Anyone going?
Be sure to list rooms that capture your attention.
My open baffle speaker manufacturer will be there, nearby at Hifi Deluxe. Linkwitz is the name to look out for.
Lumin will also be there, another great company who’s equipment I have in my setups. Look out them too - maybe @wklie Peter has some location link to share.
As Lumin is now installing more powerful processors in its newer products (P1, T3, U2 mini, etc.) I suspect the next innovation will be some form of room correction. Auralic has just announced new products at the Munich show that will be able to incorporate Dirac, so I think it’s just a matter of time before Lumin follows suit.
I’ll be there on Sunday afternoon with one of my audio buddies.
I’d even be open to meet up there with fellow Roonie’s to swap impressions and tips or just say hello in person… see you!
Wow that’s a lot of show to see in one day….have fun 
So, I’ve been the whole day today with my best audio and classical concert buddy.
I’m more interested in the last word about loudspeaker systems than electronics or anything else, since they’re actually overwhelmingly determining a sound system’s signature.
And here are my winners:
Sixth:
Aries Cerat - literally only within a tiny sweet spot of a cubic inch in shown position, the speakers completely vanished for a nicely lifelike stage, wide and deep with good dynamics - but not everywhere else…
Fifth:
Diptyque - isodynamic planar drivers, mid-range quasi ribbons and true tweeter ribbons with effortless dynamics, very good extension in the frequency extremes, but suboptimal placement, so imaging suffered a bit.
Fourth:
Audio NEC - their dual paper roll dipole midrange driver with spiderless vertical voice coil runs effortlessly from 400Hz to 10kHz, transporting the heart of the music like few others; plenty bass chassis augment the low end and a supertweeter takes care of the sparkle. All together throw a nice wide and deep soundstage, if not exactly pin point.
A decade ago, they showed a speaker with a less refined looking version of that midrange, augmented by a smaller such tweeter, combined with a huge square planar dipole woofer - it had been my winner for that show by large!
Third:
Piega - unfortunately the little sister of the much hoped for Master Line Source showed up only, but enticing nevertheless. Solid soundstage, wonderful sounding dipole isodynamic mid-high “coaxial” drivers.
Second:
ESD Acoustic - their all out assault horn system, heroic construction, by far the largest venue, effortlessly filled with lifelike dynamics, clean highs, rock solid bass, fluid midrange, seamlessly integrated, beautiful sound stage listening to a large orchestral piece - wow.
And my winner is:
Stein Music - only with the third from the top of their Bob line (damn), the next one up standing silently behind. But still, today’s most seamless integration of the whole spectrum with absolutely razor sharp, pin point 3D soundstage, no matter where along the central axis between the speakers you were, drivers absolutely dissolved. Open baffle bass easily shaking the room without any overhang - all music examples presented at just the right volume levels (compared to most other exhibits just overdoing it, behaving like they were in a testicle contest…).
Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s it …
Looked at and listened to a lot of other fun stuff, had some nice manufacturer chit chat, and for actually not planning on going, really enjoyed myself - rounded it all off in the Biergarten with my buddy, felt like the first summer day this year …
Did you catch the linkwitz room at the Marriott HiFi Deluxe show?
Ok the winners above are all well and good but what did you see that you could afford 
HiFi Dekuxe had been pretty high on our agenda of 77 POI.
But for inexplicable reasons we didn’t manage to get there, unfortunately.
Well, actually not that inexplicable, since the 6 hours of opening time on Sunday were a tight time limit, and for reference, our final 2 POI on Atrium 3 were already packing up 20 minutes before the gates closed.
As I’m starting to look for a replacement of my trusty Sure 425SE in-ears, whose plastic cases did already split in halves, needed gluing and are becoming gradually more brittle, I had been taken by Sennheiser’s dynamic driver IE600 and especially the IE900, which will be just within reach at ~800€ and 1300€, respectively.
With purchase, I’m told but can’t see on their website, there’s a voucher included for getting custom otoplastics made for them - something dearly needed, since I had a hard time fitting them tight.
Their sound was very much full range, smooth, paired with good outside noise isolation and a rather good sound-stage, especially for in-ears - me likey!
And, I had a really nice and promising conversation with Weiss staff about their OEM DAC modules, that’ll likely become available for DIY at ~700€ and 900€ for 4 and 8 channel versions.
That 4 channel module might just tempt me to add some lowest octave DIY woofing to my full-range-line-source speakers, all DSP linearized and room corrected…
For those still in Germany wanting to check out the Linkwitz setup Frank might be able to host you in Stuttgart if you contact him. See https://www.linkwitz.store
There are also other Linkwitz lounges in Europe and the rest of the world.
