Over 25 years ago at that year’s CES show, my team and I literally invented the concept of audiophile show coverage from a brand new suite at the then recently opened Bellagio. Jazz drives and dial-up modems were involved and, while the same basic format for AV show coverage is used by many AV publications today, it was one of the worst things that I’ve ever done professionally. The time and effort that it takes to compile such a show report is sheer insanity. Products displayed at audiophile trade shows sometimes never make it to market, but the worst part is that somebody (think: the clients that pay us) is always inadvertently left out. That often angry or hurt email does more damage than any of the positive benefits that come from the overall show reports.
My new method is to post images and quick thoughts on social media (Facebook, in our case). I likely posted over 100 times (follow FutureAudiophile.com on Facebook if you don’t already – we are a good follow back, btw), including during the 10.5 hours that I sat on a KLM Dreamliner in my little yet comfortable “pod” en route back to Southern California. This article is an addendum to our social media coverage and borrows from one of my other passions, NHL hockey. Elliotte Friedman is considered the most well-respected voice in the sport and his “32 Thoughts” columns have something for fans in each of the NHL’s markets to consider and digest. It is easy to read. It covers a lot of bases and it is far better than my Vegas concept from roughly a generation ago. So, with special thanks to Mr. Friedman … I am borrowing your format to present my experiences at the last-ever Munich HIFI show, as we are all going to travel to Vienna next year for Europe’s biggest audiophile show.
- The MOC in Munich is a GREAT physical venue that will be greatly missed in years to come. Take it from me, as I’ve shopped for and even signed contracts here in Los Angeles to do an experiential AV show, it is not easy to find a venue as fantastic as the MOC. It was like a college campus. Three stories tall. Great listening rooms, as well as more traditional trade show or convention hall space on the ground floor. The rumor is that the owner, BMW, is going to tear the venue down or somehow repurpose it, thus the need to move to another city. The word on the convention center in Vienna for next year is positive. Supposedly, it is a pretty new venue and really well-designed. It will have big shoes to fill for a lot of audiophiles.
- The Munich HIFI Show gets packed with people. Last year, I tried to stop to talk with my contact from Harman (who has become an even better lead since they just picked up the Sound United brands from Masimo at fire sale prices) and I couldn’t even stop to talk with him on the stairs. The fire marshal wouldn’t allow it and I understand why. We both circled back and we had a little conversation with more detailed talks, but make no mistake – having a huge venue like the MOC packed with German audiophiles is a very good thing for the hobby.
- Hotel-based audiophile shows often have doors that loudly and noticeably slam. Gary Gill, the promoter of Capital Audiofest and a few other shows around the U.S., found a creative solution to this issue with rope or foam attachments, which I have lauded in the past, to the door hardware to keep them from slamming. Munich had no such issues because of the German engineering that went into the doors of the listening rooms at the MOC. A small detail until you realize how disturbing a slamming door is when trying to listen to a $500,000 audiophile system. The High End Society, the group behind the Munich HIFI show, got it very right on this small detail.
- Security was everywhere – especially near the press area. Count this as another plus for the Munich HIFI Show, in that an event with this many people always has its security issues. Getting to the press room was made challenging for those not in the press, which made the room a sought-after venue for a few minutes of peace and quiet to collect one’s thoughts and have a soda. The security was polite and helpful across the venue, but ever-present. Well-done!
- There wasn’t anywhere near enough entry-level-priced gear at the Munich HIFI Show.The downstairs convention center area had some real-world stuff, but overall, it was hard to find. Last year, I met the Topping guys, which was a good Chi-Fi door opened for me that didn’t require me to go to Asia to make the connection. SVS was there, and they always rock big-value stuff. SPL is another favorite for value, and they are German to boot, but the vast majority of what was being showed was uber-high-end gear in systems costing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where does a young person get started in the hobby? Rocky Mountain Audiofest had it right long before that U.S.-based fall show sadly ended after the pandemic hit and the founder died. They were the only audiophile show that really got the memo on the hobby’s demographic issues.
- Germans love themselves some horn speakers. Stereotypically, so do the Japanese, but sadly, I am not on that list. With the exception of the pro audio brand, Meyer Sound, every horn that I saw/heard in Munich (and pretty much ever) sounds like you do when you put two hands beside your mouth and talk. Honky. Not accurate. I don’t care how loud they can play. I don’t care if you can use some SET (single-ended triode) three-watt amps. I don’t care to blast sound through a woven movie screen. What I care about is hearing what’s on the master tape, and there are many other speaker types that do a better job, so say my ears, than horns. Then again, speakers are highly subjective and there are many who love the exotic and quirky sound of horns. I attended an event with JBL, which was out with a small offering of uber-reference horn-based speakers that were really well-made.
- There are few women audiophiles in Europe, either. The fact that the audiophile hobby is nearly all male is not a North American phenomenon – it is alive and well in Europe, too.
- Motoworld might be the best car museum ever. Directly across the street from the MOC was Motoworld, which is a staggeringly cool car museum. There were some audiophile demos there, too. There’s a boutique hotel and places to eat, but also sick car stuff on display. There were car dealers for Maserati, McLaren, Bugatti and more. There were slot car racing vignettes. There were historical car displays with a distinctively German car bent. I was able to not just do a meeting with my best client at Motoworld, but I was also able to score my kids simply awesome toys and clothes from the well-merchandized gift shop. Audiophiles love cars and, even for the casual audiophile, having the car museum next door was even more reason to attend the Munich show.
- Most dedicated listening rooms had really well-done audiophile acoustical treatments. Doing an audiophile show in a hotel (like much of AXPONA and nearly every other show worldwide) is physically challenging. The MOC offered bigger rooms, which was nice, but what was even better was the way that they were treated. Most rooms sounded significantly better than your standard audiophile show hotel room.
- Any audiophile could meet an audiophile legend at Munich HIFI 2025. Not every audiophile show is meaningful enough to draw the company’s founder, but Munich often is. I got a chance to give a hug to Dan D’Agostino outside of his German’s distributor’s display. CES used to have this level of access, but then again, CES was an industry show, not a consumer show like Munich. And CES hasn’t been an audiophile show for going on a decade now.
- Somebody needs to spread the memo about Class-D amps to the Europeans. Today’s Class-D amps run cool, sound like tubes (or Class-A) amps without the power draw, the heat, the weight, the size and the cost. And they were hard to find at this Munich show. Maybe next year the upstart companies from North America will make their way over to woo Europeans who would dig their audiophile amplifier value proposition?
- How did Innuos beat WADAX to naming a product Nazare’? If you live in a city mentioned in “Surfin’ Safari,” like I do, or just watch 100 Foot Wave on Max (a show about the big-wave surfing community that is awesome and really compelling) you will know what Nazare’ is. It is a coastal city in Portugal that, in the winter, gets huge swells that create the world’s largest waves and is now a global surfing location. You need to be towed into said giant waives by a jet ski and actually dying is a real part of the sport. WADAX, the Spanish uber-digital audiophile company, somehow got beat to the naming rights for a product called Nazere’ by competing audiophile company Innous. Don’t worry WADAX, you still can come out with a product called Cortes Bank. That is a surf spot about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego that only “goes off” in perfect conditions (every 10 years or so) when just the right swell flows over this submerged island in the middle of the ocean. That’s pretty extreme, too.
- You can get Borresen floorstanding speakers for $5,000 a pair retail? Holy crap. You can. These are speakers made in China (most audiophile speakers are), and they sounded outrageously good in Munich – not just for the money, just period. We want to be first on the list for these speakers for review. I made sure of that, as Borresen speakers can be $50,000 a pair for stand-mount speakers. This was a game-changer.
- Meze headphones are not just physically gorgeous, but also are great-sounding and comfortable. These headphones from Romania are as much work of art than mainstream tech. They also start at some very reasonable price points.
- Too many people were talking about Donald Trump and his foolish, embarrassing taxes on the American consumer known as tariffs. No economic market likes uncertainty. There is plenty of uncertainty in the audiophile market now. Clients have pulled back from advertising, which hurts us. They are scared of how to sell products in a market with 145 percent consumer tax. I understand their fears. Even with these tariffs on “pause,” who knows when said consumer taxes will return. One company in Munich told me that their $1,000 subwoofer will cost $2,250 with tariffs.
- Colors were on display in a hobby that normally is stuck with black, silver and white. I saw a beefy Stromtank AC power conditioner in white with red accents that was sharp-looking. T+A had reference products in striking red – SPL followed suit on much less expensive gear. Burmester might have shown the most stunning designs with hunter green-colored and intricately designed exteriors on their reference German electronics and speakers. Even if you don’t buy a pair of speakers in Lamborghini Fly Yellow – they are really compelling to look at (and photograph) at an audiophile show.
- Where are the young people? We covered the male-dominated demographic at Munich HIFI 2025, but the age issue is even more concerning and not just a European problem. Like AXPONA and many of the other U.S. shows – the median age at Munich HIFI was pretty high at a glance. Take it from me, it isn’t easy to find younger audiophiles at any level, but it is possibly the most important challenge that the audiophile industry faces in 2025.
- There’s nothing wrong with eating three pretzels a day when in Germany! I am one-quarter German, and I will tell you that traditional German food is far from my favorite cuisine, or even close to healthy, but the amazing hotel that I stayed in (The Charles Hotel in downtown Munich) was brilliant, including their much upgraded, luxurious breakfast. Part of that breakfast was freshly baked pretzels and I partook, to the great dismay of my Hollywood nutritionist who has the unenviable job of trying to keep me from being a total fat ass. I not only mixed in these baked goodies with fantastic mustard (both sweet and spicy ones) and often a chunk of excellent cheese in the morning, I often got another pretzel from the concession stands at the show around lunch. I am detoxing from Euro carbs now and I make no apologies. I will say that if I had to pick, I would take a Philly soft pretzel over a Bavarian one, as the ones from Germany are a little harder, but both are really good. I brough a few back for my 13-year-old son on my trip back and he was delighted to polish them off, despite the pretzels having spent 18 hours wrapped up in my briefcase during the flight back to the West Coast.
- There were not a lot of music software retailers in Munich, but the ones that were there had exotic goodies. Six weeks ago, AXPONA had many, many times more music (vinyl and beyond) retailers than we saw in Munich, but the ones in Munich were pretty cool. There was a vinyl retailer selling Japanese imported LPs. I am about to start a collection when my home is finally restored (you are evil, State Farm – evil – I say, and everyone should switch carriers if they possibly can). I will begin a small collection of only rare/cool LPs. I am going to have these guys send some crazy, rare LPs to California to build out my early vinyl collection.
- Reel to reel wasn’t quite as big of a deal at Munich as at some of the recent American shows. I did see a few boutique resellers offering commercial releases of music on the uber-cool format. I got to finally meet Kostas Metaxas in person, as we’ve known each other for 30 years but never before face to face. His Metaxas and Sins reel to reel player is more expensive than my body chopped up and sold to science, but that somehow seemed reasonable when I was playing with said sexy audiophile component. Revox’s Alice Cooper-themed reel to reel was on display again in Munich, as it was in AXPONA a few weeks ago, although I would go with a more standard yet pro audio unit from the uber-cool Swiss/German company. I want one so badly for my pending video studio going into my office at home – when I can move back in. I might need to go vintage for that item, as $15,000 is a little steep for my budget.
- Everybody speaks English in Germany. The trick in Paris is if you “try” to speak French to them, the Parisians will often let you off the hook and respond in English most of the time. In Munich, everybody speaks remarkably good English and it is super-easy to get around because of it. I’ve been to Vienna and it is pretty much the same deal there, so this ease of access will continue next year, which is excellent.
- Goldmund’s was my favorite high-end audiophile display because of the use of a video wall. Goldman showed a world-class audiophile system that flanked a micro LED video wall behind the speakers. Sorry, traditionalists, but if you want to sell a younger, ultra-tech-savvy person a $500,000 system – you likely will need to make it play the best content, and that content is on TV. Listening to Miles Davis on Goldmund is relaxing and luxurious. Listening to Miles Davis on Goldmund with a 400-inch micro LED 8K TV video wall, playing, say, a live 8K feed from a beach in Maui is just next level. And no, it wasn’t an acoustical issue. It was just brilliant. Goldmund so gets it.
- Video gaming had a small role in the show that we keep hoping will grow in the future. If you want to draw in the kids who understand why you pay for the Nth degree of performance – many of them play video games. They spend big on carbon fiber, low-latency mice, fiber optic keyboards, liquid-cooled video game PCs and uber-high refresh rate video monitors. Why not matching audio gear? Reports suggest that the video game industry will be twice the gross sales of all of music and movies combined in the next five years, yet there isn’t one dealer who I know of in the United States who has figured this connection out so far. It is time to connect the dots. The Munich HIFI Show was trying to touch on this all-important audience, but it needs more attention by the time we get to Vienna.
- Headphones were well-represented in Munich, but these were almost exclusively wired headphones. There were dozens of audiophile headphone companies at Munich HIFI, but most were pushing wired headphones. That is great for performance, but mainstream consumers live in a wireless world and wireless headphones are a big deal in the real world.
- There was some Chi-Fi, but not a lot. China is a long ways from Munich and, while some Chi-Fi brands were on display (Eversolo, Topping), there might have been a 10 to one ratio of German companies vs. Chinese (affordable) ones. Chi-Fi companies don’t tend to market well, but they would be well-served to make it to Vienna next year. Affordable, high-value audio gear always has its appeal, and that appeal is strong.
- Top American dealers came from as far as California to experience the Munich show. I saw my friend Maier from The Audio Salon in Santa Monica, as well as Sunil from Sunny Components in Covina, California – a mere 7,000 miles from home. These are both uber-high-end retailers in the U.S. marketplace, thus the expensive and grueling flight is worth the effort and significant cost, as nowhere else in the world can you hear more of the big-boy, big-dollar audiophile gear than at Munich HIFI. AXPONA is good, but Munich is better.
- Most rooms had turntables on display, but nearly all of them played digital sources.WADAX was the front end in at least a handful of my favorite rooms at Munich this year, but this digital audio trend helped get more master quality sound in front of more audiophiles at Munich. That’s not to say that you couldn’t find your fair share of insanely complex and ultra-sexy turntables. I fell in love with a VPI turntable in Munich (I am already working on getting this as my first real turntable when I move back into my home in a few months). The TechDas Air Force One was also drool-worthy in their room and in CH Precision’s room, as well as elsewhere. Klaudio, too – OMG – so cool. There were so many bitchin turntables at the show, but the focus of Munich HIFI 2025 was distinctively digital – as it should be for this era in the hobby. They got the balance right, which is brilliant.
- Qobuz Direct launched right before the Munich HIFI Show. Getting QoBuz, the French streaming service that is my go-to streaming source for HD, is now easier than ever. Look into this, as they are now looking to take a bite out of the Sonos world a little bit, but with audiophile roots.
- There wasn’t much vintage audio, but Silbatone delivered big time. In a huge room on the main floor of the MOC, the “historians” (if you will) from Silbatone brought a vintage 1930s American movie theater speaker system to play. This was a huge setup that was tall and wide but not very deep, as it was designed to go behind a screen 100 years ago. These guys were more museum docents than audiophiles, and I had to give them their props. Bravo, guys. That was a radical display.
- While digital sources were dominant in Munich, tubes were everywhere. The new $9,500 Audio Research tube integrated amp is only one of the dozens of cool new tube products on display in Munich. VAC on Acora speakers was sounding insanely good and a little ironic, in that Val Acora now owns Audio Research, but he also shows his made-of-stone speakers with all sorts of other electronics, too. That is really enlightened on Val’s part.
- Overall, demo music was a little bit less cliché and more electronic-pop than what you will hear at U.S.-based audiophile shows. I heard a deep Steve Vai track playing in one of the cool streaming rooms that took me back to my teenage years learning to play guitar (I needed an extra string for starters) in one room. A lot of the rooms were playing a little more contemporary, electronic-based music, which sounded good. Classical demos are always tough. One 10-minute introduction to a Wagner demo on LP was enough to have everybody yawning. I left the room before the needle hit the vinyl, as I knew the system was good and just didn’t want to hear Germanic classic music with a group of fellow audiophiles.
- Everybody is looking forward to Vienna in 2026. It is no small feat in term of logistics, as well as cost, to get to Europe for an audiophile show, but it has become a May tradition, as CES was for me for 24 of 25 years every January in the past. I save miles and have found mileage “ninjas” to help me use said points/miles to get from Los Angeles to Munich without going broke. Thank God for mileage ninjas.
I hope this report gives you some unique insights into the happenings at one of the world’s most important and super-fun high-end audio shows. There was lots to see, hear and experience. Everyone is going to miss Munich, but there’s no lack of enthusiasm about going to Vienna next year, which is really positive.
See you next year, guys.
