Munich High End 2024 Show Highlights
Soulnote with YG
I have formed preconceptions in my head, but I must confess I still don’t have an actual grasp of how Soulnote equipment sounds. In any case, in this context with YG speakers, the sound was very much “typical” YG: fast, articulate, precise, clean, linear, and ultra-transparent. Despite the name of the equipment driving them, some may feel the presentation lacks a little soul. Personally, I appreciate this kind of precision, but I know it is not for everyone.
Wilson Benesch
The Wilson Benesch room featured the new GMT System Turntable with two new tonearms: Graviton Ti and Graviton Ai that feature additively manufactured titanium and aluminum counterbalances and carbon fiber composite arm tubes. The other source was the brand-new Taiko Audio Olympus music server, with Ypsilon SET100 Ultimate and Aelius II SE power amplifiers.
The speakers were the Omnium loudspeaker, built up in a stunning Phantom Belladonna finish, especially for this show, accompanied by the brand-new IGx Push-Pull Infrasonic Generator.
Designed to complement the system perfectly, I saw the IGx’s membrane move, but its contribution was absolutely inaudible. That is, it introduced no side effects whatsoever. The sound was robust, upbeat, and communicative, with astounding dynamic impact. Driven by Ypsilon pre/power amplifiers with the brand-new Taiko Audio Olympus music server, timbre and transient behavior felt very realistic, even if the treble could sometimes be a little hard. Maybe the speakers needed a little more playing time.
Alas, I have not heard the turntable, but it sure looked hugely impressive.
DartZeel with Stenheim
It’s become a theme since my first visit to Munich: every time I hear Stenheim speakers, I am impressed. Seemingly perhaps a little “inobtrusive”, they are always superbly coherent and natural.
As in so many rooms, this room also introduced a mode or two, but that is not the speakers’ fault. Some boom here and there aside, the sound was neutral, richly saturated, spacious, organic, liquid, engaging, and seductive. This system made it very easy to sit back and enjoy the music.
YG and Boulder
The main YG room looked and sounded massively impressive. The tall and curved YG XV 3 Signature speakers with separate woofer towers and “SUV-sized” 3000-series Boulder amplifiers may look menacing, but I love their brutally sculpted presence. This was a full Boulder system fronted by a Technics turntable and Aurender N30sa music server. The sound is best described as audiophile precision and neutrality combined with PA-power and presence. That is not to say the system sounded blunt or rough in any way; quite the contrary. YG speakers can sometimes sound a little dry, but the sound of this big system was actually much more organic and richly saturated than the systems I heard with smaller YG speaker models. The only potential downside I could discover is that the tweeter is positioned very high. This was also evident in the sonic picture, as if one was at a concert looking up at a performance on a large stage. But maybe that is precisely the purpose!
Great coverage, Christiaan. Are you certain that the new Halcro preamplifier was hooked up and in the signal path? Several show photos show XLR in (analog source) and out on the back of the new MSB Cascade DAC. The volume display on the DAC also suggests that it was acting as both DAC and (passive) volume control.
Good question! As it turns out, the Equinox was indeed not used all the time. Part of the demos have been done with the volume control of the DAC directly connected to the monos. Alas, I can no longer ascertain if what I heard had the Equinox in the signal path or it it was the MSB Cascade DAC connected directly.