High End Munich 2023 Day Two Video Coverage

Walk the halls, corridors and sound rooms of High End Munich 2023 with Tracking Angle editor Michael Fremer, with special emphasis on turntables, phono preamplifiers and cartridges at the show.
Day two began for me as a panel discussion participant in an event titled "Future-Fi" hosted by Olaf Adam, Chief Editor of the German hi-fi website hifi.de. The other panelists were Ljubiša Miodragović from Serbia, who write for "Hi-Files Audio Video Magazin", and from Great Britain, Hi-Fi Pig's editor in chief, Stuart Smith.
We had a full house for a lively discussion. I began my participation by saying that if predicting the future was easy, we'd all be at the race track. I quoted something I'd written mid-'80s in the Los Angeles music magazine Music Connection, which was "Compact Discs are not the future. They don't sound better than records and soon very few people will still have CD players," which was a direct refutation of a "futurist's claim back then that CD players are the future, that CDs sound better than records and that soon very few people will have turntables." It took quite a while for my prediction to come true, but it has!
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Among the highlights are TechDAS's introduction of its Air Force 10 pivoted air bearing tonearm and Wilson-benesch's active play debut of its GMT One System turntable that has been under development for more than a decade. While an unfinished version was shown at last year's show, this time Wilson benesch showed the final production model and played records on it throughout the show. This video includes press conference highlights.
It's priced out of reach of most viewers, and no doubt the usual whiners will be outraged by the turntable's price and the rest will say the money is better spent feeding the poor, but for vinyl fans the education provided in the video clip about what constitutes good turntable design and what Wilson-benesch and its team did to address and solve the problems, many or most of which most of us have never considered, will cost you nothing to watch and it will be time well spent for when you decide to buy a new turntable regardless of price.
Background music copyright strikes required muting the sound on a few clips. For those, a ticker runs below explaining what's being seen, though I inadvertently omitted mention of the Grand Prix Audio direct drive turntable seen in one review. My apologies!
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[@joemehalic4069]

Yet another insightful video Michael. So much technology put into these machines. I love listening to the "techno nerds" who really know their stuff, and are passionate about creating the best designs possible. I think I'm going to buy a couple lottery tickets today . . .

[@guywhite1004]

Just when you think vinyl playback can’t get any better this shows that people are still making improvements in the technical aspects of dragging a rock through a groove. So many exciting changes (hopefully improvements) to platters, drives, tonearms, suspensions, cartridges, and preamplification - can’t wait till it trickles down to more affordable equipment.

[@mcgjohn22]

great coverage on the analogue side. its amazing what lengths these companies are taking to reduce vibrations, tone arm damping, and grounding the energy bouncing around the system.

[@paulomontero12]

I just kick my wife outa of the listening room for low background noice guy.

[@g.p.9656]

Great coverage Michael! Much appreciated.

[@Kowinaida]

I love Dietrich! Cool guy.

[@williampearson4968]

The thought process with the engineering know-how is simply amazing on these turntables to obtain the last 1, 2 or 3 percent of perfection - but, the cost and space requirement of these huge behemoths just to enjoy the music....? Thanks Michael for your persistence and insightful questions at Munich which is truly the most high end exhibition in the world!

[@1999zrx1100]

Crazy, rushing things to market without even listening to final product. Showing Phono Preamp that’s not even wired yet, ‘ we hope it sounds as good as the prototype ‘ they’re thinking if it looks good it’ll sell. Seems crazy they would show gear in that state of production. 🤔 leave it to Michael to show the craziness. Thanks Sir. 🙏

[@analoguecity3454]

Good job once again, Mr Fremer! 👏

[@ptg01]

Wow ! So nice to see the passion of the designers. Obviously, a bit out of reach for us mortals but it's still good to see what's possible.

[@ashvarma2486]

Wonderful coverage Michael. Hopefully you will get to review the Astellar turntable and cart. Many thanks for sharing

[@dimebagdave77]

Manythnx Mike ✌

[@Divertedflight]

I'm clearly not making enough money; but then I already knew that.

[@chrisingram3278]

Great outline of the Astellar by Acoustical Systems. The design & aesthetics are fascinating. I really hope you can review it. And thanks Michael for a great video with good questions.

[@OFBCyclingWorld]

The mofi phono pre amp looks very interesting. Would love to have a play with that. Good video again Mikey, thanks.

[@analoguecity3454]

33:16 looks like the "hedron collider" at CERN (man, I hope I pronounced that correctly 😅)!

[@brotherbrian5625]

What if you turn the air off? You will die from suffocation! That was the look 😂

[@richardchorley1593]

I think I like my CD player

[@thomasandersen6014]

Some serious turntables in that video!!

[@mikhailtim2043]

Tell me, what is the advertising of the drill holder and VTA adjustment in the Wilson Benesch player? why is the manufacturer trying to fool us?

[@HP_____]

At 15:13 showing the turntable's spindle is detached from the bearing shaft and that is smart. It's about time these expensive high end turntables start to NOT machine the spindle and bearing shaft as one piece so the bearing noise would not travel all the way to the spindle that touches the vinyl record. I see too many expensive turntables don't do that. Great show coverage!

[@67Pepper]

The amount of engineering and R&D built into some of these massive designs is to be commended but how many units can they actually sell? Does Snoop Dog have enough cash to buy one?

[@lox_5017]

Good grief batman, some of these turntables look ridiculously large and bulky. Some look like the computers we use in the bat cave.. Holly smokes!!!

[@zetmoon]

And ugly!!

[@1999zrx1100]

Ugly as well, where is audio going. Looks don’t matter 😳

[@Винил-настройка-Владимир-57]

Michael, an informative report!!Tech Das Air Forse struck the imagination!.Did I understand correctly that there is no rolling force compensator on it?.I wonder what the effective arm mass of this technology is?I wish you well-being!!!

[@HP_____]

The Astellar table costs $88,800 so it's obvious he's targeting the Asian market. Eight is a lucky number in China.

[@datdudeinred]

Mofi made a phono preamp. Wow the irony is insane! 😂

[@papabear1417]

I love the way certain manufacturers use little known theories to explain their products and give non real world explanations

[@carmenandthedevil2804]

Your statement relates to a lack of knowledge.

[@papabear1417]

@@carmenandthedevil2804 I was being polite.

[@JohnSmith-of4vh]

They do get angry if you play too many records.........

[@ptg01]

Them Japanese folks from TechDas as so POLITE !!!

[@r423sdex]

Did you hear that plate ring ! 88 thousand 😂 i love the over engineering on the arms.

[@MrRom92DAW]

Shame we couldn’t hear more about the stein tonearm as it was one of the most interesting things I saw in the whole video. Unfortunately their website is devoid of information as well

[@wimbrouwer5557]

One remark the last few minutes of the video has no sound

[@tecnoprofet]

2:17:08 what this music is ?!?!

[@davidtomsett]

Michael, why not test the new Astellar table with the new TechDas arm??.

[@yuckysamson]

So Mikey, if the AS, WB, and new Thorens step into the ring, who is the last one spinning?

[@helgar791]

The Nagra.

[@yuckysamson]

@@helgar791 I like that. Love that. That's a mic drop. How we have 4 in the ring for this elimination tournament. Now we need a Mikey drop.

[@helgar791]

@@yuckysamson Thanks, but I forgot four. The OMA, the TechDas Zero, the Basis Transcendence and the SAT. The current champions. We need (a very lucky) someone to do a heavyweight tournament. Oh, to strike oil in my backyard!

[@yuckysamson]

Has to be new at this show. Keep the new oma, ditch the others. Still, starting to feel like a genuine royal rumble.

[@trackingangle929]

@@helgar791 I’ve heard and reviewed 3 of those!

[@tecnoprofet]

Are you sure it's not CERN?

[@bloodyhell451]

Ask him where he got the idea for the arm damping.........

[@Fluterra]

BULLSH~T cutting air to the air bearing will damage the stylus of the Air Force 10 arm. How could it not?! You are adding major friction to the “bearing” (it’s no longer a bearing without air!).

[@HP_____]

If you go to 23:27 mark you can see that the air bearing is only for the horizontal plane but for vertical movement it's done with a conventional pivot bearing. It won't have major damage to the cartridge but it will certain do a lot of skipping!

[@neilnewby1041]

presenter bit rude

[@mikhailtim2043]

In the presentation of Wilson Benesch, nanometers and nanometers sound, on what miracle machines they process did with nanometer accuracy. Seems like a lie. Also, the demonstration of a spinning disco in slowmo does not prove a smooth rotation without jerks. when the needle is inside the groove, the braking force of the disk is impressive, where are their numbers with the actual load on the disk. Recording a large symphony orchestra greatly affects the motor and jerks during playback. And what encoder is installed for feedback with the motor drive? and how often does the drive react to changes in disk rotation speed? an acrylic disc generally looks ridiculous, acrylic is a sonorous material with poor damping. unipivot tonearm is not the best option, there is no rigidity in the azimuth axis.

[@HP_____]

It appears to be a fancy way to do a direct-drive turntable with a linear motor with all the stator coils at the perimeter instead close to the center of platter. How do they do shielding for magnetic field since the coils are exposed under the acrylic platter? Regarding the arm, you would think for all that money and engineering they would add a secondary bearing to a unipivot arm or at least some clever way to stabilize the azimuth rocking beyond just under slung counterweight. I like unipivot for its small contact point and low friction but without stabilizing the azimuth axis you will never get rock solid bass.

[@paulomontero12]

Listen there’s a lot of cartridges for that price he says. Only for a low price of 12,000!👎🏻

[@trackingangle929]

You added "low" not I

[@ptg01]

@@trackingangle929 I bet you the margins on these uber high end cartridges are almost like that of fancy jewelry: 300% to 400% markup !!!

[@gweflj]

That AS guy was great. You need to test that new model Mike.

[@gweflj]

Those active stand mounts are really interesting.