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October 11th - 13th, one week prior to the HighEnd Suisse show in Regensdorf/Zürich, the Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic in Montreux hosted the 3rd installment of the Salon Sons & Sens which previously had taken place in Aigle Castle a few highway exits further east.

Stenheim & Nagra

It so happened that I had prior engagements out of the country the entire week. For some pictorial coverage of the event in absentia I'd enlisted event organizer Jean-Pascal Panchard at left whose own photographer provided fodder augmented by Sven Boenicke's photographer. Between the two I had all the exhibitors covered for this short report. Merci! My secretary is fired of course for screwing up my schedule*.


For the full scoop of someone who actually did attend, I refer you to Dirk Sommer's two-part coverage on Hifistatement.net. Non-German speakers will have to enlist the questionable help of Google's online translator. Viel Spaß!


Jean-Pascal and partner Pascale Rey envisioned Sons & Sens—sounds and senses as you've probably figured out—to be more than just hifi/audio-oriented, hence a mash-up of on-site wine/chocolate tasting, a catered cocktail, a multi-course pre-registered dinner, a small art exhibit and a big-screen Montreux festival viewing.

* That means I'm out of a job now...


Myriam Machi's Fall'Art—off-the-wall art or more accurately art which fell of the wall to occupy the floor—and Christian Eggs' photography stimulated the eyes.



As promised, wining & dining were also part of the program.


Whilst Goldmund, Piega and Ensemble were absent like yours truly, eighteen other CH hifi companies weren't.



As a proper event hosted in a posh hotel in a world-famous lake resort, the presentation seems to have followed suit.


As did monstrously high ceilings throughout. For just how monstrous, refer back to the opening photo.


In roughly alphabetical order, there was Boenicke Audio showing off their new W5 desk-top monitor whose potential—our preview already paints the background—apparently was so off-the-desk that...


... they also siphoned off Soulution's milkshake for a stretch to displace their mighty Magicos for a prototypical David 'n' Goliath showdown.


Because Sven was already sold out on his matching subwoofer, the tykes had this field all to themselves whilst in the Boenicke room proper...


... Swiss ingenuity tapped the woofers of the bi-ampable SLS to serve parallel duty.



Anagram offshoot CH Precision held court with li'l and big speakers whose provenance I can't make out on pure sight.



Illusonic demonstrated their up-to-16-channel purist immersive audio processor with a 5.0 system of Audio Consulting, Vovox, Nagra, Oppo and Stenheim to manifest a wider sweet spot with two-channel recordings and superior ambient envelopment.