May 21, 2009 This year’s High End show in Munich turned out to be another success story for all involved. Again, there was a bump in the number of exhibitors (248) and journalists (430) who represented audio publications from over 60 countries.

I'm told the overall attendance was down a very slight 1.6% to the tune of nearly 14,000 total attendees. The weather, which was sunny and a near picture-perfect 75 degrees, and Ascension Day (a holiday celebrating the day Jesus ascended to heaven after his crucifixion and resurrection) probably had more to do with the slight down-turn rather than the economic climate or fears of Swine Flu. For true-blue audiophiles, neither a holiday nor beautiful weather conditions could stem the tide of thousands who walked through the main entrance for a chance to hear their most beloved components. The sheer size and attendance makes this, the biggest two-channel audio event in Europe.

Of course, trying to adjust to the time difference on that first day proved nearly impossible. When you add up the time spent traveling, including an 8-hour flight from NY to Munich, the 6-hour time zone difference, you can imagine how exhausted I got by the end of the first day. I was dead asleep by 9:00 PM (while my body-clock was saying 3:00 PM, NY time).

The all-around excellent sound coming from so many rooms, and a lot of great food most certainly had me feeling both musically satisfied and a few pounds heavier. Since becoming familiar with the wonderful variety of Bavarian dishes, especially the tomato panini sandwiches for lunch (photo), I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner:

Thursday’s Waiter: Sauerbraten, potato dumplings with sauerkraut?
Me: Danke schön!.
Friday’s Waiter: Veal Wiener Schnitzel, French fries and sauerkraut?
Me: Danke schön!.
Saturday’s Waiter: Entenbraten, potato dumplings and sauerkraut too?
Me: Danke schön!
 

This is probably the third year straight that friend, audiophile, artist and Munich native Ingo Schultz was kind enough to meet us at the airport and walk the show with us. Ingo, a true blue audiophile, whose system was recently featured in the German high-end magazine Das Anlagenbuch (Hifi Tunes), loves the Munich show as much as we do.

Once again, I walked the entire show accompanied by column instigator and DJ extraordinaire Carlos Sanchez. Carlos has an impeccable ear and has been a long time trusted confident of mine in things concerning audio. Carlos' gut sonic impressions usually are spot on so once again it would be interesting to see how much we'd agree on the sonic excellence, or lack thereof, in the many rooms we listened to. Once again, with the time constraints, it proved impossible attempting to cover each and every room. At the same time, I didn't merely visit the same rooms over again either. With that said, I hope you find my report as enjoyable as I had covering it.

Until next year...

Goodbye or Auf Wiedersehen.
 

Heavy Metal! German distributor WOD Audio and Joe Kubala of U.S. cable company Kubala-Sosna were showing together again this year. Once again, this room featured Transparent Acoustic room treatment and Kharma loudspeakers driven by a bevy of super shiny electronics from Chord Electronics that featured their new Chord wireless Bluetooth equipped Indigo DAC/iPod docking station. Moreover, the iPod used is modified and thus supplied by Chord when you purchase an Indigo. At $12k, this has to be the most expensive gizmo I've ever seen designed to playback music stored on iPods.