The Munich “Bird” Report

I think that Dac + transport = ~$300,000.

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As always I also visited the MBL room which is always a treat, as for years they are competing for the best music during the show. This time I didn’t stay so long as the normal presentations where not running and the program didn’t attract me so much. But don’t misunderstand, an absolute great sound and of course a unique concept with these speakers……, at a certain price of course……

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At Kaveri they had huge speakers. They played music I couldn’t Shazam, but my hearing impression was that of a lack of balance in the sound….

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A 800 k system just satisfactory . It’s sad to spend all that money then.
Maybe the room didn’t do justice? The Wadax looks ugly to me, but is however considered as the best digital source today, if I refer to certain forums.
Koda electronics have great reputation, as well as Kharma speakers which I always found great sounding if well paired ( for example with Lamm ).
Maybe Kharma/ Koda was not a great match?

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Anything on the new Fyne Vintage series speakers?

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Thanks, appreciate all the work that went in, and most importantly I hope the surgery goes well and you are on the road to a speedy recovery

This is another comment on the Naim room

It does seem a consensus view , the display wasn’t at it’s best

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@BertBird Thank you for all the detailed reporting. It’s most interesting to see what is going on in the world beyond Naim and Focal.

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Thanks for the reporting.

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BertBird,
Many thanks for going to so much effort to keep us all informed about the Munich show.
Best wishes,
Brian D.

Great report as usual Bert. I wonder if some people just happen to be in a certain room at the right time.
Meaning you happen to walk in when an exceptional quality recording is playing.
The reason I say this is the guy that runs the Audiophile style forum ( Chris) was also there and made a nice report too.
He singled out the Nagra / Wilson room as his best in show. Any system will sound poor with a bad recording if you happen to pop in at that time.

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I’m not trying to be clever here but why would anyone choose to demonstrate their product with a bad recording of their music of choice?

I doubt they would choose a bad recording on purpose , but I also doubt they keep playing their best recording on a loop all day long.
Do the show attendees have any input on what music is played?
Maybe the rep loves classical, but the listener hates it, and only listens to Jazz or blues.
My point was something you want to hear personally might not ever get played at these shows.

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@BertBird, thanks for this thread which has made for very interesting and informative reading. Despite your description of how you went about it, I don’t know how you managed - I’m sure I would have struggled!

Interestingly the thread reinforces for me the reasons why I don’t go to such events: the venues and setups are likely to be compromised in most instances, too crowded to really see and hear properly, and mostly play music I don’t appreciate, so really more of a visual experience and brief introduction to new things, rather than a place to audition and decide what to buy. But it is great to read a good assessment by someone with the patience and ability to assess and put into words.

Some 40 years or so ago I went to a few pro-audio shows, which I think were rather different: on the one hand they enabled visitors to see and hear everything from musical instruments to amplifiers, speakers and monitors , and to pick up literature about things that superficially looked or sounded interesting, to follow up later, but they also had a hands-on element where one could briefly try guitars or drums etc oneself, either to try the instrument or to try an amp and speakers. Good fun!

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Indeed compromised. My dealer once told me when he attended a UK show as trade and PMC were trying to set up a pair of Twenty.26. They just couldn’t get it right in the room. It was way too overbearing and they kept repositioning them further apart. The minimum distance they got that worked was 12 feet! Not something anyone is going to cope with in most living rooms unless seated very far away too. There was nothing to be done about it. You dem with the cards you are dealt.

Speakers with single drivers never sound good at shows either. They are designed with a very small sweet spot and have very narrow off axis response so they can only sound good for one person. Anyone else in the room hears mostly rubbish.

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Thanks - that’s not what I understood from the use of ‘bad’ in terms of the recording which is why I asked.

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Thanks @BertBird , great report. Very interesting to read your impressions from the rooms - it seems to me that sometimes ‘less is more’ given room size and acoustics? A lesson to us all!

Best wishes for surgery. I had a total hip replacement recently, all went well but felt very rough for two weeks, but now fully active and feeling well. Hope it goes well and speedy recovery.

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A few years back I was in the MBL room and a visitor asked for the CD he’d brought to be played, they happily obliged, though their system, which included the 101 xtremes wasn’t kind to the recording.

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I wonder like many OEM regardless of the industry have their order banks full and struggling with components to fulfil them and so scaling back the marketing spend (i.e. why spend 20% on generating sales you cannot fulfill)

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