[User211]

Gabel / CH Precision - big and small.

Big - very nice, I have to say. Very nice indeed. Righteous sound in here. A bit hard to fault on the material I heard. Sterile maybe. But maybe not. I'd really like to live with this for a good while to check it out properly. I'm sure it could do a lot more than I heard.

Unfortunately, you need the big ones

[jandl100]

Are those square drive units ribbons or something weird?

[User211]

Silbatone / GIP

The stills might be on my phone. I must have around 400 pics.

Anyway, after resetting my head in 2011 with the WE 16A, and doing even better playing Led Zep's Whole Lotta Love in 2014 via 12A, 13A, this, for me, was a huge disappointment.

There's three speakers in view, two of which are GIP. The big ones with the top mounted horns are WE. Only half the bottom section is there, as the height of the room does not permit the full setup.

Just did nothing for me really, GIP or WE. The question is why? Programme material and volume? No. Even Led Zep didn't work for me with this set up. I stayed in there for a good while. Nothing excelled.

You could argue what you heard was nicely natural a lot of the time. And that would be fair. But things could get rough and I did hear some pretty blatant distortion going on.

Bummer.

[User211]

Aries Cerat

They make some pretty special gear IMHO. Only the newish Symphonia speaker, which attempts to mate a ribbon tweeter with a horn mid range and bass unit, was an epic fail.

Why? The room was tiny. This was a real issue as you couldn't sit far away enough for the units to give the auditory illusion of working together.

All I could easily hear was a lagging, slow bass, a mid range that was disjoint and too forward, and a ribbon treble unit that didn't sound as though it had broken in, or just didn't like the driving electronics. I suspect the former, but could be wrong.

The ribbon did display a hit of Apogee in its nature, as you would expect. And having used fresh ribbons on a number of occasions, you have to get a good few hours on them before they don't sound like this one appeared to (in other words bad/shit). The other killer with ribbons is you had better make sure they like the hardware, as they will ruthlessly dislike some amps and sources. Smear and excess sibilance are sure signs of an issue but more so in terms of an unbroken in ribbon than driving electronics. Though both can do it.

Despite that the quirky look of the speaker is quite cool. Well I think so...

No video. One of the darkest rooms if not the darkest. The only reason you can see anything here is the invention of flash

The speaker costs a mere £75K in this basic finish but you can top £100K. Spend £1K or less on a top 2nd hand mini monitor and do better. Really. Or put these in a much bigger room and listen again after 200 hours of use.

[Macca]

Some serious wooden cone action going on under those black boxes