Munich 2025

Munich’s annual High End show took place May 15–18 at the MOC Event Center. Considered the biggest and most important audio show in the world, High End Munich is where distributors meet with brand principals and often expand their portfolios. The show also draws throngs of European audio lovers and journalists.

Now read that again but with all verbs in the past tense. That’s right: it’s auf Wiedersehen to the Bavarian capital, because starting in mid-May of 2026, the show will be held annually in Vienna's more modern ACV (Austria Center Vienna), 220 miles due east. Whether the sleek new digs will make the music sound better than it did in the acoustically notorious MOC, or just differently flawed, no one knows. Let’s hope we’ll get lucky.

By this time, everyone save for newbies to the audiophile universe knows what the MOC looks liken. So instead of yet another pinup-worthy shot to begin our show coverage, I’ve chosen a different graphic.

Granted, the photo is less poetic than pedestrian. But for we pedestrians who took Munich's vast underground railway system (the UBahn) to Munich High End, this shot of the UBahn platform closest to my hotel illustrates the first portion of our journey. Beyond the lobby, which runs the building's entire length, the ground level consists of four huge, interconnected halls. During the show, each one overflowed with static gear exhibits and walled-off listening rooms.

One flight up, the two two-story high center Atriums in use during Munich High End are lined with large glass-fronted showrooms. Framing both sides of the atriums are two levels of halls filled on both sides with listening rooms. All have glass fronts, and the most sonically untamable of the late also have metal sloped and bifurcated ceilings. Some rooms are so sonically daunting that those who lack the wherewithal to cope with reflections, room nodes, and other assorted gremlins turn to deflection and prayers to wish away bass that is looser than some of our middles.

I should mention that one other major venue is (OK, was) part of the High End Munich experience. Across from the MOC stands the sprawling, two-story Motorworld complex. Around and above its central atrium—filled with luxury vehicles whose prices rival, and sometimes exceed, those of cost-no-object high-end gear—some audio companies hosted exhibits and meeting spaces. Still others displayed at the independent HiFi Deluxe show, held at the Munich Marriott.

The scale of High End Munich 2025 was bigger than ever: the expo drew approximately 500 exhibitors and more than 1,000 brands spread out over 323,000 ft2. The organizers said that the event attracted some 22,000 attendees from more than 90 countries.

Through this massive maze strode Stereophile’s small cast of characters: videographer Mark Henninger, Stereophile cap in place, juggling camera and phone with focused intensity; editor Jim Austin, sport coat-clad, observing and connecting; fellow writer Ken Micaleff, darting between rooms with the speed of a bebop riff; and this visibly under-the-weather author, keeping up despite a wicked cold.

Thanks to careful advance planning—and to exhibitors who sent press releases well ahead of time—we were able to cover a lot of the show’s major new products (and some familiar ones). For the lowdown on the most exciting gear we encountered, and the most exceptional sounds we heard, stay tuned; I promise it’ll get wunderbar!