HIGH END 2022 Show Report
High End Society Munich Germany
Show Report By Andrija Ćurković Of HiFi Media Magazine

  Although the new Kuzma Safir 9 gramophone tonearm(€20.000) was announced in mid-March, the world premiere was at the Munich Show. This tonearm uses a stiff conical sapphire tube giving the cartridge unprecedented operational stability, and extracting optimal electromechanical performance from the coil, a cartridge signal generator. Extremely rigid, this tube is stronger and offers a higher resonant frequency than any tonearm tube ever used. Its first structural resonance occurs at a frequency of over 5 kHz, providing the cartridge with a proper mechanical grounding. An active demonstration of the Sapphire 9 tonearm was in the Living Voice room with Kuzma Stabi R turntable and Kuzma CAR 60 cartridge.

Although they were on the passive display, the new Goldmund Gaia wireless speakers instilled awe in visitors. When I stood next to them, the first thing they reminded me of was a white version of a monolith (in a double edition) from the Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and if I touched them they would instantly "enlighten" my state of consciousness. Unfortunately, nothing happened, maybe because they were in a passive mode, not playing. But even silent, they still seemed powerful, not surprising considering their individual weight of 380 kg and a total of 2,500 W of built-in amplifier power to power 8 speaker units. French designer Cécile Barani collaborated on this project and will be in charge of designing two smaller versions of the speaker that should appear in 2023. Goldmund Gaia is expected to go on sale at the end of the year for €500,000 (excluding VAT), and for now it can be listened to in their office in Geneva with prior notice.

Zeiler Audio is a young Swiss manufactory backed by Ralf Zeiler, an engineer with 40 years of experience designing audio products. Particularly interested in tube amplifiers and horn speakers, he exhibited his first two products at the show - the PR-01 tube preamplifier and the PA-01 tube amplifier. Both devices are housed in cases of very elegant and minimalist design, made of aluminum block and coated with a durable ceramic coating that is normally used in the manufacture of watches, befitting a company from Switzerland. The output amplifier uses two KT150 tubes in a triode connection, giving 10 W in pure A class. The preamplifier is designed as a single-ended Class A pure triode, and both use selected top quality parts (Lundahl input and output transformers, custom-made power transformers, etc.). The price of each device is €25,000.

As much as the Goldmund Gaia speaker impressed me with its monumentality and clean lines, the AP-0 turntable from Japanese manufacturer Yukiseimitsu Audio impressed me with its elegant design and mechanical simplicity of construction of the analog turntable. Completely built and manufactured in-house, the AP-0 turntable uses a main bearing floating in a magnetic field and costs €14,000 in Japan.

Norwegian Hegel presented its two new products to the public for the first time in Munich. These are the P30A preamplifier (€8,000) and the H30A power amplifier (€18,000), replacing the previous versions (without the letter A in the model name) that have been on the market since 2011. The H30A uses new transistors, a completely redesigned input stage, and voltage stage, designed as a monoblock amplifier that can deliver 1,100 W, while in stereo mode it delivers 350 W per channel. The P30A preamp has a new gain stage and a new volume control solution that is the fruit of Hegel technology. Both devices also come with a new case design.

I am concluding this report with another turntable manufacturer from neighboring Slovenia (besides Kuzma) who started his successful journey towards the global market five years ago at the Croatian Zagreb AV Show, organized by hifimedia magazine, showing for the first time a Holbo turntable with a tangential tonearm of his own making. BostjanHolc, the designer and owner of the company, used this year's show in Munich to present the Mk2 version of his award-winning turntable. The new version of the turntable - Holbo Mk2, comes with power and air pump in the same (outer) housing, automatic start of the pump when the turntable is turned on and stop when it turns off, a new on/off switch, and 33/45 selection, and with record weight clamp. It is available in black and white finish, dust cover is still an option, the Mk2 changes have slightly raised the price of the turntable and it is now available for €6,800. Given the sound quality and technological performance, Holbo turntable is without a doubt the Best Buy product in the high-end market.

In the end, what can we conclude about this year's High End show in Munich? After all the problems with Covid and justified fears after the start of the brutal war in Ukraine, the good news is that the show did take place. Together, we can only hope that a new global problem will not escalate and that the existing tensions will soon subside, because that is the only precondition for HIGH END Munich 2023 to be a "return to the old".

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