Munich High End 2024 Show Report
This is my first visit to Munich and to the High End Audio Show which I have been wanting to attend for many years now and life just keeps getting in the way until now when the opportunity was given to me and I jumped at the chance. This is not your average audio show with a few levels of HiFi but instead it is sprawled over a massive complex and four atriums in the main event halls and rises up 4 levels, overwhelming to say the least as I have not been to anything like it in the past. I was like a kid in a toy store and giddy with excitement because of the sheer scale of what was on show.
Across the road from the MOC was the Motorworld complex which had a car museum but this also was part of the High End Audio show with brands displaying and demonstrating various systems, the Marriott hotel also has an off site showing for some other brands and companies but did not get a chance to head over as the scale of the MOC and Motorworld was more than enough and not enough time for me to cover in 4 days and only a one man crew.
In this report I will be highlighting some of my favourite rooms from the show as most of my content is already posted on all of my social media channels with still more to trawl through and will continue to post content so please look at my social media channels.
Tannoy
Tannoy was at this years Munich show with a new speaker and celebrating 70 years of its Autograph model this was the first showing of the new design, the Autograph 12. Headed by Daniel Raggett of Symphony Distribution who is the Super Partner and distributor of Tannoy speakers in the UK his team welcomed me to the show and gave me an exclusive look and in depth listen to what is an utterly superb new model and allowed me to get plenty of content for my social media channels, it proved to be a formidable system and was partnered with Prima Luna EVO 300 preamplifier and EVO 400 power amplifier, Linn Klimax streamer was used as the source and Atlas cables used to tie all the components together. The synergy was superb and the Prima Luna proved to be an excellent choice of components to show off what this new speaker could do. It was one of the most natural and dynamic sounding systems of the whole show for me and for many of the visitors it was the highlight for them as the positivity from people visiting the rooms was excellent with so many commenting on how good they sounded, a gentleman from Ireland came up to me and said he has listened to all of the Tannoy range and this new model was his favourite, and there was many more with requests of music to be played on the system, it did not matter what music was played they sounded superb what ever and I managed to get quite a few new tracks to add to my playlists thanks to all those people as some of the music was new to me and I loved hearing all the different music on this system. I also spoke with the designer of the new Autograph 12's Danny Cooklin and he explained that there is a completely new tweeter design incorporated into the concentric driver which is a first for this model, Danny is an extremely talented speaker designer and just one part of team Tannoy as there was Stuart, Steve, Bogdan and Danny and also Jes Kerr of Kerr Acoustics who was part of this superb team helping at the show and made it such enjoyable time and visit. They had static displays of the other Tannoy speakers from the Studio range, SGM10, SGM12's and also the Stirling III's that I heard at the London Audio Show last month. The other room they had was playing the big SGM15's which was another huge hit with the visitors and again the positivity and great comments made all their hard work pay off. The bass from the SGM15's was prodigious as the punch and slam was incredible from the big 15" drivers, the system consisted of a Prima Luna Hybrid Integrated amplifier which powered them effortlessly, for the source an Auralic streamer was used and again Atlas cables were used to tie it all together.
I want to give a massive shout out to all of the team at Tannoy for such an enjoyable show and even got a team photo shot with them, I absolutely loved their speakers especially the new Autograph 12's which sounded superb and were one of my favourites of this years Munich show as it was such a well balanced system !
Steinmusic
Steinmusic proved to be another favourite for me as their room sounded so good with the music from their beautiful Topline Bob XL speakers, with a very natural and dynamic sound which had a stunning clarity to the music being played and looked gorgeous with the beautiful horn finished in a vibrant orange colour, I love the power and extension that the horn loaded drivers can achieve and am now a huge fan of horn speakers, again this was such a well balanced system which proved popular with visitors and for good reason the music they made was simply beautiful.
Vivid Audio Moya M1 Speakers
I have loved the sound that Vivid Audio speakers are able to portray and having heard the beautiful Giya speakers from previous shows I have always came away impressed by the music they make, bass is always something that I love to hear and how well a speaker is able to deliver and achieve a powerful bass response. The new Moya M1 speakers takes this obsession of mine to another level and the way in which it delivers the lower octaves of music is simply phenomenal, Laurence Dickie who is the designer and owner of Vivid Audio is a genius when it comes to speaker design and was the person who originally designed the B&W Nautilus speakers which is an iconic and timeless design in the speaker industry. The Moya M1 is a 5 way 13 driver speaker system which looks incredible but once you fire them up there 3000 watts of power handling delivers what can only be described as an experience unlike any other, the church organ music that they were playing sounded stunning in every sense of the word, organ music is very difficult to play on speakers as the lower octaves can prove to be troubling to a speaker that simply cannot handle those sort of frequencies but not the Moya's as you feel every note played as well as hear it, it manages to project one of the most powerful and naturally accurate experiences to hear that sort of music played, I have sat in churches before and enjoy hearing the organ play as it is one of the most beautiful sounds and the Moya speakers allow you to hear and feel the power of this wonderful instrument, I must get hold of a copy of the CD that is available on base2music label.
I even managed to get a photo with the man himself Laurence Dickie !
Nagra Audio
Nagra Audio always impresses me every time I hear the music that they are able to make and recently at the HiFi Show Live at Ascot they were partnered with Rockport Technologies speakers which sounded superb, this time at Munich they were using the equally impressive Stenheim Audio speakers which sounded incredible with such wonderful music played and thanks to Rene Laflamme from 2xHD who was demonstrating the beautiful music that this system manages to create, I have heard Nagra with Focal, YG Acoustics, Rockport and now Stenheim and this was one of the best for me, extremely natural sound and would of listened all day but at a show this size time is not on my side.
YG Acoustics with Boulder
YG Acoustics is a brand I know fairly well and they always put on a strong performance and with this system that was being shown at Munich is was quite breathtaking and the music that was being played was Fanfare for the Common Man which is fantastic orchestral piece with powerful drums and brass instruments being played, awe inspiring sound with huge dynamics which it handled perfectly and was not easily forgotten, beautiful system and the Boulder electronics are huge, back breaking stuff and not for the faint hearted.
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