HighEnd 2008 took place a week earlier than usual this year. One of the reasons was a medical convention which cleaned out hotels in town and the other was the request from quite a few audio dealers not to sacrifice their public holiday on Ascension as has been the tradition for the High End Exhibition since time immemorial.

    

But the show has grown and you could feel it. In stead of 3 halls and one atrium with associated corridors and rooms, it now sported 2 halls and 2 atria netting almost a third more floor space. This meant that quite a few exhibitors who previously had to exhibit in one of the containers down on the hall floor could now have a proper room. (Not that these are without their acoustic challenges). Many of the exhibitors also told me that it felt that this was the place to meet contacts from all over the world.

Even the visitors felt it was better than earlier years. There was more space in rooms and corridors, in the atria where you could grab some lunch and a talk and even (in spite of the changeable weather) in the outside courtyards where you could refresh both the outer and inner man (in my case, but we are not chauvinistic).

Everything taken into account there were 7 % more visitors than last year and the total number reached nearly 14,000.

It is our impression the show overall has improved to a new level.

Traditional audio
 

    

It is quite astounding to me (even after many years of following the German hifi market) how many turntables are presented at the High End. The usual players like Transrotor and ClearAudio seem to have a zillion each and Acoustic Solid perhaps half a zillion. None the less there are many other suppliers delivering one or a few models but often of the very highest quality. Even Thorens is well and truly back from the dead which fact gives me no little joy. We saw and heard their TD 550 with the new TP125 tonearm in quite a few rooms and exhibits.

     

Chris Feickert might be known by some outside of Germany for his working together with Thomas Scheu. After his untimely death, Chris helped Ulla Scheu to continue the company for a while but last year he set up his own company "Dr. Feickert Analogue". I had a good chat with Chris covering several things but obviously the things that make his designs stand out. Not without a certain pride we were shown the insides, more specifically the bearing which is set up in a different way than most turntables. Chris Feickert's thought are with the school preferring a constant load on the motor in order to have a more well defined working situation. This is opposed to those that prefer a free running platter. Chris Feickert has interesting concepts and implementations and his products are certainly worth another look. Several different models were on show using a variety of tonearms from Kuzma.