Have to live vicariously through you guys.keep it up and thanks for informing us.any new class d magic this year.? 😄
Vienna show report
Just been to the HighEnd Vienna show. Here are some impressions.
TLDNR: Fun 3 hours to spend, ok as I was there for other things as well, otherwise underwhelming.
Long Version:
The show was advertised as lasting four days, Th-Sun, so I booked flights and hotels to catch the beginning Th-Sat, as Sunday folks will be exhausted anyway. Turns out, Th-Fr is reserved for dealers/industry, and only Sat-Sun is open to public. Really irritating poor communication on part of show organizers.
There is an app for the show. Nice touch. However, loading was glacially slow. Additionally, the functionality was at best limited. Try to find all the vinyl vendors? You get a list, but then have to check every single vendor (remember glacially slow loading) to see where they are. There is no overview where all the vinyl vendors are. etc.
The venue was easy to find, 10AM line was taking about 5-10 minutes to get in. OK. Venue was spacious, lots of seating in the hallways, and plenty of refreshment stalls.
As seems to be the norm, rooms in general were WAY TOOOOO LOUD! Muddy low mid and bass did not help those "presentations" either. Got a good chuckle out of the mega amps such as Gryphon, D'Agostino and Pathos. All those rooms sounded dreadful. The rooms sounding good were by Focal and Audiovector (never heard of). All the rest were at best mid to bad, including big names. Interesting to hear omnidirectional speakers. Sound was indeed coming from everywhere. However, it killed any stereo imaging, essentially a mono-presentation. Earopening experience.
My main reason for going was getting some inspiration about phono stages for my Rega Naia rig. Had some nice chats with Thales/EMT and Lehmann, but otherwise not much to see. Rega was not there at all, strange for a European manufacturer at a European show. Three attempts to chat with someone from E.A.T. were fruitless as nobody could be found. Maybe that is a sign. Previously they did not respond to email either.
Vinyl records (and CDs) were rather thin. There was one multivendor booth, but it was so crammed, and such a bland selection, I just flipped through about 4 crates before leaving. The one isle was so narrow that one person could barely walk. What were they thinking? At T.H.E. show, there was WAY more and interesting vinyl, nicely spaced, and made a bunch of cool finds.
There were some podium discussions. Noticed one of the speakers, the only one in suit and tie, LOL!, recognized him as Mr. 1-arc-second-is-audilble-Fremer, so moved on. No need to listen to him pontificate nonsense.
Had great breakfasts at our usual hotel Sans-Souci in Vienna, enjoyed Walter König bookstore in MQ as always, bought some tea from one of my favorite tea-shops, visited the natural history museum for once as a tourist (not behind the scenes as we have done a few times before), had various coffee/tea/matcha cake in various cafes, some nice dinners at our favorite joints, and had 3 hours of fun at the convention center.
If you are in Vienna anyway, or have some other reason to go to Europe, enjoy the show. However, it is not worth a dedicated trip. my 2c.
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@OP - the first two days of the High End show are always for the trade. I was there for both of those days and for Saturday. A number of firms who normally exhibit at Munich did not go to Vienna. Also, partly because of the way the venue is laid out, there were more static displays there than at Munich. In addition, the small rooms in Vienna were a lot smaller than their equivalent rooms in Munich, which did not help with the sonics. However, it was not all bad news and there were a number of really good sounding rooms including: Luxman Wadax Kroma Atelier Innuos Kharma Magico Soulution ProAc Thivan Labs / Mavis |
@yoyoyaya re first two days for trade, this was not communicated well. Great if you know already, but as a first-time visitor, that was not clear at all. Really annoying. I only learned when I wanted to get tickets a month before, and could not do so for Th/Fr. Even in Vienna airport adds, it only said Hifi Show Th-Sun, no indication that for general public = target audience in public airport it was restricted. So a clear communication failure. The two-day public restriction exacerbates the crowding problem. Such an organization "feature" sends a clear message of how the industry looks at its customers. It does not leave a favorable impression. I certainly did not go to every room, many were way too packed. And most were by far too loud so that I did not want to go in there anyway. Maybe volume was more manageable during your private two days, but on Saturday, most cranked it up to 11. Not inviting, rather off-putting. Maybe as an industry insider you can enlighten your colleagues. |
@OP As you know, the show is a ticket only event, so it's self-evident for anyone who wants to attend that once they go to the booking system, if they are non trade, that they can only attend on the two weekend days. If you thought the venue was crowded, then you will be happy if you never attended Munich! In my own experience, as someone who has attended and exhibited at hi fi shows (but re. exhibiting, not at Vienna / Munich), the biggest frustration is that a significant proportion of the attendees will come into a demonstration and then start talking over the music. This is a particular problem where two friends go to the show together and start critiquing the music/equipment the sound. And that applies to experience at both the trade and public days. It also doesn't help in terms of the volume levels, though there is a big disparity across the rooms. Even on the Saturday, I found that lots of the rooms were fine volume wise, but some were way too loud. It's usually that way. Though overall volume levels tend to be a bit higher than what many people listen to domestically. As I said in my original post, the small rooms in Vienna are way too small so everyone is right on top of the loudspeakers - not good. As regards enlightening colleagues - the show is organised by HIGH END SOCIETY Service GmbH who are essentially a trade fair organiser.
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Ron Sutherland didn’t invent transimpedance, it’s not new but his implementation is. I’m about to find out how good it is - the Little Loco Mk 2 arrives Wednesday. I can’t swing the Dos Loco at the moment.
Your Aphelion might not be a perfect match though, You could call Ron, he is very approachable and will give you good advice. |
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