Munich High End 2011

Many enticing colors: A lovely line-up of high-quality, affordable Pro-Ject turntables.

Here I am, whispering sweet nothings to PSB’s outstanding Alpha B1 ($279/pair)&#151only moments earlier, I was totally making out with it&#151one of my very favorite standmounted loudspeakers and our 2007 "Budget Product of the Year".

I’ve owned a pair of these overachievers for several years now, but mine are in a more modest black ash&#151not quite as sexy as this new high-gloss white finish. (I want it!)

NAD gear really gets around. The stuff was all over the Munich High End Show, which made me feel sort of proud to have NAD’s C 316BEE (review to come in our July issue) in my own system.

Rosemarie was dressed to perfectly match this lovely, simple system: Dynaudio’s small and capable DM2/6 loudspeakers ($800/pair), matched with NAD’s C 565BEE CD player, C 165BEE preamp, and C 245BEE amplifier.

“Just sit right here and look pretty,” I told her.

“What?”

“I said, ‘You look so pretty.’ What did you think I said?”

Rosemarie walked by, ran her fingers through her thick brown hair, made a joke about “T and A,” and sent this 1000W T+A M10 monoblock (€9990) into a frenzy.

The girl is a hazard to hi-fi.

T+A’s E-Series Music Receiver is a machine.

It combines the company’s Power Plant and Music Player to provide 160Wpc (“Full-grown amplification to drive even low impedances....”), while combining a CD player, 32-bit/384kHz Sigma Delta DAC, FM tuner, five digital inputs, three analog inputs, a powerful streaming client board for accessing all sorts of music files, and a bunch of other stuff I wasn’t quick enough to write down.

Badass. I would let this thing receive my music any day.

The Acoustic Solid Bambus turntable (€6500) caught our attention with its combination of acrylic platter and plinth and bamboo supports. Wild-fi.

Musical Surroundings’ ARCMaster will help you install just about any tonearm in the world. Garth Leerer explained it to me, and, though I didn’t understand a single thing he said, he still somehow managed to make it sound simple.