Ever since the announced exodus of the prestigious High End trade fair from Munich’s MOC Event Center to its auspiciously more central European location in Vienna in 2026, the Norddeutsche HiFi-Tage has advanced to become the premier event of the industry in Germany. For the first time this year, an admission fee of €15 per visitor was charged.

Times have become more difficult for the HiFi community and for the manufacturers who are dedicated to it. Europe's formerly affluent middle class has been literally bled dry in favor of privileged interest groups sporting libertarian market ideals. In many cases, the fabulous capital gains of recent years have been diverted to global tax havens, bypassing all member states, and the distribution of financial resources has not been as noticeably unequal as it is today in a long time. The government's focus on shareholder value is likely to be a short-term success. 

But a lot is also happening technologically. The formerly influential HiFi press is seeing ever-increasing noise from self-aggrandising YouTube influencers who are arguably causing more harm than good to the industry in their short time of ascent. Let's put it this way: If you want to get sick of a person or subject, follow them on social media. Then the magic will fade quickly. Because in our real “offline” world of goods and services, quality and stability are still based on long-term commitment to the cause, and this is noticeably lacking in the algorithm-based media. The increasing use of AI also brings the question of meaning in digital media into the spotlight.

This makes the opportunity to talk to manufacturers in person at events such as the Norddeutsche HiFi-Tage all the more welcome and beneficial. Looking at the long list of prestigious 2026 exhibitors a few days before the fair, I decided to focus my attention primarily on those I had missed in the past three years. And since I didn't want to visit the trade fair alone, I asked my hi-fi friend and speaker cable designer, Matthias, to accompany me. This was particularly interesting because Matthias brought two new cable prototypes with him in his suitcase when he arrived at our place in Marne.

Matthias has taken an interest in speaker cable design since he switched from his omnidirectional Duevel Bella Luna to the Jupiter series speakers built by the same company. The Jupiter were their first model and far more demanding to drive for two reasons: first, their woofer is much larger and demands for greater control on the side of the equipment driving it; second, their dome tweeter diaphragm is enormous, which can easily lead to an audible frequency rolloff in the high frequencies. His challenge was to design a cable that would enable his amplifier to right both these wrongs— which he ultimately succeeded in doing.

Matthias is an experienced listener and has a good ear for nuance. His background in electronics and recent experimentation in building HiFi-cables have also given him some understanding of the underlying technology. In his quest for optimal sound, Matthias is as relentless as I am, even if he is not always as outspoken about it. I was happy to have him as companion and as an extra pair of ears to compare and contrast my experience with on our day at the trade fair.

When we arrived at the fair, the reception area was still bristling with visitors, and so we decided to keep our jackets on for the time being and head straight for the upper floors. This led us to the exhibition space of ATE Akustik by Norman Gerkinsmeyer. Founded in 1982, the company is a German developer and manufacturer of loudspeakers and special drivers for the industry based in Neu-Ulm. Mr. Gerkinsmeyer himself presented the company's patented Ring Mode Driver (RMD) technology at the trade fair, a bending wave transducer based on an oval diaphragm design.

ATE Imagine — Ring Mode Driver Loudspeakers

Following my positive review of Daniela Manger’s bending wave transducer on the P2 loudspeakers, I was interested in finding out more about the differences between the designs. And so I learned that the ATE driver’s design naturally dampens return waves on the diaphragm through its oval shape, whereas the Manger transducer uses its characteristic star-shaped matt to prevent refractions. Both drivers offer the benefit of working without crossover in the frequencies critical to the human ear. 

ATE also makes custom drivers for the automotive and aviation industry, an environment in which there is heavy use of signal processors to flatten frequency response in a unfavourable acoustic spaces. Regrettably, the same technology was also used in the showroom, which resulted in unnaturally short decay and an overly dry, clenched-fist sound. I have to admit that I am sensitive to this and have personally never heard a DSP-augmented vocal section that I would still describe as sounding natural. Our final test track was Peter Bence’s title “Africa”, which we have heard on many systems but found lacking its usual charm and allure for the sake of greater frequency control.

Our tour then took us to Lyravox, a German manufacturer of audio equipment from Hamburg. I had previously heard their smaller Karlos speakers, which had sounded much larger than they looked, most likely due to the integration of an up-firing air-motion transformer and active DSP modulation instead of passive crossovers. This year, Lyravox displayed their Karlsson Mini Monolith towers. Here, too, nothing was left to chance, from the multiple input modalities (XLR, SPDIF, Toslink, analog, etc.) to the powerful Class D amplification (2x 500 + 1x 100 WPC) and a fully-integrated multi-channel hi-res-DSP.

The materials Lyravox uses are of the highest quality, ranging from natural stone base plates to elegant artificial stone enclosures, which are combined with Accuton ceramic invert-dome drivers from tweeter to bass. The look of their whole line-up is clean, white, and elegant. Now, hotel rooms are not ideal listening venues, and my ongoing criticism of the DSPs used in the high and midrange frequencies could well be related to the fact that DSPs have to intervene heavily in such a room. Berlin is not too far from Marne, and perhaps I should pay Lyravox a visit to get a more realistic impression. Among others, we listened to the album “Stay Tuned” by Dominique Fils-Animé.

AUDES Audio in the adjacent room has a long history of manufacturing audio equipment dating back to 1935. The Estonian company initially started out manufacturing radio receivers under the name RET (Raadio-Elektrotehnika Tehas) and already employed 50 people in its first year, who built up to 30 receivers a day. From 1941 to 1944, the factory, called Raadio-Pioneer at the time, belonged to Telefunken and was renamed Funktechnische Fabrik Reval. The name AUDES has exists since 1992 and stands for “Audio from Estonia.”

A full account of the company history is available on their website. Their current loudspeaker line-up (Reference, Excellence, M-Series, Credo, etc.) are phenomenally disparate in their designs, ranging from stubby towers to thin blade-like structures, either in width or in depth. On this day, the M5 speakers were on display, which seemed a little thin and lacking in timbre at the chosen position. Setting up the local electronics and adapting them to the room is, of course, a challenge. Therefore, we left this room without gaining a real impression of the speakers' capabilities.

Rogers is one of the well-known BBC loudspeaker manufacturers, along with Harbeth and Spendor, which were particularly famous in the 1960s and 1970s for their soft, natural reproduction of midrange and vocals in the near field and in small studios. However, the Rogers speakers we heard at the North German Hi-Fi Days were anything but near-field monitors. Although I neglected to note down the name of the speakers on site, my research suggests that they must have been the newly reissued LS5/9, which impressed us with their enormous dynamics and crisp, powerful highs.

We could not see the drivers through the speaker fabric, so I was surprised to learn that the distinctly metallic sounds were reproduced by an Audax silk dome tweeter. In my opinion, this can only be explained by its relatively large size of 34 mm and the rigid metal diffuser on the front. The room was well attended, and there was no ideal place to sit among the few chairs. Matthias and I agreed that we basically liked the sound, but we were not convinced that we could hear properly under the given conditions. The speakers' partially pressure chamber-like highs reminded me of the early ring radiators from Fostex and Beymar.

Symann Soundboards were certainly among the more unconventional designs at the show. Their engineer, Michael Symann, is a piano and harpsichord builder by profession and develops his speakers based on soundboards, the wooden components that form the bottom of the piano and resonate at the correct pitch. The components consist of four wide strips of tonewood, two of which are mounted on opposite sides of a narrow slatted frame. Exciters, as commonly used in automotive applications, serve as drivers, and there is a small Air Motion Transformer (AMT) to supplement the high frequencies.

This innovative design produces a sound wall similar to that of full-range electrostatic speakers. However, the frequency range is limited by the characteristics of the materials used. The accuracy of the otherwise very precise AMTs could possibly suffer from the fact that the tweeter is mounted on the vibrating surface between the resonance plates. I would be interested to hear a future version of the Soundboards with the AMT mounted in a more fixed position. Overall, the Soundboards are a promising invention and deliver an intriguing sound.

Wilson Alexx V — Array Loudspeakers

The most spectacular listening experience was undoubtedly the presentation of a superlative HiFi system by Matthias Börde from Stereo magazine. The speakers used were Wilson Audio's Alexx V model, powered by enormous VTL Siegfried tube monoblocks. The ensemble had the power of a medium-sized PA system and surprised its listeners with enormous attacks. Although the sound remained controlled, precise, realistic, and crisp throughout the performance, I did feel a little sorry for the people in the front rows in the immediate vicinity of the speakers. Their ears probably rang for a long time afterward, just like after a good live concert.

We also wondered how the Wilson speakers would sound in a living room, where they would be operated at moderate volume. The ideal range of a speaker is always optimized for a specific listening distance and volume level. The selection of songs was undoubtedly excellent and clearly showed who was in charge that afternoon.

While Matthias Börde's presentation in the large conference room did not seem to clash with those of its neighbours, some of the presentations were nevertheless acoustically crushed by the loud competition on the other side of the hallway. The longer the trade fair went on, the louder some manufacturers played their equipment. This behaviour forced all exhibitors into a vicious circle, in which one after the other had to increase the volume until a formerly quality demonstration turned into a show of power. For this reason, I was unable to demonstrate some of highlights of the trade fair to Matthias.

Finally, we stopped by Daniela Manger in room 204 and listened to an electronically separate version of her P2 speakers, in which the bass range was controlled by an active crossover and was optimally compensated for in the room by two inconspicuous active bass traps. Matthias and I were very impressed by the room acoustics and performance this time. The session was comparable to my experience when I first had the P2 speakers in my studio for testing, and I was happy to be able to share this experience with Matthias on this occasion.

Manger P2 — Bending Wave Transducer Loudspeakers

On our way back to Marne, we stopped at a HiFi friend's house in Barmfeld to help him improve the sound quality of his HiFi system in a newly built listening room furnished with absorbers and all. We spent the rest of the evening moving speakers around and discussing sound until our energy was completely exhausted, and after a fulfilling day, we set off on the last leg of our journey towards Marne.

< NDHT 2025 | Manger P2 >

Let's establish the following: Very few HiFi audio systems are set up in such a way that they can actually demonstrate their considerable performance capabilities. The more expensive the setup, the more sensitive this issue becomes.

Setting up High-End equipment is particularly challenging, as its components are capable of mercilessly exposing every flaw in the system. If you are not 100% satisfied with the sound of your High-End system, even though you have invested a lot of money and set up a special listening room for it, I am confident that I can help you quickly and effectively.

In order to set up High-End audio equipment optimally, we first need to have some listening experience ourselves. This is not about enjoying music, but about the ability to perceive the interaction of a HiFi system in the room. Every setup error has its own specific characteristics: for example, harsh voice reproduction, a blurred phantom center, missing transients, unnatural reverberation, lack of tonal width, or poor bass reproduction.

For this reason, we need a different strategy to fix each individual setup error. In our consultation, I first listen to your description of the system and analyze the challenges you are facing together with you. We then look at the five most important factors that influence the sound of your high-end system:

1. the power source
2. system grounding
3. the setup
4. all connections
5. the listening room

The selection of audio components also influences the resulting system sound, but far less than one might assume. This aspect only becomes interesting once all other factors have been understood and optimized. Only then can you really hear your devices; before that, you mainly hear the weaknesses in your setup.

Component matching is usually offered by retailers and websites, while little time is spent on setting up High-End systems after purchase in-store or online. Customers then usually have to figure out for themselves how to set up their new and expensive equipment. Scrolling through YouTube tutorials mostly raises more questions than it answers.

The goal of our conversation is therefore to improve the performance of your system in a simple and cost-effective way. Afterwards, you will have a better understanding of the current state of your High-End system and be able to assess what steps are necessary to unleash its full sound. I will show you how your system handles energy and how you can transport this to your ears without loss or interference.

BOOK HERE

Dear HiFi community,

Welcome to www.eiaudio.de, the HiFi blog that places more emphasis on the acoustic impression of our ears than on what we assume to know in order to achieve the best possible sound, regardless of brands and prices. Here, we insist on figuring out why one component in the mix of devices works better than another after the fact.

“Ears over mind” is the motto that has helped many audiophiles achieve unimaginable enjoyment. Searching for the best sound and exploring how it is created is not about knowing, but about asking the right questions, step by step. In this way, a superlative HiFi system was created from relatively affordable components in the small German town of Marne at the North Sea.

From the source of power and its distribution via the cables, to the selection of the individual components and their precise acoustic decoupling, to the positioning of the speakers in the room, hardly anything was left to chance in this setup. Speakers are, in the broadest sense, wave generators that interact with the room. The positive use of this interaction at the listening position is one of the factors that determines the sound impression.

And yet it is only since January 2026, with the introduction of a newly developed speaker cable, that I dare to put forward a thesis: the best-sounding HiFi system in Germany, north of Hamburg, is located in Marne on the North Sea. Now, of course, some of you will cry out that it is very assuming to make such a general statement, because it also depends on the playback volume and the type of music. I agree, and that is why I would like to clarify the underlying criteria:

I am referring to the reproduction of acoustic instruments and human voices in any arrangement – from Folk Music to Jazz and Vocal Jazz to Classical Music – in the studio or live, in the correct tonality and dynamics and at a realistic listening volume of approx. 75 dB average sound pressure at the listening position. Further evaluation criteria are tonal width and spatially correct representation.

Forget about the trade shows you have been to, where hastily assembled equipment is set up in randomly assigned hotel rooms. Forget the HiFi stores, where it is sadly very rare to have the opportunity to calibrate a system in a room over several months. Unless you are a HiFi freak yourself with a lot of knowledge, time, and leisure, you have most likely never heard such a system perform. Because this experience leaves you speechless and thoughtful for a while.

But don't just take my word for it, let's arrange a listening session and see for yourself. Bring two or three records or CDs of your choice and listen to them at your leisure over coffee or cold drinks. Let's talk about HiFi and tell me about your journey and your experiences. If, after listening, you still believe your system can do better, I'd be happy to listen to it and perhaps also feature it here. And, just in case you were wondering, this offer also applies if you are a dealer or run a HiFi store. The only important thing is that the system in question is set up and ready for a session and that it delivers comparable or better sound as an ensemble.

So, from one HiFi freak to another: It's high time for new explorations!

Audiophile greetings,

Karsten

I am writing these lines in the week of eiaudio’s fifth anniversary and find that our world, technology, and future outlook have changed dramatically since then. Back in April 2020, citizens around the globe were experiencing government-imposed lock-downs that had been put in place to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 flu-pandemic. In order to stay in business during these restrictions, companies ended up moving vast portions of their communications and operations to cloud-based servers and online platforms, which culminated in the largest synchronous data upload in world history. With my family’s language school business closed down for several weeks and both our kids at home due to the restrictions, I wrote my first article on my smartphone. I wanted to tell the story of HiFi from the very beginning, and so I called the article: “The Power Source”.

My aim was to share what I had learned about HiFi setups and gear with like-minded enthusiasts. I wanted to document my discoveries for my own future reference in a place I could rely on, to encourage my readers to make new discoveries and trust their own ears, and also to set up an alternative platform to my family’s language school operations, which could apparently be shut down very quickly, as the German government had made clear to us. Built on a basis of truthful personal reflection, the blog was destined to become a beacon of audiophile integrity, limited only by the scope of my experience and understanding. Having such a strong basis in personal appreciation proved to be beneficial to the website’s reception, and eiaudio.de soon attracted well over 10,000 individuals each month who stuck around to read many more articles.

Today, my eiaudio blog is even more influential than shown in the numbers above. It helps people around the globe form their opinions on subjects such as HiFi setups, room acoustics, vintage gear, and listening skills. However, in many cases, the people benefiting from my articles do not really need to visit my page anymore. Instead, they ask an AI-bot like Chat GPT to collect the information for them. With most of human data and experience available online, it was only a matter of time, before someone came up with an algorithm that could drink from this extensive pool of human labour without its user having to visit the sources that feed into the pool each time. And there is more: AI bots cannot only extract information from the web but now also organise data in order to create spoken and written texts, images, and also music. The bottom line is that output once unique to us humans is henceforth subject to automation by bots, and those sharing their insights online, like myself, are feeding them for free.

As it looks now, our social stability and order, sense of purpose and justice, personal commitment and resilience, will all be tested at the same time, while AI is leading us towards completely uncharted territory at breakneck speed. Some industries will be affected by these changes sooner than others. The music industry, for instance, has already been forced to make the transformation from the High Fidelity-sound of the 1960s to 1990s (first based on vinyl and later on CD sales) via the iPod (with predominantly MP3 as its basis) to the High-Res streaming services of our time. In the face of local music abundance, due to instant worldwide availability, the formerly large budgets of music labels have shrunk dramatically and with them the incomes of the artists providing the music. With earnings from music sales at an all-time low, the price of concert tickets has skyrocketed. Those artists who do not manage to attract regular crowds mostly go empty handed.

In most modern households, High Fidelity has been reduced to the sound quality of smart speakers, and few people take the time to set up a proper HiFi system or to develop their listening skills anymore. Slowly, we are learning that information without structure and context is disinformation. Just like high-frequency noise clutters the iron core of a transformer and prevents it from working properly, the helpless attempt of today’s global brands of reaching all consumers directly via social platforms makes people withdraw from communication on many levels, unsure of what to believe anymore. There are simply too many companies and too many products for the consumer to process when these make a pitch all at once. The pendulum of globalisation has swung from the scarcity of goods and local production all the way to the abundance of goods with failing consumer demand and a general drifting towards the pointlessness of everything.

After all, what is the point of me writing reviews that are predominantly going to be read by bots and that are therefore no longer linked to my name? And what is the point of factories making products faster and faster in which the workforce has long since been replaced by robots and companies stalking communities online, trying in vain to sell products to people who have lost their jobs and no longer have the means to purchase anything? — One could argue that five years after Covid-19, the full scale of human greed and stupidity is more blatantly obvious than ever before. Although we are family and clan-based social beings and therefore utterly dependent on each other for survival, our current economic model mostly rewards those who most quickly come up with products and services that threaten and break apart the pillars of our social fabric and environment.

While eiaudio is about deep contemplation and making time for appreciation, the current trend of placing everything at our disposal at once, seemingly without the need for personal understanding and growth, is luring us down a dark alley, ill-prepared for what awaits us. I would have liked to see a deep connection to evolve between the readers of my blog (commenting section) and myself. This can still happen, of course. But with bot visits heavily on the rise, the risk of us never getting to know each other and drifting further apart as HiFi enthusiasts, families, and nations seems very real.

Best wishes,

Karsten

Sleek, slim, and beautifully enigmatic. The Devialet Expert 250 combines its timeless design with plenty of 21st century features to facilitate multi-level integration in contemporary home entertainment systems. It clearly shows that versatility and High-End sound quality need not be mutually exclusive.

When I began my journey into the subject of HiFi, I soon discovered that simplistic designs tended to offer a superior sound experience. Reduced form, dedicated functions, and direct wiring were the high-end cornerstones of my formative years. I marveled at the simplicity of David Hafler amplifiers and at the effectiveness of such timeless classics as the Lenco L75 turntable. At this time, even CD players were perceived as a risky deviation from this no-frills design philosophy due to their digital to analogue conversion and complex integrated circuitry. In a sweeping generalization, tone controls, graphic equalizers, and colorful displays were all considered a bowing to convenience and served as ugly reminders of the feature-packed designs of the 1980s.

To the purist, the increasing prevalence of digital technology and integrated circuitry, as it has found its way into audio electronics today, can be disconcerting. In fact, when setting up vintage HiFi gear, we explicitly attempt to filter out high-frequency emissions where they have a negative effect on musical fidelity. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) on the power supply level often has adverse effects on tonal balance and sound stage. As a consequence, ferrite beads have become commonplace to prevent cross-device leakage. Meanwhile, the power grid itself has become infested with distortion from switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) as they are found on LED lights, home automation, routers, etc. What once used to be a calm pool of energy today requires conditioning from shunt filters and other contraptions. An increasing number of audiophiles has given up on the grid itself and is sourcing its power from large batteries instead.

But would it not be great if we could befriend the beast and move beyond these early restrictions? After all, conventional linear power supplies are dinosaurs that have not evolved much since the beginnings of the technology. They often make High End audio amplifiers inconveniently heavy, bulky, and expensive. Formidable Class A and A/B amplifiers that are able to handle difficult loads can easily weigh 20 kg and more. Many of them consume considerable energy, even when they are not playing music or playing it softly; and they tend to run very hot in the process. As humanity is embracing digital and smart technology in all walks of life, why should High End audio be exempt?

The Devialet D-Premier was born in this time of transition. It was launched during the uncertainties of the world economic crises of 2008 and promised to technically amalgamate the properties of a traditional integrated HiFi amplifier with the versatility of the digital advancements of the 21st century. The chief developer and co-found of Paris-based Devialet, Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, is a true expert in a new design philosophy that he christened “Analog Digital Hybrid” or ADH.

[...Article in progress. Full review coming up...]

Specifications

• Type: Integrated hybrid class A/D amplifier
• Power output (RMS, 6 Ohms): 250 WPC (from v7.0)
• High-current stability: 2 Ohms
• Frequency spectrum: 0.1 Hz-87,000 Hz (-3 dB)
• Total harmonic distortion: 0.001% (at power max)
• Signal to Noise Ratio: > 130 dB
• Digital features: Built-in DAC, WiFi-streamer, DSP
• DSP specifications: 400MHz, four channel, 40-bit
• Analogue inputs (RCA/cinch): 24 bit / 192kHz (up-sampling)
• MM/MC phono stage: capacitance/resistance matching
• Line-level inputs: 2x customisable
• Digital inputs (S/PDIF RCA): 4 assignable slots (max.)
• Further inputs: Toslink, AES/EBU, optical/RS232, USB, RJ45
• Wireless connectivity: built-in Devialet “AIR” WiFi
• Speaker outputs (banana/spades): 2-channel
• Subwoofer output: via line/RCA
• Digital outputs: AES/EBU and RCA
• Wireless sampling rates: 16-bit, 24-bit, 32kHz - 96kHz
• Coaxial and optical S/PDIF: 16-bit, 24-bit, 32kHz - 96kHz
• USB: 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit, 32kHz – 192kHz
• Dimensions: (H)4.05 cm x (W)40 cm x (D)40 cm
• Weight: 7 kg
• Country of manufacture: France
• Year(s): 2013 (based on original D-Premier)