Munich High-End 2025: Analogue

There is too much to see in the High-End show. A definitive report would be unwieldy, unwise, and unreadable. So, any report is a series of edited highlights. This year marked a return to form, after a couple of years of relative paucity of new models. What follows is a personal collection of fascinating new products across five broad categories. The first being ‘analogue’ and covering everything from cartridge to phono stage:

Chord Electronics Ultima

Completing the Ultima amplifier line (at least for now), Chord Electronics has released a flagship dual-mono phono stage. It features three individually assignable XLR and three RCA inputs, as well as XLR and RCA outputs, along with a range of MM and MC settings. The phono stage also features a rumble filter, clip detection, and gain boost. It even includes twin kidney-bean-shaped VU meters to monitor the level. The price has yet to be confirmed, but it is expected to be around £18,000.

Döhmann Audio and Wilson Benesch

Döhmann Audio’s Helix One turntable is one of the most highly respected designs in modern high-end vinyl replay. And designer Mark Döhmann is equally liked and respected among his analogue peers, which is why the new GRAVITON Ti tonearm from Wilson Benesch was launched on the Helix One platform. Derived from the arm fitted to the mighty GMT One System turntable, the £30,000 GRAVITON Ti is the result of state-of-the-art materials and manufacturing science. It features the innovative STAGE One over-arm shielded output system. This is the first time the technology in Wilson Benesch’s arm has been used outside of the GMT ‘ecosystem’. It sounded great in a room that also featured Alieno amplifiers and Cessaro loudspeakers.

Elsewhere at Munich High-End 2025, Wilson Benesch showcased its Prime Meridian turntable system. This system featured APL digital electronics, Karan Acoustics amplifiers, Crystal Cable cabling, and Wilson Benesch’s Omnium loudspeakers with KX infrasonic generators, in a constantly packed room. The cost? Well, if you need to ask…

European Audio Team

Jo No. 10 by European Audio Team is a €7,900 moving coil cartridge with a diamond cantilever. The in-house design uses high-density wood and a hand-shellacked body. This played with the outstanding dynamic range in the Constellation Audio room. On its stand, EAT also showed its new two-motor, 44kg F-DUR turntable (€4,990 without arm, €6,490 with C-Note arm and €8,990 with F-Note arm). It also showcased the fully balanced two-box E-GLO FB and one-box E-GLO S, as well as the E-GLO Petit phono stages, for the first time at Munich.

Garrard

With no new products to show this year, Vivid Audio had a more low-key affair. Instead of playing the usual hi-fi show music fare, it featured a Garrard 301 Advanced with an SME VA-12 tonearm. This classic deck used an Ortofon 2M Mono and Mola-Mola electronics to play a few classic 78s through a pair of Vivid Audio Kaya K90 loudspeakers. Listening to Bill Haley & His Comets provides a fun and exciting counterpoint to a show with dangerously high levels of Diana Krall elsewhere.

Grimm Audio

Grimm Audio is renowned for its exceptional digital audio products. However, at Munich High-End 2025, it was showcasing the new €4,800 PW1 phono stage. Shown in prototype form last year, the highly adjustable FET-based ‘Phono Wizard’ supports MM and MC cartridges, ranging from the lowest output and impedance to the highest. It sounded excellent in Grimm Audio’s room, featuring a Dr Feickert Volare 25 turntable and a pair of the company’s active LS1c loudspeakers.

Kuzma

Kuzma is trying to ‘sapphirize’ almost everything in the LP chain. Buoyed by the success of the Safir 9 tonearm, the company showcased a forthcoming sapphire turntable mat and record weight, as well as announcing the release of a Safir 12 tonearm later this year. However, the star of this future show will be the limited edition CAR 70 moving coil cartridge. With a one-piece diamond cantilever with an integral diamond tip, the entire cartridge will be clad in sapphire. The cost? A cool €35,000! Franc Kuzma had a prototype of the body… in his pocket!

Nagaoka

Launched earlier this year to commemorate the company’s 85th anniversary, the MP-700 is Nagaoka’s new flagship cartridge. Supplied with or without a headshell, the cartridge uses the company’s unique ‘Moving Permalloy’ derivative of the moving magnet. It also features a boron cantilever and a micro-ridge diamond stylus. The design also allows for a replacement stylus. The cartridge costs €1,299 without a headshell,

Pro-Ject

Pro-Ject had one of the largest stands at the show, with a slew of new products, including electronics. The thing that everyone noticed was the new portable music system, built into a flight case and demonstrated by the cabin crew in a mock-up set of aircraft seats. But what caught my eye was the limited edition, LED lit Elvis turntable in its Artists range, complete with 10m thick glass platter, 9″ arm and pre-fitted Sumiko Rainier moving magnet cartridge. Price is still to be confirmed. The company also launched a 75th anniversary Snoopy limited edition turntable and two new Automat automatic turntables.

SME

Shown to the press and an invited public in April, Munich High-End 2025 was the first public outing for the £35,999 SME Model 35 turntable. Replacing the evergreen Model 30 platform, the three-tower Model 35 draws heavily from the company’s flagship Model 60 in the design of its bearing, suspension system and power supply. It also features the new SME Series Vi tonearm. It was showcased in an outstanding €700,000 system. This included Innuos and Vitus Audio electronics, Göbel Divin Noblesse loudspeakers, HIFISTAY support systems, and a comprehensive loom by Crystal Cable.

Soulution

Soulution Audio’s first turntable is the 787. It’s a 67,500 CHF linear tracking turntable that breaks all the rules. Linear tracking turntables replicate the action of the cutting lathes that make the original acetates from which all LPs are produced. Typically, the arm tracks across the record, but this can create friction. However, in the Soulution 787, the arm stays in place, and the platter and its drive mechanism move! Soulution claims this delivers the low-friction performance of a conventional pivoted tonearm, but with a tracking error of less than ±0.15°. The sight of a platter slowly moving across the top plate is fascinating, and it sounded promising.

TechDAS

The new TechDAS Air Force IV was on show in two rooms. As the name suggests, the turntable sits somewhere between the Air Force III Premium S and V, with the motor located outside the main body of the turntable (similar to the entry-level Air Force V). However, it also features a 9kg platter machined from a solid block, an improved suspension system, and an external belt system borrowed from the Air Force III Premium S. Price and further details are still to be determined.

Thales

Staying with Swiss-designed turntables, Thales introduced its new €27,000 Reference turntable to the Hong Kong public in March this year. This was its first European outing. The turntable features a unique mechanical speed control that utilises a centrifugal governor. This employs spinning weights and magnets to regulate driving and braking torque. It results in a speed control system that not only boasts steampunk-cool vibes but is also more precise and faster-acting than electronic speed controls.

Munich High-End 2025: Amplifiers

Munich High-End 2025: Digital

Munich High-End 2025: Loudspeakers

Munich High-End 2025: Systems and everything else!

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