Magnum Dynalab of Canada were recently absorbed by Colquhoun Audio Laboratories Limited which already operate Axiom Audio and Bryston. We'd thus expect display samples of these legendary FM tuners and Dynamite range of music streamers to show in close vicinity to either of those brands.
Sweden's Mårten Design will premiere their Mingus Septet [from €108K/pr] with msb electronics, a TechDas turntable, Reed tonearm, DS Audio optical cartridge and matching phono amp, Jorma cables and AC filter. The same speaker will also play with Jorma and Engström in a parallel exhibit, the Mingus Orchestra in yet another. The Septet is a 4-way design with 1st-order slopes stitching together a 1" pure diamond tweeter, 3" beryllium high midrange, 7" ceramic mid/bass driver, dual 8" aluminium sandwich woofers and dual matching 10" passive radiators. There's aluminium trim and solid lacquered wood end plates top and bottom. Mårten isolators from IsoAcoustics support the lot.
French Métronome Technologie and sister brand Kalista will exhibit in their usual ground floor location and bring this Kalista DreamPlay X stunner plus…
…the just-launched AQWO 2 in its "completely new housing with 100% new electronic design, new DAC processor, new firmware, improved touch screen, streaming built in and of course our famous tube output option".
Michi of Japan, Rotel's hi-end division, bow their Series 2 versions of the X3/x5 integrated amplifiers and the P5 preamp. More than 300 refinements total are bestowed upon the revised machines. There are 350/600wpc into 4Ω respectively for the two integrateds and the bigger one even gets an upgraded MM/MC phono stage.
Mobile Fidelity from the US aka MoFi have the latest Andrew Jones coaxial design, the SourcePoint 8 [$3K/pr] with a 1.25" soft dome in the throat of an 8" paper-pulp mid/woofer crossed over at 1.6kHz. Measuring 18×11.4×13.2" HxWxD and weighing 28lbs, this speaker is 87dB sensitive and never drops below 6.4Ω. Finish options are as shown so black ash, satin walnut or satin white.
Joining the global aluminator speaker brigade from the land of Hyundai, Kia and Samsung, Mon Acoustics have their new €6.5K/pr PlatiMon monitor, a dual 5" twin rear-ported design with time-aligned AMT tweeter and a crossover which specifies which speaker is right and which left. We don't yet know what exactly happens when you invert them. Because the designer calls these a virtual coaxial design which tend to soundstage extra specific, we suspect that this could have to do with optimized soundstage width.
The Monitor Audio Group from the UK will bring the finalized version of Hyphn [€82.5K/pr] which previewed last year still code-named Concept 50. It's an 11-driver dual-concentric 3-way with force-cancelling quad bass array and 6 x 2" flat-membrane drivers encircling their own AMT tweeter like flower petals. Loaded into the central slot are two pairs of 8" woofers. Available matte finishes are white, black and heritage green.
The separate MDP III tweeter centers the dual-concentric array in a maximally tight driver cluster which had the design team shrink their existing tweeter casing and mounting hardware without shrinking the diaphragm whilst still improving its linearity, dispersion and bandwidth. The small flat widebanders enjoy useful 150Hz-23kHz bandwidth. This head array's support system slips onto the twin-shell cabinet whose halves couple with just four bolts. The inward orientation of the bass system subtracts it from view but with the top cluster guarantees virtual point-source dispersion executed differently than KEF's Blade and its descendants. Each half shell obscures a vertical down-firing ~50cm long large-diameter 26Hz port tube for -6dB/16Hz extension. Those ports become part of the thermoformed mineral-loaded acrylic structure.
Sweden's Moonriver Audio have teamed up with Sonner Audio speaker, OePhi cables and Pachanko Labs streamers for one system; and with Aretai speakers, ViaBlue cables and Takumi turntables in another. The company will introduce their USB and S/PDIF add-on DAC modules for their integrated amplifiers; and preview the 606 amplifier prototype.
At €6K, the Masters M66 won't be our grannie's NAD of yore. It's billed as a BluOS streaming DAC/pre with MM/MC and HDMI eARC, Dirac Live Room correction and bass control. There's also a 7" touchscreen and top-quality aluminium case work. BluOS means fully mature iOS/Android apps and integrated streaming clients.
In 2021, Nagra's Classic DAC discontinued. This year its replacement rises from the ashes as the Classic DAC II. "It is based on the same NADM module we also use in the Tube DAC and HD DAC X. The Classic II now resamples all PCM to DSD 256 and has a new USB module, next-gen power supply, new digital engine and a class A output stage of military transistors. It can also still be upgraded with our Classic PSU external reference power supply." With a turntable, arm and cartridge already part of Nagra's Reference line, the HD Phono with up to 70dB of tube-based gain is another of this year's surprises. What with the HD DAC X's and Classic DAC II's fiber-optic ports, one suspects a Nagra streamer/server in the wings. For Munich expect a Nagra IV-S open-reel deck, their full phono setup, Classic DAC II, HD Preamp, HD Amp monos, Wilson Audio Alexx V and twin Loke subwoofers, Shunyata Research cables and Modulum racks and amp stands.
New for the equipment rack catalogue of Slovakia's NeoHighEnd is a 6-deep range of so-called CeraDisc footers based on hard ceramic ball bearings. Intended applications are speakers, electronics, racks and cables.
Nordost from the US will bring their bag of QRT tricks which this year include the QSine and QWave, QBase Mark III AC distributor and soon-to-come QBase Reference.
German for granny, OMA in American is short for Oswalds Mill Audio whose industrial design embraces Jules Verne steampunk your granny might appreciate. Whether today's sufficiently affluent clientele will too can be judged in what the company dub their Departures Lounge, presumably because visitors will depart normalcy and take off for a very different, unique and possibly alluring destination.
Audiophile trainspotters took note that Parasound founder Richard Schram sold the company to David Sheriff late last year. One suspects that at Munich, the new boss in town will lay out the roadmap for where he plans to take a brand which always took pains to remain more Volks than Royalty destination whilst enjoying the circuit wizardry of John Curl whose credentials include tenures at Mark Levinson, SOTA, Vendetta Research even Abbingdon Music Research/iFi Audio. Where are they headed now? If you visit their exhibit, I'm sure you'll find out.
Peak Consult of Denmark reborn will unveil their new Dragon Legacy flagship speakers playing with Audionet electronics. They look similar to the above model.
Switzerland's Piega has three new Gen2 wireless speaker models to show [€2'950 to €7'500] which relinquish the precursors' bass-reflex loading in favor of sealed bass systems as usual in the firm's trademark aluminium enclosures. The Piega connect [€290] or connect plus [€590] hubs act as wireless signal routers for analog/digital sources. Piega's Control App for iPhones adds room measurements for built-in acoustic corrections and EQ. There's also classic remote control and wireless transmission works at 24/96.
The balanced power expert James Soh from Singapore's Plixir will bring an arsenal of power distributors both AC and DC. His newest one is the shown Statement Balanced DC power supply that feeds two components up to 19V/6A each.
Among other models, Canada's psb speakers will bring the 'transitional' 5-way T800, a 3 x 8" woofer tower with 5¼" midrange and 1" titanium dome tweeter. The cone membranes are woven carbon fiber. With its triple ports, this design promises 21Hz-23kHz ±3dB bandwidth at 92dB/1m sensitivity. Integral footers are IsoAcoustics Gaia.
