Munich High End Show 2019

[Ali Tait]

No, they don't all hum - my Radford STA15 III doesn't 'hum at all.

Yes it does. It's just a such a low level and your speakers not sensitive enough that you cant hear it.

I reiterate- ALL valve amps hum, it's just a matter of degree.

[Barry]

Yes it does. It's just a such a low level and your speakers not sensitive enough that you cant hear it.

I reiterate- ALL valve amps hum, it's just a matter of degree.

Well it is true my electrostatics are not sensitive, but at full volume, without a signal, I can't hear anything even when listening close to the speaker.

I would have thought the presence or absence of hum was down the design of the power supply, and be independent of the amplifying devices.

[Ali Tait]

Good article here-
https://dalmura.com.au/static/Hum%20article.pdf

[bumpy]

Is there a competition going on for weirdest looking speakers?

Jack of what was BD Audio said check out Aeries Cerat.

Two years ago the Aeries Cerat set up really was NOT good. So I was surprised.

However, not being one to avoid a tip, I checked it out.

Award for most improved manufacturer at Munich goes to them. Not Alsyvox league, but just much better than two years ago.

Amps are insane. The six box job you see here. Will find out more tomorrow.

Trouble was the left channel kept dropping out towards the end. Bummer.

[User211]

Nick Gorham and Dave Brooks are going, you might bump into them.

Spotted. I felt no need for communication but you can't miss Nick. Kind of unique visually

[Pigmy Pony]

Is there a competition going on for weirdest looking speakers?

I like that there are loudspeaker designers thinking 'outside the box' as it were. Shame the prices tend to be outside my box. Of course they need performance to match, or they are just 'lifestyle' products. Just out of curiosity Justin, did you see how much these ones were?

All academic really, as Mrs. Pony doesn't like weird looking as much as me.

[Ali Tait]

Spotted. I felt no need for communication but you can't miss Nick. Kind of unique visually

Aye you can’t miss him. :-)

[Ali Tait]

Jack of what was BD Audio said check out Aeries Cerat.

Two years ago the Aeries Cerat set up really was NOT good. So I was surprised.

However, not being one to avoid a tip, I checked it out.

Award for most improved manufacturer at Munich goes to them. Not Alsyvox league, but just much better than two years ago.

Amps are insane. The six box job you see here. Will find out more tomorrow.

Trouble was the left channel kept dropping out towards the end. Bummer.

Are those 813’s?

[User211]

Are those 813’s?

Yes.

[montesquieu]

Well my take on the show was that not much had moved on from two years ago when I was last there. Speaker-wise, there were fewer electrostatics (it seemed) but quite a thing going on for field coils, coming out of China. I liked the h0RNS room and actually there were quite a few good horn systems around as well as some truly terrible ones. The worst systems were as previously, very shiny very flashly finished speakers, mega-power solid state, attached to grainy, awful streaming systems. It beggars belief that their makers thought some of these systems worthy of display, let alone worthy of six figure price tags.

Quite a few class D amps around at ever increasing prices (£20k anyone? seriously?) they are getting there but still short of what a proper valve amp can do.

I can't say I thought much of those Alsyyvox panels, for me for all their power and bass control the soundstage they threw was flat as a pancake and surprisingly narrow. Wouldn't be my thing at all. (Justin's Apogees are much better in my view).

I thought the Audio Note room was pretty good, though IMO what all that mega-expensive front end and amplification showed up was that AN-Es can only be taken so far, even in ideal conditions (small room, stuck in corners etc). I really don't understand why PQ hasn't put some money into developing a better speaker range. I really wonder what that kit would sound with a better speaker choice. Still, the AN-S9 SUT, Io Limited, TT3 front end was utterly maginificent even if it did remind the audience that the uber-pricey new DAC still sounded like digital. For the first time at an Audio Note demo I saw them streaming something from a computer something PQ would never have countenanced a few years back. I guess that's the way the wind is blowing.

My favourite room was Kevin's room (Definitive) showing off the LV Olympians with Kondo amplification and a vinyl front end that I didn't get to properly inspect as the room was too focused on listening - the fact he held a full house spellbound for two full sides of chamber music (in a show dominated by girl-with-guitar, easy-listening jazz and the inescapable Pink Floyd) surely says something. It did the orchestral stuff pretty well too. Probably not one for the metal-heads though.

Tim de P did a great job with his EAR kit, just a sold, roundly musical job whether from vinyl, tape or CD. One of the best rooms in my view. Monoblocked EAR 861 power amps doing a superb job.

The Thomas Mayer room was a highlight, the first set of open baffles I've heard to really do subtlety and soundstage, the last pair (well several pairs) I heard was at the owner of SW1X which were so bad they were enough to put me off open baffles for life - coarse, papery, timbre a mile off, lumpy response - anyway these were the opposite. Thomas Mayer had his D3a phono stage and a variable EQ mono version on display and had I had 14k Euros each down the back of the sofa I'd have been away with them. Very, very good indeed. Some Count Basie on 78 utterly disgraced what was coming out of some six figure streaming systems from a musical perspective.

My terrible pic - phono stage, preamp and mono phono with variable EQ (top deck is the business end, power supplies on the bottom):



I'm sure Justin will be posting pics of the rest of the show but I'll just mention a few of my highlights, first was what I think is a very cheap way into record cleaning from Keith Monks ... space-saving and slower/less vacuum and a shade noisier than than their bigger machines, list on this will be £795 on Amazon



You read it here first - Thorens are reissuing the TD124, though disappointingly as direct drive rather than as an idler. I didn't get an idea of price but it's sure to be cheaper than the £17k reissue of the Garrard 301. The Thorens reissue misses the point - even as a Thorens owner I see it as an ugly duckling compared to the Garrard 301 and 401, but it routinely out performs both especially in Schopper form. It's not the looks that made it popular. It's interesting that new owners SME went for the 301 as a reissue over the 401, again all other things being equal (and both can be extensively improved from standard) the 401 is the better machine, but the 301 is such a beauty ...



Finally a comment on this one that Justin posted already, 440k euros for a Tellytubby play set, I've heard at least half a dozen systems of members here that sounded better (including mine I should add). It's a piss take.