High End Munich: Audio Reference "Most Exclusive System Ever" with Wilson and D'Agostino

CH Precision and Audiovector with TechDAS at High End Munich 2025

LATEST ADDITIONS

As We See It

Why Music?

Glenn Weadock May 22, 2014

Why does music matter so much to so many of us? Some, like Stereophile's readers, go to great lengths to reproduce it in their homes with accuracy and impact, and build libraries of their favorite works. Others, like my daughters, don't care much about equipment, but find it hard to spend more than five minutes in a car without listening to music. We go to concerts, play instruments, hum tunes, sing. Why? Why does music seem to speak to so many more of us than do, say, painting, sculpture, poetry, architecture, or even literature?

Recording of the Month

Recording of June 2014: The Rite of Spring

Robert Baird May 22, 2014

The link between jazz and the works of Igor Stravinsky is well known. In Conversations with Igor Stravinsky, his landmark 1959 collaboration with Robert Craft, the composer mentions jazz artists like Art Tatum and Charlie Christian. The fact that Stravinsky was captivated by the improvisational freedom of jazz and its insistent, inventive rhythms makes all his work, especially Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), a natural for jazz players to play and quote from, and over the years they have more than obliged.

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 3 wrap-up

Art Dudley May 22, 2014

The man pictured above is Joe Roberts, who does consulting work for Silbatonein whose deservedly, lavishly praised exhibition room I took this photo. Joe published the deservedly, lavishly lamented magazine Sound Practices, which was one of my influences when I started Listener Magazine 20 years ago. In his public speaking as in his writing, Joe is all about passion, honesty, style, and fun. (You can't see it in this photo, but Joe was holding in his left hand the largest spanner I've ever seen. I think it was yellow.) To paraphrase Stephen Stills: It made sense that he was there.

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 3

Art Dudley May 22, 2014

High End 2014 drew over 18,000 audio enthusiasts and record lovers to the historic city of Munich, a corner of whose Marienplatz district is seen in the photo above. It presented the wares of 452 exhibitors, representing over 900 distinct brands. I was in attendance every minute of its first three days; I went home on its fourth and final day, bringing with me the certainty that High End 2014 was, in almost every meaningful way, the finest audio show of my experience. This wasn't a show about old men dodging furtively in and out of overdark, overloud rooms in a down-on-its-luck hotel: High End 2014 was about seeing the audio world's most important people and products in a single setting, the beauty and spaciousness and size of which reflected very well indeed on our industry.

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 2, Part 2

Art Dudley May 21, 2014

Pressed to guess which manufacturer had the greatest number of products on display at High End 2014, I'd name Pro-Ject Audio Systems, who apparently brought with them a different record player for every day of the month: different styles, different prices, different colors, different (apparent) points of view.

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 2

Art Dudley May 20, 2014

I began my Friday with a direct assault upon one of the MOC's three atria: expansive, beautifully lit spaces, each resembling a boulevard of swanky shops, with café seating at the center and rows of glass-fronted listening rooms on the farthest side. Again, the effect is not unlike an audio-centric Champs Elysée on an especially pleasant day. Times three.

First stop was Dali Acoustics, where the sound of a mandolinit was Steve Strauss's "Jennie Mae"led me toward Dali's floorstanding Rubicon 8 (2399/pair, seen on the far left in the photo above).

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 1 Wrap-Up

Art Dudley May 20, 2014

I had the opportunity to review, in our June 2012 issue, the sweet-sounding Allnic A-5000 DHT amplifier. Yet it wasn't until the Munich show that I had the chance to meet its very genial designer, Kang Su Park, seen here with David Beetles, the international distributor for Allnic Audio Arts.

Fred Kaplan

Sonny Rollins' Magnificent Road Shows, Vol.3

Fred Kaplan May 19, 2014

Road Shows, Volume 3 (on Okeh Records) might be Sonny Rollins' greatest album ever. Certainly it's the album that most closely supplies the sensation of a live Sonny Rollins concertor the best moments of several live Sonny Rollins concerts, which is what the whole Road Shows series is meant to be.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Practically Perfect in Every Way: The V-Moda XS

Tyll Hertsens May 19, 2014

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Okay, okay, perfect is a bit strong, I've got a few little niggles with sound quality. But damn, you're getting a heck of a lot for $212 with these terrific headphones.

Munich 2014

Munich High End 2014: Day 1 Continued

Art Dudley May 17, 2014

How good does it get? I think I’m closer to having an answer to that one.