High End 2012 - Munich, Germany

Wadax's La Pasion loudspeaker is a fully active design, and in its fully realized configuration it's connected by an RJ45 cable from the company's Pre1 digital preamplifier. The tweeter is powered directly by the preamplifier's DAC -- yes, the DAC has enough drive to make the tweeter operate, making it essentially a power DAC. The . . .

. . . woofer and midrange each have their own 400W amplifiers built into the speakers. The . . .

. . . La Pasion can be driven by any analog preamplifier, or, optimally, Wadax's Pre1 universal digital preamp, which does room correction and RIAA equalization, as well as a number of other tasks, all in the digital domain. The La Pasion speakers are priced at 73,900€ per pair. The Pre1 is priced at 22,500€ with internal phono stage.

Korea's WideaLab, makers of the famous Aurender S10 music server, which was part of TWBAS 2012, showed a prototype of their new flagship W10 music server. Among the many features, highlights include the addition of . . .

. . . a word-clock input (top right) and dual AES digital outputs. Since this is a prototype, no price has been established.

AudioNec's Francis Chaillet stands beside his company's new Response loudspeaker, which is a 2.5-way, DSP-based design that features a . . .

. . . paper-based dipole wideband driver that works in a similar way to an Air Motion Transformer driver. This wideband driver operates from 200Hz to approximately 20kHz, after which it rolls off "naturally." The ribbon super tweeter operates above 20kHz and the woofer plays from 20Hz to 200Hz. The Response speaker comes with a . . .

. . . DSP component that performs crossover manipulation and room correction, and even offers preamplifier functionality. There are two system versions: the Signature version at 35,000€ per pair, including the DSP unit, and the standard-version Response, which is 26,000€ per pair and is essentially the same and has the DSP unit, but lacks the Signature DSP's room-correction feature and the higher-end word-clock feature of the DAC section.

Michael Børresen stands next to the Raidho Acoustics C3.1 loudspeaker, which he designed. This model completes their C-series line, which also includes the C1.1 and C2.1, the latter of which Jeff Fritz recently reviewed on Ultra Audio. The C3.1 is 29,000€ per pair in the Gloss Black finish and 32,000€ per pair in the Walnut finish.

Hanss Acoustics showed two new similar-looking stereo amplifiers. The . . .

. . . M-18 model uses KT88 output tubes and delivers 50Wpc. It retails for $6400 in the United States. There is also the . . .

. . . M-13, which is EL34-based and outputs 40Wpc. The M-13 retails for $5200.

Audioaero of France was showing their Riplay music server, which . . .

. . . rips and stores CDs in FLAC format, and supports music playback of up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. The Riplay is priced at 1500€ and can be controlled with a Logitech device such as a Squeeze Touch.

Forster Audiotecnik demonstrated the FA5.3 loudspeaker, a two-way, three-driver design with Accuton midrange-woofers and a Mundorf Air Motion Transformer tweeter. According to the company, the main feature of the FA5.3 is ideal time coherency. The FA5.3 costs 27,500€ per pair.

The Netherlands' Kharma debuted a new Exquisite series of loudspeakers -- the Midi model was playing while we were in the room. This 3.5-way design features a diamond tweeter and . . .

. . . the company's new composite-fiber Omega 7 midrange driver. The Midi retails for 76,000€ per pair.

Ranier Weber stands next to his Kaiser Acoustics Chiara stand-mounted loudspeaker (starting at 12,000€ per pair including stands), which is a two-way design with . . .

. . . a passive radiator on the rear panel. The Chiara uses Dueland components in the crossover.