Sauna alley aka atrium 4.2 had a high number of rooms with speakers for the 0.1-percenters. Except for a few, I won't cover them. Not only are they irrelevant to the vast majority, they, like a Humvee, aren't something you even ought to aspire to; right tool for the job and all that. But, don't fault the manufacturers for fulfilling actual demand. A repeat conversation went to the effect of, "last year we showed our €40'000/pr flagship speaker as all anyone would ever need. We got no respect. This year we're showing €200'000/pr excess. Suddenly we have orders." It's the lack of realistic references and/or more money than sense which, amongst the nouveau riches and in certain markets, still shop the hifi sector for big-game trophies. That's just not our audience. To be sure, giving such products a mostly miss is no reflection on their potential performance. Some made fine sound. This league simply wasn't my focus or interest. Back to the real(er) world and stuff which captured my imagination.

Still on the custom driver subject, we get to my personally most relevant discovery of the event. Here 'personal' means exactly that. During its review, I'd identified Audio Physic's Codex as my future reference 4-way speaker just as soon as I could mobilize the funds this year. Reviewers are rich, remember? Like all the best-laid plans of mice and men, in Munich designer Manfred Diestertich threw me a curve ball with his prototype Codex Structure. It played with the Auris Audio tube monos and showed in gutted guise on static display. Prying eyes notice far more ceramic foam dampers plus a complete lining of the inner walls with the same porous materials plus a different structural brace material with perf bores plus a very different basket structure for the midrange over current production. The sum total of these mechanical upgrades is the reason for the model's suffix 'Structure'. The differences over the standard model are all structural.

This prototype was too hot off the press to have a final sell price yet. The mid's twin basket had been 3D-printed from two different materials, the cabinet hand-assembled. The firm would have to establish streamlined production protocol to arrive at an acceptable assembly time. Mass-printing the basket would lower the initially very high per-unit cost. These were numbers for bookkeeping to crunch. Depending on math, my planned acquisition might experience quite a delay. Needless to say, my ambitions had been restructured. To demonstrate how far-reaching Manfred's curiosity in all things mechanical goes, I was shown...

...a one-up 3D-printed CD ripper. During the show, Manfred offered to rip people's CDs to memory stick, then let them compare the sound between original and rip. I didn't have any CD on hand nor did I remember to buy one from M.A.Recording's Todd Garfinkle on the main floor, then return. Purportedly people who already made the comparison were flabbergasted. Manfred had no rational explanation except that he was no novice at this voodoo. A 1996 Stereoplay issue showed his earlier experiment with a denuded string-suspended cheap CD player—500 in then current Deutschmark currency—that had trounced the publication's reference machine. The green discs you see the ripper skeleton mounted on are the same string suspension washers which work in Audio Physic's magnetic footers as used for the active pair below. To condense this far lengthier discussion, I'll just say what a pleasure it was to chat with Mr. Diestertich and learn how his mind works. If you thought that Audio Physic were one of those established staid brands where nothing of note happens anymore... think again. Behind their attractively glass-ensconced facades, these speakers do a number of things quite differently than expected. These Germans simply aren't as loud about their innovations as Magico and YG Acoustics are on about theirs.

They had even flown in their favoured conductor for a formal presentation, the essence of which was in the earlier video link. Whilst highly admirable an approach—to use their own recording gear to create classical reference recordings, then the actual conductor to gauge his live podium sound against their playback—I'm not convinced that it makes the ideal thrust for their promotional campaign. Celebrity endorsements for hifi don't work. But time will tell. Demoing with classical exclusively however will certainly not be a reference for most listeners. Team Etalon should probably expand their musical horizons. What a sound though. As Martin Gateley of soundkaos put it, "visions of vintage Salabert".

Making the rounds, I ran into Simon Kwangli Lee, formerly of April Music, now heading his own Simon Audio Lab. He had brought a prototype of his new back-to-basics integrated amplifier (50wpc, 3 inputs, no remote) which will sell for ~€1'200. With it he promised a new circuit concept and refinements over his prior Stello equivalent. He also has a monitor and floorstanding speaker in development and a DAC and CD transport on the books. Having reviewed a number of his previous products, I have high respect for this man's ability to produce excellent results from value-priced kit for sane people. I pre-booked a review once he is up and running with an English website and formal production.