Munich High End Show 2017

[Ralf11]

2 hours ago, Forehaven said:

Am I the only one to find this look unattractive?

...

 

It's Fugly, and looks like an Alien Predator attacked it - possibly the high-end Wilson Predator speakers went after it.

[#Yoda#]

24 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

seems like a good idea but the showers seem highly restrictive in their choices to begin with

 

better rooms might be the most critical thing to address...

 

BTW, is that  a new Levinson component?

 

I avoid presentations at audio shows with audio electronics as main attraction. It's usually waisted time for me, because there is no significant amount of new knowledge. What you can hear are in best case primarily the quality of the used speakers and finally the music is too loud to talk with the booth manning. By the way, you disturb other visitors, listening to find out the benefits of the delicate devices. 

[daverich4]

4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I have no problem if people don't like the music. As it is now, nobody wants to hear Nils lofgren anymore! t least with the playlist, someone is guaranteed to enjoy the music. 

 

Wonder why they keep playing it if no one wants to hear it?

[Stereophonic]

 

[semente]

7 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

More Constellation Audio Leo. I really like this product. The sound quality really is something the other products in the category haven't matched. I listened for quite a while this afternoon. 

 

Edit: Constellation is shooting for fall 2017 release and less than $5,000 MSRP. 

 

The silver color is wonderful. 

 

Did someone drop it?

[#Yoda#]

2 hours ago, Forehaven said:

Am I the only one to find this look unattractive?

 

And Thanks for the updates Chris and All!

It's all a matter of taste. I'm a design fan, but I wouldn't know where to place this "work of art". As an all in one player and speaker it is predestinated for the kitchen, bathroom, home office, garden etc., but for this usage it is to big and 5,000 bucks is a challenge for this. Unfortunately I missed the presentation to evaluate the sound quality.

As a much more affordable and great sounding option if you're using Roon or the ELAC Musicserver, I've experienced the new ELAC Z3 Zone Music Speaker. Great sound for the size. I missed to take my own picture, here is the official one from ELAC.  

  

[wdw]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

It has been in the works for awhile. I talked to the Room guys again here and they said they would announce it to the public yesterday. 

 

One i3 and one i7 version. Uses a NUC inside but very nice case. Will be sold at retailers. 

 

 

...announce it to the public YESTERDAY?  Typo or editorial comment?  Would welcome any news on these guys..

[Ralf11]

23 minutes ago, #Yoda# said:

.. I wouldn't know where to place this "work of art"...

 

 

I would place  it near the front door.  And every time a Jehovah's Witness or other door to door salesman came up, I'd whip it out.

[MarkS]

2 hours ago, manisandher said:

I’m now on my way home from the show. I managed to sit down and take a good listen to many systems, including: Living Voice/Kondo, MSB, Einstein, dCS, Göbel, Wilson Benesch, Aries Cerat, Sound Galleries, Avantgarde Acoustic, Cessaro, Kawero/Kondo, Magico/Spectral, MBL, Thöress, Tune Audio, Silatone/WE, Elrog, soulution, hORNS, Tidal, Mark Levinson, Marten, Stein and TAD, among others.

 

All my photos came out horribly, so I’ll leave others to post their photos instead.

 

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t do this, but because they were amongst the most expensive systems at the show, here are my biggest disappointments of the last two days:

 

3. Living Voice. This is the first time I’ve listened to the Vox Palladians, but have heard the Vox Olympians a few times before. I wasn’t that impressed with the Olympians, and am even less impressed with the Palladians. Mind you, so I should be – as displayed, the Palladians only cost 2/3 of the Olympians’ $800,000 price tag!

 

2. Cessaro. This is the second time I’ve listened to the Gammas at the Munich show. I forced myself to sit through 30 minutes or so of ‘music’. In that time, most people came in, sat down for all of 30 seconds and walked back out. I was mightily tempted to do the same myself many times.

 

1. Magico/Spectral. The last time I heard Magicos was when they partnered with soulution a few years ago at Munich. I was underwhelmed back then, and unfortunately, partnering the S3s with Spectral hasn’t seemed to help one iota. A totally dead sound, as far as I’m concerned. How people can rant and rave about them is totally beyond me.

 

OK, on to the cool-sounding stuff. My top systems were:

 

3. Aries Cerat. Wow, what a dynamic and totally immersive sound. Slightly edgy off centre, but in the sweet spot were massively impressive. Finally, a system with a bit of life!

 

2. Silbatone/WE. So easy on the ear, and yet so detailed and intricate. I would have liked a bit more ‘kick’ from time to time though. But really can’t complain... for an 85 year-old pair of speakers!

 

1. Tune Audio/Trafomatic. OK, I’m probably a bit biased... This year, Tune Audio left the Animas at home and instead brought along the newer, larger and more expensive Avatons, mated with a gorgeous pair of Trafomatic Elysium SE tube amps. I heard the system on the Friday and wasn’t overly impressed. But I went back today and really, really enjoyed the sound. I stayed for an hour or so, and everything Manolis played sounded great. Only a handful of systems I’ve ever heard have matched this level of performance IMHO. My only criticism was that the sound was a tad too bright, but this could be easily solved.

 

Overall, I phenomenal two days. It’s a shame I didn’t bump into any other CAers though. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

Mani.

How were Kondo and dCS systems?  Did Kondo show with the Kaiser Kaewero speakers?

 

[joelha]

7 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I just ran into @joelha at the show. Thanks for chatting about our wonderful hobby!

 

Always a great pleasure, Chris.

 

I was afraid I wouldn't see you. Very glad I did.

 

Joel

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, wdw said:

 

 

...announce it to the public YESTERDAY?  Typo or editorial comment?  Would welcome any news on these guys..

 

Neither. I was told specifically Roon would announce it yesterday. 

 

Edit: I was told by the roon guys.  

[#Yoda#]

For me, one focus for this year at the HighEnd was an affordable audiophile music server with a Roon server option. There are not many so far, but Innous http://www.innuos.com/en and Euphony Audio http://euphony-audio.com/recommended-hardware/ are offering affordable and well sounding solutions. The Euphony Audio Server is hard to find at the HighEnd Show, you can find it at KECES AUDIO, Halle 1 A03.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'm getting the innuos in here. I think it could be really nice. 

[Miska]

One of the interesting things I heard on Friday was EAR/Yoshino room, where they played new LP lacquer from cutter. Best sound from "vinyl" I've ever heard (I think the material was aluminum disc covered with half millimeter of lacquer - used at the beginning of lengthy process to make the stampers for vinyl).

 

[Ajax]

4 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

At least no inconsiderate house guest will be able to set their drink on top of it! 

Why would that be inconsiderate? If the drink spills and ruins the unit then you will simply have to buy a new one. Claim it legitimately on household contents insurance and pay a small premium. No WAF involved.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Today I had an opportunity to sit down with Peter McGrath from Wilson Audio. He has been a recording engineer for 40 years. He had several of his tracks encoded as MQA versions and gave me a proper A/B using an MQA enabled dCS DAC. 

 

There was no denying the positive difference MQA made in each track. There were substantial audible benefits on all five tracks we played. I asked him to flip back and forth several times so I could make sure of what I heard. In this case, MQA made the music sound much much better. 

 

I was in the room with someone else who is quite skeptical of MQA, and he heard the same very positive differences.

 

Our listening was done after show hours, so the noise level was substantially lower and the conditions were good. 

[JoseL]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Neither. I was told specifically Roon would announce it yesterday. 

 

Edit: I was told by the roon guys.  

Maybe I am wrong but it looks like it did not happen, did it?

[Miska]

38 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Today I had an opportunity to sit down with Peter McGrath from Wilson Audio. He has been a recording engineer for 40 years. He had several of his tracks encoded as MQA versions and gave me a proper A/B using an MQA enabled dCS DAC.

 

What format was the non-MQA track?

 

So far to me, for example the original 2L DXD tracks sound much better than the MQA versions. Same goes for the various albums I've purchased from highresaudio.com in both MQA and original hires.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, JoseL said:

Maybe I am wrong but it looks like it did not happen, did it?

 

Not sure if they announced it or not, but the products will be released.

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

What format was the non-MQA track?

 

So far to me, for example the original 2L DXD tracks sound much better than the MQA versions. Same goes for the various albums I've purchased from highresaudio.com in both MQA and original hires.

 

 

The original files I believe were 24/88.2 WAV files recorded on a Nagra digital machine. One track was 44.1 I believe.

[Miska]

I went to the dCS room couple of times, but it sounded boring every time... Not fan of those speakers, somehow the soundstage is missing. Or then they just don't work in that kind of room.

[Ralf11]

6 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

The original files I believe were 24/88.2 WAV files recorded on a Nagra digital machine. One track was 44.1 I believe.

 

 

was this the so-called end-to-end MQA?  or was it applied after the fact to the above files?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, Ralf11 said:

 

 

was this the so-called end-to-end MQA?  or was it applied after the fact to the above files?

 

what is end to end mqa?

[Ralf11]

it is a term I see a lot on this very site; presumably starts at the recording

 

you're pullin my leg, eh?

[Jud]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Today I had an opportunity to sit down with Peter McGrath from Wilson Audio. He has been a recording engineer for 40 years. He had several of his tracks encoded as MQA versions and gave me a proper A/B using an MQA enabled dCS DAC. 

 

There was no denying the positive difference MQA made in each track. There were substantial audible benefits on all five tracks we played. I asked him to flip back and forth several times so I could make sure of what I heard. In this case, MQA made the music sound much much better. 

 

I was in the room with someone else who is quite skeptical of MQA, and he heard the same very positive differences.

 

Our listening was done after show hours, so the noise level was substantially lower and the conditions were good. 

 

Hate to ask, but was loudness carefully equalized?

 

Happier to ask: Anything in particular PM thought might be responsible for the improvement?