HIGH END 2022 Munich Germany Show Report
The highlight of the European calendar and it was great to be back!
HIGH END 2022 Show Report By Jason Kennedy

  Gershman and VAC shared a room at High End, demonstrating with the VAC Master Preamplifier ($30,000) and 300 IQ Musicblock power amps ($37,000 each) powering Gershman Posh ($129,000) loudspeakers.

These have an Accuton ceramic mid and soft dome tweeter allied to a pair of bass units in a sculptural design that's close to five feet high. The source in this system was Polish brand Lampizator's new Gulfstream (€8,000 – 10,000) network streamer and Pacific DAC (€22,000 to €29,000), you can tell it's a Lampizator DAC by the sheer quantity of tubes sticking out of the top.

Kalista is the high-end wing of French digital specialist Metronome, and they have a new range-topper in the Dream Play XC transport, DAC, and digital preamplifier with a €68,700 asking price. Built out of substantial chunks of Plexiglas this has a Leedh volume control and a new transport mechanism from DMM that will play CD and SACD alike. The round display was a key to the aesthetic according to Jean Marie Clauzel and while difficult to source does give the Dream Play a certain je ne sais quoi.

Nagra had a room filling system topped by their $175,000 Reference Anniversary turntable, an impressive beast with damped spring isolation and multiple motors and belts which can be seen under a glass topped platter. New to the brand is the HD Phono which forms the final part of the HD system and offers impedance adjustment on the fly from a tube circuit. It's due to be on sale by the end of the year, with pricing TBA.

There is miles of fancy cable at this event but one brand that substitutes quality for quantity is Siltech, they have added Single Crown and Double Crown models to the range-topping Royal Crown series introduced with the Triple Crown last year. Using full mono crystal silver conductors with a larger gauge in the Double Crown these cables encompass digital and analog interconnects, speaker and power cables with prices starting at €7,000 for the interconnects and €17,000 for a 2.5m (8 foot) pair of speaker cables, power cables range from €5,000 to €13,000 for 1.5m.

Sister brand Crystal Cables have added Future Dream 22, a full range of cable types with conductors in an alloy of silver and gold, the more precious metal filling micro-cracks in the silver crystal boundaries. Interconnect starts at €4,000 for a one-meter pair.

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