Munich High-End 2024: Final Round-Up

Munich High-End, an exclusive event for audio enthusiasts and industry professionals, is a must-attend. Spanning over two trade and two public days, three exhibition halls, two filled atria, and two floors of listening rooms – along with numerous trade booths and off-shoot shows in the nearby Motorworld, HiFi Deluxe and off-piste events around the city, it’s a sensory overload. The sheer magnitude of the event ensures that no one can cover it all, adding to its allure and exclusivity.

With such a grand event, it’s inevitable that some major launches might go unnoticed. Despite our best efforts to task our reviewers to each find their top five (Part One. Part Two), there are still hundreds that deserve attention. These are not just any products; they are the ones that will shape the future of high-end audio and deliver exceptional performance. They all made the cut, but when forced to pick five or ten products, some gems might have been missed, adding to the intrigue of what’s out there.

These are not ‘the best of the rest’. They are ‘the rest of the best!’

Accustic Arts

German audio electronics expert Accustic Arts had the new Power V integrated amplifier on display. This new 520W per channel €27,900 integrated amplifier comes complete with a DAC capable of sampling to DSD 512 and 32bit, 768kHz PCM; it includes a high-performance headphone amplifier, a surround bypass, and even an MM/MC phono option, which brings the price to €29,900. The company also showed a prototype form of its reference digital converter, the DAC V, which will be available in solid-state and tube form.

Audiovector

We’ve covered this new loudspeaker extensively here and here, but Munich High-End was the first public outing of the Trapeze by Danish audio expert Audiovector and it didn’t disappoint! Harking back to the company’s first great success – the Trapez – the new €17,000 Trapeze Reimagined was one of the show’s stars. This might have had something to do with a musical selection that covered everything from opera to techno without fear or favour; perhaps it was because it is a loudspeaker that was made for real-world rooms, or maybe it was because it sounded consistently excellent! Whatever it was, Audiovector’s high-wire act did not need a safety net!

AURALiC

Teased just before Munich High-End 2024, the €1,999 AURALiC ARIES S1 streaming processor, the €1,999 VEGA S1 streaming DAC and matching €999 S1 Purer Power power supply were shown for the first time to the general public. The smaller form-factor of the S1 range belies an impressive performance, as the design is based around the company’s Tesla G3 streaming platform, uses the brand’s Lightning DS app, and will give its rivals a serious run for the money!

AVM

AVM had a big year, with several new products on show. Its new €5,500 Evolution PH5.3 is a phono preamp with tube stage (€3,900 for the otherwise identical pure solid-state PH3.3). The PH5.2 has three inputs and remote adjustment of cartridge settings, EQ curve, and cutting lathe time constants. They come in a choice of finish, too! The biggest and heaviest newcomer is the Ovation SA 8.2 Master Edition stereo power amplifier. This chunky amp pumps out 390W per channel and can be supplied either as a pure solid-state amplifier, as shown or with a tube stage. Its display includes fast-acting VU meters and is priced at €13,000. It cannot be driven as a bridged mono amplifier. The company also showed its new PC3.3 and PC5.3  power conditioners.

Burmester

Burmester‘s new BX100 represents a bold departure from the brand’s regular loudspeaker design school. The central AMT folded ribbon tweeter—long a staple of Burmester’s top loudspeakers—is freestanding, flanked by two mid-range front-firing drivers and side-firing drivers. The resulting four-way loudspeaker sounds remarkably lifelike and clear, and the €75,500 per pair loudspeakers (in the context of top-end Burmester Audio electronics, naturally) were one of the surprise stars of the show.

Chord Electronics

Chord Electronics‘ new Suzi modular amplifier system is a small, flexible system that can either be used as a plug-together pre-power amplifier with or without a headphone socket or with a Hugo 2 and even a 2go streamer to make an integrated streaming DAC amp system. The power amplifier is based on Chord Electronics’ Ultima platform—reduced to its smallest size. More details – including prices – will be available in the Autumn when this neat little system will launch, but as it sounded good through a pair of KEF LS50 Metas, it has a lot of promise!

D’Agostino Master Audio Systems

D’Agostino Master Audio Systems launched the new €56,000 Momentum C4 preamplifier with its all-new, super clean-sounding Complementary Four circuit designed for the Relentless series and a bi-directional remote with a screen that echoes the famed ‘Captain Nemo’ display. An optional Digital Streaming Module is also available. In addition, D’Agostino announced the new Pendulum integrated amplifier. This 120W per channel integrated includes a built-in MC phono stage, full streaming options and even HDMI input. The expected cost is around ¢15,000 making the Pendulum a new entry point for the D’Agostino brand.

Gold Note

Over in Motorworld, Gold Note showcased its new ’10’ Series with three new models; the €2,850 IS-10 integrated amplifier, €1,800 CD-10 CD play and HP-10 headphone amplifier, price to be announced soon. Capable of driving a range of headphones in balanced and single-ended guise, with a clever display panel to show input and output options, the HP-10 is a welcome addition to the range. All three are in the company’s half-size case (in gold, silver or black) made famous by the Gold Note PH-10 phono stage.

Gryphon Audio Designs

Having already launched a new power conditioner at AXPONA three weeks before, Gryphon was not expected to launch anything new at Munich. How wrong we were! Gryphon Audio Designs made a strong play for the ultimate in high-end vinyl replay, with the launch of the new Apollo turntable (€128,000), which is built around a flagship design from Helmut Brinkmann. The two-motor design comes with one arm as standard, but as the image shows can accept two. The new €20,000 Black Diamond DLC moving magnet (supplied with the Apollo) is what happens when Gryphon takes Ortofon’s flagship MC Diamond and modifies it to Gryphon’s specifications, and the new two-box €58,000 Siren phono stage is the size of a pair of monoblock power amps. This takes phono to new levels.

HiFi Rose

First, taking the streaming world by storm with its RS150 and then doing the same with the great-looking, great-sounding RA180 integrated amplifier, the Korean HiFiRose has some ‘form’ in disruptive audio technology. The company’s upcoming RD160 DAC features a ‘hidden’ display that can highlight the pathway of the digital signal and show both its waveform and the output level when needed. It can display VU meters as a form of display ‘skin’. Under the skin, the CIM (Completely Isolated and Moduled) architecture with two DAC chips, NRA (Noise Reduction Analogue, not the other NRA…) filter, and three linear power supplies for a claimed low signal-to-noise ratio. The price is still to be confirmed but is expected to be around €6,000.

Ideon Audio/Baun

Ideon Audio showed its new Sigma Wave USB isolator. It is designed to completely isolate the ground for the USB signal from input to output and is designed to be used with any USB audio system. This is expected to cost around €5,500 and performed extremely well in the context of a full Ideon Audio Absolute front end, into JMF Audio PRS 1.5 preamp and HQS 6002 power amp (with a RCD 302 conditioner) and prototypes of the upcoming Baun Audio loudspeakers, made in Greece but designed by Benno Baun Meldgaard, former loudspeaker designer for GamuT, Raidho, and Gryphon.

Kronos Audio

Canadian turntablist Kronos Audio showed the new Perceptual turntable. This new $70,000 design pulls in a lot of technology first seen in the brand’s top $125,000 Discovery turntable, and its performance is said to come ‘very close’ to that range-topper. It sounded extremely good, especially when used with the company’s first phono preamp, the Discovery (which also costs $70,000) in the True Life Audio room; perhaps unsurprisingly, as the Greek amplifier company had input in the design of the Discovery preamplifier.

Lindemann Audio

Lindemann Audio championed genuinely affordable, high-quality audio in a show where such products were extremely rare. The company showed its new Woodnote Combo streaming amplifier alongside its new Move Mini loudspeakers. These last take much of the performance of the current Move loudspeaker in a smaller form, with little loss of bass or volume. With the amp costing €1,980 and the loudspeakers just €2,180 per pair, this cost less than the fuses in some rooms, but sounded excellent.

MBL

The €624,700 flagship MBL Reference Line system was on song. Yet, alongside the usual €55,900 worth of CD transport 1621 A  and D/A Converter 1611 F, this system was fed by the new €8,950 C41 streamer from the company’s Cadenza Line. This sounded excellent when played through the recently uprated €330,000 per pair 101 X-Treme Mk II four-tower Radialstrahler loudspeakers. The sound didn’t disappoint. Not that you’d expect a six-foot-tall omnidirectional loudspeaker flanked by a similarly six-foot-tall subwoofer playing an extremely wide variety of music to disappoint, but even by their usual lofty standards, the new MBLs shone!

Nordost

Nordost doesn’t change its products often, and the Leif line of cables represents the core of the company’s product lines. So, the move to Leif 3 is an important one. The key change in the proof-of-concept demonstration was the swap from a Red Dawn 2 power cord to a Red Dawn 3. This was a €560 power cord going into a D’Agostino Progression integrated amplifier. Although cycling the power on the Progression is a relatively slow change, the difference between the two cords was striking.

The changes to the new Leif 3 cables hold from White Lightning 3 to Red Dawn 3. Power cords receive a greater gauge size and an increased number of conductors, while the interconnects have better connectors, improved insulation, and the sort of mechanically-tuned construction previously limited to more upmarket Nordost designs. Prices have increased, but not significantly.

Orchestalls

Korean brand Orchestalls showed its Zero Sound Energy Loss loudspeakers at AXPONA and repeated the experience in a smaller room in Munich. The company’s distinctive OCS1000CG five-way design (called Le Clavier at AXPONA) uses a series of steel enclosures held in place by ‘free revolving’ brackets sitting atop a bass reflex enclosure. Driven by the same Ella Class D amplification and HiFi Rose streamer seen in Chicago, the €250,000 loudspeaker was probably too wide-range for the room, but showed the same promise seen three weeks before!

Soulution Audio

Another company that launched one important product at AXPONA and then did it again at Munich, Soulution Audio followed up the new 300 series with its new flagship 717 stereo power amplifier (90,000CHF), replacing the 711. Its innovative new circuit design gives the 711 a 2MHz bandwidth and delivers 150W per channel into eight ohms, successfully doubling its power into four and two ohms. A perfect match for the 727 preamplifier (both technically and – in the room – sonically), the 711 can be used in bridged mode as a mono amplifier.

Tidal for Bugatti

Priced squarely at the “if you have to ask…” end of the audio world, Jörn Janczak’s top system was more a meeting of minds than a car marque searching for an audio system. Tidal‘s already top-end audio designs were in no small part inspired by the cost-no-object engineering project known as Bugatti. The German loudspeaker company developed its flagship electronics and loudspeakers with the same uncompromising stance… and by chance, the two companies found one another. The result is the Tidal for Bugatti Royale MC-1 controller and Royal loudspeakers (€465,000); a system of such authenticity and musical grace was as much art as audio. I had a pre-show listening session to both Tidal and Tidal for Bugatti. The step up from one to the other showed how much could be got from music when played through sublime equipment. It was a few short minutes; I could have spent a week sitting in front of this, and it would have been ‘all too brief.’

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Wattson Audio

A lot of Munich High-End 2024 doesn’t just scrape the stratosphere of audio pricing; it achieves low earth orbit. Wattson Audio could have been one of those brands, as the company is a part of the CH Precision group. However, the Swiss-made Madison LE System Controller preamp and new 50W Class AB Madison LE power amplifier are in a more down-to-earth price band. Played through a pair of €25,500 Apertura Enigma Mk II loudspeakers and an expensive loom of Luna cables, a €6,495 power should be holding the sound back. Still, this fully-differential, milled-from-solid amp was part of a system that sang sweetly!

Munich High-End 2024: The Top, top Fives!

Munich High-End 2024: The Top, Top Fives Part Two!

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