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My second press day at Munich High End began with an intimate press conference at the Ideon/Baun loudspeaker booth in Halle 3. Benno Baun Meldgaard, former speaker designer for Gamut, Raidho, and Gryphon, was not on hand to discuss the latest developments in his forthcoming speaker line. I didn’t have time to view the latest prototype of those speakers, which I first encountered at the 2023 Pacific Audiofest, but the first speaker in the Baun line-up is due by the end of 2024. Designed to sit very close to the rear wall, the speakers will range upward in price from about $23,000/pair.

If buying a hi-fi product from an internet retailer is like an arranged marriage, a hi-fi show is like speed dating. Not everyone, I realize, approaches hi-fi shows (or speed dating, for that matter) the same way, and anyway, the analogy between hi-fi and dating is far from perfect. Speed dating is how this year's AXPONA, America's biggest hi-fi show, held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center (above) near Chicago in April, often felt to me as I moved from room to room. Every new system I heard had the potential to become a long-term relationship. Could I live with this one forever?

These days, there's a hi-fi show taking place somewhere on the planet pretty much every weekend, but for me, spring is show season. First, in April, comes AXPONA, which is held near Chicago. AXPONA is the largest North American high-end audio show, making it pretty much impossible for one person to see everything during the three-day event. Even with my focus on record-playing gear, I found myself skipping some rooms, telling myself that I could catch them a month later at High End Munich. Munich is even bigger than AXPONA, so we'll have to see how that plays out.

With that in mind, here are a few things that caught my eye at AXPONA 2024.

Será Una Noche: Otra Noche; Bela Fleck: Rhapsody in Blue; Mahler: Symphony No.3 & R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration; Maya Beiser × Terry Riley: In C; Schubert: String Quartet No.15 in G major D887 • String Quartet No.8 in B flat major D112; Stravinsky: Pétrouchka & Debussy: Jeux, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

Stephan Crump: Slow Water; John Surman: Words Unspoken; Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje: Touch of Time; Charles McPherson: Reverence.

I cannot recall a single instance where I was less than thoroughly satisfied—thrilled, usually—by the sound Marten loudspeakers made at shows. Given how tricky show set-up often is, Marten’s track record of stellar sound is no mean achievement.

Triode Japan premiered two products at High End Munich: the Triode Evolution Pre Preamplifier and the Triode Evolution Musashi Integrated Amplifier ($10,830). The latter runs in class AB in a push-pull configuration, outputting 100Wpc into 8 ohms. It uses four KT 150 and four 12AU7 tubes for its power and pre stages, respectively.