Flashback. Last year I wasn’t able to make it to Munich for High End and Haja from Audiogarden and myself promised each other we’d go together in 2016. This year we made sure our agenda’s allowed going to Bavaria together and oh did we have fun. After a quick eight hour drive over the German Autobahn – no speed limits – the misses and I made it to the hotel in Munich by Wednesday evening. With friends already waiting drinking Weissbeer in the hotel bar, the first tone for the week was set: Beer.
The first day of the Munich show (Thursday) is for press and “people of the trade” and it allows you to walk around freely with not too many people at the booths. Then starting Friday, the normal consumers are allowed to visit as well and while I expected the MOC to be overly crowded, it actually still was very doable. The atmosphere at High End isn’t like at most “conventions” and everyone simply was easygoing, friendly and a delight to speak to. Unlike how aggressive and hostile audio folks can sometimes be on the web, they all were extremely kind in Munich. Sometime that was really noticeable for the rest of the week as well. Tone two: Cool people. Although the Biergarten might have something to do with that.
The Munich show really is about High End gear. Tone 3. €150.000 turntables, €20.000 cables or €250.000 speakers: it can all be found at High End Munich. The percentage of personal audio related gear is only like 15 to 20%, and that’s exactly the part we looked at.
As you will see, the pictures are in alphabetic order. Enjoy Part One of the picture report! (part 2 is here: https://www.headfonia.com/picture-report-high-end-munich-2016-pt-2/)
This is what High End Munich is about: impressive top of the line gear with a price tag that buys you a Ferrari
Astel & Kern
AK was there of course with a very nice (and big booth) showing their full line-up including the new 300/320/380 and the new DSD recorder
The microphone setup does look kind of spacy
Ok, I admit, I took this picture just for (Dirty) Diana
The recorder as you can see clearly does DSD. Ripping your vinyl to DSD and the AK directly? No problem.
Audio-Technica was showing their impressive AT-HA5050H headphone amplifier, their full range of headphones and the AT-PHA 100 portable amp
Audioquest was of course showing their cable and the Nighthawk but they also brought the new DragonFly RED and BLACK
You haven’t heard everything yet from AQ, believe me. I couldn’t take pictures of everything but do keep following AQ, that’s all I can say.
It continues on the next page!
