[ After Munich reflections : Industry People by HiFi Knights ]

Munich’s High End event associated mainly with audio hardware is what web says year after year. That’s nothing new. But from an industry person’s perspective, these special four days are actually a very enjoyable social ride. For us interactions come before all else and that’s why my first Munich High End 2018 report covers this subject exclusively. Enjoy!  

Our partners & brands selection from the article above :

Arek Szweda / SVEDA AUDIO [PL]

This year Arek exhibited with the LampizatOr crew. At first he wasn’t too optimistic about the environment as they weren’t able to secure a proper room, thus were forced to showcase their goods out in the open and with no music most of the time. Still, rather generous crowd surely helped to keep his spirits up and the decision to go to Munich turned out to be the right one. All in all, the man himself knows all too well that in order to exist in the audiophile realm, he has to be visible and that’s what Munich’s High End is for.

Cezary Wos / Acoustic Manufacture [PL]

Acoustic Manufacture is one of the most known acoustics related businesses here in Poland and Cezary is the man who runs it. He works with many distributors, has many customers and his products were showcased in several rooms at MOC. But I haven’t met the man there, we had a proper and rather lengthy chat in a restaurant. It simply turned out the two of us were invited to a dinner organized by the same person. And Cezary had a number of stories about peoples’ acoustic knowledge, which at times was simply very poor. It very quickly turned out that we clearly were on the same page as far as i.e. QRD diffusers go and to hear these between speakers is to understand. His mindset was also interesting. Usually Cezary provides a full truck loaded with tools for the acoustics related job and it’s up to a customer to tinker with ’em. Once the deed is done, our man steps in, makes some suggestions, oftentimes severe alterations follow and things start to happen. This very courteous gent simply knows a lot about acoustics.

Lukasz Fikus / LampizatOr [PL]

At M.O.C. we exchanged several words only as the event clock was ticking. Łukasz seemed to be perfectly happy, the audience was generous and the vibe at his and Arek Szweda’s booth was grand. All hardware survived the trip, which is always a plus. Many people might think that LampizatOr gained enough recognition that it’s either one of the big rooms somewhere at the M.O.C.’s atrium or nothing at all. Wrong. Herr LampizatOr’s mindset is different. He’s all about talking to people whenever and wherever possible. If he had to squeeze in a 1x1m cubicle, he would’ve done this without complaints and hesitation as that’s how he rolls. Come to think of it, I strongly believe that – even backed by recognition level this high – Łukasz isn’t going to slow down. Being fully aware that constant brand promotion has to happen and with LampizatOr’s infancy days long in the past, he didn’t morph into a star of the audio universe but remained sane down-to-earth guy. Our conversations now are similar to those we had years ago and that’s something I really like about him.

Reinhard Thoeress / Thöress – Puristic Audio Apparatus [D]

I looked forward to seeing Reinhard again. Actually he’s one of the most polite, calm and sane engineers out there. Plus, he manufactures terrific hardware and always pulls off sound I thoroughly enjoy. This aside, the man invited me and several other people for a meal. All of us agreed that the Italian joint we went to turned out to serve food mediocre at best, but company could’ve been far worse. Marek Dyba, me and Reinhard had an interesting convo about differences between a reviewer and a journalist as there are many according to the other knight. Later on I was informed that Cezary Woś was the one who handled acoustics in Reinhard’s room. The latter gent is all about mix’n’match diffusers and dampeners, whereas the former almost exclusively rolls with the second option. Fun and games, it was a top notch night.

Stephen Gong / COS Engineering [HK]

The COS Engineering booth was one of mandatory stops for me this year. Said company provided me with all of their products for a review, was supportive afterwards and exhibited in Munich for the very first time. Finally I could return the favor. I came to say hello and keep their spirits up, but it turned out that Stephen Gong handled himself like a vet. Shows similar to Munich were nothing new to him it seemed, he was active all the time. As expected, a very nice and communicative man thus far known from mails only, turned out to be exactly the same in real life. Among many stories I was told, one in particular piqued my interest. COS Engineering will have a proper amplifier in the not too distant and that’s something I look forward to. Stephen, it was a pleasure to meet you in person finally. Cheers!

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Obviously , there is just a few, not all of them. By no means all of them could be covered but those who made it to those charts are worth introducing as their brands or faces might not be recognisable for everyone , but the sound their creation are capable to make is hard to forget.