In the first studio we entered, Sony presented their new giant plasma screen. Huge, flat and immaculately designed, the KE-P61 MRX1 is able to produce a remarkably vivid picture. The audio portion of the presentation consisted of Sony's latest loudspeaker and amplifier series. Even with a wonderful picture and the enviable capabilities which the audio equipment no doubt possessed, the overall combination was missing the thing, that little extra that makes sounds into music.


The next studio was filled with Polyhymnia's own set of B&W Nautilus speakers. When used for their own playback, Polyhymnia uses Pass amplifiers. For the event, various Chord equipment powered the B&Ws. The Nautilus speakers are capable of putting out an enormous amount of air pressure but are equally gifted for very subtle and balanced performances. In the setup here, the exhibitor made the choice for the first. Needless to say, we were out of the room in a heartbeat. Later we tried this studio again with the same disappointing result.


In one of the annex buildings, the Dutch importer of KR Enterprise demoed for the first time with an audio-video setup. Von Schweikert was used for loudspeakers, KR Antares 320 and VT850 for amplification. In this room, something happened - there was music or at least, love for music. The TEAC DVD player was spinning a live concert of Natalie Merchant at the Neil Simon Theater in New York [Elektra 40214]. To be honest, we had never heard of her before. The recording quality of both video and audio on this DVD weren't very good but the emotion captured was! The song "These are the days" was absolutely captivating. We stayed in the room for the remainder of the DVD.


To get back to normal non-video-assisted listening, Nico of Eurogram played an LP on his big Pluto turntable. Within seconds, we noticed what is wrong with most if not all current A/V presentations. In order to put both the video signal and five or six channels of music on a DVD, choices have to be made. What is sacrificed due to the limited capacity of the disc? The AC3 compression is perhaps fine for a film but too handicapped for real music. The Natalie Merchant DVD showed that in some cases, the picture becomes more important than the sound.


Talking about pictures, two exhibits demonstrated with very high definition visual material. The first was a very clever setup at the Transtec room. A PC with a high-definition copy of a beautiful Jacques Cousteau (IMAX?) film fed a SIM2 projector. But the splendor of submarine life projected onto a big screen with all its dazzlingly vivid colors wasn't everything. To accompany the visual beauty, Roger Waters became the artist of choice to provide audio accompaniment. A wealth of McIntosh amplifiers with their characteristic turquoise meters fed Roger's sound to an array of KEF loudspeakers. This combination of high-rez sound and image showcased what yet another new format, blu ray, may be capable of doing in the future.


Talking about formats, Marantz demoed their new AV10 high-resolution projector. Though aimed more at professional theater use, the images in smaller spaces were stunning when the input was of equal quality. The difference between an ordinary DVD video of Ice Age and a

D-VHS (yes, yet another format) was huge. Where DVD-Video showed a more or less flat-white snow world, the D-VHS version demonstrated how the makers of Ice Age spent a lot of computer power on rendering the snow. The hi-rez version clearly showed individual snowflakes and crystals. The only way to view hi-rez video in Holland is to use a satellite dish. D-VHS as a format won't be available through the usual retail channels.


During our round-up of the show, we encountered only one exhibit where music was the absolute unapologetic center: The Dutch importer of Clearaudio turntables and Cadence amplifiers and electrostatic hybrid loudspeakers from India played some great flamenco vinyl - two channel, low resolution (is it really?) and loads of fun.


This show proved to us that while high-definition audio can be joyful, it comes at an expense: Full-blown SACD multi-channel requires a steep investment. Using the 5.1 format for pure music playback is a backwards step back from every established 2-channel format but combined with images, can in some cases be the compromise of choice.


Speaking of choices, whether to do the coincident New York or München event would be the next question. München is the new location for the German High-End show which, in years past, used to be held in a Frankfurt hotel. The new venue is an actual exhibition centre. Visions of a gründlich organized CES zoo replete with bratwurst & beer kiosks loomed before our eyes. The alternative of a show in the Big Apple was hard to resist. Next to all the live music attractions of New York, the prospect of a massive moonie gathering just proved too tempting to resist.


[My contacts at HMS forwarded some images of the Munich show and their booth and reported a 40% increase of attendance over Frankfurt as counted by unique visitors to their exhibit. Avantgarde Acoustic used Munich for a first showing of their very expensive new statement electronics that include completely novel, patent-pending inventions by resident engineering whiz Matthias (below) - Ed.]

After what was probably the last time we shall zip through immigration on a visa waiver -- next time it will be fingerprints, mug shot and God knows what else -- we entered a warm and humid New York.