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Herb Gets Ready for High End 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…

Garrard 301 turntable

The show wasn't open yet. The booths weren't finished being built. I was walking alone, and there were no audio people anywhere. But as soon as I saw it, I froze and pulled out my camera. It's not hammertone gray. It's not a grease-bearing. But it was here in front of me.

I'm pretty sure I got the first picture of the new SME-manufactured Garrard 301 turntable. Over the years I've owned a few of these classic British idler-drive turntables—but never one with shiny cream paint and pristine molded knobs like this. Years ago I bought several of them, straight out of broadcast…

The No. 5101: A New SACD Player (!) from Mark Levinson

From my first room at High End Munich: Some actual news: A new SACD player from Mark Levinson.

True—SACD still exists, supported by a small but enthusiastic niche of audiophiles, many of whom buy every new SACD that's released—which, lets face it, isn't that many silver discs.

Which is why it's so surprising that Levinson or any high-end company would release a new SACD player. The No.5101 will join the No.5805 ($8500; review forthcoming in the July Stereophile) and No.5802 integrated amplifiers in Levinson's affordable 5000 series. In addition to playing discs, the No.5101 will…

Joseph Audio Speakers, Alluxity and Doshi Electronics, Purist Cables

I'm sitting in the Alluxity room next to Joseph Audio's Jeff Joseph and wondering how his new graphene-cone Perspective2 loudspeakers ($14,999/pair) can sound so big and solid and transparent when they're so far apart. I'm looking for the hole in the middle, or at least a fuzzy-creamy center, but I can't find it. All I can "see" are the solid, accurately described voices of singers like Ella and Elvis.

Then, via the Alluxity Pre Two preamp-DAC-streamer, I hear a high-resolution file of some big drums, made from a Crystal Clear Direct to Disc LP. I turn to Jeff and say, "Something…

Silbatone Amplifiers, Western Electric Horns

The South Korean company Silbatone manufactures exquisite pure tube and hybrid audio amplification that's specifically engineered to be un-conventional, un-compromised, and un-affordable. About that last characteristic: It's un-affordable because it's not for sale—and everyone knows you have to pay extra for stuff that's not for sale. Right?

Silbatone also collects—and demonstrates, at audio shows—un-obtainable vintage Western Electric movie-theater equipment. To my knowledge, Silbatone's museum-quality WE tube and horn speaker collection has no equal in either completeness or condition.…

Live from Munich, a Gratuitous Tonearm Post

Just some tonearm sweetness from Thales. Photo taken through a window. Enjoy.

Horns for All at Munich High End

As Michael Fremer, Paul Messenger, and I were searching for the High End press room, one of several echt German pop-up entertainments surfaced in the lobby. Whether taken as local culture or kitsch depends upon one's point of view; for me, it was a rare opportunity to experience a live reference in an open setting—and preparation for systems designed to reproduce that very experience.

Stein Music Bob XL Speakers, Tone Tool Trapezium Turntable

Taking horns far beyond their Alpine context, Stein Music's Bob XL speakers and subwoofers ($290,000 total) were reproducing Shelby Lynne's "Just a Little Lovin'" with warmth, solidity, and gratifying musicality. Company founder/designer Holger Stein attributed part of the system's success to the new Stein Music Matrix cable series. These silver cables are assembled on the company's own braiding machine, which allows them to control all parameters. Stein told me that they use special metrics to change the vector of the cable's magnetic fields so that their sum is zero.

I also heard Ella…

Auralic Sirius G2 Upsampling Processor

As someone accustomed to thinking of Auralic components as little boxes, the size and casing of their new Sirius G2 upsampling processor ($6000) suggests to me that the company is exploring new territory. It sure sounds that way from this product's description. Due late summer or early fall, the Sirius G2 is intended for placement between a streamer and DAC—any company's DAC—and is claimed to upgrade both "the processing power and the original performance envelope" of the DAC. Auralic's press literature says that by handling a DAC's data processing burden, the Sirius G2 "dramatically reduces…

MSB M500 Monoblocks, Magico M6 Speakers, and Analysis Plus Cables

When I entered the MSB room, a track from the JVC XRCD version of Sonny Rollins's Rollins Plays for Bird was transmitting all of the recording's smooth, warm, and sophisticated elegance. That last word isn't one I use often when describing high-end systems, but that's exactly what I experienced here.

Although some obvious room-associated challenges affected the sound from baroque violinist Rachel Podger's Channel Classics SACD Perla Barocca, the sound was smooth, warm, spacious and quite grounded in the earth. Podger's violin, in particular, sounded especially beautiful.

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