Munich 2025

Serbian manufacturer NAT Audio produces a range of eclectic tube amplifiers, including the single-ended, class-A Transmitter EVO monoblock. At the amp’s core is the massive Siemens RS687 QB5/1750 power tetrode tube, which delivers between 40W and 80W of output.

"What is the most important element in a high-end audio set-up?" As much as the question is asked over and over again, as if it were a requisite baseline test for admission into the Holy Fraternity of the High End, most responses start with the end of the chain rather than with the fundamentals.

Japan’s Phasemation has always occupied a special place in my audiophile fantasies. I’ve heard the company’s products in the rooms of American Sound’s Angie Lisi at AXPONA, but auditioning a complete Phasemation system? Never had the chance—until Munich.

Having recently read Tom Fine’s review of Amphion’s flagship floorstanders, the Krypton3X ($25,000/pair), in the June issue of Stereophile, I was eager to hear them. As luck would have it, the Finnish speaker company’s display in one of the MOC’s four huge halls included a small, sound-proofed listening booth. Before heading inside, I encountered Amphion CEO Anssi Hyvönen, who founded the company in 1998.

Before the show, I’d heard rumblings about the new Swiss-made Thales Reference turntable. Art Dudley had previously reviewed the Thales TTT-Compact turntable and Simplicity II tonearm, writing: “In 34 years of writing about playback gear, I have seen no products better made than the Thales turntable and tonearm, and precious few that equal them.”

Munich’s annual High End show took place May 15–18 at the MOC Event Center. Considered the biggest and most important audio show in the world, High End Munich is where distributors meet with brand principals and often expand their portfolios. The show also draws throngs of European audio lovers and journalists.

During the past decade and a half, the trips I've taken have tended to be for magazine stories. I love to travel, but as a New Yorker living on a writer's income, I figure it makes more sense to do it on someone else's dime and stay in nicer places than I could afford otherwise. The downside is that these trips don't feel like vacations, or even particularly restful: My time tends to be taken up with interviews, overly elaborate meals eaten (or tasted) in the company of chefs and winemakers, weeks when I sometimes stay in four hotels, and (gratefully infrequent) run-ins with publicists.