Munich High End 2015

[GuillaumeB]

Hello chaps, sorry for the delay in posting on here. Truth be told it was my first Munich and I found the the whole experience almost quite overwhelming... in a good way obviously! There are literally miles and miles of exhibits and rooms full of high-end gear. Talk about sensory overload! Some brands appear in many different rooms partnered with different equipment. There are manufacturers, dealers, distributors and of course pundits everywhere! The crowds on Friday, the day I arrived, were almost borderline uncomfortable. On Saturday it was much better. I almost wish I had stayed through to Sunday as I ran out of time and didn't get to see half the things I wanted to. Some of this was because we spent so much time around the Devialet stands and generally talking to one another over refreshments in one of the many bars and restaurants dotted around the (very large) venue.

So I suppose you could say the main focus of Munich was on meeting other Devialet Chat forumers. In this regard it was a resounding success. We had arranged a meeting point on Friday, at 2pm. Within minutes of arriving there there were over a dozen of us! We all wore Devialet Chat stickers so that we could easily be identified by one another and of course Devialet. We then entered one of the Devialet rooms en masse and were treated to a 15-20 minute Q&A with Mathieu Pernot (Senior R&D engineer). After this we moved on to the main auditorium where there were 4 pairs of D200s driving a B&W Nautilus in "active" mode so no internal crossovers in the speakers themselves. The source used was a Macbook running iTunes (I think!) connected via USB. There was also a turntable there, sorry I don't know the model but I'm sure one of the vinyl enthusiasts on here will know! There were a couple of Shunyata Hydra boxes on the ground presumably covering mains distribution and filtering duties. The room was very busy and we couldn't all sit down.

At some point the group fragmented with many leaving to go and look at other things, but myself and IanG-UK stayed on and were able to have numerous conversations with Devialet staff including Romuald Cari (programmer of AIR), Yann Wachten (Asia Pacific sales manager) and Joachim Fritsch (the UK sales manager). Overall I found all Devialet staff to be extremely helpful and accommodating. If they couldn't answer specific questions they were happy to find someone who could. I learnt a lot. 

Later on a group of seven of us: IanG-UK, Gentleman, stefanfreij, Mikeoo, Charlemagne, myself and Ole (a Devialet dealer from Malmo) had a very enjoyable evening out. If I recall the conversation alternated between politics and hi-fi with lots of laughter in between. I believe there are now plans for some kind of follow-up jolly in Sweden! 

A few of us met up again for lunch on Saturday and more listening in different rooms including the Raidho one which we struggled to leave, it was seriously good! Later I went back to the Devialet stand and had a brief conversation with Mathieu who was able to answer more questions around SAM2 and MAT and I had a chance to listen to the Devialet/Nautilus setup once again. 

Also met up with Kunter and a friend of his, some great conversation in one of the beer gardens followed by some listening in the Absolare and Raidho rooms (among others).

Right at the end of the day realising that I hadn't seen half the stuff I wanted to I embarked on a frenetic trolley dash. This included visits to the Constellation/Magico room (had a nice chat with Ricardo of Absolute Sounds there and he introduced me to Peter Madnick which was kind of cool), Soulution/Magico, MQA, Nordost, and Metronome Technologie.

My favourite sound of the show? Without a doubt Raidho. Very closely followed by Absolare (with Rockport speakers), boy I don't think I've ever heard such a refined smooth sound. I also loved Nagra which was partnered with Wilson Audio Alexias. The totaldac rooms sounded great too. 

And Devialet? Well I though the Nautilus looked amazing but whilst there were amazing sounds coming out of these speakers overall they didn't really do it for me. I suspect a lot of this was due to the room acoustics and the crowds that were constantly pouring in (it was difficult to concentrate with the door constantly opening and closing). I also found that the sound varied depending on the track played. I wonder if a more simple setup with a D800 (or D400) with Sasha2 and a better curated playlist wouldn't have worked much better. I didn't notice any acoustic treatment in the room either, perhaps this might have interfered with the slick clean lines of the Devialet brand and image. The rooms did look stunning after all.

Overall a fantastic couple of days and a big thanks to all the Devialet Chat chaps for making it such fun, I really feel like I've made some new friends. Oh and of course a big thanks to Devialet for being excellent hosts and answering all our questions. 

Guillaume