Over the course of Rush's five-decade career, the Canadian prog-rock trio never released much music from the vaults. When vaunted studio albums such as 1980's Permanent Waves and 1981's Moving Pictures were reissued in expanded form, in multidisc anniversary box sets, the bonus material has consisted of previously unreleased live recordings from the era—never any of their oft-whispered-about studio outtakes.

That changes with the new, career-spanning box set, Rush 50 (Ume/Mercury/Anthem), the first time the band has pulled back the curtain to share previously unreleased and highly sought-after tracks, alternate takes, and live rarities alongside other notable studio and live classics that traverse the band's fertile 1973–2015 lifespan.

Serbian manufacturer NAT Audio produces a range of eclectic tube amplifiers, including the single-ended, class-A Transmitter EVO monoblock. At the amp’s core is the massive Siemens RS687 QB5/1750 power tetrode tube, which delivers between 40W and 80W of output.

Before the show, I’d heard rumblings about the new Swiss-made Thales Reference turntable. Art Dudley had previously reviewed the Thales TTT-Compact turntable and Simplicity II tonearm, writing: “In 34 years of writing about playback gear, I have seen no products better made than the Thales turntable and tonearm, and precious few that equal them.”

Having recently read Tom Fine’s review of Amphion’s flagship floorstanders, the Krypton3X ($25,000/pair), in the June issue of Stereophile, I was eager to hear them. As luck would have it, the Finnish speaker company’s display in one of the MOC’s four huge halls included a small, sound-proofed listening booth. Before heading inside, I encountered Amphion CEO Anssi Hyvönen, who founded the company in 1998.

I’d been in touch with Muarah Audio’s US distributor, Octopus Audio, ahead of the Munich show, as I’m currently reviewing the company’s entry-level MT3 turntable for AnalogPlanet. But having that deck in-house didn’t prepare me for the striking flagship MT1 EVO ($8700) or the new Ilumnia loudspeakers. And the room offered more surprises still.

Japan’s Phasemation has always occupied a special place in my audiophile fantasies. I’ve heard the company’s products in the rooms of American Sound’s Angie Lisi at AXPONA, but auditioning a complete Phasemation system? Never had the chance—until Munich.

"What is the most important element in a high-end audio set-up?" As much as the question is asked over and over again, as if it were a requisite baseline test for admission into the Holy Fraternity of the High End, most responses start with the end of the chain rather than with the fundamentals.

At the Munich show, I ran into familiar faces: Mark Sossa of Well Pleased AV and Vinnie Rossi of Vinnie Rossi Audio, both far from their usual American stomping grounds. Seeing them overseas gave me a flicker of homesickness, but a journalist's job is to focus on the gear, not the friendships.