SHOW COVERAGE HIGH END 2008 MONACHIUM WOJCIECH PACUŁA Place: Monachium, Munich Operating Centre (M.O.C.) Time: 24.04 - 27.04.2008 Organizer: High End Society e.V.

In my opinion this was the best issue of the show. At least from the time I know it, meaning the last ten years, when I visit it regularly. Big, well organized, with lots of interesting devices and people. One has to get used to the thought, that this is not a place where one listens, for that purpose you have to visit smaller shows that are easily found in Germany but for me it was worth it. The show is so big, that walking around it, without even looking closer at anything, takes full two days. At least if we want to take some pictures and visit every booth. Or almost every – I didn’t make it to visit all of them in time. A pity… But I was everywhere where I was invited – because I knew what to expect – there where my friends told me to go, saying that it is worth it, and where I saw something interesting.

Every edition has a leading motive – last year those were the companies from Italy, two years ago from China and Taiwan. This year it was music servers. I am writing about that since some time, and I see with my own eyes that it is happening - and I informed and prepared you for this – the change in the paradigm of listening to music. We do not expect how much our habits will change, when a data stream will be used in place of the physical carrier. There will always be an offering for collectors, just like today it is in the form of vinyl, but for the mass client this format is dead since 20 years. This will happen in just a few years. There will be no stores; the artists will sell music directly from their web pages. The diversity will increase. And quality, I hope. And the next step will be servers without a hard disk that will play directly from the web – it will all depend only on the throughput of the link.

Now the servers look like a D/A converter integrated with something like a specialized computer – we have a HDD, CD-ROM and an operating system taking care of the data. And I have to say, that together with the change of habits there will be a change of quality – almost without exceptions all devices based on that “contraption” sounded at least very good. I enjoyed very much the Linn server Klimax DS that was the source in the anniversary (30 years) presentation of the magazine “Stereoplay”. The presentation had the purpose to compare five expensive loudspeaker systems coming from companies ADAM, KEF, Cabasse, Klipsh and B&W (Bowers & Wilkins). The sound, for the show, was really classy. Amplification was provided by McIntosh in the form of MC501 power amplifiers and Thorens supplied the preamplifier. The presentation was interesting, because I had a completely different opinion afterwards than most of the other listeners. They pointed to the Cabasse and Klipsch as the better speakers, and I liked the ADAM and KEF better. Both speakers had a vivid, natural sound, without pretending to be the fastest and most detailed sound. They sounded very natural and to the point. But maybe I am not an expert.

Anyway, the future is solid state memory. All my interlocutors (I prepared a series of interviews for a reportage from the show for “Audio” - please read if you can!) pointed to the drive as the biggest source of problems in all classical players. I don’t know how they handle the very big jitter of hard discs, but it seems they can handle that. Personally I am very fond of my Lektor Prime and of my discs, but sooner or later I will have to buy such a contraption, as in the Internet there are already uncompressed audio files available in 24/96 or even 24/192 format, that sound (I heard them!) just fabulous.
According to the talks the hi-end fares well. Maybe in Germany and in Italy, where they have a crisis it is worse than it was before, but it is not bad at all. Anyway audio was never a big part of the economy. However looking at the show it was not easy to believe in that – its size and interest of the visitors told a completely different story. More details, like the mentioned interviews, you will find in the “Audio”. A different set of photos will also be there (I made more than 500 shots…).

Looking at the photos one has to pay attention to a few things. One is the mentioned omnipresence of memory players, that partially pushed out vinyl, but most of all destroyed the CD players. SACD players were still holding strong, most of all in their most expensive form, from the companies dCS, Esoteric and Audio Aero. There was quite a lot of vinyl, but we already grew accustomed to that – it seems that this is the de facto standard of the hi-end, deep-rooted and few with a big stream of re-editions and new pressings. I think that SACD will take this position in time, but – paradoxically – it will influence the audiophiles in a much lesser way. The source of hi-end music will be the server, which will push out the CD and SACD. Its counterweight will be the vinyl. On the field of amplifiers the tube makes waves. This is also true for the sources, where most devices use output stages where electrons travel through gas or vacuum, but it was the tube amplifiers and/or preamplifiers that were part of almost all of the best presentations. This is the combination of the tradition (tube) with new technology (HDD). In the field of loudspeakers one can notice a trend of using ceramic speakers, what means a change of paradigm and a new deal. Splendid products from Isophon, ASW, a successful presentation of Avalon and Kharma, phenomenal loudspeakers from Ayon and related to it Lumen White, also a new proposition of Lindemann – those are just the main brand names to watch for, as there are also new ones growing silently in their shadow, like the Scandinavian Coltraine. Here the distinguishing elements are diamond speakers. And this is irrevocably related to another regularity – the companies fight fiercely to improve the reproduction of the treble and its integration with the midrange. Creaking, bright, overexposed treble are the nightmare of expensive audio. It seems that those times are over. Not fully but still, like inspector Ryba says. The Air Motion transducers in the brilliant ADAM, Burmester and Heil loudspeakers, ribbons in the loudspeakers Sonics by Joachim Gerhard and Mythos, the widespread presence of the dual-ring drivers from Scan-Speak and most of all the search for coaxial solutions, like KEF, Ascendo, Audiodata, Burmester and Cabasse (all the mentioned loudspeakers were part of splendidly prepared presentations, maybe with the exception of the “Sphere” from Cabasse, that I didn’t like). And of course the strengthening of the position of the old brands, manufacturing planar speakers, with the phenomenal Magnepan 20.1 and new flagships CLX from Martin Logan. And a reminder how music should sound in the room with the antique Quad ESL-57 speakers powered by tube monoblocs from Nagra. On this background the Avantgarde Acoustic tube speakers and new speakers with tube treble by Cain were only an addendum – a valuable one, but just an addendum. So there is much happening, we live in interesting times. For us audiophiles this is a blessing, and not a curse, fortunately.

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