High end Munich 2017

[Elberoth]

Hi Marty,

VAC, McIntosh and VTL were there. I saw Luke Manley in the hall, but no, didn't see Audio Research, Lamm or Conrad Johnson in any of the suites, nor on any of the literature. Jim White of Aesthetix commented to me that Munich is great for them, but they have a dealer/distributor network that may serve them better in Europe than other parts of the world, which may not be so true of AR, Lamm, CJ, etc, although I'm not sure why that would be the case given the sheer number of Asian brands and audiophiles I saw attend the show.

853guy

EDIT: Just saw Bonzo's reply. Sorry.

I though I have seen ARC on static display in the same room as Dagostino a dn Sonus faber ... or am I imagining things ?

ARC most certainly has been present in Munich since I remember.

Lamm and CJ do not have a strong EU presence. I'm not even shure CJ is CE approved.

 

[bonzo75]

Hi Marty,

VAC, McIntosh and VTL were there. I saw Luke Manley in the hall, but no, didn't see Audio Research, Lamm or Conrad Johnson in any of the suites, nor on any of the literature. Jim White of Aesthetix commented to me that Munich is great for them, but they have a dealer/distributor network that may serve them better in Europe than other parts of the world, which may not be so true of AR, Lamm, CJ, etc, although I'm not sure why that would be the case given the sheer number of Asian brands and audiophiles I saw attend the show.

853guy

EDIT: Just saw Bonzo's reply. Sorry.

AR is very strong in EU especially UK and is usually there at Munich. VAC seemed this year because of the Von Schweikert system. Dagostino is there too. UK is a big US brand dominated market. AR, Wilson, Martin Logan. The US brands distributor is powerful and charges more here than it costs in the US, but his strong distribution creates a great resale value. AR is one of the most safe to buy and resale here. Personally except in rare cases I don't see the need for buying across continents and paying higher price

 

[Steve Williams]

Can anyone comment on the sound in the Von Schweikert room with new Ultra 11's. I know that Leif and Damon were not able to use MasterBuilt Cable as the owner of the room was a European manufacturer of high end cables

 

[asiufy]

Can anyone comment on the sound in the Von Schweikert room with new Ultra 11's. I know that Leif and Damon were not able to use MasterBuilt Cable as the owner of the room was a European manufacturer of high end cables

Steve,

It was extremely underwhelming, and I stopped by 3 or 4 times. Music selection was always pretty bad too, bland vocal jazz...

 

[asiufy]

I've put all my pics here:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0gGf693ZKzF8

I didn't take pics of every single room, but just the stuff I found interesting/curious or stuff that I wanted to remember for later...


cheers,
alex

 

[KeithR]

Can anyone comment on the sound in the Von Schweikert room with new Ultra 11's. I know that Leif and Damon were not able to use MasterBuilt Cable as the owner of the room was a European manufacturer of high end cables

I'm sure it sounded awful then!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Did anyone see the Ascendo 50" subwoofer?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jIyUmpz9dII

 

[Zero000]

Did anyone see the Ascendo 50" subwoofer?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jIyUmpz9dII

Yeah and heard it Ron. Crazy thing. The AV room next door to it was much more impressive. Serious AV sounds and video.

Anyway, here's some Luxman kit, shot by me. I'll post a bit of my media here, but the rest will go to a UK site I linked to earlier.

 

[Zero000]

Let's be nice to Luxman.

Considering the modest nature of the speakers, this room full of Luxman kit sounded very good in the flesh. Love that valve amp. Really was good this room. And some of it is almost vaguely affordable.

Video to follow. I am going to have to use YouTube, as the alternative I had in mind just won't do the job as hosting on vBugletin won't work.

 

[bonzo75]

The Luxman room was fantastic. I thought it was there valve amp playing but in reality it was the SS m900u. I keep telling people this is a great amp especially for the money, it is way better than these Ypsilon hybrids in direct shootouts, Joel from 6 moons has tried it with Vivid and Maggie 20.7 and he has experience of many amps including owning Ypsilon Aelius. At 10k price GBP it killed Viola Symphony, and was a close second to Gryphon Mephisto which is 50k or more. It is just not as fast and detailed and bassy as the Gryphon. Tone, musicality, is superior. People have migrated to it from valves. Shame at Munich they should have gone with bigger speakers.

 

[Zero000]

I've batched a load of YouTube videos but it'll take a good while to upload. There are quite a few, but unfortunately some of the good videos are compromised by an RX100 fault that appeared in my camera. It makes a load of noise in the video sound as some sort of lens gearing goes nuts. It is annoying, but you can hear through it so I may post some of those later because otherwise they are good vids.

Anyway, so MSB pics, including the new DAC they have been working on. Playing MQA at the time. I wasn't mind blown at the time. But their kit is very good.

Once again I really found rooms to vary depending on what time you were in there, the volume, and obviously what was playing at that time. So easy to get misled and come to the wrong conclusion. A point I always try to make.

 

[Zero000]

I'd like to plug the M-900U into the Apogees I have to say. Could do a good job.

El cheapo version of the Olympian.

 

[Zero000]

A bit more LV/Kondo stuff.

 

[Zero000]

For Ked - actually the Wilson's were grey - not red

 

[bonzo75]

Great pics. The Wilsons with the Nagra were red

 

[Zero000]

Great pics. The Wilsons with the Nagra were red

Yeah video to come. Came out well that one, but still uploading.

 

[bonzo75]

Guys here is a quick write up http://zero-distortion.org/munich-high-end-2017/

 

[Zero000]

Lampizator room.

Atlantic GG. This room was dead sweet, really. Playing crap I'd never listen to in a million years, but FWIW it did sound really nice. Much better than the Aeries Cerat gear that cost a lot more money. Seriously - much, much better. In the general scheme of things not killer, but very pleasant nonetheless.

 

[Zero000]

Marten / totaldac. Nice system love the amps.

 

[analog brother]

what amps are they?
quite nice.
coltrane 3 not bad either.

edit: engstrom? my eyes getting better focussed now.
they remind me of the lars amp.