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: May, 2025
Website with plenty of resources: High End Society

Munich, for the final time

Here we are again in Munich, in May, for the ritual of the High End Show.
This year, however, is special: it is the last one in Munich. Next year the exhibition will be held in Vienna, with the intention of remaining there for the next three years ... at least.
For many exhibitors this seems to make little difference; others, however, wanted to "celebrate" the event, setting up something special for the occasion..

In fact, I expected a slightly subdued edition, because the official communication was activated only in the last few days close to the exhibition and did not show particular emphasis on any aspect.
I was very wrong.

As usual, I managed to visit the exhibition for all four days, and I had the impression of a huge public turnout. Even the first two days, reserved for professionals, the exhibition was crowded. And even the last day, Sunday, typically quieter, was full of people until closing. And this, despite the pleasant weather and sumptuous football celebrations of the local team, that could absorb the attention of the visitors.

After so much time, I risk repeating myself and writing uninteresting things. So, I will try to select the news that I'm going to pass on.

First of all, the testimonial: this year H.E.S. has chosen Anette Askvik, who has recently met with the artistic favour of our strict Editor.
Here she is in a shot kindly provided by H.E.S.

She appeared to everyone as a very simple girl with a slightly dreamy look, as if she were always immersed in music. This is also what emerged from her speech at the press conference, where, of course, the technical work for the production of her records was also discussed.
The artist, however, has always specified that her first goal is musical. To better understand her musical universe, she told us that she explicitly seeks silence, and lives in places where the "disturbances" of civilization are far away.
I brought her our greetings and she was very happy, and also a little surprised, I think, to see in (a lot of) flesh and blood an entity from the parallel virtual universe.

Such is Anette's audiophile fame, that the reservations for the listening sessions of the new "immersive" versions of her works were immediately sold out, and I was unable to take part. Fortunately, the more far-sighted Hartmut was there.

BTW, this is another piece of news: the return of our Hartmut Quaschick, who will also report on his forays to the exhibition, strong in his skills and knowledge of the DYI world and of designers..

The assigned tasks

Also this year H.E.S. has commendably maintained the Sounds Clever section, that is, systems that are not only good-sounding, but also economical, or rather, "not expensive", that is, within the limit of € 5,000, a figure that is unfortunately already demanding for our Italian pockets...
Fortunately, this year these solutions were well marked by the logo reproduced above, also kindly provided by H.E.S.. Unfortunately, there were not many, but, at least, they were all "thought out". Many revolved around devices that performed more than one single function. None of them seemed "just placed there" to me. In fact, one solution had not even been thought of as such, but was admitted automatically, during the work.
Here they are below.

Let's start with a big bang :-)

TOTEM presented a €2,000 system, composed of its small KIN AMP amplifier, and the new KIN ONE mini speakers, in addition to their Tress power cables.

The amp, already seen in past years, has a selectable line/phono analogue input, a digital one and a Bluetooth (Apt-X HD) one. The latter is what they used in the demo for sending the signal to the amplifier from a source connected to the network that streamed music.
Furthermore, the amp features a filtered sub output and, above all, a switching power section with proprietary circuitry. Vince Bruzzese, the owner of the company, was keen to highlight that they studied and developed this power section themselves. He told me they developed their own solution for the unavoidable output filter stage which gives a phase-coherent signal through the whole range of audio frequencies. This characteristic is rarely investigated or measured in magazine reviews.
The speakers, on the other hand, are a novelty this year: two-way, with a tuned cabinet - "it's not really a bass reflex", said Bruzzese - and a finish offered in four colours, which can be guessed from the brochure hanging on the wall in the following photo, which portrays them with other speakers from the company and which I hope gives an idea of the minimal dimensions of the whole.

I had a long talk with Vince also about the technical philosophy that inspires Totem's range of speakers, starting from the drivers. When I asked him if he, like other Canadian companies, used the resources of their National Research Council (NRC), he answered no, because not only does he already have a lot of equipment available, but, above all, because he doesn't like the overly traditionalist approach they have, while his design philosophy, as seen also for the amplifier, is more personalized (and it couldn't be otherwise, given the "volcanic" character).
The fact is that this little system sounded really good despite it's small size, Bluetooth source, and being placed on a generic table/desk-style package without any dedicated audiophile pedestals. It always attracted a lot of people when it was in use. Was it a refined and hyper-detailed sound? No. Did it have those subtle nuances of big high-end systems? Not even, but, damn, it sounded! I imagined it in my bedroom back then, and I also imagine it in the living room of many of my friends who would never put in there, not to mention a Wilson, but not even a Sonus Faber or an LS 3/5. The project specification was: a good-sounding system within €5,000; an objective, I would say, fully achieved. We are well below that limit and in my opinion many people from the general public among those I have seen attending the demos have even given a little thought to this system, if not for themselves, then as a gift to their children or grandchildren... For me, it is exactly what this sector desperately needs. Bravo, Vince!

We continue with the exhibition of SONORO AUDIO, which proposed a small system composed of a Platinum Automatic EAS turntable, a Maestro Quantum integrated amplifier/DAC/Streamer/CD player and a pair of Orchestra Slim (Gen.2) two-way standmount speakers. All for just under €4,000, speaker stands included.

The system sounded good: not great, but absolutely acceptable.
I imagine that the fact that the electronics also feature DIRAC for bass correction in problem rooms contributed to this result.

A big plus for Sonoro Audio was to organize the exhibition spaces by dividing them between a traditional listening room with a few seats, which you can see in the initial photo, and a larger lounge bar-type area, with various small tables and comfortable seats, just like a bar, complete with a counter and bartender. This way you didn't enter an anonymous "exhibition room" similar to many others, but you could stay for a moment to listen to the system, and then you could move to sit comfortably with the customer/representative and do business while quenching your thirst with the bartender's proposals.
From what I've been told, it's a format they've inaugurated for this "farewell" year in Munich (in previous years they had an open exhibition in a noisy Halle on the ground floor), with the idea of replicating it in the other exhibitions they'll be taking part in.
This also seems to me to be a commendable effort to "modernize" this sector, proposing itself to a "different" public.

NORDIC HI-FI is a manufacturer with multiple brands, all of which lean towards "affordable" audio.
For the Sounds Clever system, they proposed devices from a well-known brand on these shores: Argon Audio.

The system actually consisted of the Forte A5 wifi active speaker and the Berlin amplified subwoofer, for €2,000.

The left speaker is the one that "has the system inside". The amplification module is switching, with DSP, and also drives the right speaker, connected with a cable. It has analogue line and phono inputs, and an HDMI ARC digital input. It also has WiFi connectivity, with Airplay2, Spotify Connect and Google Cast compatibility. The DAC is capable of handling signals up to 96 kHz/24 bit. It also has a sub output: at the exhibition there was a small WiFi transmitter connected (with a proprietary signal), to link wirelessly to the sub-woofer, which has the relative reception module inside. The sub also has inputs for physical cable connections, as in the photo that I was able to take thanks to the kindness of the strongmen in charge of the room.

There are no indications for inputs/outputs and adjustments, because it is a newly developed model, and the one brought to the exhibition was a model just out of the factory. The models on sale will be complete with all indications.
This system also seemed noteworthy to me, not only for the sound, but above all for the contemporary setting. Suitable for small spaces, practical in implementation (only one piece in sight and another placed where you want, without the hindrance of other wires than the two for the AC), and ready for the now normal way of listening to file-based music.
At this price, the proposed system could attract consumers beyond the normal club of old audiophiles; moreover, the speaker, with its HDMI ARC input, enables digital connection to a TV for a better quality sound than a usual TV sound-bar.

ELAC proposed a system that was very reminiscent of those of past years: a pair of active speakers, Connex Adsum DCB 41,

aided by a Sub 2020 subwoofer.

The system was completed with the MC 60 turntable. All for the friendly sum of €2,647.
The system was set up, like other years, connected to a large TV, on which the images of a concert were shown... by AC/DC! It's a shame that the volume was a bit low, but it wasn't exposed in a listening environment, but only for static exhibition.

I really appreciated it, because with that not exactly audiophile music it was more able to attract a distracted visitor, not exactly "one of us", just the new audience these proposals are aimed at.
The speakers are the strong point of the system: on their own they constitute an excellent system for desktop listening and are offered as such by the company, for only €650.

LINDEMANN also proposed a system, composed of improved versions of last year's devices.

The WOODNOTE COMBO is an amp/streamer/DAC. As you can see in the following photo, it is ready for the latest in music streaming: QOBUZ CONNECT.
Machines that are enabled with this application, such as the Woodnote Combo, can connect directly to the stream provider Qobuz thus allowing you to bypass your internet connected PC/tablet/phone to stream music to your final device. This is good, because that "old" way to stream music usually wears out your portable gear's batteries and does not guarantee you always get the best signal. It's worth noting that this way of streaming music is already available for subscribers to competing music providers Spotify and Tidal (and Apple, but that's a whole other computer universe).

All finished on the two-way stand-mount speakers (in reality they have a sort of wide-band driver, supported by a tweeter) MOVE Mini,

Total price: €3,759, speaker cables included.

In the AUDIOQUEST room, a system was set up to reveal the influence of cables even using inexpensive equipment.
There were three identical models of the new ULTRA Streamer from WIIM: one had the standard set of cables and was connected to the LAN with WiFi; another had the house signal cable instead of the one supplied; and the last one also added the LAN and AC cables, also from AQ.

All three were connected to a HEED AUDIO Elixir integrated amplifier,

which in turn drove two small ACOUSTIC ENERGY AE 509 floorstanding towers.

Adding the prices of (one) streamer, amp and speakers you get a total of €5,029, Audioquest Rocket 33 cables included (by looking at other cables or discussing with the dealer I imagine you can save those extra 29 Euros....). This is the system included by H.E.S. among the Sounds Clever ones, even though it was not conceived as such, but only to demonstrate the influence of Audioquest cables.

Finally, CANTON proposed a system finished on its GLE 90 speakers, amplified by a ROTEL A 11 integrated amplifier and with a LINK Mini streamer/DAC source from the omnipresent WIIM.

All this for a (specially discounted) sum of €2,200 (and, as I understand, there was also a "fair price" of €2,000), Canton Cantonlink 400 speaker cables included.

Unfortunately it was only displayed in static form and, as far as I understand, it is an offer designed only for the German market, and I fear that at Italian prices the final figure could differ substantially.

Pit stop

For now I'll stop here: as a first part I'd say it's enough ;-)
[Fast Forward to Part II]

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