Confessions of a Part-Time Audiophile

Stuart Smith over at Hifi Pig has “syndicated” his coverage of the High End Show in Munich. Many thanks for letting folks on the wrong side of the pond in on the action!

In this part of the show report from Munich High End 2013 we have a listen to the new Gryphon Audio Vitus II loudspeakers, have a chat with Norbert Lehmann from Lehmann Audio and have a chat with newcomers Van de Leur who are launching a new valve pre and class D power amp. We also have a listen to German Physiks omnidirectional loudspeaker, Estelon loudspeakers, 3D Labs electronics and Jean Marie Reynaud loudspeakers. We warm our toes in the Gato room, get a look at some carbon nano tubes in the van den Hul room and have a look at some new kit from Chord.
Continue reading →

Stuart Smith over at Hifi Pig has “syndicated” his coverage of the High End Show in Munich. Many thanks for letting folks on the wrong side of the pond in on the action!

We’ll come back to the main listening rooms in the next installment of the show report from Munich High End but in this part we’ll look at some of the exhibitors who had taken static stands and were not actually playing any music or we were unable to get a listen. Continue reading →

Stuart Smith over at Hifi Pig has “syndicated” his coverage of the High End Show in Munich. Many thanks for letting folks on the wrong side of the pond in on the action!

Bird: UK slang meaning a woman/wife/girlfriend, synonyms: broad, chick, dame, girl, lass.

‘Turn it up, bring the noise’

It’s Saturday already so time to pack our bags, eat another huge breakfast and set off for our last day at the show.The fantastic staff at the NH München Deutscher Kaiser are looking after our bags until we come back for the train tonight, we don’t leave until very late so we can actually have another full day here.

The plan was to have a day seeing a bit more of the city but so many people have wanted to meet up with us that we still haven’t got round all of the show, so off we trot like good little piggies.

The weather is a bit wet again but not too bad and the underground is packed with people in ‘drinking trousers’ as we have come to call Lederhosen, and Bayern Munich football shirts, it’s a great atmosphere but more on that later.

First stop is a meeting with Pim van de Leur of Van de Leur, Dutch AudioDesign. Continue reading →

Stuart Smith over at Hifi Pig has “syndicated” his coverage of the High End Show in Munich. Many thanks for letting folks on the wrong side of the pond in on the action!

Living Voice

For those that don’t know Living Voice here’s a brief introduction as to who they are. Living Voice is owned by Kevin and Lynne Scott who also own the retail business Definitive Audio. The company is based in Derbyshire in the UK, was founded in 1991 and makes the Vox Olympian Horn Loudspeaker, the Auditorium series of loudspeakers and the G8 Equipment table. Their retail business includes brands such as Kondo KSL and Trafomatic Audio, so you know that their room is going to be special right? Well no actually. I’ve heard loudspeakers from Living voice a few times at the Hifi Wigwam show and I always found them lacking a bit – very nice and polite but not just my cup of tea… but I’m well aware that many people heaped praise on them in the same listening environments. With this in mind I was prepared to be under whelmed. Playing in the Living Voice room when we went in was the company’s OBX – RW loudspeakers. Electronics in this system included the Kondo M77 pre, Kondo Kegon amplifier, Kondo Ongaku Pre M77 and Kondo KSL M7 Phono. Sources included an SME 30 (I think) turntable, Wadia CD and DAC and a Canary Audio CD-300 CD player (Again I think the model number is correct).

Continue reading →

Bird: UK slang meaning a woman/wife/girlfriend, synonyms: broad, chick, dame, girl, lass.

‘Oh no, it’s raining again’

Friday dawns and I’m feeling totally refreshed after a great night’s sleep at the München Deutscher Kaiser. NH hotels have their beds specially made and they are very, very comfortable.

It is, however, peeing down on Munich and most of Europe by the look of it, luckily we are used to this kind of inclement weather and it won’t put us off. Continue reading →