Munich High End 2025 just wrapped up and I was fortunate enough to be able to go. For anyone unaware, Munich High End is one of the largest audio shows in the world, and this year actually happens to be the last year it’s in Munich, as the show will be moving to Vienna next year.
Keep in mind, show impressions… Heaping mountains of salt.
I was surprised to see how large the show is this year, especially the headphone section. I thought maybe this would be more low key, given all the craziness going on in the world, but it was still quite packed.
Fiio FT7 - this was one of the more impressive headphones of the event for me. Solid low end without sounding boomy, maybe a bit forward in the mids but not in a way that detracts from clarity. Good sense of separation, no weird compression issues. I heard a hint of extra treble zing to it, but nothing particularly unpleasant. It may be a bit different from what I heard at canjam NYC.
Audeze LCD S2 - it’s a bit honky in the mids. It did great with acoustic music but that kind of forward upper mid style tuning doesn’t work for electric guitars and vocals all that well. Kinda dark in the mid treble too, nothing too out of whack or anything, just softer treble. The bass was pretty good too I thought, I’m just not a fan of this upper mid tuning. Comfortable though - maybe a good candidate for EQ. I will also note, audeze had some other Atmos mix stuff at their booth that was super cool.
Audeze CRBN2 - I don’t know what’s going on with this, if it’s the energizer or what. But every time I hear this one it just doesn’t sound right, and it’s hard to really pinpoint why. It’s like… Every part of it sounds strange. The original CRBN was decent, not my favorite but I can see why people liked it. This new one… Unless there’s something I’m missing to do with the source (and estats are unique there), I can’t seem to find anything enjoyable. The bass sounds kind of loose, but also tubby, the mids sounded boxy, treble shouty… I don’t get it, but I’ll leave an open mind.
DCA Noire XO - This the best open back DCA I’ve heard. While it’s not my most preferred kind of sound signature, I still liked it quite a bit. It is fairly Harmanlike, however for anyone who didn’t like the treble of the Expanse, which is also Harmanlike, the XO’s is significantly better. There’s also a solid sense of bass depth to it, with a sub bass emphasis.
I was trying to think if there are other open-back headphones with this kind of distinct low bass presence around its asking price and it’s hard to come up with anything, other than maybe headphones like the Sierra. That’s because they use an electrical filter, something more open back headphones should do in my opinion. With that said, I did hear a bit of forwardness to the 2.5khz band, similar to what I found with the closed Noire X. It worked especially well with instrumental music, providing an extra sense of detail/clarity but takes a small hit with vocals. The thing is, the XO also seems to have quite a bit more upper treble presence to it as well, which may or may not be acceptable to people, but it also serves to kind of lessen or mask any potential problem areas lower down. All headphones need to contend with HpTF variability, and in my view this is a reasonable choice to make in the face of that problem.
Fostex Booth - I tried both of the high end ones, the flagships. The open back was quite rough in the treble and one I knew immediately wasn’t for me. The closed back I thought sounded a bit better there but weird in other areas. It was actually the t60rp mkIV that I liked the best. Though maybe just in comparison to the flagships. I would like to get that one in at some point and spend more time with it.
Aune Prototype (AR9000?) - Their upcoming open back flagship. I want to be clear this was deemed ‘pre-alpha’, and not ready. So the tuning will change. But this had some very impressive low end. The rest of the tuning was pretty good, maybe a bit of hardness in the mid treble between 4-6khz. But it’s bass and sub bass quality was really the standout feature. You don’t normally get this kind of bass in open back headphones, at least where this is achieved acoustically. From what I could tell there was no filter here like there is on the XO or Sierra.
ArcTec-Berlin Planar Prototype - This is a new high end planar from the mind of Klaus Heinz, the man originally behind the AMT driver concepts used in the HEDDphone. It was interesting to see him opting for a planar driver instead here. I asked why a planar and he said it’s primarily to do with the weight constraints of AMT. He told me this one had a pure silver diaphragm. They also had a full B&K 5128 there showing off how they measure, which was cool to see. Subjectively, it sounded really good! One of the better headphones at the show generally. Kind of similar to HE1000 though maybe a bit more balanced for the upper mids and low treble in particular.
Meze 105 Silva - Definitely the coolest looking headphone at the show. They said they were aiming for a balance between the AER and the 109 Pro, and I think they achieved exactly that. So personally I did not like the 105 AER, but I do enjoy the 109 Pro, it just has a bit of treble grittiness to it on occasion. The Silva sounded noticeably less trebly than the 109, but also a bit less detailed. So it’s a trade-off, but one I think people will like.
Austrian Audio Composer New Pads - I think this was my favorite headphone at the show. I don’t want to say the pads changed all that much about the sound, because they didn’t. It’s mostly just that the composer is already a really solid headphone and one that definitely deserves more appreciation. Like it’s very expensive, but the sound is genuinely great. For what they did change, they told me it’s about a 1-2dB downtilt across the spectrum, which makes perfect sense if you know how that headphone performs generally. I’ll try to get a unit in to measure, maybe it’s time for an updated review with these new pads. They also had a new pad ring mount structure to make the headphone fit better for people with large ears. I suspect this may also improve the in-situ consistency for people, but again I need to test this to confirm how it behaves.
Moondrop Para II - Sounded like a generally competent planar. If I recall, the original Para was good but a bit on the shoutier side of things, I didn’t really get that sense from the Para II. Also the bass was better than I expected. Like a tighter, deeper kind of bass than what I remembered. I’m not sure if that’s just due to the music I was listening to though because I played it off of their setup and not my own music.
Moondrop Horizon - The Moondrop guys told me this was meant to be kind of like a sequel to the Void, so a budget dynamic driver headphone. Now… the Void was released some time ago and wasn’t all that well received. I didn’t personally review it but I did have a unit in at one point, and yeah it wasn’t great. I expect the Horizon to do a lot better. Its shortcoming to my ear was definitely still to do with the treble, where something didn’t sound quite right, but everything else sounded pretty good, and better than a LOT of headphones I’ve been testing at home lately. So this might be one to watch for a good value option. I’m going to see if I can get one in.
Genelec Speakers - Definitely my favorite speaker room of the show. When you first sit down, there’s nothing immediate that jumps out at you. There’s no particular ‘wow’ effect going on with this, instead it’s just that things sound timbrally correct, especially to do with things like cymbal hits and percussive tones. We did go to a bunch of other speaker rooms but most of them were just hilariously bad/weird. I mentioned this to Cameron at the time, that when you go to all these different rooms and you get some sort of ‘wow’ effect, you think to yourself “okay that was cool”, and then you go to the Genelec room and the novelty of that previous experience wears off quick, because the Genelec stuff just sounds so much more right.
If I had the money, I would be buying some of these speakers. The thing is… the room itself was significantly more modest than the vast majority of the stuff at the show, and I have to say I thoroughly appreciated that. No ridiculous stacks, cable memes, or crazy designs. Just ideal function, making music sound great.
JBL Summit - I only went to this room because our good friend Dr. Sean Olive suggested it to me, and yeah it was a good suggestion. Again, most of the rooms with hundred thousand dollar setups that looked all kinds of wild sounded really rough. The JBL Summit setup by contrast was once again far more modest, and shocker… sounded really good. This was some of the best midrange I’ve heard on any speaker setup, but in a way it was slightly overshadowed by a bit of extra bass and treble. It wasn’t imbalanced sounding, just like a very slight flaring of a ‘consumer’ tilt. I can see why they did that, and I think it’s exactly the kind of thing most people are going to like.
Other stuff - My favorite section of the show was the OEM area, where I got to look at various drivers and other parts, giving me all kinds of unhinged ideas for my next DIY projects. I spoke to some folks who sent me home with a pair of coaxial-like headphone drivers, and if I can make it work… this would be like having an actual subwoofer in a headphone. Their demo of it was kind of like listening to a normal headphone while simultaneously getting a face massage.
The other thing that really stood out to me there was a company called GSS, and their sole focus is on making compact speaker designs. They had an extremely small setup with a compact rectangular subwoofer (it looked crazy still), and the amount of bass this thing could put out for its footprint was astonishing. It sounded better than most of the speaker setups at the show generally.
Anyway that’s it for now, if anyone else has impressions of the show by all means feel free to post them. We should have a wrap up video of the show coming out soon, but in the meantime, here’s some fun that we had while there.
