Well guys!...time to put together my impressions from the last Hi End show in Munich to which I attended two days.
As first I can state two days have been not enough to appreciate everything ,first time there for me , couldn't imagine how large it is! Anyway, as usual for this kind of exibitions, only very few rooms were listenable, i mean that worth to listen to due to too much people walking around or poor acoustic treatment care, specially at ground floor. The upstairs rooms generally were much better prepared and some listenable only on booking, here almost only top brands among which Gryphon, Vandersteen, Dan D'Agostino, Naim, Sonus Faber, T+A, Pass Labs, Martin Logan, Magico and so on. Here also the incredible (for the age) old set of horn speakers from Western Electric, (that sounded amazing to me!...never listen such very old system before ) and a massive presence of chinese horn speakers makers and among the best for sure the incredible ESD system, impressive size from live but what a wonferful soundstage and the capability to disappear for the loudspeaker, very immersive sound.
Strangely Mcintosh jewels were only for display, not listenable and in a dark and not appealing (to me) room, what a pity for such brand!
Anyway generally I have to say that in such condition is very difficult to make a your own and reliable opinion of what you listened to, too much variables, time restriction and also no way to use your own music. I brought with me one Hd full of well known songs but It has been a waste of time, not allowed to connect it! So how you can make a clear idea of how good is the performance of any components, what should be the reference? This kind of exibitions are good to discover new products, tendency of the market and if you are lucky to meet and talk to some very talented Hi Fi designer.
Among few nice and attractive designed items I found too much awful ones, and furthermore very often crazy expensive...I whish to see substance, good looking but not such dumb style!
And yes!...Vitus SIA-030 was there, on the throne, really impressive from live, solid rock built and, for what it worths, the audition with Rockport Avior II loudspeakers has been really positive but I'm not familiar with these loudspeakers thus I really can't say much more, take this with a grain of salt.
Had the opportunity to listen to Vandersteen 7 Mk II too in a well acoustically treated room....wow! some clues of Thiel soul was there but then I discovered the price, around 70K $, damn, Jim, you was so humble!
One thing for sure, once at home with my Thiel CS 3.6 I can state that they are all but outated...Thiel will never die.
