ArtPhonix Vinyl was selling, what else,
vinyl. Germans love turntables and vinyl, and so there is plenty of it here at
High End 2013 Munich..
No, this is not a new color test pattern to calibrate your monitor. What you see here is
Vicoustic brand acoustic panels for room treatment (~€150 euro per sq meter depending on finish/type).
Do you have an old or, dare we say, outdated turntable that needs a new
needle? If so, then try Tonar as they have a wide selection to
offer.
Stroopwafels! Yum!!!
Avinity had some cool little mobile audio toys!
Nagra T-Audio analog tape machine.
Axiss was showing the Axiom tonearm (€1800 for rhodium, and €3000 for gold plated). The
arm tube is from medical-grade titanium, whilst internally there is a is carbon fiber tube. They are both encompassed by a specially chosen liquid internally for dampening.
Car audio on display here at High End 2013. Frankly, I’ve seen much,
much better. It looks quite amateurish
actually. Big bummer as wish they brought a proper high-end car audio system, as it is
amazing what a truly talented aftermarket car audio system designer can
accomplish.
Telefunken :)
Blue Danube Records were selling a nice
selection of music to those attending the Munich High End 2013 show.
Ultrasone headphones of all shaped and sizes are here for you to try.
Ultrasone had the new Edition 12 (€1299) dynamic open with a frequency
response from 6 Hz to 42 kHz with a 40 Ohm impedance.
Pivetta Opera Only brought their massive 12-sided 160,000 watt amplifier that weighs 1500 kg!
That is 3300 pounds of weight to you blokes in the States. The amplifier section opens for easy connection/servicing. They invested 1.5 million and they have two finished units. Interesting design for sure and you can probably run a medium-sized concert hall easily with it
too.
Wow, look at all those Kuzma tonearms!
Buffalo is claiming to have the first DSD via DLNA. i asked and they said it
will do higher rez DSD rates as well.
My personal award for Consistently
Best Dressed Man @ Munich High End Shows is Marantz's own Ken Ishiwata. He is also the genius and Golden
Ears behind many of Marantz's products.
Progressive Audio model CD 2 (€11,500) is a CD player and USB DAC at 24-bit/192kHz. It works from 1 Hz to 300 kHz and is fully balanced in every section including
digital, analog, etc. By remote control, or button on the unit itself, you can raise and lower to top lid for disc insertion/changing.
Cardas Audio has finally released their EM5813
($425) ear speakers that took four years to come to fruition! The EM stands for
Ear Mirror because they are said to "mirror the human hearing
system" according to Andy Regan of
Cardas Audio. The ear's cochlea and the earbud/speaker itself have the same magical Cadas Golden Ratio! When making the actual driver, Cardas chose special metal developed specifically by NASA for its magnetic properties. It comes with Cardas’ Clearlight cable. About 70% of the EM5813 is made in
Oregon or California, with assembly done in China.
Manger speakers brought to this event their new
MSM S1 (€15,000 per pair) that uses, of course, the renown Manger driver for midrange and highs. For deep bass from 300 Hz on down an 8" woofer is
put to good use. This model is fully powered with 250 watts for bass and 180 watts for the Manger driver. Analog input is via balanced XLR. This is an easy plug n play set of speakers, with adjustments for high frequency for room placement sound optimization. Note the rear panel photo
above is their MSM C1 speaker.
By the way, did i mention the crowd is huge
here at the High End 2013 Munch show? Well, that's all for today and Sunday's
coverage may be a bit late as have to fly back home so have no time to post it until
Monday or Tuesday depending on my (exhausted) energy level. A most humble
thanks for your patience with Sunday's coverage, it is greatly appreciated.
Until then, enjoy the music!
Click here for Sunday's High End
2013 Munich coverage.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
