There’s a Michael Fremer one too if you want the scope narrowed down to just the LOLprice turntables.
PS I’ve split it off into a fresh thread. It merits one a year given it is arguably the main global show.
Took away the drum, 'Mighty Mo Rodgers'Anyone know the track played in the Atohm room about the 35min mark?
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- the Aputura room with the Forte speaker. A company I had never heard of but this high sensitivity speaker sounded great, especially for the price and especially if you like a valve amp.
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Qualio Audio who did some excellent videos from Bristol has also been to Munich this year.
This is part 1 for now:
It's not where home audio has ended up, it's where the high end with their £20,000 handbags and £50,000 shoes have ended up. They want something to show off in their luxury homes and yachts.Just watching it now, I’m so pleased people make videos like this as I like to have an idea what is happening, but I’d really not enjoy being there in person.
To be honest the whole high-end market is actually starting to annoy me. I’ve no idea who the customer base is, but we just seem to have room after room after room of >€100k systems. Many being multiples of that. Every one looking just like the last; another window into vulgar excess and pointless consumerism. Astonishingly unimaginative too, so much just looks generic high-mass, CNC machined and piano lacquered variations on familiar shapes. So many large blobs of aluminium and painted MDF that would need a fork-lift to move. If an industry wanted to alienate a young music-loving audience, in fact typical music fans of any age I can’t think of a better way of achieving that aim. It all just shouts irrelevance. Sure, I realise ‘high-end’ is a big clue in the event name, so I shouldn’t be surprised if it is rammed full of kit for oil sheiks, dictators, oligarchs, sports stars and landed gentry, but I’m still astounded by just how much of this stuff there is, and mostly from unknown brands (I recognise maybe a third or slightly more, and I have had an obsessive interest in audio for 45 years). There is something incredibly depressing about it. This is not where home audio should have ended up IMHO.
I’m still astounded by just how much of this stuff there is, and mostly from unknown brands (I recognise maybe a third or slightly more, and I have had an obsessive interest in audio for 45 years).
I remember chatting to the guys from Naim when the Statement amps were launched and they had identified the main markets for them as China, Russia and Canada.
That instantly raises a couple of questions in my mind. What is it about the UK market which makes it not buy their stuff? And/or what is it about elsewhere in the world which does make those markets buy their stuff?To be fair, the many of the names are simply just not well known in the UK.
If you talk to many of these manufacturers, most dismiss the UK as a market because people simply wouldn’t buy their stuff. They do very well elsewhere in the world. ...
That instantly raises a couple of questions in my mind. What is it about the UK market which makes it not buy their stuff? And/or what is it about elsewhere in the world which does make those markets buy their stuff?