Last week, I shared my first impressions of High End 2024, where I focused on the organizations, general trends, the trade, and the B2B activities in the International Parts Supply (IPS) section of the Munich show. Meanwhile, I received a more extensive report from the High End Society organization that confirmed and expanded on my impressions of what happened at the MOC Event Center during those four days.
One particular statement stands out: "There is unabated enthusiasm for music reproduction excellence, and high-quality audio technology continues to reach a large number of people. The trade show offers promising opportunities, sends a positive signal and continues to provide vital impetus to the entire audio industry."
After previously attending the AXPONA 2024 show in Chicago, IL, I had already noted how these hifi shows are changing in a subtle way. The most prevalent music source in all the demonstrations and listening rooms are now the latest class of network music streamers and digital audio players. If it's true that almost every room in Schaumburg or Munich was equipped with a turntable and a CD player, but almost always, the music being played was from a digital source.
As our technical editor Jan Didden noted, there were more turntables in Munich than ever, starting with the show floor, where an unusual number of companies was focused on tonearms, cartridges, preamps, record cleaning (and flattening) solutions, and more. And while in the past I was disappointed to notice the typical crackles and pops of vinyl precisely when I visited a room (no, I'm definitely not a fan...) - this year, those expensive contraptions were fortunately silent most of the time.
On the show floor and in many rooms there were also a surprising number of reel-to-reel players, from refurbished Revox B77s to the new generation (very expensive) players. There was even a listening session with Boris Blank, founding member of the Swiss electropop band Yello, at the Horch House booth, where Yello's Stella album was played from its master studio tape on a Revox B77 MKII Yello Edition Tape Machine, of which only 10 units were produced.
Anyway, both at AXPONA and High End Munich, those turntables and R2R players made for less than 10% of the music being played at the rooms I visited, in the moment I visited. The other next audio source was obviously from CD players, which are also having their own revival - some are actually Super-Audio CDs or Blu-Ray players that also play standard CDs. But those are there mainly in case someone brings a CD they would like to hear. Currently, very few rooms would deliberately play a 16-bit/44.1kHz track from a CD, when there are 24-bit/96kHz masters available, some of which are also remastered from the original analog tapes.
While the audioXpress team was fascinated by the abundant phono jewelry (even EMT is back!), I was mainly fascinated with a very clear evolution to digital that seemed so natural that I am certain no one will see it as a highlight in itself. As it happened at AXPONA, at the High End Munich show, almost all rooms and demonstrations were playing from modern music streamers, including some state-of-the art integrated sources and DACs, such as the Grimm MU2, which we intend to review very soon and is a great example of taking the "high end" digital concept in new directions.
Digital and Streaming
The reason why this discreet transition is important is because it confirms the coming of age of music streaming services. Not all of them. Spotify and its Ogg Vorbis-compression is banned at High End. But anything that streams high-resolution lossless is now kosher in this high-end environment, with Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music being acceptable sources. Network streamers and music servers playing local files are also common, particularly when aggregated by Roon, but for me the news was the fact that everyone now accepts streaming directly from the web as a respectable audio source at these shows.
This is new and shows that there is a clear opportunity for music services to start exploring "true quality" at the higher segment, combined with improved curation of catalog, improved metadata, and eventually new scalable codecs that are truly able to extract every bit of available bandwidth. There is always room for improvement once the streaming premise is established.
Obviously, "the elephant" in the streaming room is the available chaotic catalog and sometimes the quality of the associated metadata that continues to plague all services. As my own personal experience confirms, almost all music I still have on vinyl and a lot of CDs from my 70's to 80's days is not even available on any of the digital services. And what is available is bad. Meaning, tracks from compilations, very poor-quality files that evidently were never vetted by the authors, and strange versions of poorly recorded live tracks. This is an extensive topic that I'm not going to expand on here.
The reverse side is that streaming services are now able to offer those "Spatial Audio" iterations (side by side with mono versions for those who insist) and many masterfully remixed and remastered versions of albums that once we hear them there's no going back (e.g., Deep Purple, Machine Head 50th anniversary deluxe edition, March 2024). In most cases, everything from the 1980s and early 1990s (the dark ages of CD masters and bad AD/DAs) that was remastered because of MQA (independently if it is available in MQA or simply FLAC/ALAC) sounds infinitely superior to anything that was available originally. In some dramatic cases, it's a whole new experience.
Streaming Players
The 2024 High End show will be remembered not only for the predominance of those new streaming components, but also for the launch of several significant new players, for all price ranges. Call it digital music players, streaming players, music streamers, whatever. A very clear indicator is the regular list of devices listed by Roon Labs in its monthly Partner Updates. Increasingly, we see streamers integrated in preamplifiers and DACs, but also simple network bridges and music players, and even all-in-one streaming systems.
An example that stands out from High End 2024 comes from Harman (which acquired Roon Labs), and its expanded range of network streamers. The renewed Arcam models are the latest example of Roon Ready devices, combining a simple and robust network DAC with support for up to 24-bit/192kHz and all the mainstream streaming integrations: TIDAL, Spotify, Chromecast, Airplay 2, Qobuz, and others. But in the latest list of Roon Ready or Roon Tested products we can also find models from Astell & Kern, Linn, Primare, and many others.
The latest Masters edition preamplifier from NAD Electronics, the M66, is another great example. It's a streaming preamp with all the desirable inputs, offering support for AirPlay 2, Chromecast Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Amazon music, and naturally, Roon Ready streaming. I saw it feeding some very impressive speakers at AXPONA and High End 2024, and it's evidently clear that, as a source, it was all that was needed.
But at High End 2024, NAD launched the much more affordable new C 379 HybridDigital DAC Amplifier ($1,099 USD), which features a carefully engineered Class-D output stage, complemented with an ESS Sabre DAC, and the second generation of Modular Design Construction (MDC) technology for upgrades and expandability. These two expansion slots allow users to upgrade the amplifier’s capabilities with emerging technologies, including BluOS high-resolution multi-room streaming and Dirac Live Room Correction. The available MDC2 BluOS-D module already enables seamless integration with BluOS, Apple AirPlay 2, and two-way aptX HD Bluetooth, managing more than 20 high-quality streaming music services.
But undoubtedly the most impressive example in the category comes from South Korean brand Hifi ROSE (the manufacturer is called CITECH and was formerly Sam Yung Holdings, founded in 1967). Since CITECH launched the HiFi ROSE media streaming products, the brand quickly rose to global recognition, and it's not surprising to see that their network streamers, integrated amplifier/streamers, and (in Asia) integrated all-in-one media players are now commonly adopted as sources by the most prestigious hifi brands. At the High End 2024 show, right after Pro-Ject, the Hifi ROSE was the most impressive booth, for the presentation and the sheer number of products.
If there is a problem with the brand it is the fact that it already has too many different products at different price levels, while its basic platform is essentially an Android smartphone with a giant screen, surrounded by high-quality audio circuits, in a nice robust chassis. I'm afraid this will become increasingly more common, even though today the general trend is that these players are essentially embedded Linux platforms. The differentiation between these systems is not in terms of the streaming services and integrations - they all combine the same ones, and they all support high-resolution audio streaming from local sources and networked storage. The core differentiation is effectively in the quality of the DAC, the input and output stages, and most importantly the control apps and software players, as well as the user interfaces. In that regard, HiFi ROSE stands out, because of the giant touchscreens for on-device control.
An example of products I checked is the HiFi Rose RS201E Integrated Amplifier and Network Streamer ($2,195.00 USD), an all-in-one component featuring a quad-balanced ESS Sabre DAC, a dedicated, clean power supply, in a beautiful aluminum chassis with an 8.8” touchscreen. Oh, and most of the Hifi ROSE players not only display album art and custom VU meters but are also able to show music videos. While the display is capable of video playback at 60fps there is an Ultra HD 4K HDMI output to connect to a TV. All the standard streaming platforms are available via the Rose Connect app, and the RS201E is Roon Ready with Spotify Connect, Airplay, Bluetooth A2DP, and DLNA support. One interesting aspect for those who don't want to depend only on streaming, is the possibility to easily add a 2.5” SSD hard drive inside the chassis to store a music file collection. This storage will also be used as cache for music (and video) streaming.
For more demanding requirements, HiFi ROSE offers the RS150B High Performance Network Streamer ($4,995.00 USD), with an improved circuit layout of independent boards for CPU, power, and digital-to-analog (DAC) conversion, a chassis milled from a solid block of aluminum and a larger 14.9” high-resolution IPS display. This a streamer focused on music reproduction, with balanced circuitry with XLR and RCA connectivity, and supporting up to native DSD512, 32-bit/768kHz PCM, and MQA. This player was a frequent sight in most showrooms at High End 2024.
The other example that deserves mention in this space was not yet found in many rooms, because the first units were just being demonstrated at the (tiny) booth of the company that was once known as Linkplay Technology. I'm talking about WiiM, which leveraged the High End 2024 to make the premiere of its latest WiiM Ultra and WiiM Amp Pro streamers and couldn't keep up with the demand.
Falling on the most affordable end of this rising product category, WiiM quickly became noticed on Amazon and all the online retailers because of the WiiM Pro and WiiM Pro Plus music streamers, which were followed recently by the WiiM Amp integrated streaming amplifier (the review of which is about to appear in the July issue of audioXpress). The new WiiM Ultra and WiiM Amp Pro streamers cater to those seeking to connect the whole home with affordable, high-quality sound, improving the specifications slightly compared to the previous more affordable products.
The two new upgraded, higher performance designs benefit from a new ESS DAC and there is also built-in room correction technology on both models, making the WiiM Ultra ($329) and the WiiM Amp Pro ($369) absolutely irresistible for those who already appreciated the qualities of the previous models. The WiiM Ultra in particular, with its 3.5" color touchscreen, a physical volume knob, and a rich selection of new audio inputs and outputs is a new market reference in its affordable class. They are likely not going to be products that we will find in demonstration rooms at audio shows, given the number of high-end alternatives, but they are certainly products that promise to redefine home audio in millions of homes.
With these two extreme examples, I just wanted to demonstrate how this new class of streaming audio components are changing the industry. I didn’t have space to talk about Simaudio, the company behind the MOON brand, or Aurender, both of which excel at the top of this expanding category. This didn't happened overnight, and it's a category that I am certain will continue to expand in a diversity of form factors. Audio manufacturers need to take notice before they decide to integrate audio streamers directly in speakers, just to realize how quickly those will become obsolete and unnecessary. Like adding Bluetooth in a turntable, it will not age well. aX
This article was originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, (#470), May 23, 2024.
