Yeah, brilliant. I’ve been there, seen it, and done it! HIGH END Munich 2025 was a two-day blitz for this editor as a guest of Antonio Meze, founder of Meze Audio, Swiss legends Goldmund and the incomparable Aslan Khabliev, CEO of Loewe.
My personal highlights are on my Instagram Feed here, with many stunning reveals (Loewe (above), Chord Electronics and new entrant Dorpo, to name just three). However, I have to name my two personal highlights. The first was meeting the very impressive Antonio Meze, the founder of Meze Audio. My interview piece will come along in the coming days, so look out for that.
The second very emotional highlight of HIGH END Munich 2025 was an exclusive string performance from The Goldmund Quartet, who gave the most impressive display of timing, passion and energy in a live piece of music I have ever heard, up close. The fact that they played the legendary “Paganini Quartet”, a matched set of four Stradivarius instruments that once belonged to virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini, paled into the background. They played Joseph Haydn, Beethoven and some local Bavarian music to close in a stunning 40-minute presentation that this lowly editor will never forget. Congratulations, Carsten, CEO, and the brilliant Goldmund team, for the performance that eclipsed even their beautiful THEIA loudspeakers, which were to the side! And we were just the warm-up for the Quartet, who star in the Goldmund Festival starting tonight in Kloster Irsee.
Here’s the Tidal Playlist from the Show, an eclectic selection of the few rooms I entered.
However, it wasn’t all good times at HIGH END Munich 2025, because this editor missed the $3 million-plus hifi system presented by Audio Reference, the German Distributor. My disappointment was compounded knowing there was an introductory talk by Dan D’Agostino himself! The system featured Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic speakers with WAMM Master Subsonic subwoofers, Dan D’Agostino Relentless Preamplifier with 4 x Relentless Epic 1600 power amps, with dCS Vivaldi source electronics, including the dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC, the dCS Vivaldi Upsampler and the dCS Vivaldi CD/SACD Transport II.
