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2016 Munich High End, joy and pain
Here we are once again to speak about the biggest Hi-Fi show in the world.
We’ve been saying this for the last 3 years and we have been the first to say so. In the meantime the CES, the biggest competitor of the Munich High End Show, has lost much of its appeal as for the audio strictly speaking, while for consumer electronics it still holds the first place. Also this year we were in the Bavarian city, full of hopes and confidence in the future of the market, preceded by the facts and figures of the German High End Society that announced an additional increase in the number of exhibitors and brands. While we write we do not have the certificated number of the exhibitors present and we have to guess. In the next days we will have the official information and we will update you in the facts and figures page At the moment, we have the sensation of a less interesting show than the usual. We have seen less queues - or lines for the American friends - at the entrance and less enthusiasm on the side of the exhibitors. Well to tell the truth, among the latter we have found different opinions. For some people things were great for others things were bad. Since Audio-activity has eyes and ears, we have noticed less eastern visitors on thursday, the day dedicated to trade operators. As for the attendance, on Friday we have had many visitors while on Saturday things slowed down. On Sunday the day was really calm, no crowd in the listening rooms and the best seats available to listen to the systems. Unfortunately we did not have the whole day at our disposal to enjoy it. Anyway, visiting this Hi Fi wonderland is surely something worth doing. Here you can find systems that are not easy to find in the shops, you can listen to matchings that are not common and in any case different from those that you can find in the different Countries where the synergy among the components owned by the same distributor are almost a must. Audio-activity is a magazine that tries to be as objective as possible, enthusiasm rain or shine and love for everyone is not in our mission therefore we do what a man's got to do and we take out the skeletons from the wardrobe … Let's start from the music: really bad for most of the playing rooms. I do not know the reasons but this time a sort of mix between Fusion and Techno was kind of trendy. I do not know how to define this music, anyway it is ok for dudes - hey pump it up! - but it is impossible to judge any system with that music. In the hit parade of nasty things we find the panting female voices on a "trivet of double bass, saxophone or piano" - I hope the great chefs will not mind my reference to their slang -. Bear with me but when I see the cover of "Best Audiophile Voices" I feel itchy all at once! Therefore be advised: whenever I heard the afore-mentioned music or voices in a playing room I turned around and left at once. It is only thanks to my partner that drag me out from certain rooms if there are no relevant piece of news in the crime section of the Munich newspaper. So those rooms were left unjudged also because it was impossible to ask operators to use our CD test for many different reasons. As for the rooms: NOISE! Damn noise! Our compassion for the rooms where an orchestral pianissimo was played while on the next room "The Dark Side of the Moon" was beating. Each one listens to its music and of course adjusts the volume to it. But there is another big issue: people talking. Some people comment the sound - but if you speak how can you possibly listen? - some people talk on their mobile phones while some others try to concentrate on a Concert by Mozart. The world is full of rude people and of course the MOC is not different. But sometimes the traders are those that talk and this is not tolerable in my opinion. There are the hallways to chat, there is no need to stay in the room where other people try to listen to the sound of a system. Otherwise one can choose also static stands in the Halle downstairs where silence is not required. In one room the exhibitor even turned down the volume because he was speaking and could not hear comfortably what his guest was telling him. This is a real paradox. And then we have rooms that are opened only according to a time schedule. If you are there you listen, otherwise it is not possible and if you are there you listen to music but also to long and oftentimes boring presentations. If you do not get there at the right time or if you do not have enough time to stay during the whole presentation the listening skips. Believe it or not, in 10 years of Munich High End, I have not once listened - the way I wanted to - to the Burmester system. And this year the same thing happened. I entered the room and a terrible electronic music was playing, I took a picture among the heads of the people listening and I left straight away. I got back a couple of times because the room was empty but of course I had no time to wait for the right time to come, since the show is really big. There is not enough time to photograph everything and listen to all the rooms. To wait for the different demos to be performed is really impossible. Is it so hard to let the system play between the different demos? May be with a CD of a well known Symphony? Why leave the system silent? Well, some people may say "you are a journalist, you are writing a report, be more recognizable and may be we will give you more attention". This is true but we love to be like the visitors, we do not want to have special privileges. I think my position is quite clear now and we can speak about the rank of the 5 best and 5 worst rooms. To tell the truth this year I will not be able to do it properly. This is due partly to the careless behaviour of many exhibitors that did not pay attention to you. You enter a room, you hear an "elevator like music" played from a PC and you turn around. If you want to demo a system this is not the right way! To summarize, for us the best playing rooms both at the MOC and the Marriott are: Reimyo Electronics and Harmonix Encore Loudspeakers The timbre is correct and the sound very riveting. The combination between expensive electronics and affordable loudspeakers is original but works. Very good and enjoyable listening. FM Acoustics It is a dreamlike system with a unique sound. It is captivating. You listen to music on vinyl LPs, many times very old and collectable editions, and the rest of world stands outside the room. Manuel Huber is a very talented speaker and I do not know how much this can influence the listener but I do not care about this. If you buy his system somehow he comes home with you and this is a very positive thing in my opinion. MSB Electronics, Alexia Wilson Audio loudspeakers They have played Beethoven Sonata n.9 and Dvorak 9th Symphony. A perfect timbre for violin and piano. Great dynamics and an impressive sound stage. To wrap it up and take it home right away and put in the room next to the one dedicated to FM Acoustics. Estelon YB loudspeakers New and beautiful Estelon loudspeakers. They played really well and to us it is not a surprise. A composition by Beethoven, once again,the String Quartet n. 15, reconciled us with life. Absolare Electronics and Rockport Altair Loudspeakers We could say that without Rockport the world of Hi Fi would be missing something, and this is not far from the truth. It is not always easy for Absolare Electronics to drive the big American loudspeakers. This year thanks, to a lesser sound pressure, or maybe thanks to a higher power output of the solid state integrated, listening to an old recording of Frank Sinatra singing live was really something. This means that the right balance between the music and the system that is playing, works well. A special mention for the small WLM speakers and also for Davis Acoustics with their new model: Renoir. And now the bad marks. Sound A wooden sound, limited in frequency as if heard through an intercom. A useless waste of resources. Unintelligible. Kondo - Kawero This is a real mystery. I do not understand, also because in the past I had a different opinion. I entered while the Suite Espanola by Albéniz was playing. I know this music very very well. It has been a real disappointment. An unnatural and flat sound for the top range, unreal like a 30 euros bill. A mystery. As for the rest, a general impression of mediocrity that I did not detected in the past editions. The rooms seemed tired and bored. Maybe it was my fault but I must admit that I went to Munich with enthusiasm. Maybe this market needs to be renewed, we need to get out from a pod that covers and protects us. We need to look in a different direction. One last thought: analog was present everywhere. Turntables and reel to reel players were present everywhere. A success also for the CDs, even if many tablets were used to play music stored in Hard Disks. Take a look at our pictures and you will see some expensive CEC TL0X transports to send CD datas to DACs. Angelo Jasparro Go to the report of the Show |
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