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Munich High End Show 2011
High End Society Munich Germany
High End 2011 Show High End Society Munich Germany
High End 2011 Awards Part 2


High End 2011 Award  After much consideration and debate, there is really only one more award to be offered. Sure awards are a great marketing tool, for both a manufacturer and the magazine to self-promote itself, yet Enjoy the Music.com is very frugal with awards. So below is the last award plus some commentary to round out my Munich High End 2011 show coverage.

Am not sure if this award is for the new amazing Boston Acoustics Axprience floorstanding speakers (€20,000 per pair) or for audio equipment designer extraordinaire Ken Ishiwata. As for the speaker, the midrange and tweeter are decoupled within their own suspended enclosure attached to the main cabinet to avoid distortion. Driver compliment is a 1-inch cloth dome tweeter with top/bottom 2.5-inch midranges that are flanked by 6.5-inch driver. Two side-firing 10-inch woofers are passive that can be driven via single or bi-wire.

As for Ken Ishiwata, he is indeed a living legend and has spent many decades within the high-end audio industry. His ability to design, tweak and implement products for the discerning music music are well-known. From Marantz's recent Pearl series to many other items, investing is something Ken personally 'touched' is a 'sure thing'. i spent nearly 30 minutes listening to the new Boston Acoustic Axperience speakers and must say they are the first Boston Acoustic model i have desired since the A40 bookshelf speakers that were first manufactured decades ago. The balanced sound, incredible imaging and build quality was self-evident. If you get a chance to hear these speakers by all means do so!

And to round out my High End 2011 Munich show report, it is always great to visit the city in which the show originates. Sure there is the adult entertainment on late night TV and various supporting shops, yet they are easy to overlook as there is so much more to Munich! Great bier (beer), food and live music on the street are there for your enjoyment! Below is a fresh fruit stand, you will see many of these throughout the city. 

Above is the movie poster if you want to spend some time relaxing to see a great film. Of course every racers knows of the great Ayrton Senna!

 

Only a few kilometers from my hotel was a bar called Peaches, which was also a popular record and tape store back in the day. Seeing the sign brought back memories of buying Mo-Fi vinyl, my Rush Hemispheres picture disc and so much more!

Getting back to the High End 2011 Munich show, you may be wondering why i have given so few awards. The reason is simple as it is easy, and frankly of financial benefit to a magazine, to give out many awards. Manufacturers love getting awards, advertising them on their website and print ads, etc. It is also easy for me to 'make up' awards for the best ZYX product within the $299 and $300 price range. Heck, it is easy to give virtually every product reviewed an award for something. Imagine an award for the Best LED Readout or Sweetest Ribbon Tweeter or Best Price Range. Of course readers are smart enough to quickly realize such awards are nothing more than pandering to the industry.

Another factor is, unlike most journalists, Munich is my 100+ show coverage. It is not like i am a 'wet behind the ears' newbie. Add to that, am getting getting tired of the 'shopping list' type of report of endless photos. Sure they look pretty yet tell you little if they are outstanding against a wide range of other items and not just within that show or within a long legacy of audiophile products spanning many years. So this rounds out my show report and far less than ten products out of the entire event of thousands of items gets the nod for being outstanding in my eyes. Endless shopping lists can be found elsewhere, yet if you want to know what really is the crème de la crème to my ears after well over a decade and 100+ shows, you now know what my personal choices are.

A special thanks goes out to all the great folks at the High End Society for putting on such a great event! If you are a manufacturers and did not showcase your products, you truly missed out as many distributors and retailers attend this event looking for new products to carry. One USA manufacturer told me that they easily achieved better return on their investment at the Munich show versus the CES. It also seems that fewer manufacturers want to attend the CES and are choosing the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. The CES has already lost a few key industries over the years and it would not surprise me to see the high-end audio market choose a better way to showcase new gear to distributors, dealers and the public. 

As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 

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