Two well-known French high-end audio brands, Kora and Diptyque Audio, debuted new products together at High End Munich.

By this stage of the Munich show, I was frazzled but still hungry for more. The Thrax/Ramar room delivered, with Thrax's Rumen Artarski and Ramar's Rangel Vasev presenting a compact, well-executed system and a set of ingenious vinyl accessories.

Advance Paris. The name might evoke images of WWII’s French Resistance or even the cold suspense of The Day of the Jackal. But for audiophiles, Advance Paris has a different, equally compelling meaning: it’s a 30-year-old French hi-fi company that manufactures integrated amplifiers, stereo and mono power amps, preamps, and CD/network players.

The Spin Doctor, Michael Trei, and I visited the booth of Korf Audio’s Alexey Kornienkov, who showed two new products: the TA-CF9 monocrystallic sapphire arm tube/reference tonearm ($5600), and an updated version of his HS-A03 ceramic headshell ($215; all prices approximate when converted from Euros).

Robert Auer of Auer Acoustics isn’t just selling loudspeakers—he’s curating a lifestyle. A shrewd furniture designer, Auer showcased his holistic vision at the Munich show, integrating his Mr. Auer Chair ($110, prices approximate when converted from Euros) and Auer Acoustics Panzerholz Rack ($5700) into his sound system. His website [robertauer.com] further blurs the lines, offering everything from recipes to kitchen solutions and even a custom trolley for his signature chair. This approach transcends audio, offering an entire, well-appointed existence.

Much of the coverage of the passing of Marianne Faithfull has focused on her private life rather than her music. That is understandable—yet it's also regrettable because it misses the important fact that for 60 years, Faithfull produced an impressive catalog of music, releasing 21 solo studio albums plus collaborations, compilations, and live recordings.

To oversimplify, her career can be divided in two periods. The first, which received most of the attention in obituaries, was in the 1960s, when she was a face of the British Invasion. In the mid-'60s, with her soft, folky voice and very English pop, she enjoyed several US hits including "As Tears Go By" and "Come and Stay with Me," both from her self-titled 1965 debut album, though "As Tears Go By" was released as a single in 1964. The other charting singles were "This Little Bird" and "Summer Nights," both from her second album, The World of Marianne Faithfull. ("Go Away from My World," from the same album, also charted in the US—barely.)

As someone who has repeatedly reaped the sonic benefits of MQA, I found the MQA Labs press release tantalizing. "MQA Labs Debuts FOQUS ADC Design with First Ever Demonstration, Showcases Full Technology Suite," it declared, then continued, "Highlights will include a first listen to audio captured with a FOQUS ADC chip, showcasing the enhanced clarity made possible by a reimagined decimation process." The press release promised further surprises, including "a walk-through of our new and upcoming studio plug-ins, offering creators powerful tools for managing impulse response and noise shaping," and "a showcase of QRONO d2a, our playback solution that delivers unmatched transparency and time performance across all audio formats."

Göbel didn't debut a new speaker at High End Munich. In a totally selfless world, I would have bypassed the room for another with something new. But I'm an audiophile, and audiophiles have needs. Not having heard a Göbel speaker for a long time, I strolled into the room for a listen.

Three years after finalizing the design of their HQS G 7001 monoblocks, brothers Arnaud and Laurent Fusilier of French company JMF Audio completed the design of the JMF Audio HQS G3 9001 amplifiers ($164,000/pair). Alongside other JMF Audio products, the 9001s debuted at the ancillary HiFi Deluxe show in the Munich Marriott, offering a similar sonic signature as their smaller cousins.

"Our new Octave Jubilee class-A mono amplifier has a slightly different sound than the Jubilee Mono SEs you reviewed three years ago," said Andreas Hofmann. Hoffman is the founder and chief engineer of Germany’s Octave Audio, and he was talking about his forthcoming push-pull monoblock, noting that the amp outputs 160W in class-A lower-power mode and 280W in class-AB high-power mode. The Octave Jubilee’s projected price is $85,000/pair without potential tariff hikes.