MUNCHEN 2025 MOC / MARRIOTT The final Chapter !

[Amir]

YG vitus sounds a lot better then last year with Boulder .
Best i have ever heard Vitus

Yes, the sound was far better than 2024.

It was top of the line 4 piece Vitus MP-M201

 

[Thundersnow]

Day two of the show and more videos, guys. Again you can read my short first impressions of each system in the video description. Enjoy!

Munich High End 2025: DAY 2

Impressions of each system are in the description!

youtube.com

 

[Thundersnow]

Was the ESD active this year as well or they got a passive

Not sure. But it was hands down the best sound of the show. I don’t care about geography, predjudice or whatnot, but this was a master class in music reproduction.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Not sure. But it was hands down the best sound of the show. I don’t care about geography, predjudice or whatnot, but this was a master class in music reproduction.

Can you please describe for us what it did more convincingly than the other big horn systems?

 

[Ron Resnick]

Is it my imagination or did a number of high sensitivity speaker systems nonetheless use solid-state amplification?

For example, I don't recall previously seeing big Kharmas on solid-state.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Kharma has always used their own amps in munich.
I think they are digital ( not sure )

 

[Al M.]

Is it my imagination or did a number of high sensitivity speaker systems nonetheless use solid-state amplification?

For example, I don't recall previously seeing big Kharmas on solid-state.

The big Kharmas don't seem to be high sensitivity speakers. Also, the Kharma company makes high power solid state amplification for their loudspeakers.

 

[andromedaaudio]

...thanks for posting and chasing around for us folks at home. You'll have to catch up on the Giro Monday!

Lol sure .
I have to get up early monday and go and work overtime to pay for my FM amps .

Actually i have holidays now the austrian mountains are close to munich always worth a visit.

I ll go italy/ french alps afterwards may be i ll see the giro.
I did bring my TREK but im not sure i ll survive the stelvio

 

[Kingrex]

Not sure. But it was hands down the best sound of the show. I don’t care about geography, predjudice or whatnot, but this was a master class in music reproduction.

Where is the ESD video? FWIW, the horns sound like horns and the boxed drivers like box drivers. That Tune Audio did present a bass impact through my computer speakers that others didn't quite do. But it still had a color. Of course, this is a laptop speakers. I have no idea what is going on in the real world sound.

 

[bonzo75]

Is it my imagination or did a number of high sensitivity speaker systems nonetheless use solid-state amplification?

For example, I don't recall previously seeing big Kharmas on solid-state.

I think you are reading too many Kharma with Lamm posts, at Munich they have always been with their own class D amps and others might often use SS.

Plus clubbing them with high sensitivity after so many years of hifi exposure

 

[andromedaaudio]

I think manuel huber should open a school for reviewers. and LP aficionados.

He has tons of knowledge / master of finetuning / designing a system with actual music as a reference.
Compared to a full FM system all systems no matter the price are way out of tune.
Most grainless / natural solid state i ve ever heard .
Ok its pricey but at least its something which lets you have a musical connection which is .....priceless

 

[Argonaut]

82 rooms have been recorded at the Munich High End audio show 2025 and at the Motorworld by Totaldac using Schoeps cardioid and omnidirectionnel microphones connected to a pro Sonosax microphone recorder.

Nice work and audio quality … This does , imho , highlight the limitations of the standard mobile phone in the capture and recording fidelity when attempting to move closer to the in-room boots on the ground sound experience , when compared with even an entry pro level dedicated mike and recorder , even tho both are processed through the same YouTube algorithm .

 

[Argonaut]

Not sure. But it was hands down the best sound of the show. I don’t care about geography, predjudice or whatnot, but this was a master class in music reproduction.

Even via a YouTube the effortless scale of the Stokowski Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 is immediately apparent, most impressive .

 

[orfeo_monteverdi]

Nice work and audio quality … This does , imho , highlight the limitations of the standard mobile phone in the capture and recording fidelity when attempting to move closer to the in-room boots on the ground sound experience , when compared with even an entry pro level dedicated mike and recorder , even tho both are processed through the same YouTube algorithm .

The TotalDac show report is sadly unavailable ( < copyright)

[UPDATE 19/5, I can see the video again]​

Here is [was] the message:
Video unavailable
This video contains content from UMG, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

This only music reproduced through LS, but that bunch of a** at UMG (or their Idiotic Automaton) obviously prefer preventing us from discovering their music, rather than making us run the risk of wanting to buy it...

In the meantime, here is what I could grab from what I could have seen (it stops just after Zellaton):
(some short comments in French)

---

MUSIC

[miscellaneous rooms]
Deeper · Pete Belasco
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel
Keneshi Tsunoda Big Band - Take Five **
Hiromi - Seeker (feat. Anthony Jacks). Jazzouillant, easy listening
Sophie Hunger, Le Vent Nous Portera

[Wilson Chronosonic + WAMM + D'Agostino]
Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite, IV. Infernal Dance ***
Johnny "guitar" Watson - A Real Mother For Ya
Freya Ridings - Lost Without You (voix, piano, basse; easy listening)
Keneshi Tsunoda Big Band - Take Five

[Wilson + VTL]
Cécile McLorin Salvant - Le Mal de vivre (< Barbara)

[Göbel + Riviera]
<ROCK> Led Zeppelin - Ramble On **

[Voxativ]
Flow - Crooked Colors ***

[Magico + Wadax]
Beethoven: Triple Concerto - Nicola Benedetti (violin), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, DECCA
Avi Kaplan - Peace Somehow

[Grimm Audio LS1]
Melody Gardot - Who Will Comfort Me

[ESD Acoustic, système chinois à pavillons, €1M]
Stravinsky - The Rite Of Spring, Minnesota Orchestra, Reference Recordings, 1996 ***
Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody N°2, dir° Leopold Stokoswi, RCA Victor, 1961

[Zellaton]
<perscussions> Jan Garbarek - Talking Winds
<opéra> Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K620 - Acte 2, »Tamino! Lass Mich Nicht Im Stich!«, G. Finley, M. Schade, The English Baroque Soloists • J.E. Gardiner

[Genelec]
Dominique Fils-AÎné - Birds

 

[Amir]

Kharma amplifier is solidstate class AB not Class D

Please let me know if I am wrong

I think the best day for me was day 3 (saturday)

Maybe the AC power quality was good during my visit on saturday

 

[Amir]

very good show , fun and full of energy for me

Thanks all companies for setup and demonstration

Most of the time the weather was good, every thing was perfect

Thanks God for great moments

 

[Amir]

Anette Askvik signed the LP

 

[bonzo75]

Interesting compare here of the same track on the Western electric vs the Acapella

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[bonzo75]

Kharma amplifier is solidstate class AB not Class D

Please let me know if I am wrong

6 moons wrote a long passage in their review to explain why they are AB not digital as popularly believed. So, who knows? If it was straightforward either way there wouldn’t be a popular belief requiring a long winded explanation

 

[orfeo_monteverdi]

Stenheim/ Boulder .
Stenheim sounds good this year.
Has boulder gotten rid of the House sound ?

[please forgive my poor English]

There is very, very few "House sound" in Stenheim.
So what is probably more palatable this year, is the "Boulder sound"... ;-)

(I'm joking, as there are certainly quite a few more variables that we do not know: cables, vinyl in that Stenheim room this year - last year, I think it was digital only in that room -,​

and vinyl = cartridge + arm + phono cable + phono preamp + etc.​

It is all that stuff that can be clearly heard through the Stenheims, but also the smallest change made into that upwards stuff: we easily could compare an Etsuro Gold and an My Sonic Lab cartridge, with DCC's Stenheim Reference Ultime Two a few months ago)​

​

In the TotalDac video report made with Schoeps microphones, that Stenheim room (there was a second one) seemed to sound very life-like, but also pleasantly-sounding indeed. At least through Sennheiser headphones.

Anyway, how would you described what you preferred this year, compared to last year?

Thanks for your pictures-galore