After more than two decades in Munich, the world’s most important audio show had found a new home in Vienna for 2026 and even before the show had started things felt a little different.

I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed visiting Munich and I must admit that last year felt somewhat bittersweet, Munich had almost become a home from home over the past ten years and I was disappointed that the show would be changing location and it seemed to be a popular opinion with most people I spoke to.

Before the show industry chatter was suggesting a slightly smaller venue and as a result a few brands struggled to secure a room so I was intrigued as to what Vienna might offer, my initial impression before the show was this would be a downgrade, but I was delighted to be proved wrong!

The Austria Center Vienna played host to High End 2026 from the 4th to the 7th of June, located a short walk from the Danube river the ACV was a very impressive venue, it may have been a little smaller than the MOC in Munich (26,000m² compared to 30,000m²) but it certainly didn’t feel like it walking around, the communal areas were spacious and well spread out and the air conditioning kept the venue rather pleasant as well, anyone who has experienced the upper corridors in Munich on a hot day would have appreciated this I’m sure!

The ACV as a venue was superb but a little harder to navigate compared to the MOC, although it could be argued that this was only because it was a new venue and everyone had become familiar with the layout of the MOC, after a couple of days of wandering around I appeared to get less lost and found my bearings much easier.

OePhi Loudspeakers & Cables

OePhi were located in Hall X5, Stand T04, they had a reasonably small demonstration room but the Transcendence 2.5 speakers were really on point, unsurprisingly they were using their own cables as well along with some Entreq with a Silver Tellus Tungsten and a couple of Tellus 3 Tungsten Ground Boxes.

I enjoyed spending time in front of this system and it was really encouraging to see an almost constant stream of visitors, with several UK customers on the consumers days as well.

OePhi were using a pair of Transcendence 2.5, with a Moonriver amplifier, an Oops Audio Turntable and a prototype streamer that Joakim has been working on.

It was a superb system and Joakim and I spent some time on Saturday afternoon pushing the speakers rather hard, it was an exceptional sounding room given its modest size. The Transcendence 2.5 have incredible weight for such a compact speaker and they have a level of speed and transparency that other alternatives at double the money can’t get close to.

Outside of the room in the meeting area OePhi premiered their brand new centre speaker models as well – they have received numerous requests from dealers and distributors (myself included) for a centre speaker for those customers who have combined 2 channel and surround based systems. There have spent the past few months developing Lounge, Ascendence and Transcendence models, pictured below is an Ascendence.

I have already supplied 2 Transcendence centre speakers just before the show and they perform to an incredibly high standard, with performance not far away from a pair of Transcendence 2.

Acustica Applicata

Acustica Applicata were in Suite K-1 on level -2, this must have had one of of the largest demonstration rooms at the whole show. The room was treated with numerous DaaD towers, along with Polifemo, Halifax and Volcano’s and was incredibly impressive sounding, no mean feat given the size of the room.

As with previous years at Munich this system was based around Cessaro horn loudspeakers and a Dohmann turntable with Alieno Amplification.

Acustica Applicata was already heavily featured in the Avalon/Doshi/Kallista room as well.

T+A

T+A were on level 2 and were showing some new additions to their flagship HV Series. First off was their new flagship Reference DAC / Streamer / Pre-amp, the SDX-3100, this new model is the replacement for the SDV 3100. They were also using their new power amplifier, the A-3100 HV, this is a stereo amplifier but they were using a pair of them switched into mono.

The SDX uses a completely redesigned pre-amplifier with superb construction and incredible attention to detail, nothing less than we’d expect from this German powerhouse. The SDX uses the latest advancements in their 3rd Generation streaming architecture.

They were using a pair of their Solitaire S430 loudspeaker which are the entry level model from their flagship range

Vitus Audio

Kroma Atelier

Kroma certainly weren’t playing it safe in Vienna with 5 different pair of speakers across the main High End Show and the smaller show at Tech Gate which was just a 5 minute walk from the ACV.

On floor 2 in the ACV a pair of Thais were used in a room which was a very similar system to the one that Boyer Audio used in their 2nd room at the Audio Show Deluxe in March. This system comprised of the Thais driven by an Engstrom Arne Integrated Amplifier along with a Cinnamon Audio Galle Model 2 DAC along with their new dedicated server. I’ve pair of Thais on order for demonstration and I can’t wait to get them in the demonstration room and showing them off.

This room was a sensible size and the Thais sounded absolutely superb, they offer excellent levels of refinement and it was a highly engaging system, really drawing you into the music. Standing at 1m tall the Thais are a loudspeaker won’t take over a room and work well in a typical UK living room.

In Hall 5 on the ground floor Orpheus Labs had a decent sized room which used a pair of Kroma Irya, these are the entry model in Kroma’s flagship range.

This room also featured a Wadax Studio Player and was a bigger system than the one with the Thais, the Irya are 130kg each and stand at over 1.6m tall and were driven by a huge pair of Orpheus Mono Power Amplifiers which are 135kg each!

This system had sensational power, drive and resolution and was one of my favourite rooms across the whole show, it was a room I visited multiple times.

On the ground floor in the main Engstrom room was a pair of Callas, driven by the Lars Monoblock Power Amplifiers and the Monica Pre-amp, a complete Wadax Studio Collection was also used in this room (Studio Player, Studio PSU and Studio Clock). Engstrom always make a great noise and this was certainly no exception.

Located just 5 minutes away from the ACV was a smaller show in a building called Tech Gate and Kroma had 2 further rooms here, one with a pair of Stella driven by a complete Wattson Audio system.

Saving the best until late the main Kroma room here was using a pair of their flagship Maribel (£440,000 a pair) and the full Level 8 Wadax Atlantis Reference System, a pair of Engstrom Erics were chosen as the amplification for this room along with a Monica Preamp. This was clearly a big system and it filled the space easily,  I spent some time in this room at an after show party one evening and it a superb experience.

It certainly felt like Kroma are definitely a brand of the moment. At every show they attend the feedback they receive is always exceptional and this year was no exception. For me the Irya and Thais were my 2 favourite Kroma rooms. We keep Mimi on demonstration with a pair of Thais and Leonore arriving soon as well.

Bassocontinuo

Bassocontinuo were featured across a couple of different rooms at the show, but their own booth in Hall 5 was undoubtedly the most interesting with the new Aeroline F2 being unveiled. I have an Aeroline on demonstration and it is a superb stand both in terms of design and also sonics. This new model is a highly refined version featuring all new matte finish structural carbon fibre connectors and a new aluminium plate fitted to the inside of each shelf. New copper details finished off this equipment stand beautifully – this rack will no doubt make an appearance at Audio Therapy at some point in the near future, if any one is looking for a 4 shelf Aeroline stand my demo unit will be available for sale soon!

Avalon Acoustics

Over the past 2 or 3 shows at Munich Airt Audio have partnered with Actual Hi-Fi and Purist Audio Design and they have always created a sensational system and this year was no exception. A pair Avalon Saga Signature took centre stage in this large room on the ground floor but that was only one part of a rather substantial system which placed huge focus on lowering noise and system synergy.

Sources in the room included a Acoustical System A*Stella Turntable fitted with a Tri-Planar Tonearm and a Charisma Audio Signature YYZ cartridge, a Studer 810 Tape Machine, a Kalista Dreamplay Streamer and Kalista Mantax DAC

Tape Stage and Phono Stage were Doshi Audio, as was the pre-amplifier and the mono power amplifiers.

A selection of Acustica Applicata, Entreq Grounding plus a large Athena rack, Purist Audio Design Cables and Stillpoints completed the system.

For me this one of the most complete, engaging and invisible sounding systems at the whole show. It was a large room and the Saga Signature certainly appreciated the space with incredible imaging, air and space. At one point when I was in the room the track that was playing Queen Mary by Francine Thirteen and it was possibly for me the highlight of the whole show, the bass articulation, depth, scale and texture was absolutely sensational.

Entreq

Entreq have just published a new website which has been some time coming and to say it’s a transformation compared to what went before is something of an understatement. This new site contains huge amounts of information and insight into their products and how they work and achieve the results they consistently get when used in a system.

Entreq was used in a handful of rooms at the show and it was great to see their founder and owner Per Olof Friberg there as well.

On a table at the back of the Avalon Room was a new range of interconnects, speaker cables and power cables plus a new box called Corepoint which is used for these new cables. There is also a new range of Entreq Posts to expand upon the existing Max T, these posts can be used on the new Corepoint to enhance the performance of the cables, but they can also be used on the existing range of ground boxes.

This looks very interesting and is definitely something to look out for.

Shunyata Research

Shunyata did not have their own room at the show, but their power and signal cables were used in the main Wadax room. Shunyata had a dedicated meeting room on level 3 and their calendar for the duration of the show was almost full with back to back meetings.

It’s already great to spend time with the guys and this year was no different. The UK importer of Shunyata, Boyer Audio was presented with an award in our meeting for the number 1 distributor in the world for 2025, no mean feat! It’s a testament to how popular their cables have become, they certainly keep me incredibly busy.

We all went out for dinner as well to continue the conversation which continued into the early hours!

You can just make out a Denali X and an Altaira X to the right of the Wadax stack in the image below. Please note the Denali X is not available in the UK.

Images courtesy of @santeri.lohi and @boyeraudio

Soulnote

Soulnote had a superb room, they were on the first floor  they were using Albedo Audio Loudspeakers from Italy along with a large selection of Series 3 products including 4 of the flagship M-3X Mono Power Amplifiers, an E-3 Phono Stage and a P-3 Preamp.

I must admit I wasn’t familiar with the Albedo speakers they were using, but the system was Soulnote through and through. Huge amounts of resolution but the system had a wonderful sense of sweetness and delicacy combined with incredible precision.

I went into this room several times on Thursday and I never managed to get a seat until the following morning which says a lot about how popular it was!

Summing Up and Final Thoughts

The High End Show is always a key part of the industry calendar, it’s an essential few days away and is always a bit of a whirlwind, packed with meetings, lots of walking (nearly 40 miles in 5 days!) and it’s always great catching up with industry friends and colleagues plus a few customers as well.

I must admit that I travelled to Vienna expecting to be underwhelmed after so many great trips to Munich, but I thought it was an excellent show and a brilliant city and I departed on Sunday afternoon excited for the year ahead.

It was a hugely successful show for myself with two new brands being added to my portfolio, these will be announced properly over the coming days, for those who would like a teaser as to what might be making an appearance, think America and Spain!