Munich 2019

Herb Gets Ready for High End 2019

Herb Reichert | May 7, 2019

Leute, High End München 2019 ist der große Audio-Zirkus.

You're stuck in America reading nightmare-news and you think high-end audio is dying because it’s all old men, and the dealers all carry the same stuff, and there is nothing new since MQA? I'm sorry, but that's so provincial of you. And embarrassing. You need to get out more.

Honestly, Were you to visit Munich today and experience just the crazy amount of High End 2019 signage—it’s in the airport, and along the highway, and in the cabs!—you would realize that this is truly the Greatest (audio) Show on Earth. This is the global crossroads of amps and speakers and DACs and turntables—the majority of which would probably be new to you, had you never been here before. High End Munich isn't just bigger than RMAF or AXPONA—it's spectacularly huge—and it isn't just more of the same: It's completely different. Munich High End is an immersive education in global audio culture.

Right now, in Munich, there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of workers putting up said signage, and hundreds more electricians and carpenters building fancy booths from scratch—and thousands more driving trucks, working in warehouses, moving crates, and unpacking boxes.

Best of all, the show venue isn't a stinky hotel with hastily converted rooms. There are no headboards bolted to the side walls, no laminated check-out rules stuck to the doors, no bathrooms filled with boxes. This big top is made of glass.

The average demonstration room has a glass front wall (so you can see in), a glass back wall (so you can see out), a sloping ceiling (for good sound), and a skylight (so the live plants can grow). And don’t start with me: I don’t want to hear all you armchair acousticians trolling about how the glass kills the sound. Last year, at High End 2018, I found more amazing-sounding rooms than I ever found in America. Not to mention, this show is young, and fashionable, and extremely diverse gender-wise.

Can you tell I love coming to High End Munich? This is not work—this is a heroisches abenteuer!

Stay tuned for more news from inside the glass tent.

COMMENTS

I am sooooo jealous.

Submitted by Anton on May 7, 2019 - 2:10pm

The only thing that will cheer me up is to go buy a record.

Shrooom- like...!

Submitted by Glotz on May 7, 2019 - 5:25pm

What would this magazine be without HERB!? Not a funny as or as insightful.

Germans can figure out a way to make glass rooms SING! Don't even doubt it for a second....

And if I ran a hotel room at an audio show... Anytime, anyone, said ANYTHING bad about my room... I would repy....

"Whatever, it's a HOTEL ROOM."

Unbreakable ...........

Submitted by Bogolu Haranath on May 8, 2019 - 6:12am

Is it Gorilla Glass? :-) ........

"Just Like Fire" ........... Pink ....... Alice Through the Looking Glass :-) ..........

I've seen the pictures

Submitted by volvic on May 8, 2019 - 6:17am

Of the new SME owned Garrard 301, hope your first post will describe what they've done under the hood. Look forward to the coverage. One of these days will make my own pilgrimage to the Munchen Hi-End Show. Till then I have Herb !