HIGH END 2025: The Definitive Insider Report On Luxury, Innovation, And Audiophile Excellence
A timely guide to cutting-edge audio innovations at HIGH END 2025 in Munich.
HIGH END 2025 Audiophile Show Report By Jason Kennedy

  Next year, the High End Society's HIGH END audiophile show, which has been associated which has been at the M.O.C. exhibition center in Munich for nigh on 20 years, moves to Vienna. Before that, it was in Frankfurt, and Enjoy the Music.com is the only American publication to report on this major audiophile event from 2000 onward. That was 25 years ago. The HIGH END 2025 show was as popular as ever! There were plenty of familiar brands and countless others seeking exposure in the increasingly competitive high-end home audio soundscape. I had a blast listening to as many luxurious home audio systems as the time and crowds allowed. While brief, the below are the ones that really stood out here in Munich at the HIGH END 2025 audiophile equipment event.

Horn specialist Avantgarde Acoustics demonstrated the Twin Sub alongside a pair of Trio G3 horn speakers to an impressively dynamic, fast, and well-extended effect. Horns like these can deliver the first two with ease, but don't do low bass without assistance. Their €46,000 Twin Subs come in a pair with two 12" drivers per side and 1200 Watts of Class D power to keep things in a tight grip. Prince's song Kiss really kicked ass thanks to the combination of speed and weight that this system delivered, I doubt that there was a faster wideband system at the show.

YG Acoustics joined AVM and Siltech cables in the Drivers and Business Club across the road from the M.O.C. where the HIGH END 2025 takes place. Here, YG Acoustics unveiled their largest model yet, the 6-foot high, 10.5-inch tall Gemini floorstanding loudspeaker. This model is the first of a new range of loudspeakers. The YG Acoustics Gemini employs eight drivers and an external crossover.

At first, I thought that the crossover box was a subwoofer since it's so big. The numerous cables running from it to the base of the Gemini indicated otherwise.

There will be three versions of this monolith: the passive Gemini shown is $880,000, an active sub model will be $910,000, and the fully active version will hit the $1,000,000 mark. Designer Matthew Webster from YG Acoustics explained that the design operates very much like a transmission line and thanks to its 13-inch bass drivers, which extend down to subwoofer-territory 18Hz. Powered by eight AVM monoblock amplifiers, the sound was impressively controlled even at high volume (SPL) levels. The room here at HIGH ND 2025 in Munich couldn't cope with the bass on electronic tracks, though Also sprach Zarathustra was very confident indeed.

WBT was celebrating its magical 40th Anniversary with branded energy drinks and an RCA plug with an angled body for ease of cable dressing. There are many right-angle plugs on the market, but I haven't seen any with this style of highly practical outlet angle.

The WBT 0120 Cu (€53 each) is a Next-Gen plug with a plasma gold-plated surface on a center pin that is moved into the optimum position with a lever at the back of the plug. The negative contact is achieved with the minimum of metal for maximum sound quality.

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