Munich High-End 2025: Loudspeakers

Audiovector

We’ve covered the new R10 Arreté loudspeakers here. But this was the first public showing of Audiovector’s latest €147,000 flagship. The speaker was playing in Audiovector’s room, using Naim Audio and Soulution electronics, along with CH Precision. Those of us who had heard this speaker knew what to expect. Those who heard it first at Munich High-End 2025 found it to be one of the show’s great hits.

DALI

DALI showed a range of new products across various speaker-related categories, including in-wall and waterproof speakers. It also showed new colours for its headphones and loudspeakers. However, the Danish company’s biggest launch at Munich High-End 2025 was the V-15F subwoofer. It uses a 400mm bass unit (using Constant Surface Surround technology licensed from stablemate PuriFi) and a 1.5kW Class D amplifier. The 90-litre sub can reach sub-20Hz levels in-room. While intended for home cinema applications, the €4,999 V-16F may also bring some bass to the stereo world.

Kroma Atelier

The new €88,000 Callas by Spanish artisan loudspeaker brand Kroma Atelier is the most affordable model in the company’s flagship Reference Series. The four-way bass-reflex design uses Kroma Atelier’s preferred cabinet material, Krion. This rigid mineral in resin material has been chosen for its non-resonant properties. Its drivers include two AMT tweeters, two anodised aluminium 8″ midrange drivers, and two 10″ anodised aluminium bass drivers. Callas features quality crossover components and weighs in at a healthy 123 kg. It sits on Gaia I feet made for the brand by IsoAcoustics. Running from Engstrom valve amplification, the Callas more than delivered the musical goods at the show.

Esprit

French brand Esprit is best known for its cables. However, it also produces a fine range of loudspeakers. The €38,000 per pair Lisa features a vast 160mm AMT tweeter and twin 200mm Nextel-treated paper mid-bass units. Everything about the loudspeaker is impressive, from the 40mm thick MDF-bitumen-MDF cabinet walls to the crossover that features massive components that wouldn’t look out of place in a giant power amplifier. And, in the context of an AGD server, B.audio streaming DAC, Karan Acoustics amplifiers and lots of Esprit cables (naturally), it sounded very good too.

Estelon

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Estelon launched three new models: the €17,900 Aurelle (formerly Aurelia) stand-mount, €13,500 Aurus sub and €7,500 Aurelle subwoofer. These are a bold departure for Estelon. They combine the aesthetic of the company’s floorstanders in smaller speaker designs, and at a new, lower price. The ‘room’ was a small, open area. Still, the Aurelle loudspeakers sounded promising through MSB’s Discrete DAC and S202 power amplifier and Kubala Sosna cables.

Fyne Audio

Scottish speaker makers Fyne Audio had many new and upcoming loudspeaker projects on show at Munich High-End 2025. The brand’s latest ‘Special Production’ model is the €24,000 F704SP floorstander. These join the SP versions of the F701, F702 and F703 models. The F704SP sports a 300mm IsoFlare driver (which places a 75mm titanium dome tweeter at the acoustic centre of its 300mm multi-fibre mid/bass cone). This is accompanied by a matching 300mm multi-fibre driver for bass. The SP treatment features significantly upgraded components in the hand-built, cryogenically treated crossover network. Also new and on demonstration was the €2,800 F502S 2x 8″ IsoFlare floorstander. The company flipped between playing these on an all-Rega system and an all-Unison Research system. The speakers sounded equally at home on both.

On display – and coming soon – is a cheaper ‘STrax’ version of Fyne’s Super Trax super tweeter. This is expected to cost ‘about a grand’. Other new models on display included the F50 small stand-mount and F55E floorstander. These both come from the F500 series launched at Bristol earlier this year.

JBL

One of the most famous names in audio, JBL covers the full range of loudspeakers from portable audio right up to its gigantic Everest and K2 horn systems. Munich High-End 2025 saw the launch of three new models in the top Summit line. The €17,490 Ama stand-mounted system is the smallest with an 8″ HC4 mid/woofer cone, D2 compression driver and HDTIM Sonoglass horn. The price includes the matching heavyweight stands. The middle of the new trio is the Pumori; a €30,998 floorstander that adds a 10″ bass driver to the drivers found in the Ama. Finally the Malaku (pictured), replaces the 10″ bass driver in the Pumori with a 12″ unit in a substantial cabinet, for €43,998 per pair.

Magico

Announced at the end of last year, the Magico S2 had its world premiere at Munich High-End 2025. S2 is a three-way, four-driver sealed-cabinet floorstanding loudspeaker. The £41,500 loudspeaker (£49,995 in its high-gloss finish) uses a 28mm beryllium, diamond-coated tweeter, with Gen 8 Nano-Tec carbon/aluminium sandwich cones in the 127mm midrange and twin 180mm bass units. Its curved, aluminium enclosure reduces internal resonance and diffraction effects. The S5 combined insight and detail with excellent musicality, and was demonstrated with Wadax digital and Pilium amps.

Marten

This was a good Munich High-End for Marten. The loudspeaker choice for several brands.. For example, Innuos used the Marten Coltrane Quintet (with Gryphon and MSB electronics) to launch its Nazaré platform. However, the new Coltrane Quintet Extreme, launched at the show, was a €360,000 green piano, an oak thing of beauty. Based on the new €950,000 Coltrane Supreme Extreme, the four-way Coltrane Quintet Extreme is limited to just 10 pairs. It features a carbon-fibre laminate enclosure with a sandwich baffle comprising aluminium, fibreboard, and solid wood. The loudspeaker features Jorma Paragon cabling internally. It sports a 1″ diamond tweeter, 3″ diamond midrange,  7″ beryllium midrange, and two 10″ aluminium sandwich bass units.  It looked and sounded terrific, playing through top-end Audia Flight electronics and Jorma cable.

Perlisten

Part of a rolling series of demonstrations in the Audio Reference room, Perlisten showed its new $30,000 S7t Black Edition floorstander with two D8 subwoofers (powered by Perlisten’s 3kW amps, all for $20,000). This was played through dCS, Trinnov, and D’Agostino’s new integrated amp. Even though I was standing way off-axis in a packed (open) demonstration, it was something special, with outstanding dispersion. This sort of accuracy, resolution, bass depth and dynamic range is hard to find at anything close to this price!

Raidho

Raidho Acoustics celebrated its 25th anniversary in big style. The new TD3.10 (€120,000 per pair in piano black, €135,000 in Burl Walnut) is the latest model in the range, with twin 10″ diamond-coated bass units (the largest diamond-coated unit to date), alongside the company’s classic diamond-coated mid-range and ribbon tweeter. It was joined by a limited run of 100 pairs of the X2t 25th anniversary edition, available for €21,000 in walnut, or €23,000 in a stunning emerald green or midnight blue burl finish. This 2.5-way also includes a reworked crossover with higher-grade Mundorf components and Nordost wiring.

The company also showed its first subwoofers; the TD8 SUB and TD10 SUB. As the name suggests, the TD8 features twin 8″ drivers as well as two 10″ passive radiators and prices start at €17,000, while the TD10 brings two 10″ powered drivers, doubles the number of passive side-firing passive radiators and is priced from €23,000. Finally, the company announced a collaboration with Danish artist Carsten Beck who uses bold graphics to turn a pair of X2.6 into a more bold visual statement!

Scansonic HD

Shown for the first time to the general public, Scansonic HD‘s new M-Series draws upon the same gene pool as Dantax stablemate Raidho Acoustics, but with the accent on excellent value for money. A range of M15.2 stand-mount, the smaller M20.2 floorstander, and the range-topping M30.2 (pictured here, €3,500 per pair) all feature a ribbon tweeter, with sandwich membrane drivers and rear-mounted passive radiators. Costing less than a single diamond-coated driver from Raidho, the two brands nevertheless share a common sonic signature in broad terms, and this elegant and affordable loudspeaker was one of the stars of the show.

Sphinx

For those with long audio memories, the name Sphinx evokes images of Dutch audio electronics produced in the 1980s and 1990s by the same individuals who brought you Siltech cables. The brand returns under the same International Audio Holdings wing, which also includes Crystal Cable and Siltech, but is now focused on high-end loudspeakers.

With an enclosure design inspired by the harp, the new Element 3 three-way floorstander is a three-way system that takes design and technology cues from the Siltech Symphony and Crystal Cable Minissimo Forte, it uses the company’s new PAC (passive/active crossover) network with some custom bass tuning to suit room and taste. The stone-like enclosure is designed to naturally dampen resonance, and its ‘ZeroGravity’ bass architecture is designed to enhance room integration while reducing distortion and air compression. This is but the first in a line of products (a prototype of a larger Element 5 was also on display) and sounded interesting when played through an SME Model 60, Grimm MU2, and Siltech SAGA amps and cables. The price of the Element 3 is still to be confirmed, but is expected to be in the region of €40,000 per pair.

Stenheim

Almost dwarfed by the €220,000 Reference Ultimate 2SX from the brand, Stenheim showcased one of its smaller systems, featuring a pair of its new Alumine Sub powered subwoofers, each priced at €17,500. Paired with the €21,000 Alumine Two SE stand-mount loudspeakers, this elegant powered subwoofer includes a 1,200W amplifier and built-in DSP to tune gain, higher-frequency roll-off and phase. Inside its aluminium exterior is a three-chambered internal construction with two 10″ high-excursion drivers acting in a sealed, isobaric topology. Playing on the end of more than €150,000 worth of Thales analogue, Master Fidelity digital, and Boulder electronics, the system sounded far larger than the speaker system would suggest, to the point where casual listeners were unsure which set of speakers were playing.

Munich High-End 2025: Analogue

Munich High-End 2025: Amplifiers

Munich High-End 2025: Digital

Munich High-End 2025: Systems and everything else!

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