【Report】 HIGH END munich 2025 【Part 1】

Event summary

High End Munich is one of the largest high-fidelity audio trade fairs in Europe. Over 500 manufacturers and over 1000 brands from 40 countries exhibited, and over 22000 visitors attended. During the event, audio experts and journalists from all over the world gathered in Munich, and many brands from Japan also participated.

For the past 40 years, the exhibition has introduced the latest technologies and products to manufacturers, distributors, and enthusiasts of high-quality consumer electronics. Manufacturers with listening booths held listening sessions for their products. This will be the last time the exhibition will be held in Munich, and it will move to Vienna next year.

This article was photographed and reported by Holger Stein, founder of SteinMusic.

・Date and time: Thursday, May 15th to Sunday, May 18th, 2025
・Venue: MOC Event Center Messe Munich (Germany)

This year's slogan is "Passion for Music".

HIGH END munich organizers Stefan Dreischärf (left) and Holger Stein. Stefan Dreischärf is the organizer of the show, and with his team does a very good job to run a show of this size smoothly.

People on the way to the show. On Saturday many people attended the show. Even the very big parking garage was completely full, which I never experienced before.

HIGH END munich is a global event that attracts people from all over the world.

Listening session in the listening room

Acapella Audio Arts（Germany）

Acapella Audio Arts, an exhibitor from Duisburg, Germany, exhibited really big speakers this time. The diameter of the horn was 160 cm. The sound was fine and detailed.

Absolare（Turkey）

Absolare, a high-end audio manufacturer from Turkey founded in 2008, demonstrated vacuum tube and hybrid amplifiers. They used Rockport speakers.

Boenicke Audio（Switzerland）

Boenicke Audio, a speaker manufacturer founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1999, manufactures speakers with a unique structure milled out of full natural wood.

ESD ACOUSTIC（China）

ESD ACOUSTIC, founded in Hangzhou, China in 2017, unveiled a large-diameter horn speaker, amplifier, and power supply system, and held a concert in one of the largest rooms.

Manger Audio（Germany）

Daniela Manger of Manger Audio from Germany used the active Reference Studio Monitor C1. The company is famous for its bending wave transducer.

Viva Audio（Italy）

Viva Audio, founded in Italy in 1996, is a comprehensive audio manufacturer that produces and sells various vacuum tube amplifiers, DACs, and multi-way horn speakers.

Voxativ（Germany）

Voxativ is a manufacturer founded in Berlin, Germany in 2008, and mainly produces full-range speakers. It produces permanent magnets or with field coil (excitation) units.

Wadax（Spain）

Wadax of Spain has developed its own digital signal processing IC and exhibited high-end systems that use the latest digital technology, such as CD/SACD disc players and DACs.