Munich Hi-End 2014 Hi-Fi Show Report

[bonzo]

 

[User211]

I bought Whole Lotta Love from Qobuz last night out of curiosityJust how many times did they play that over the four days? A lot is the answer. Awesome, but more variation and some electronic music next year?

Anyway, time for a Tannoy Prestige Gold Reference based system. I'm no big fan of these or the Westminster Royal, but I do like some Tannoys. A chap who lives close who I know pretty well specialises in Tannoy x-overs and does a new handmade speaker based on old Tannoy drivers is a mine full of information on them. Check out RFC if you are a UK based Tannoy man/fan. The Fidelios are very much worth a listen, but the website is being updated at the moment, so not all is working.

Slideshow here. Fantastic cabinet building - lovely wood. IMHO though Tannoy are not concentrating enough on sound quality with recent Prestige models.

Here comes Depeche Mode Tannoy styleeee....

 

[bonzo]

I usually don't like the studio version at all. Best is the 22 minute version from how the west was won, a triple CD. It's phenomenal

 

[User211]

Qobuz have a mass of the Depeche. Will have a sess tomoz.

 

[amey01]

Fantastic cabinet building - lovely wood. IMHO though Tannoy are not concentrating enough on sound quality with recent Prestige models.

Agree - beautiful cabinets, questionable sound.

 

[User211]

Avantgrade Trios and 2 basshorns in a MUCH smaller room that 2011. Consequently, I found them no where near as impressive, but they are still damned good. They used 4 basshorns and different driving gear then too. T'was spectacular and I have to profess to being a little disappointed this time.

Hey ho. Just goes to show how variable and changeable an opinion can be based on room and driving kit.

Check out the size of the Vitus amp. Slideshow here. Black horns don't catch cameras that well. Poor colour choice for a show, and not an appearance I like anyway.

Playing the same track as the first ML Neolith video in this thread. More Neolith videos to come.

 

[User211]

Shed load of inanimate Transrotor TT pics here. Remember to select More->Slideshow.

 

[User211]

Talk of the devil...



I played back some videos on the main system last and was really quite surprised. As time goes on and camera mics get better, duff exhibitions\bad sound are literally going to get caught on camera as guilty.

 

[User211]

A minute of Fanfare for the Common Man brought to you by TAD. Room seemed popular. Nothing outstanding but still pretty good I thought nonetheless. That's relative to the show of course. Most would be more than happy with this at home

Slideshow here

 

[User211]

Angstrom. Definite parallel going on with Audio Research here. Nonetheless, I really liked this room. The amps are insane and the amount of heat being emitted by those huge monos was such that I definitely couldn't live with them in the summer months. The music wasn't my scene but there was a great sense of space and ease with the playback. Nice.

Slideshow here.

 

[User211]

A few seconds of the clever Thales parallel tracking tonearm in action.

 

[User211]

Some Audio Research stills here for Bernard and Adam. Styling has gone retro. I didn't hear any of this stuff playing anywhere

 

[Harlequin]

Talk of the devil...

I played back some videos on the main system last and was really quite surprised. As time goes on and camera mics get better, duff exhibitions\bad sound are literally going to get caught on camera as guilty.

Was that consideration aimed at the Neolith's Justin ?

 

[User211]

Allnic tube gear here. I'll fess up and admit I don't know what the speakers are. I also can't remember much about the sound in this room. I would do if it was really striking.

 

[User211]

Was that consideration aimed at the Neolith's Justin ?

Nope I actually didn't listen to the Neolith ones last night. Still a few more to post.

 

[User211]

The new BMW i8 spotted at Munich airport. If you think that looks like the body is made of plastic it appears to be.

German businessmen were attracted to it like magnets. I watched it happen from a distance for some time. I found it really quite amusing. They all obviously thought it was great. It is very nice in the flesh, I have to admit.

 

[MiTT]

Justin, first off, thanks for all of these pics and videos - great stuff. The new camera seems to have served you well, but your skills as a photographer are quite good too. Nice use of composition and light. It's been a pleasure browsing your albums!

I should have asked before you went to the show, but did you get a chance to see the AURALiC room and if so did you happen to see and get any impression of their new Aries streamer?

Awesome job, thanks for sharing...

 

[User211]

Visited the BMW factory and associated showroom. The museum was shut picked the wrong day - Monday. Some i8 stills in there too.

 

[User211]

Justin, first off, thanks for all of these pics and videos - great stuff. The new camera seems to have served you well, but your skills as a photographer are quite good too. Nice use of composition and light. It's been a pleasure browsing your albums!

I should have asked before you went to the show, but did you get a chance to see the AURALiC room and if so did you happen to see and get any impression of their new Aries streamer?

Awesome job, thanks for sharing...

I actually took a massive gamble with the camera. I put it in iQ+ mode, and took virtually everything without flash. This mode appears to take multiple shots when it detects shake blur but I'm not sure how it processes them. I wouldn't have gotten away with it with the old one - they'd all be pretty useless. The snaps are all taken very quickly for the most part and I'm sure my video shooting must have annoyed a few people but hey.

There is compromise doing it this way, and that is some blur traded off against having the equipment appear as it did at the show. Fair compromise as it luckily turned out. I'm not walking round with a tripod.

I think I have some Auralic snaps somewhere, but I can't comment on that particular item.

 

[bonzo]

Justin, first off, thanks for all of these pics and videos - great stuff. The new camera seems to have served you well, but your skills as a photographer are quite good too. Nice use of composition and light. It's been a pleasure browsing your albums!

I should have asked before you went to the show, but did you get a chance to see the AURALiC room and if so did you happen to see and get any impression of their new Aries streamer? Isi

Awesome job, thanks for sharing...

I did visit that room. It is not possible to get am impression of a box unless you have something to compare with. That said, I don't like their dac which I have demoed in my system