Reporter: Carlo Iaccarino
The show took place from May, 15th through May, 18th 2025 at the M.O.C. facilities, in Munich, Germany
Originally written: August, 2025
Website with plenty of resources: High End Society

Still here? What else do you want to tell us?

Well, after two episodes devoted to the realm of the "possible", we must deal with the elephant in the room.
Almost all of the exhibited gear belonged to a price level that was simply high, if not VERY high or, more frequently, EXAGGERATED.
This problem is now commonly felt. It is addressed not only by us "end-users" via social media and forums, but even by the mainstream media, the magazines and the youtubers.

Obviously, this magazine, too, is addressing that problem, and for a long time. My point of view is partially at odds with our - democratic - Editor.
In his opinion - and I know that many of you agree - those are only hyperboles, unjustifiable both in absolute terms and considering the wealth of affordable products flooding our market from Chinese producers, many of which are notable and praised by this magazine, too.
Now, I'm not denying it. But I always give you my sincere and honest opinions. So, I can't avoid that, wrapping up after the show is over, in the rooms where I liked what I heard, and kept going back to, there were no affordable products working in them.

Like (almost) every year, I really liked TAD's room.
This year they exhibited a big system made of the D 1000 TX CD-SACD-player/DAC/Pre (€20,000), the C 1000 preamplifier (€20,000) and the stereo power amplifiers M 2500 TX (€37,000 each - there were two of them, one for each loudspeaker, in passive biamplification). They drove the Grand Evolution 1 floor-standing loudspeakers, for €58,000.

Another, "lesser" system was terminated by the Micro Evolution 1 TX stand-mounting loudspeakers, for €17,400, again driven by the aforementioned D 1000 TX, this time directly connected to a M 1000 TX stereo power amplifier (forgive me for not taking note of its price).

I repeatedly listened to these systems, while different music genres were playing, and I always liked them a lot, inviting me to remain in the room.

Another room I really liked - in this case, too, with repeated listening sessions with different music genres - was the one by CONSTELLATION.
Their system was made of a Fortissimo S turntable by EAT as analogue source, and a Rossini with its Clock by dCS as digital source; and a pair of Watt/Puppy loudspeakers by WILSON.
Here we have a picture portraying almost all the system.

Between sources and loudspeakers, there were the Constellation amplifying electronics, from the Revelation 2 range.
In particular, there was a pre-phono with dedicated power supply, for $25,000;.

This (with the Rossini) entered into the preamplifier, also with its dedicated power supply, for $29,000,

that, in turn, drove a stereo power amplifier costing $30,000.

Hey, should you be interested, the range also includes a monoblock, again for $30,000.
Or you can try their higher INSPIRATION range, that is made of an integrated stereo amplifier, a preamplifier and mono and stereo power amplifiers; their aesthetics maintains the house's style.

I must thank Mr. Peter Mc Grath, acclaimed sound engineer and Wilson Audio ambassador, for having pointed me to this producer, suggested for its music selection, that included his famous recordings. And actually, in that room, the boss, Irv Gross, beyond presenting its gear, overlooked at the DJ functions, and suggested a music selection that matched well with my tastes. It has been a great pleasure to listen to that system; and they, too, seemed pleased to see me returning to their room for more music.

Like every year, I really liked the sound I listened to in the FYNE AUDIO room.

This Company produces loudspeakers; their roots go back to Tannoy. They exhibited two floor-standing loudspeakers: one from their upper range, the F 704 SP, for €23,000/pair; and the other one belonging to a minor range, the F 502 S, for €2,800/pair.

The bigger tower F 704 SP also mounts their Supertrax omnidirectional supertweeter, for €3,500/pair; for its inferior models, Fyne Audio developed the similar S-Trax, that is scheduled for the end of the year, for about €1,200.

To drive their most important loudspeakers, they always use a system made of the top gear by our own UNISON RESEARCH, that I am sure strongly contributed to the pleasant sound I heard.

Yet, to drive their minor loudspeakers, they used an Albionic system by REGA.

To my question about why a proud Scottish company crossed the Channel for the "relevant" electronics, their very nice sales manager simply answered that Unison gear played well and they liked it. Keep in mind that I had this conversation in... a perfect Italian, with a handsome English accent ;-)

Another room where I heard a really good sound was the one by BOULDER
.
Actually, it is reductive to indicate only that Company, because the exhibited system was made of gear by many other brands.

Among those, the digital source by MERGING - NADAC.

I was particularly hit by the sound coming from that system when the smaller power amplifier by his Colorado Company, the 861 model, for about €12,000 was driving the Alumine 2 loudspeakers paired to their Sub, all by STENHEIM.

Albeit their dimensions (they are the shorties in white...), the room was full of sound, very pleasant and equilibrated. I didn't stay for the "big" system, because I was already satisfied by the "minimal".

Naturally, I didn't miss the opportunity to listen to the monstre system set up by Audio Reference to "bid farewell" to Munich.

It is a system made of absolutely relevant "pieces" by the brands held by this very important German distributor. If I didn't misunderstand, some of them are from the personal collection of the company's owner.
Unfortunately I could only reserve the "open to the public" demonstrations, that were necessarily short, due to the huge people affluence. They played decidedly short musical excerpts, all of them chosen to "show off". To be clear, I vividly remember that we all jumped on our seats after the bass drum cannonades (it was, maybe, the Sacre), to testify not only of the system power, but also of its dynamics and above all, its silence.
Yet, this system's sound didn't "seduce" me, unlike the other ones that I described above. Better this way... :-)

The End...

EVERSOLO exhibited its anti-wiim: the PLAY, a DAC/network player/streamer/stereo integrated amplifier for about €700. It can even sport a CD-drive mechanism, and its name changes to PLAY CD EDITION and its price raises to about €800.

Its feature list is long and impressive, as usual for the all-in-one gear. Here I say that the DAC is based upon an Asahi Kasei AK4493 (Velvet Sound) chip and supports digital signals in a native mode up to DSD 512 and PCM 768 kHz/32 bit; and that this machine sports an HDMI ARC and a MM/MC phono inputs and is, obviously, Roon-Ready.
They announced another piece of news: their DAC-Z10.

It sports a double pair of Asahi Kasei AK 4191+4499 chips. It has several inputs, among which a I2S one with HDMI socket (with programmable pins, if I didn't misunderstand) that accepts signals up to DSD 512 and PCM 768 kHz/32 bit; moreover it also has an input for an external 10 MHz clock. It has one analogue input and the analogue output is fixed or variable, the last one made with a resistance net of the R-2R type.
Here we go with its "B-side", that shows this machine's versatilty.

This is clearly part of Eversolo's effort to occupy a higher range than usual. At show time, the price was still TBD; as a mere indication, they told me it would be more than €2,000. The DAC is scheduled for this year's end.
That same room was shared with LUXSIN, another brand belonging o the same Chinese group.
This Company exhibited the X 9, a DAC/headphone amplifier for about € 1,200, capable of applying a correction curve to the signal dedicated to the headphones in use This was controlled with a propietary app that allows you to modify the calibration curve proposed by the machine, for further personalization. You can already download curves from this Company's wsbsite for many of the most popular headphones on the (upper) market. I seem to remember that something similar was provided by Devialet to optimize the interface between their amplifiers and the loudspeakers used.

I also run into a French Company that produces loudspeakers, ESPRIT. They exhibited three loudspeakers, all sporting an AMT tweeter (aka Heil's driver). In the system at play, they used, obviously, their bigger floor-standing loudspeaker, the Lisa, for €38,000/pair.

That range includes also a smaller tower loudspeaker, Amelia, for €19,800/pair.

And, finally, a stand-mounting loudspeaker, Stella, for €6,800/pair.

Another piece of news, at least for me, came by GAIT, a Company making glass diaphragm drivers.

They can be made in several shapes and can also be rear-lit, so they become coloured.

These drivers are conceived above all for outdoor applications, such as the automotive environment, or the marine one, or the garden (where, I guess, production numbers are important, especially if related to the production for domestic loudspeakers). Anyway, this Company exhibited also traditional loudspeakers made using their drivers.

Another curiosity: SCANSPEAK, too, exhibited their range of drivers.

The last one in the row, the one with the corolla of magnetic tablets easily visible, can provide a magnetic field as strong as the one obtained using magnet with rare-earth materials (such as neodymium), yet it uses Iron Nitride magnets by NIRON MAGNETICS, that are rare-earth material-free. This is celarly an environmental-conscious choice, to avoid the heavy impact of rare-earth materials' extractions. But it also indirectly contributes to get rid of the geopolitical problems that are unfortunately developing with the - few - nations rich of those materials (not to speak about the ethical and social implications related to the labour force that they employ to extract them).

Other things "on the fly":

PRO-JECT, with their Peanuts Turntable, for €600, with pre-phono, Bluetooth transmitter and pre-mounted Ortofon OM-10 cartridge.

And also with the update of their Travel Set that I already talked about last year; now they also provide a dedicate flight case/trolley: who could ask for anything more?

Or, moreover, IFI, with their UP TRAVEL.

It is a Bluetooth bi-directional transmitter. You can connect it to the input of a system (at home or in your car) to receive the wireless signal from a source (for instance, your smartphone connected to a streaming service); or you can connect it to an audio output, like the one provided by the entertaining systems on board of several (not so uptodate) aeroplanes, and just this way it was emphatically showed.

And what can be said about KLAUDIO, that showed their MAGNEZAR turntable, for $50,000? It sports a magnetic-levitated platter with automatic peripheral record clamp, and was exhibited mounting a pivoting tangential tonearm KD-ARM-AP12, for $18,000, with electronic up-and down control and auto-lift at the end of the record.

I think its particular feature lays inside its platter: what in the picture appears as its nice blue colour hides a system that I have never met. The platter is made of glass and inside it has an inner space containing a blue (not pink...) floyd. As soon as the platter starts to spin, the centrifugal force pushes the floyd towards the external side of the inner room, so it concentrates along the platter's edge, augmenting its peripheral mass and with it, the speed stabilty provided by the inertial effect.
Here is a picture showing the platter spinning and dry at its centre. In the picture you can also see the cartridge moving along the record's ray, maintained perpendicular to it by the arm's particular articulation (not to leave anything out, there's also a green laser beam for reference...).

Surely a show-stopper, and surely effective; although it gave to me the idea of a product coming from the Simple Affairs Complication Office :-)

Moreover, the ONKYO comeback. This Company showed traditional components: a preamplifier/streamer, a stereo power amplifier and a CD-player, each for a about €1,600.

That exhibition saw Onkyo gear that drove loudspeakers by KLIPSCH, both brands now belonging to the same parent Company.

Auf Wiedersehen

Here are the link to the first part and the link to the second part of my report.

Copyright © 2025 Carlo Iaccarino - www.tnt-audio.com

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