Munich Germany
High End Society 2004 Show

Page 5

 

 

On the other hand, everything is more expensive over there except for the beer. If you think stereo equipment is expensive in the states, go to Europe, where the taxes are higher, the wages lower, and gasoline sells for $5.50 a gallon. With the dollar being so low against the Euro, their high end manufacturers are being undercut by the Americans, and a couple of dealers at the show said they can actually sell our products for the equivalent price or less than theirs. Good news for our products, but bad news for my travel expenses.

The only new technology demonstrated at the show was from O'Heocha of Ireland, with a complete high-end system from CD player to preamp to active loudspeakers. What's so new about that you may say? It's all done without wires, using digital wireless transmission in the 2.1 GHz. frequency band, with the 24/96 D/A converters built into the speakers. Again, you may ask, what's so new? They actually sounded very good, unlike the cheap products usually available with wireless technology. Just think, no tweaking of long runs of interconnect or loudspeaker wire underfoot or messing up the room. I couldn't tell how high end the sound could be but look forward to more of these systems especially with surround. Unhappily they couldn't answer how it will work with SACD or DVD-A, and analog has to be digitized.

The second new technology came up by chance. At the end of the first day when leaving the hall I was shanghaied by a an outlyer group: companies who don't want to pay the rates charged by the show, who rent hotel rooms, then lie in wait outside the venue. Since they were in the hotel next to mine, which would save me a cab fare, I went along for the ride. They were demonstrating what they called a new speaker technology, which consisted of a 6x9 (inch) rectangular sheet of a wood-something-else composite with some hidden driver. They sounded pretty good until I had them play a male voice at which time a fairly broad rise in the lower mid-range was evident. I don't know whether this was due to the speakers or their interaction with the subwoofer they needed, but the units needed work. Thus, in deference to the show, and in the hope that they'll get their act together, the product will remain anonymous.

 

 

Finally, I got to meet up with Allen Wright, the builder of my Product of the Year, his 300B-DPA differential amplifiers. He had just finished a second set for me based on 300B tubes, and they came back with me through customs without damage. But that story will be for another issue.

 

 

 

 

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