High End Munich 2025: Highlights

Right off the bat, I was impressed by the combination of the Kaiser Kawero loudspeakers coupled with a prototype GM70 tubed single-ended-triode amplifier from Ypsilon as well as a new anniversary preamplifier and phonostage. Designer Demetris Baklavas explained that he has now banished all electrolytic capacitors from his equipment, allowing it to achieve a new level of transparency and dynamism. His GM70 amplifier, which sported an enormous hand-wound silver output transformer, was very impressive indeed. Baklavas clearly has the much-lauded Berning Hi-Fi One Reference SET monoblock amplifier in his gun sights. Can he surpass it? If anyone can, this is the guy. For now, I can only report that I returned to the Kaiser/Ypsilon room several days in a row. In a word: captivating.

Then there were the eponymous Cessaro horn speaker from Germany mated to top-flight Alieno hybrid electronics from Italy and a Dohmann Helix One turntable. Ralph Cessaro has been making inroads not only in Germany, but also in America where one Maier Shadi of the Audio Salon in Santa Monica has purchased a pair of the formidable Cessaro horns and SET amplifiers for his personal delectation. On the jazz LP Alternate Blues, it was a real pleasure to hear trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Clark Terry playing with such ease, presence and nuance.

The biggest system of all was a Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeaker and D’Agostino Relentlessamps and preamp combination.  This demo was staged by Audio Reference of Hamburg and it offered a reminder that big speakers need an even bigger room to flourish. The scale was truly jaw-dropping. But it didn’t quite attain the summits of musicality. The blunt fact is that Wilson Audio has moved on under Daryl Wilson’s leadership—driver technology, capacitor quality, and cabinet construction are all greatly improved—to a far more refined and transparent sound than what constituted the cutting edge a decade or so ago.

Another company that strives to push the boundaries of sound production is CH Precision, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. CH was debuting its subsidiary company’s new products—the Wattson Audio Madison LE DACand a pair of Wattson Amplifiers. The diminutive 50-watt monoblock amplifiers exerted a vise-like grip on the Audiovector R 10 Arreté loudspeakers. I am eager to hear them on the Avantgarde Trio G3 loudspeakers.

As it happens, those very loudspeakers were also at the show where Avantgarde’s Armin Krauss was streaming some fine music via the Wadax Studio player. I requested that he cue up a recording of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis playing the song “Skid-Dat-De-Dat,” which he did. I was favorably impressed by the large soundstage and dynamics of the Trios in what was inevitably a somewhat compromised space.

What else caught my lynx-eyed vision? None other than the new Rockport Lynx, a fabulous sounding three-driver loudspeaker. The sound gets out of the box with Rockport because it goes to such Herculean lengths to suppress cabinet vibrations. In sum, Josh Clark, the president of Rockport Technologies, had good reason to beam with pride over his company’s latest offering.

Other standouts: VTL’s Luke Manley demoed the company’s new Lohengrin monoblock amplifier, which outputs a hefty 400 watts. From what I could hear, it is worthy of its name (Lohengrin was a legendary knight of the Holy Grail), boasting not only a lot of sonic oomph but also an enviably low noise floor. TechDAS debuted its Air Force IVturntable along with its new air-bearing tonearm called Air Force 10. As always with TechDAS, its turntable offered what can only be deemed a divinely silky sound. Also worthy of note was the small stand occupied by the fantastically talented audio engineer Robert Huber who heads the Swiss company HSE.  I recently had the chance to audition his Masterline 7 phonostage and can testify that it is a sublime piece of equipment that will leave you gaping in awe at its prowess. Huber has also developed a preamplifier that looks rather enticing. Perhaps most intriguing, or at least enigmatic, was a loudspeaker titled Sphinx designed by the Dutch company Siltech. Siltech may be best known for its cable lines, but company head honcho Edwin Rynveld has a restless intellect, prompting him periodically to plunge into loudspeaker design. The Sphinx divulged no secrets but this high efficiency design sounded nimble and potent.

The main mystery that the Munich attendees were trying to divine was how the show would fare in Vienna. Some claimed that the annual gathering is waltzing to disaster by abandoning Munich. But with its rich musical traditions, Vienna should prove an auspicious venue for 2026.