I had an absolute blast in Munich.
This was my first time at the show and I’m already looking forward to next year very much.
I’m certainly glad I was able to do all 4 days, I honestly have no idea how I’d have gotten to see everything I wanted to see in just 2, the place was enormous!
I think for me there were a few particular highlights:
HEADPHONES:
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Raal Circumaural prototype.
This was easily the headphone that excited me the most. Take the SR1A and address basically all the concerns people had with it, particularly the lowend, and you get this. It was absolutely spectacular and I can’t wait to hear the final version hopefully at Canjam London.
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Meze 109
I was really surprised by this for two reasons. Firstly I expected to hear an open 99, it wasn’t, it was so much better and an interesting departure from Meze’s typical tuning.
And secondly just for how good it is for the expected price. I think they’re going to sell a lot of these and certainly should do, they’re great.
And of course being Meze the build quality is simply the best of just about any manufacturer.
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Zähl HM1
This thing honestly blew my mind. The sound quality alone was absolutely spectacular, comfortably beating the Enleum 23R next to it (which was a fantastic amp but the HM1 is something else), and with immense power to back it up. Peak power capability of I believe it was 14W. (Lower sustained but short durations is what’s important anyway).
But not only that, the featureset, being able to A/B inputs, add some EQ to the sound, and even a staging adjustment that doesn’t use a basic crossfeed, but instead an analog domain Mid/Side comparator which looks at what the L/R channels have in common vs what is different, and only adjusts the differences, meaning you can literally reduce/expand the soundstage with one adjustment.
It’s crazy good and I’m probably going to have to sell some of my gear to get one cause wow I need that in my life.
SPEAKERS:
My top three rooms in order:
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Western Electric 777 prototypes
These quite simply blew my mind. There was of course a huge amount of amazing setups in Munich, but none quite made my jaw drop like these did.
Never have I heard any audio gear present something so perfectly as these did.
And it wasn’t just myself, Skedra and DoctorJuggles who I was there with both said it was hands down their favourite system too.
I can’t describe how amazing this system was. And it’s the only system that I think might come close to the Grande Utopia setup that got me into audio in the first place.
Focal did actually have a grande utopia setup at the show but only for the first two days and I unfortunately missed out. I’d have loved to hear those amazing pieces of engineering (and art) again but hopefully will get a chance to do so soon.
Oh, and also Western Electric had one of the coolest posters I’ve seen and I really want one!
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YG Acoustics
I went in there a couple times and they had swapped their speakers between days. I unfortunately didn’t get to hear their top end system, but the one shown in this image was spectacular.
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AudioQuest
AudioQuest had a setup with a dCS digital stack and Einstein hybrid amplifiers, feeding Wilson speakers.
This setup was amazing for two reasons.
Firstly, it just outright sounded amazing. I’d not had the opportunity to hear Wilsons before the show and each room that was using them was consistently fantastic. It’s pretty clear why they have the reputation they do, and of course the combination of dCS and Einstein source gear was brilliant too.
But what solidified it in my top three was just how well set up the room was.
It was interesting at Munich cause there were so many rooms with clearly amazing gear, including some I’d heard similar setups of before, but the room setup itself was ‘just ok’.
In fact, a room literally 2 doors down from audioquest used the same speakers as they did, and their setup sounded good, but going into the audioquest room, the speakers simply disappeared. It was like they weren’t there and all elements of the music were just laid out in a landscape in front of you.
Beautiful.
It was pretty clear they spent considerable time with positioning and treatment in that room and the result was clear.
But, whilst of course it was absolutely fantastic getting to try all this amazing gear (that I will never be able to afford and makes me really want to buy some lottery tickets!), the best part of the show was the people.
I spent so long talking to so many people who were so evidently passionate about what they do. The stuff at these shows might be expensive, but for so many of them they clearly are not in it for the money, they’re in it cause they love it. And the further they can take their love for what they do the better.
Everyone was so friendly and I spent almost an hour in some cases chatting to people like Danny from Raal, Chris Connaker from Audiophilestyle, Nicolae from Rockna, Lukas Feliks, and all the guys at Ferrum (who also now have me hooked on polish beer. Man that stuff was good!).
I had dinner with Garth Powell on friday, who designed the power conditioners for Furman and AudioQuest and we spent ages talking about the engineering and design behind those products.
And both during and after the show, it was fantastic to finally meet @taronlissimore, @andrew , @Resolve and DMS in person. They are honestly the nicest group of people you could ever meet.
They were brilliant to spend time with, and it’s also so clear that headphones.com is going to have serious success in the future. It’s a team of fantastic people who are different from each-other with each their own areas of expertise and they work together so well, but most evidently, they are all so clearly passionate about what they’re doing. This isn’t a job for them, it’s something they love and want to do.
My friends Skedra and DoctorJuggles flew in on Friday night, and the weekend with them was a blast.
Meeting even more fantastic people, trying more fantastic gear, and spending Saturday night with Andrew, Taron, and the fantastic folks at Focal.
DoctorJuggles mentioned it first but It’s absolutely true; throughout the whole time I was in Munich I would constantly catch myself just smiling, all the time. Munich is a beautiful city, the event is amazing and the people are even better.
I’m sad it’s over cause it was truly wonderful, but I cannot wait for next year!