LATEST ADDITIONS

Mansour Mamaghani’s Audio Reference, one of Munich’s top high-end showrooms, again filled a massive exhibit space in the MOC with multiple display areas dedicated to major brands.

With the daring, midcentury modern–influenced designs of their amplifiers, Sweden’s Engstrom paired with Marten’s new Coltrane Quintet loudspeaker for a big, bold, yet surprisingly intimate sound.

Walking around this show, your brain blurs. So much information. So little time. But occasionally, a flash of light reflecting a gold hardware detail catches your eye. Consider, for example, amplification products from HSE Swiss Huber, which are beautiful to behold and beautifully made.

Rufus Reid and Caelan Cardello: Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello; Julie Kelly: Freedom Jazz Dance; One For All: Big George; Archie Shepp: Derailleur; Chris Potter: Eagle's Point.

Takács Assad Labro: Pieces for bandoneón, string quartet, piano, and voice; Smetana: Má vlast; Tchaikovsky, Korngold: Souvenir de Florence, String Sextet.

What a nice little system. The LP version of Paul Simon’s “Something So Right” sounded exactly that on TSO’s system, with an exceptionally smooth midrange and lovely bloom to the sound.

What a perfect way to say goodbye AXPONA 2024. In a simple system consisting of Zellaton Emotion Evo speakers ($44,750/pair), LTA Ultralinear amplification ($7000), and a Grimm Audio MU2 ($17,500) serving as preamp and streaming DAC with a Roon core and analog volume control, we began with a 16/44.1 mastering of Janis Ian’s “Guess You Had to Be There.” Given my age, I expect I was.