Today's
first part of Enjoy the Music.com's coverage of Munich's High End 2013
audiophile show is brought to you by the letters J, Q and Æ. Actually today begins with fun stuff! Come;
let's explore the more funner side of things here at the Munich High End 2013 show.
First up is Roma with their Vareo's, which are cute little speakers. Pricing around €4500 euro or so per pair for the large speakers. Reminds me of Mr. Potato Head yet here you can have the entire
‘family' too.
EBTB (Everything But The Box) of course have their wonderful and colorful speakers including the
red Terra II, yellow Pluto and green Luna (€1799, €1999 and €999 per pair respectively.
CA Electronics cool cable elevators and cones are very popular with audiophiles.
Schuchtronic tonearm No. 1 prototype has a very unique
'twist', literally, because as the tonearm moves across the vinyl it angles the needle/headshell.
Also, the rear axis of the tonearm moves too. Mathematically, think of it like
two different triangles working together to keep optimum geometry. Pricing is around €5000.
Clearaudio, a very well-respected analog specialist company from Germany, had their new Double Matrix Professional record cleaner (€2800) that is relatively quiet they say as compared to other vacuum cleaning machines plus it cleans both sides in about a minute.
The buzz on this next product is huge! Astell&Kern gave us a world premiere showing of their new
AK120 (€1100) that improves on the previous model with dual DACs plus a lower impedance of 3 Ohms for the headphone amp section so it can drive even those tough
Sennheisers. Also, don't you just hate it when listening to great music yet
miss an important phone call? Unlike many other portable audio devices, they
include Bluetooth so that when listening to music and you receive a phone
call, the unit mutes the audio and you can then answer the phone (or blow them
off because the music is sounding so great). And yes, one is coming my way folks because the AK120 is just too cool to not review! And my award for Best New Portable Audio Product
@ High End 2013 goes to the Astell&Kern for their AK120 portable digital
audio player.
Pro-Ject turntables.
Here is Pro-Ject's Signature 12-Zoll-Tonearm all blinged out in
chrome.
Dared's new Saturn integrated tube amplifier ($2500) operates in Class A and includes an internal USB DAC too. There are
four analog inputs and it produce 20 wpc via KT-120 and a pair of 12AX7 tubes. You can get the standard 24-bit/96kHz DAC or, optionally, a 32-bit/384kHz version. There is
a front headphone jack for those who want a more personal listening experience.
---> Next page.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
