This room presented a delightful enigma: a system consisting of largely unfamiliar-to-me brands that eclipsed much of the established competition. It delivered intricate detail and clarity with a sense of wholeness.

Mastersound's Antonio Ferro showed four products including the flagship Spazio preamplifier ($21,500, prices approximate and converted from Euros). It's a multi-drive stage preamp with six ECC82 and three ECC83 tubes, RCA and XLR inputs and outputs, and MM/MC phono inputs.

Kenny Dorham: Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live from the Blue Morocco; Freddie Hubbard: On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco; Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner: The Music of Anthony Braxton; Adrian Galante: Introducing Adrian Galante; Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith: Defiant Life; Simón Willson: Bet.

György Ligeti: Violin, Piano & Românesc Concertos, Isabelle Faust, violin; Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, piano; Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth, cond.; Tcherepnin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky: Prelude to La Princesse Lointaine; Capriccio Espagnol; Orchestral Suite, NDR Radiophilharmonie/Stanislav Kochanovsky.

My Morning Jacket: Is; Mike Farris: The Sound of Muscle Shoals; Jason Isbell: Foxes in the Snow; Sam Fender: People Watching; Drew And Ellie Holcomb: Memory Bank; Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).

Valerio Cora (Acora Acoustics/Audio Research), Kevin Hayes (VAC), and Mat Weisfeld (VPI) worked the halls in Munich with the confidence of seasoned entrepreneurs, showcasing their US-made gear at the world's biggest high-end audio show.

T.H.E. Show is enjoyable for many reasons—friendly people, a good vibe, some great-sounding rooms, and new hi-fi gear. There are introductions of new products from known makers and from some showing unexpected things. An example of the latter: L.A.-based Desmond's Tiki Tube Amplifiers, shown on passive display in the Marketplace area. Proprietor Desmond Bowe said these are just intended as examples "to get a conversation started" with the customer.

Alma Music & Audio's Room 266 featured the Boenicke W8 SE speakers ($18,254/pair), from Switzerland—the smallest of the W lineup's three towers. Speakers in the W series—W is for wood—have cabinets made of that substance, American Walnut in this case. Each W8 SE rested on a patent-pending "SwingBase" suspension, which allows the speaker to move more freely within the horizontal plane, the company says.

The combined talents of Analog Manufaktur Germany (AMG), Dr. Michael Plessmann’s SoundSpace Systems, and Denmark’s Vitus Audio produced a distinctive and sophisticated sound at High End Munich.