Monaco. It's what Italians call Munich. It suggests palm trees, sun and luxury yachts. Not attending this year's final HighEnd show at the M.O.C, I'll miss out on the palm trees and sun but also on a sore throat and matching feet, bad sound played too loud, the relentless carnival of hopeful hawkers, upstairs exhibits aimed at nabobs, moguls, sheikhs and other industrialists with too many annual zeros to the decimal point's left. Splendid. I'll also miss meeting old friends and making new ones. Not splendid but can't be helped. Attending a hifi show to socialize isn't my idea of time well spent. A ½-hour Zoom chat would be more intimate and satisfying than stealing a few moments between demos and sales talk. I'll also miss the rollout of certain products high on my list. Of course nothing beats auditions in our own room and system. For a reviewer, that's always the final destination wherever makers are willing. If you're attending, here are a few items I earmarked.
Æquo Audio, after 5 years of endless teasing, will finally launch their Diluvite-based Adamantis and Ensium speakers at right. They'll double as proof of concept for their radical nano-tech cabinetry which claims to outperform all current attempts at truly quiet enclosures no matter the build or material. Magico, Rockport, Stenheim, Wilson, YG & Co, pay attention?
ATE of Germany will expand their Ring Mode Driver tech from automotive and aerospace apps to our space to bow a new bending-wave driver capable of 250Hz to 30kHz. Three fully active models with dynamic woofers and passive radiators will kick off this technology transfer.
Avantgarde Acoustic will introduce the Twin Sub, "a new compact subwoofer of high performance with a surprisingly small footprint". Coming from Avantgarde, should we take the latter with a mountain of salt or all the way to the bank?
Boenicke Audio will bow their 4-input all-in-one AIO which combines a DAC, preamp, power amp and network switch in a single chassis. What's more, the DAC has a 432Hz tuning option.
Børresen of Denmark have a new range of cardioid RiPol subwoofers with built-in gain and filter electronics to show.
Canor of Slovakia will bring their new Virtus I4S, an integrated amp based on 500-watt Mosfets.
Dali will bow their SUB V-16F, a 16-inch front-firing flagship basserator with four flared ports tuned to 18Hz backed by 1'500 watts of class D power for €5K.
Estelon will premiere their Aurelia monitor, essentially the head section of the Aura floorstander, plus the matching Aurus, a 12" 1.2kW active subwoofer with passive radiator. A maker-curated sub/sat system would have my curiosity at 11.
LinnenberG of Germany will premiere the ES30, a dual-differential class AB bipolar monaural amplifier with extreme bandwidth and resolution thanks to a 127dB S/NR that promises 250, 500 and 1'000 watts into 8, 4 and 2Ω.
Meze Audio of Romania will launch the open-backed 105 Silva headphones using a 50mm composite cellulose dynamic driver with titanium-covered surround in a Walnut/polymer cup. Meze promise a sonic hybrid of their 109 Pro and 105 AER models and already the cosmetics point in that direction. Also new will be the Ultra Cable, a 16-braid pure silver affair for the Elite and Empyrean II models hence terminated in dual mini XLR4.
Raidho will show "the largest diamond-coated driver in the world" presumably in a new flagship speaker and the brand's first non-speaker product. With no clues for the latter given, I vote for a reboot of the famous but sadly discontinued GamuT amplifier.
SAEQ have their new flagship Astraeus, a 30W/4Ω hybrid head/speaker amp with input tubes, intermediary Germanium stage then bipolar outputs, remote control and unique memory function for the volume setting of two headphones.
Sigberg Audio of Norway should bring the Saranna 3-way active floorstander which like Amphion's best, Dutch & Dutch and Silent Pound exploits cardioid dispersion for its 8" wave-guided coaxial main driver which augments on the back with dual 8-inch woofers.
sound|kaos of Switzerland will bow the Vox5, a Raal ribbon-augmented semi-open 7" Enviée widebander with dual stacked 12" RiPol-inspired woofers integrated into a full-range 3-way of surprisingly stumpy dimensions which still builds in proprietary wire-suspension isolation. That exhibit will host in the parallel Marriott Hotel venue.
Sphinx Audio relaunched by the holding company of Siltech, Crystal Cable and HMS Elektronik will premiere their Element 3, a 3-way of claimed 23Hz-38kHz bandwidth, high 94dB/16Ω sensitivity and a hybrid active/passive xover to require AC power. There's silver/gold wiring, ±3dB switchable bass tuning and a sculpted synthetic-stone exo cabinet whose side profile suggests the shape of a harp. The real interesting thing to me is the bass tuning and its active crossover. The latter seems very smart given what's usually involved with passive bass filters.
spl will bow their €3.4K Crossover Mk2, an all-analog active crossover with 12dB/24dB selectable high/low-pass feeds, enlarged filter frequencies from 50 – 3'600Hz, continuously adjustable phase from 0-180° for the low pass, a mono/stereo function for the low pass, a defeatable 20Hz low cut and high-pass bypass to send a full-range signal to the speakers. The low-pass level is adjustable by ±10dB. The i/o for all paths are on RCA and XLR.
Stenheim will join the sparse sub-for-music ranks with their new 1'200-watt active triple-chamber isobaric Alumine Sub. "Sophisticated on-board DSP allows precise control over frequency, gain and phase" controlled by app or web page. Dual high-excursion 10" woofers move air back-loaded by "an acoustic suspension alignment". Inputs are on XLR, RCA, coaxial and optical S/PDIF, outputs on XLR and RCA. Dims are just 32 x 43 x 36.5cm WxDxH, weight is 35kg. Swiss sophistication in sub-urbia?
Voxativ will show their Alberich2, a 5" unfiltered widebander atop an active 12" RiPol subwoofer styled like a classic floorstander.
And yes, my shortlist packs three RiPol-related sightings. Given my fondness for cardioid bass and frustration with its ongoing obscurity in our sector, that's quite an endorsement for the concept whilst giving attendees a chance to hear it in action. As to not in action, Living Voice, Nagra and Vienna Acoustics are just three companies I know of which won't attend. For well-established brands, the primary purpose to be at a trade show has always been to meet existing distributors and dealers. If one knows that many of them aren't coming, a better return on the significant attendance investment could easily be elsewhere like a different venue or sponsored factory visit. And that's just one of many legitimate reasons to sit out a show. Conspiracy theorists will insist otherwise. That's part of their amusement. Fair play. To all who will attend, best of success. May the green palm trees sway in your breeze, bright sunlight glitter on your waves. Should your exhibit neighbours play too bloody loud, get show management to have them turn it down. Playing at civilized SPL are the signed contract rules. Should you see Simone Ragionieri from my small team at left, introduce yourself. Reviewers love to meet some of their readers. Cheers!
PS: For guaranteed over-the-top thrills, visit Acapella of Duisburg who will demo the Hypersphere, a 1-ton per side speaker with a 170cm Ø (!) hyperspherical horn to have its driver cover a full 7 octaves plus eight 15" woofers per channel to add the other 3 octaves. At 270cm tall, it's a beast in every direction. Drive will be with the company's own monos and preamp. Unlike for a €3'000'000 Wilson and d'Agostino system with 6kW of power, no price is given. Again, I'm not going. I'm too old to find this kind of thing amusing or relevant. For that this show should be in the real Monaco right next to the casino, with actual palm trees, sun and glittering ocean. Billed as the world's most exclusive hifi system as though that should be a popular draw, "the Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Relentless preamplifier and four Epic 1600 mono amps bring out the very best of Wilson Audio's WAMM Master Chronosonic and WAMM Master Subsonic loudspeakers. Along with dCS Audio, this match made in heaven comes down to earth at high-end Munich 2025." What earth? Not the one I live on. They probably meant the 7th moon outside my solar system.
