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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: TechDAS, CH Precision, Rockport Technologies

Approximate system cost: €600,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Naim, Focal

Approximate system cost: €100,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: SME, Avantgarde

Approximate system cost: €250,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Auralic, ATC

Approximate system cost: €60,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Raidho, Moon by Simaudio

Approximate system cost: €400,000.

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High End 2022 Product Coverage: MSB Technology, Siltech, Crystal Cable, Audiovector, and Estelon

The second day of High End 2022 was filled with me finding some of the most ambitious products you can imagine. But ambition does not necessarily equate to high prices. Though sometimes it does.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Audia Flight, Alare

Approximate system cost: €380,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Monitor Audio, Roksan

Approximate system cost: TBA.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Living Voice, SJS, Kuzma

Approximate system cost: £275,000.

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Absolare, Rockport Technologies

Approximate system cost: €350,000

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High End 2022 Sights and Sounds: Nagra, Wilson Audio

Approximate system cost: if you have to ask . . .

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High End 2022 Product Coverage: Gryphon Audio Designs, SVS, Goldmund, Aavik Acoustics, Penaudio, and Verity Audio

Diversity rules this installment of the SoundStage! High End 2022 product coverage. With prices that range from $699 to over $500,000 (USD), it’s hard to believe that, at High End, there are customers for both of these price categories and everything in between. It serves to remind us that the hobby of high-end audio and listening to music in the home is an attractive proposition for a wide swath of us. Prices for the products below are in US dollars, euros, or Swiss francs (CHF).

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High End 2022 Product Coverage: Rockport Technologies, VPI Industries, Audio Research, Göbel High End, and Marten

The two COVID years prior to 2022 meant no High End show in Munich, Germany. Two missed years were two too many. The pent-up creative energy at work in high-end audio was unleashed at High End 2022. And it was glorious. Anyone remotely interested in audio gear and fine music reproduction was in for a treat in terms of new product introductions and systems singing away. And there were some doozies. All prices below are in euros or US dollars.

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High End 2022 Product Coverage: System Audio, Hegel Music Systems, Electrocompaniet, Gryphon Audio Designs, and Perlisten Audio

If someone asked me a year ago if High End 2022 could be successful, I likely would’ve said, “I have no idea if it will even go on, let alone be a success.”

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How Going Half Deaf Made Me Stop Worrying and Love the Beatles in Mono

Perhaps the scariest thing that can happen to an audio enthusiast and journalist is sudden and near-complete hearing loss.

Ask me how I know.

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SME Model 60 Flagship Turntable Launch!

Steyning, West Sussex, England, 26th March 2022

On the weekend of the 26th of March, 2022, a small contingent of the world’s top audio journalists and distributors were invited to witness the launch of a new SME flagship turntable, the first such launch in over 30 years. As if that weren’t enough to warm the cockles of even the most jaded hi-fi hack, we would be hearing the turntable in perhaps the most famous listening room in the world—the room custom-built by Alastair Robertson-Aikman, the legendary founder of SME, as an extension to his delightful Sussex home. Make no mistake: this is holy ground, the audio equivalent of being invited to Balmoral for a weekend of grouse-shooting with the Queen. Since his passing in 2006, even SME hasn’t used the room for listening tests, so its re-opening really was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Alastair, or A-RA as he was affectionately known, was not a man to settle for second best, and his pursuit of audio excellence led to the creation of a hi-fi dynasty revered the world over.

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New Noise #4: Little Box #2

Sometime after the last Leo’s Stereo closed, my father would take me to The Wherehouse on Saturday mornings to shop for CDs. When that chain of stores folded, he moved on to Target or Best Buy or Sam Goody at the local shopping mall. That one could own music, a tangible thing for personal enjoyment, shaped my upbringing. What we didn’t know then was that store shopping—seeing the newest displays, rifling through plastic letter dividers and name placards—was an endangered endeavor.

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Montreal Audiofest 2022: Product Coverage 3 (Mini Analog Round-up)

I’m going to begin this part of the coverage with a confession: I almost didn’t write this article. That’s because, although I got my feet under me to do the second part of the coverage more efficiently, I’ve seen so many products and talked to so many people at Montreal Audiofest 2022 that, as I’m typing this, I don’t feel like writing more—I’m spent.

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Montreal Audiofest 2022: Product Coverage 2

As I mentioned in the first round of show coverage, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by being the only SoundStager here covering the show. But by staying up late on the first show-day night and sorting through my photos and notes, I got my feet under me and was better prepared for the next day of coverage. Below you’ll find more of what I witnessed at Montreal Audiofest 2022, with all prices in Canadian dollars, except for the product described at the very end.

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Montreal Audiofest 2022: Product Coverage 1

For the first time in a very long time, the first day of Montreal Audiofest 2022 had me feeling a bit overwhelmed. Not long after I got off the escalator that took me to the lower level, which had the largest rooms and the most exhibitors, I knew that there would be more new and/or interesting products than I originally thought might be at the show. This was just like Florida Audio Expo 2022, which I’d covered in February—it wound up exceeding my expectations. But unlike at Florida Audio Expo 2022, where I had Jason Davis to help me cover it, I decided to go to the first Montreal Audiofest since 2019 alone—we usually have two or three people at this event.

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