Since it has been ensconced in its new home, the MOC (Munich Operating Centre), the High End Show has gone from strength to strength, and it is now clearly the best show of its kind in Europe, dwarfing anything on offer in the UK. Strengths include a large number of rooms around a spacious central atrium which are big enough, and well enough constructed for serious listening, a relaxed atmosphere, and excellent organisation.
Weaknesses? The format is a little parochial, with not enough foreign language (ie non-German) promotional support - but it's getting there. And it's mostly full-on stereo, with limited representation of low-end hardware or home cinema.
Despite much industry talk about the increasing precedence of home cinema over traditional stereo, there was plenty of the old guard in evidence, with an entire floor of the hotel devoted to two-channel audio. Indeed, impressive new projectors from the likes of SIM 2 were relegated to an eyrie wap up on the tenth floor, well away from the rest of the show.
Did you go too? So tell us about it. Click on the discussion button below and comment on any of the pics or comments here, or just tell us what you thought of the show. Let us know if you saw any kit there that you'd really like to read a review of - we'll do our best to get it in, try it, and tell you all about it.
 | | B&W CM7,
£999. A floorstanding stablemate for the CM1 with surroundless midrange and tapertube technology from the Nautilus series.
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 | | Cabasse La Sphére, €120,000. Sold with six monoblock power amps and outboard crossovers that modify phase, these mighty balls of sound have four drive units mounted one behind the other in mega-coaxial fashion.
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 | | Focal Chorus 826V, €800. Focal's new Chorus 800V series features an aluminium/magnesium tweeter and, in the case of the floorstanders such as the 826V, a separate metal plinth and downward firing port.
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 | | Haliaetus Technologies Firebird/Booster. French newcomer Halieatus has applied rocket science to loudspeakers with its 'acoustic nozzle technology', these things are said to go very loud for their size.
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 | | KEF prototype. KEF used the high end show to signal their return to their high fidelity roots with this enormous prototype tubular speaker which features a new Uni-Q driver and multiple bass drivers, front and rear - but whether it will go on sale in this form is not yet known.
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 | | Marker Audio. German speaker maker Marker Audio decided to do something different with its subwoofer design.
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 | | Pro-Ject Xperience Comfort, €1,000. The latest Pro-Ject turntables offer a selection of gorgeous real wood finishes including olive, wenge and apple (pictured).
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 | | Transrotor Fat Bob Ref. 80 TMD, €4,400. Transrotor is one of the biggest players on the vinyl-mad Deutsche scene. Their Fat Bob carries two tonearms and a seriously hefty aluminium platter, the turntable weighs over 30kilos without arm(s)!
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 | | Revolver Cygnis, £5,999. UK speaker maker Revolver has gone upmarket with a two-part cabinet design featuring an isolated crossover and carbon fibre curved top.
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 | | New affordable Rotel electronics range: RA-06 2x 70-watt amplifier, RT-06 DAB/FM/AM tuner and RCD06 24 bit CD player at £500, £400 and £350.
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 | | Early sighting of new top of the line Classé preamplifier, yours for £5,450, looks like other Classé products externally, and is a work of art internally.
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 | | The XT skinned aluminium satellite will acquire a matching subwoofer and other speakers necessary for multichannel purposes which remain under wraps for now
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 | | It's square externally, but the new Eclipse TD725sw £2700 time domain subwoofer's heart is elliptical, and all the familiar Eclipse qualities such as high speed and time coherence are there in full measure.
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 | | Restyled and respecified Denon mini system - a snip at a little under £500
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 | | Latest version of Denon's all-singing, all-dancing flagship multichannel amplifier, the AVC-A1XV, includes no less than 5 HDMI inputs, upconversion to 1080p, web radio support and 10 assignable power amplifiers - all for a mere £4,800.
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 | | About to make a renewed entry to the UK market, the £2,000 pair powered (300 watts) wireless CD3500 from Canton is bound to attract considerable interest. Old style Canton range (like these) sound hard and brittle, but newer models are said to be sweeter and more Anglo-centric. Time will tell.
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 | | We had a rare sighting of the beautiful £2,750 Pathos Logos valve integrated - and just check out those heatsinks!
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 | | The XXL Fusion Two foil wrapped speaker cable ('an exclusive and fiendishly difficult' technology according to maker Oehlbach) costs £300 for a 3m terminated pair.
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 | | Denon chose the High End Show to unveil their new budget amplifier/CD player pair, the PMA-700AE and DCD-700AE at £250 each, using technology trickled down from the high end SA1 range.
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 | | Creek EVO integrated amplifier, £495. Creek's new entry level integrated is its first to be built in China and offers 85 watts aside thanks to an unusually beefy power supply.
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