Techno is making a comeback on the show circuit. Used to be all you’d hear in the hallways was “Hotel [fucking] California,” but at the 2025 version of High End, I heard more techno than I’ve experienced in the last decade.
Slamming techno pulled me into the Danish Audio Excellence room, where I found a pair of SV-Audio Menja speakers just cranking it out. As I sat down, I felt the long bench vibrating in sympathy with the bass, which is cool no matter how you look at it.
I think it goes without saying that you’d need a fairly large room for the two-piece Menja. For each channel, there’s a dedicated six-driver woofer tower and another similarly sized tower that also has four woofers packed in.
This was a lovely room. The Vitus Audio SS-103 power amp (€43,500, all prices in Euros) squatted troll-like at the front, with a Vitus Audio SL-103 preamp (€36,000) and SD-025 DAC (€26,500) in a nicely finished rack behind. The cables were from ZenSati—all of them huge and thick, and so beautifully dressed and laid out over the thick, white carpet that it looked like an art installation. I won’t even try to list the cables, but they looked wonderful.
After the techno onslaught ended, the exhibitors played some nice, undemanding male vocals, at high levels I might add, which showed that the Menja isn’t a one-trick pony. More crafty ambient music followed, with requisite sound effects that were competently presented.
There’s a huge quantity of drivers packed into the Menja. The main speaker is a three-way ported design, and the bass tower is active, with three of the woofers ported, while the other three are in a sealed portion of the cabinet. The woofers are powered by a 900W amplifier.
At €130,200 for the four towers, this speaker system isn’t cheap. That said, there were many speakers at High End 2025 that were multiples of this price that didn’t sound anywhere near this good. It was a sexy system too. The units on display were fitted out in Lamborghini orange lacquer, which adds an extra €2500 to the price. You can choose almost any automotive colour you wish. It’s also available in a cool-looking bamboo veneer.
SV-Audio is a fairly new brand. In speaking to marketing manager Lærke Vestskov Poulsen, one of the principals of the company, I learned that SV-Audio was formed in 2023 and is family-run, with several family members contributing to the construction and design of the Menja.
Given the quality—and quantity—of the sound I heard in their room, I expect big things to come from this Danish company.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
