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.

“Hitting the ground running” is a suspicious phrase at High End Munich. The show is humongous, a beast, four large buildings with three floors apiece crammed to the rafters with every imaginable audio brand, many unknown to me and most American hi-fi fans.

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.

John Leventhal: Rumble Strip; Umbrellas: Fairweather Friend; The Who: Live At Shea Stadium, 1982; UFO: Lights Out; Tom Rush: Gardens Old, Flowers New.

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.

JBL's AXPONA presentation began with a nod to the iconic "Blown Away Guy" tape ad for Maxell featuring the original JBL L100 speakers.