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Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

Munich was possibly a little more subdued than usual. This wasn’t just because the show coincided with a national holiday in Germany, and the subdued nature wasn’t necessarily reflected in the number of exhibitors or attendees. Munich, however, has long been the jumping off point for the wild extremes of audio; whether it’s a million-dollar amplifier that looks like a missile warhead, a turntable that weighed as much as a small house and needed a ladder to reach the platter, or a horn loudspeaker made from cardboard, those wild and wacky moments that (for good or ill) help define Munich were not as present this year. Well, almost… Ascendo takes the crown for the craziest product of the show, with only the slightest nod to Back To The Future.

In part, this lack of wildness is a good thing. With an increasing number of audio companies turning their back on CES, exhibitors at Munich have collectively stepped up their games. The exhibitors were (in the main) more professional, readier to field questions and inquiries from trade and showgoer alike and had the kind of support infrastructure (of brochures, press releases, and online support). It also means we can get back to talking about sensible products with price tags that don’t end with a stream of zeros. Hopefully.

Why that is only ‘in part’ is because we also need a bit of the maverick in our increasingly conformist world. And that brings me to the next part of this Munich wrap-up. This was the show of baton passing. Three big names in the audio business – Antony Michaelson of Musical Fidelity, Heinz Rohrer of Thorens, and Flemming Rasmussen of Gryphon Audio Designs – all announced their retirement just prior to Munich, with the first two brands changing hands with new owners, while Gryphon stays with the existing team. Little were we to know that this wasn’t going to be the last name to leave us in May…

, Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

Munich High End 2018 might just be the year where the theme is no theme, but there did seem to be some trends to be teased out, all the same. Alongside the big hitters, this was the year where the real-world began to strike back even in the high-end brands. It’s perhaps no coincidence that both Magico and Wilson had their most affordable designs to date (the A3 and the new Tune Tot) at the show, and Sonus faber’s new line of loudspeakers managed to combine attainability and style, while bringing production back to Italy. Even super high-end European brand Tidal launched a line of more affordable loudspeakers in the parallel (or maybe diffusion) brand Vimberg. And the trend for making high-performance integrated amplifiers or whole ‘one-box solutions’ continues unabated. Of course, with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of products on show, it’s possible to tease out any theme you like, and perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part, but this year’s High End did seem a little more directed toward the affordable and attainable, instead of the aspirational and the astronomical. Frankly, we need more of that if we are ever going to mint new music lovers interested in good sound. 

, Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

 

The other welcome trend is that of greater integration. Companies across the board have come to realise what’s needed is a turnkey approach, especially in turntables. Companies like Pro-Ject and Rega realised this years ago, providing pre-installed cartridges and even built-in phonostages in their lower-cost designs, but gradually the technology trickled up, and first Clearaudio, and now Burmester and SME have made complete turnkey turntable systems for those who want great performance without the rigmarole of choosing a good turntable, arm, cartridge, and phonostage from a vast combination of options. OK, Linn has also been doing something similar for decades, but that places the turn-key system in the hands of the dealer and the installer. This new trend is buy from the factory and you are good to go.

, Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

Integration extends beyond the vinyl domain. We are also seeing the trend for complete systems in the loudspeaker itself. Of these, the new €30,000 BXT designed for the Kii THREE system is the most sonically promising, as it is an intelligent approach to bass management. Effectively replacing the stands for the Kii THREE loudspeaker, these 16 drivers, 7kW, DSP-driven bass cabinets don’t just bring more bass to the system, it better controls the in-room performance of the bass itself. The Kii THREE has the power to surprise, the Kii THREE with BXT has the power to amaze. Perhaps this is the WATT/Puppy of the Age of Streaming – only time will tell? But, both for how it performed* and the promise it offers, this had to be my star of the show… even if it was at the ‘other’ HiFi Deluxe show at the Marriott hotel!

, Munich High End 2018 – Final Thoughts

Of course, the take-away product from a show is always going to be the biggest and shiniest. We remember the concept cars and the striking new supercars from the show where we picked out our next hatchback, and we are all drawn to those things. But I hope the sensible shines through alongside the sensational. Here’s to next year!

*You might notice that in most cases, I have actively shied away from describing the sound quality of products at the show. This is deliberate, because the sound quality in most rooms at the show is uniformly terrible, especially in the glass boxes that are used in the M.O.C., which tell you next to nothing about the performance of a product (walk into an almost good-sounding room, take a 10 minute break and go back and it may well sound dreadful, there seems to be no room treatment, no DSP, no power conditioning, and no magic beans that can fix this perennial problem). A show is, first and foremost, an exhibition, and exhibitors demonstrate their products in the best possible light, but just as a motor show gives you no real analogue to test-driving and owning the car, so a show gives very little real-world indicator of performance. At best, it’s a finger pointing the way. I chose to look to the way, not focus on the finger!

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