High-End on Tour 2012

Hi All,
I visited the High-End on Tour 2012 in Darmstadt today(04-05.02.2012). I want to give you a small impression of what I have heard. The system I would have taken home, if I had to choose a complete demonstration set, would have been Chord CD Red + Chord Pre CPA3000 (Not sure wich model) - Two Chord SPM 1400E on Dynaudio Evidence Series. The bass was for sure the biggest weakness of the system and could be better with another speaker. But the musical presentation was very good. There was a natural sound, especially there was not this high frequency "noise" so many other systems produce. The chord-dynaudio system was very engaging and animated to swing to the music. Very nice. I also liked the esoteric system with canton reference. Which was also a very fine system but not the one I would have chosen because of the "noisy" sound in the highs. The salesman of esoteric had no idea of the technology but he was the best at presenting his system. Not too loud, not too long tracks. I enjoyed it. The biggest surprise was the new Marin Logan electrostatic speakers. A very dynamic and intense sound with surprisingly good bass out of a very small cabinet. Despite some instruments were falling apart because of tonality issues, it was very exciting to listen to this speaker and it is one of the " want to have at home" items. Also amazing were the Diapason Karis. Unbeliveable how much bass these tiny speakers were producing, while the speakers vanished completely. They were driven by an Northstar Essensio and a Mastersound tube amp. With a good transistor amp and a better DAC like for example the NS Extremo this could be all you need. My Award for the best bass gets the Avangarde Acoustics Trio with 4xBasshorn. Very fast and deep. Also the midrange/highs were detailed and relaxed even at volumes where other speakers seem to shout at you. Disadvantage to me was, the sound was falling appart and I guess this is due to the big displacement between the drivers BUT if you are sitting in the right place this problem could be manageable. The AA Duo could be even better in this aspect. Still AA Duo is on my favorites list. I was disappointed by Backes and Müller and ATC. Active systems are by many people considered to be "the best" but they could not convince me. I was listening to a B&M line 35. There was a lot of high and midrange detail but just boring, dry, flat, harsh...Not my cup of tea. The Salesman from ATC screwed up the volume till my ears start to bleed. The bass of the ATC SCM 100 SL At was a little disappointing. A little rumbling and not very clear. Mids and highs seems to be very good and if the presentation would have been better, this could have been a good demonstraion with a good speaker. Maybe because they have 100% analogue technology they sounded more natural than the B&M. All in all I had a wonderfull and interesting day. Hope you enjoied my small review. Greetings Adrian

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