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Joseph Cali, aka the producer/husband of singer Lori Lieberman, made audio news with his sneak peak of Gryphon's prototype EOS 2 loudspeakers ($20,800/pair). A successor to the Mojo S, the EOS 2 is the first Gryphon speaker with a beryllium-dome tweeter.

It's been far too long since I've encountered Boenicke Audio loudspeakers. Organic in design, with their inner chambers carved out of wood, and sometimes abetted by Bybee devices, they're capable of throwing a huge soundstage from a relatively small footprint. The floating W8 ($8500/pair), used in one of three rooms from Alma Music & Audio of San Diego, include, in addition to what you see on the front, a side-firing woofer and a rear-firing tweeter.

Jumping to the top level for the models whose entry-level brethren were demmed in Next Level HiFi's other room, the Wayne, IL-based dealer joined forces with Audio Group Denmark to display the Børresen B01 Silver Supreme Edition standmount loudspeaker ($60,500/pair with stands); the Aavik U580 class-D integrated amplifier ($35,000; 300Wpc into 8 ohms), which includes a DAC that does, over USB, PCM up to 32/192 and DSD128 as well as MQA; and the Aavik 5580 Streamer ($25,200). The entire 580 series utilizes external titanium supports for extreme mechanical resonance control and a copper-lined internal chassis for electrical noise control.

Because its sound proclaims "major significance," our coverage starts with the show premiere of Graham Audio's LS5/5f loudspeaker ($24,995/pair). Unveiled in Munich, albeit only in passive display, the speaker was designed by Derek Hughes, son of the late Spencer Hughes, founder of Spendor.

While walking through the aisles of Halle at Munich High End, heading for my last couple of assigned rooms (or areas), I came across designer Michael Børresen, who, with Lars Kristensen (above), gave me a quick run-down of his latest gear. There were new speakers at both the entry and extreme levels from Børresen, and new amplification at the top end from Aavik. The three brands on display—Børresen Acoustics, Aavik Acoustics, and Ansuz Acoustics—were consolidated under one umbrella company, Audio Group Denmark, in 2020.

There was buzz about many rooms at the High End Munich show but perhaps few were as talked about as the Nagra/Wilson Audio Specialties setup in Atrium 4.1 F130. It seemed to be among the more packed ones, a tough room to get into. I passed by twice before I was able to poke my head in, then was only able to return briefly near the end of the show.