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Lab 12's Tube Preamp & Naya Hybrid Integrated Prototype

I was dashing past hundreds of exhibits in the four huge ground-floor exhibit halls of the MOC when Lab 12's exhibit caught my eye. On the recommendation of Herb Reichert, my audiophile buddy, Scott, bought the Lab 12 tube preamp shown above with Stratos Vichos, Lab 12's owner and designer, and forever sings its praises.

My initial intention was to simply snap a photo for Scott. But then I learned about the Naya ($TBD, probably around 3500–4000), Lab 12's forthcoming Hypex class-D power amplifier with built-in DAC and phonostage (above). Named for Vichos's oldest daughter, the…

Stromtank's New SEQ POWER 5 Distribution Bar

"We always wanted a distribution bar," Stromtank CEO Wolfgang Meletzky explained as he held the device with Annett Dehmel, Stromtank Managing Director. "So, we developed the SEQ 5 (approx. $4000, if I read my scribble correctly), which contains custom-made outlets with special rhodium-plated pure copper contacts." (Furutech GTX-D-NFC receptacles are available as an option.) The AC inlet, which can receive up to 2000W of 120V power and 2800W of 230V power, includes Nano Crystal Formular contacts and a 6.3 × 32mm Slo-Blo fuse.

The SEQ 5 is claimed to contain top-quality wire and components…

Meridian's Visually Stunning DSP9

Meridian's just launched, visually stunning DSP9 digital active loudspeaker (60,000/pair in black, 65,000/pair in a choice of automotive finishes) is a definite rival to SteinMusic for the Munich High-End 2023 Best Looker of Show Award. With all electronics built-in—each drive unit contains its own amplifier—and controlled by phone or tablet, the speaker includes DSP intended to eliminate all room variables.

Bass was absolutely tight on a remastered version of Phil Collins "I Don't Care Anymore" from 1983, and depth and space came to the fore in Anette Askvik's "Liberty."…

Chord's New Ultima Integrated

UK-based Chord is poised to release the new Ultima Integrated (8500) in September or October. Chord's first new integrated amplifier in some time, it incorporates elements of the company's Ultima P3 preamp and Ultima 6 power amp and utilizes Chord's latest dual feed-forward error correction, said to reduce the noise floor by at least 10dB. A fully balanced class-AB design, the Ultima Integrated will output 125Wpc into 8 ohms at the least and, one would expect, even more bliss.

AV RoomService Nixes Unwanted Vibes

AV RoomService's Norman Varney is committed to addressing smaller and smaller vibrations that can affect system performance ways in far less subtle than one might wish. The latest additions to his roster, shown in this admittedly less than sexy photo, includes two chassis lid damping devices. The first, a constrained layer stainless-steel damping strip that attaches internally to a chassis lid, should be affixed at an angle so that it will affect more modes. There are two models: a 12" × 2" strip ($35) or the larger 12" × 24" version ($65).

Norm also has a big black external chassis…

Multiple Knockouts: Peak Consults' Dragon Legacy Loudspeaker with Audionet's Stern/Bohr/Heisenberg/Gauss Combo

Twenty-five years after their founding, and 16 years after Stereophile last reviewed a Peak Consult loudspeaker, the Danish company released its new 500lb Dragon Legacy ($225,000/pair) at Munich High End. At the same time, Peak Consult, which Wilfried Ehrenholz, former audio of Dynaudio, took over in 2014, is finally beginning to reach out to the US market. After hearing the Dragon Legacy, I'm convinced that Sunil Merchant of Sunny's Components in E. Covina, CA will soon be joined by other dealers in the US.

"We built this crazy, solid 4-layer walnut and wenge cabinet, with three layers…

Moon's Six New Babies

You read it here first. After aeons of confusion over the Canadian company's name—is it Moon, is it Simaudio, or is it Simaudio by Moon?—our friends to the North are poised to finally resolve the issue. But before their Moon launch, they are launching their first new product range in 10 years, the upper-echelon North Collection. Consisting of three product groups, two in the 600 range, two in the 700, and two in the 800, all are full balanced designs.

Costa Koulisakis (above), the extremely knowledgeable and articulate public face of whatever they're called, began with the 641 all-analog…

Grandinote's Forthcoming Solo Amplifier

Having debuted his extremely impressive Mach 8XL loudspeaker ($30,800–$33,000/pair, depending upon finish) at AXPONA, Grandinote owner/designer Massimiliano Magri and North American distributor Reinhard Goerner joined forces in Munich to preview the forthcoming dual mono, fully balanced, class-A Solo amplifier ($20,000 + options).

Expected to ship around Labor Day, the Solo t outputs 60Wpc into either 8 ohms or 4 ohms. It includes a 9" multi-function touchscreen display that can change color, dim, and be switched from what you can see in the photo above either to a spectrum…

Dan D'Agostino's Dazzling Unveil of the New Relentless Epic and Relentless 800 Monoblocks and Momentum MxV Integrated

In the extremely large, all-sonic-bets-are-off, glass-enclosed Atrium display mounted by Mansour Mamaghani's Audio Reference Munich, Dan D'Agostino, and his indispensable sidekick (aka company President) Bill McKiegan, joined forces with Wilson, dCS, and Perlisten to blow people's minds. When the new Relentless Epic and Relentless Epic 800 mono amplifiers got fired up, it was a case of which dazzled you first, the sound or the sheer enormity and shine of the display.

The Relentless Epic monoblocks ($349,500/pair), available now, contains a $49,500/pair upgrade to the original Relentless…

The Icing on the Munich Cake: McGrath, Fon, Nagra, Wilson, Impex

It had been far too long since I'd experienced a Peter McGrath demo, let alone one in which the master recording engineer and Wilson Audio Brand Ambassador had a full hour to share his recordings. At last, on Sunday at 2pm at Munich High End 2023, Peter followed Abby Fon (below) of Impex Records' packed presentation on Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia: Saturday Night in San Francisco 12 6 80 to spend an hour in the Nagra room playing a generous helping of some of the favorite tracks that he's recorded over the years.

Each of Peter's two presentations—the first was…