Audio systems
Audiophile installations of Hi-Fi and High-End equipment
Ready-made systems, already installed and configured by lovers of good sound - a visual guide to the selection of audio equipment and acoustic systems. In addition to Hi-Fi and High-End audio installations, you will find in this section examples of a selection of the most optimal components for various requirements (such as vinyl optimized systems, systems of the month, etc.). Each of the systems contains many photos, as well as a list of equipment with detailed characteristics and descriptions in our database.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Pathos InPoL Legacy 140 kg monster amp
1 component
The core is Pathos's patented InPoL circuit, a MOSFET follower with a voltage gain of about one and high current gain, biased in pure class A and run without global negative feedback. Pathos says the design lifts theoretical class A efficiency from 25 to 50 percent, and the Legacy uses two InPoL stages per channel in a bridged, fully balanced layout. Voltage gain comes from valves in a totem pole arrangement, two Tung-Sol ECC803 and one Sovtek 6H30 per channel. The dual mono build gives each channel its own power toroid, the largest Pathos has made, plus a separate toroid for the valve supply, with an inductive and capacitive filter per channel taken from the Adrenalin and InPower monoblocs. Rated output is 2 x 100 W into 8 ohm, frequency response runs from 2 Hz to 100 kHz within 0.5 dB, and THD is 0.02 percent at 1 W. Gain is 31 dB unbalanced and 25 dB balanced. Volume is a 100-step passive resistor ladder switched by relays, with Neutrik and WBT connectors.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Audiovector R 10 ARRETÉ meets CH Precision M10
2 components
Audiovector rates the R 10 Arreté at 90 dB/W with an 8 ohm average impedance and a 5 ohm minimum, a benign load for its size. Each cabinet carries two AMT tweeters, a 6.5 inch carbon sandwich midrange, two lower midrange cones and eight 5 inch rear-mounted woofers with 12 mm of linear travel, split at 180 Hz, 450 Hz, 3,000 Hz and 20,000 Hz. A three-position damping dial on the back sets the bass alignment for a transistor amplifier, a high-power transistor amplifier or a valve amplifier, and with the M10 the high-power setting is the natural choice. The M10 delivers 2 x 300 W into 8 ohm, 2 x 550 W into 4 ohm and 2 x 900 W into 2 ohm, with twin 1,800 VA transformers and about 1 farad of capacitance in a separate supply chassis. ExactBias holds output stage bias steady with temperature, and global feedback is adjustable in 1 percent steps from 0 to 100 percent, so the damping on the amplifier side can be tuned alongside the dial on the speaker. Bi-wire terminals on the R 10 Arreté and two parallel speaker outputs per channel on the M10 make a bi-wired run straightforward.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Marten Design Coltrane Quintet Extreme!
1 component
Marten Coltrane Quintet Extreme floorstanders were the centrepiece of the Swedish maker's own room F119 at High End Munich 2025, where the model had its premiere with a full demonstration system beside a static display of the larger Coltrane Supreme Extreme. Hand-The Quintet Extreme uses a 1 inch pure diamond tweeter, a 3 inch pure diamond high-midrange and a 7 inch beryllium midrange, the largest beryllium driver Marten has used, above two 10 inch aluminium sandwich woofers with long excursion. Marten reworked the crossover from scratch as a first-order network with custom components, tuned by ear, which keeps phase shifts small between the four sections. Internal wiring is Jorma Paragon throughout, which explains the sister company's cabling in the chain. The cabinet is a multi-layer laminate of carbon fibre, aluminium, wood and fibreboard, built to be acoustically inert, and it stands on mirror-polished stainless steel stands carrying Marten Isolators that decouple it from the floor. Frequency response runs from 18 Hz to 60 kHz with a sensitivity of 89 dB. That moderate sensitivity, together with two large woofers reaching very low, calls for a power amplifier with generous current reserves rather than a small high-efficiency design.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - TOTALDAC d120 acoustics
1 component
Totaldac's speakers share one two-way layout. Two 12 inch drivers work together below a short constant-directivity horn that takes over above 2.5 kHz through a 1 inch compression driver, and the voice coils of all three are aligned for timing. The maker quotes 100 dB at 1 m for 2.83 V, a 6 ohm average and 4 ohm minimum impedance, and bass to 25 Hz at -6 dB near a corner. Against that easy load the Amp-1 is a class AB stereo amplifier with a moderate class A share and no global feedback, rated at 150 W into 8 ohm, 300 W into 4 ohm and 500 W into 2 ohm and stable into 1 ohm, fed by a 2500 VA transformer. Its 33 dB gain is high, so with speakers this sensitive no active preamplifier was needed and level was set by the DAC volume control. A second Amp-1 drove the bass drivers through an active crossover, separating the low-frequency load from the horn section. Crossovers inside the speakers are wired point to point with Mundorf coils and Claritycap capacitors.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - EgglestonWorks Andra III SE and EMM Labs
1 component
Five drivers share the band. A Dynaudio Esotar dome tweeter covers the top, two 6 inch carbon fibre midrange cones with 3 inch voice coils take the middle, and the two 12 inch woofers sit in a compound, or isobaric, arrangement in their own compartment, one driver working behind the other so both move together. This loading reaches low frequencies from an enclosure far smaller than a single woofer of that size would need. EgglestonWorks quotes 18 Hz to 24 kHz at -3 dB, 88 dB sensitivity and an 8 ohm nominal impedance with a 6 ohm minimum. That is a benign load which does not stress current delivery, yet the moderate sensitivity asks for generous power when deep bass and high levels arrive together. Two sets of rhodium binding posts allow bi-wiring or bi-amplification, so a pair of stereo amplifiers or four monoblocks can drive the bass section on its own. The SE upgrade brings improved crossover components, better internal wiring, new binding posts and a new paint finishing system.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Zellaton STAGE ULTRA!
1 component
Each cabinet carries a 33 mm tweeter, a 180 mm mid woofer and a 220 mm woofer, all full-cone units. Zellaton rates the range at 24 Hz to 40 kHz and the sensitivity at 89 dB/1W/m with a nominal 4 ohm load, which points to an amplifier with solid current reserves rather than a low-power design. Every driver uses the ULTRA diaphragm, a three-layer sandwich of shock-absorbing foam backed by coated paper made by hand, with a hardened core that is about 80 percent air. Its front surface has a bionic texture that, according to the maker, stops sound travelling across the cone and raises stiffness, so each diaphragm moves as a rigid piston with high internal damping. Partial vibrations in the midrange cone are damped by hand after assembly. The crossover uses Duelund CAST capacitors and Duelund wiring, and the terminals are Mundorf M-Connect posts in silver-plated copper. The cabinet is a sandwich of several material layers with no visible joins or bolts, and each enclosure is measured and tuned with a laser Doppler vibrometer.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Wilson Benesch Horizon and Lumin
2 components
The Horizon pairs a 25 mm Fibonacci Hybrid Silk-Carbon tweeter with two 170 mm Tactic 3.0 drivers. Its midrange unit connects directly to the amplifier with no filter, the tweeter is rolled in below 5 kHz at second order and the bass unit uses a first-order filter, which keeps phase shift between the two Tactic drivers low. Sensitivity is 89 dB at 2.83 V and impedance 6 ohm nominal with a 4 ohm minimum, an easy load for solid-state or valve amplifiers of moderate power. The curved A.C.T. 3zero biocomposite monocoque allows thinner walls and more internal volume for its 1015 mm height and 38 kg mass. The U2X carries no converter. Its isolated USB output passes PCM up to 768 kHz and native DSD512, while AES/EBU, BNC, coaxial and optical stop at 192 kHz. An SFP fibre port isolates it from the home network, two 10 MHz clock outputs can clock other digital units, and the external linear supply uses two toroidal transformers.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Cessaro Horn Acoustics BEETHOVEN II horns!
1 component
The low end uses four 16 inch TAD Alnico units, with four 18 inch drivers as an option, in a front-loaded horn 230 cm long. Four dedicated solid-state amplifiers, each built around a 1,200 W transformer, drive this section, which takes the hardest part of the load away from the source amplifier. Above it a bespoke 11 inch paper cone Alnico driver in a sealed enclosure covers the low-mid band through a 103 cm horn. The midrange is a 2 inch TAD TD-4001 compression driver with a beryllium diaphragm on a 58 cm spherical composite horn, and treble comes from a 1 inch TAD TD-2001 or TD-2002, again beryllium, on a 26 cm horn. A modified TAD ET-703 with a cobalt magnet sits at the top in a 9 cm brass horn milled from solid. The passive sections present 8 ohm nominal and accept up to 60 W, while the system as a whole is rated above 130 dB maximum output and 28 Hz to 45,000 Hz. Cessaro states that a single watt already gives a high level, which makes a small single-ended valve amplifier a realistic partner.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Gryphon Audio full system
4 components
Gryphon EOS 5 floorstanders driven by the new Antileon Revelation stereo amplifier made up an all-Gryphon room at High End Munich 2025, where the Danish company marked its 40th year and three decades of the Antileon line. The Commander preamplifier and the Ethos CD player and DAC complete a chain in which every box, from disc to loudspeaker, comes from the same design team in Denmark.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - new Kaiser Acoustics Minal and TechDAS Air Force One
2 components
Kaiser builds the Minal cabinet from German Panzerholz in a proprietary sandwich mix and adds a heavy foil for constrained layer damping. The front baffle carries a ported 12 inch woofer, a 10 inch woofer in a closed box, a 6.5 inch midrange in a closed chamber with its own absorbing section and the first in-house ribbon tweeter in a waveguide designed by FEM. The cone drivers are custom versions from Audiotechnology with mineral filled polypropylene cones, large voice coils and low moving mass. The tweeter uses a silver transformer made with Ypsilon Electronics, and the flat crossover is built with Duelund CAST Cu parts. Kaiser quotes 30 Hz to 30 kHz, 4 ohm and around 93 dB at 2.83 V, with each speaker 141.3 cm tall and 177 kg. The Air Force One floats an 8.7 kg platter machined from A5056 aluminium on an air bearing, while a vacuum system holds the record down. A flat polyester belt links it to an external AC synchronous motor under digital speed control, wow and flutter is below 0.03%, and the main unit weighs 34.4 kg.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Wilson Audio Alexx V and VTL
2 components
Wilson rates the Alexx V at 92 dB at 1 W, 1 m and a nominal 4 ohm, with a minimum of 2.0 ohm at 250 Hz, and asks for at least 50 W per channel. Per side it uses a 26.67 cm and a 31.75 cm woofer, two midrange drivers of 17.78 cm and 14.61 cm and a 2.54 cm tweeter, quoted at 20 Hz to 32 kHz within plus or minus 3 dB. The Siegfried Series II answers with twelve paralleled 6550 or KT88 output tubes per monoblock, giving 650 W in tetrode or 330 W in triode into 5 ohms. VTL gives its optimum load range as 4 to 8 ohms. The circuit is fully balanced and differential from input to output with zero global negative feedback, and a fast local loop keeps it stable into difficult loads. A user damping factor control changes output impedance in four steps, which lets the owner tune grip on the Alexx V woofers. A microprocessor sets bias for every output tube and monitors the regulated supply. On the speaker side, the open gantry lets each upper module be moved for time alignment at the listening seat, and the woofer cabinet port can fire to the rear or the front.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - TIDAL AP1 Ultra High-End
1 component
Aucun amplificateur séparé n'était nécessaire dans la salle de démonstration du salon High End Munich 2025, car la TIDAL AP1 est une enceinte colonne active intégrant sa propre amplification dans le coffret. Le fabricant allemand présente ce modèle comme une adaptation du concept de la Royale en version active ; le système se résume ainsi à une simple paire d'enceintes alimentée par une source via une entrée analogique.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Voxativ 9.88 SYSTEM rule
1 component
The top Pi monitor is a back-loaded horn with the AC-4nP full-range unit, which has a CNC-milled basket, a revised suspension, an improved paper cone and a gold-plated magnet system from the AC-4F Gold. Efficiency is 98 dB at 1 W and 1 m with the AC-4nP, or 102 dB with the AC-4F Gold, and power capacity is 50 W sine, so a low-power SET amplifier can drive the top without strain. The .01 Mid-Module below adds an 8 inch neodymium driver for the low midrange, with three selectable response curves for that band. At the base the Pi-Bass is an active Ripol subwoofer, two neodymium woofers facing each other and driven by a 250 W class AB plate amplifier, with crossover, phase and gain set from the rear panel. Since the lowest octaves come from that built-in amplifier, the main amplifier only sees the efficient upper sections. Every box uses Acoustic Stealth Technology to damp internal reflections, and frequency response is stated as 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - WADAX Studio Player full stack
1 component
The Studio Player shares the DAC circuit of the Atlantis Reference DAC in a less elaborate form, running dual-mono and fully balanced with the musIC 3 fixed-point engine and 128-bit feed-forward error correction. Its balanced XLR output can be fixed or variable, the level can be set to 1, 2 or 4 V, and the output impedance to one of 16 steps from 0.4 to 600 ohm, which lets it drive a power amplifier without a preamp. Two BNC clock inputs accept the Studio Clock, which Wadax says brings total jitter down to 20 fs and offers six configurable 75 ohm BNC outputs for other digital boxes The Studio PSU moves the supply out of the player chassis and connects through Akasa DC cabling, offered in Standard, Studio and Reference grades. Inside the player, five DC regulation stages feed 30 local regulators, with rail noise rated at 0.5 µV from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. Streaming covers Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz Connect, Audirvana and UPnP, with DSD256 support, and the player measures 48 x 35 x 20.4 cm and weighs 32 kg.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Göbel High End Divin Noblesse giants
2 components
The Divin Noblesse uses two Göbel 12 inch long-throw bass drivers, two 8 inch midranges and an AMT tweeter in an aluminium waveguide, crossed over at 140 Hz and 1,600 Hz. Göbel rates it at 95 dB/W/m with a 4 ohm nominal impedance and a minimum of 3.8 ohm at 100 Hz, and gives a range of 21 Hz to 24 kHz at -3 dB. The bending-wave method, refined by the company over more than 15 years, controls resonances in the driver parts themselves. The MP-M201 Mk.II answers with two amplifiers in every channel, 500 W in class AB for the low frequencies and 100 W in class A, rising to 300 W in class AB, for the high frequencies, all into 8 ohm. The power supplies sit in separate chassis linked by dedicated cables so that peak current is not limited. Input is balanced XLR only, at 10 kohm and 2 V RMS sensitivity. With a fairly flat load and high efficiency, the bass amplifier works far from its limits, while the class A section serves the midrange and tweeter.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Odeon Audio CARNEGIE horns!
1 component
The Carnegie is rated at 97 dB into 8 ohm with a frequency range of 26 Hz to 29 kHz, figures that let a few watts reach realistic levels. The tweeter is a 1 inch ring-radiator compression driver with a 38 mm Mylar diaphragm and a neodymium magnet giving 2.4 Tesla in the gap, loaded by a 42 cm spherical-wave horn of layered birch plywood. A 13 cm midrange sits below it, and the bass comes from a 38 cm Audax paper woofer on an oversized ferrite magnet, working into a 60 cm waveguide. Crossover points sit at 420 Hz and 2,200 Hz, and the crossover is hand-wired point to point. All drivers lie on one axis for consistent phase, and the cabinets are built from 24 mm multiplex. A downfiring bass reflex port excites room modes less than a rear port aimed at the wall behind the speaker. Taken together, the light woofer cone, the horn loading and the benign load mean that single-ended triodes such as 300B or 2A3 designs are a natural partner, while larger solid-state amplifiers run with ample reserve.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Alsyvox MICHELANGELO!
1 component
Each array is a magnetostatic dipole. Two outer panels carry flat ribbon woofers 320 mm wide, and a centre panel between them holds two 45 mm midrange ribbons, two 25 mm tweeters and a 9 mm supertweeter on the vertical axis. Alsyvox quotes a response of 18 Hz to 40 kHz, a 4 ohm nominal impedance and a sensitivity of 96 to 98 dB depending on the crossover settings. That sensitivity is unusually high for a planar design and means modest power produces high levels, while the low nominal impedance still calls for an amplifier that handles low loads with ease. The crossovers live in their own enclosures beside each array, and their adjustable settings change efficiency within the stated window. Because the woofer area is split across two panels either side of the centre column, the layout stays symmetrical, and doubling the mid and treble ribbons spreads the work over a larger radiating surface. As dipoles, the arrays radiate to the rear as well, so free space behind and beside each channel is part of the design.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - YG Acoustics XV STUDIO 3 and Esoteric Grandioso T1
2 components
YG rates the XV Studio 3 at 88 dB with a 4 ohm average and a 3 ohm minimum impedance, so the amplifier has to remain stable into low loads, while the passive crossover means a single amplifier per channel or one stereo unit can drive all four towers. The Ultracoherent crossover splits the bands at 90 Hz, 360 Hz and 1.85 kHz and holds relative phase within 5 degrees where adjacent drivers overlap. A 26 mm Lattice hybrid tweeter sits above two 15 cm midrange units, three 18.5 cm midbass drivers and two 26 cm woofers, all with aluminium cones, in three-layer aluminium cabinets with constrained layer damping. The Grandioso T1 turns its 19 kg aluminium platter through the MagneDrive System, where magnetic poles on the motor pull a soft iron wheel on the platter with no belt or idler, and Magne-Float magnets cut the effective mass on the bearing to about 4 kg. Wow and flutter is rated at 0.06 percent or less, and a 10 MHz input can lock the drive to an external master clock.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - new Viva Audio Verticale speakers
1 component
The design combines three horn-assisted ways with a fourth, separately powered low-frequency section. Each speaker carries four 10 inch long-throw woofers, a 6 inch horn-loaded midbass and midrange driver, a 1.4 inch horn-loaded compression driver and a proprietary horn super-tweeter on its own decoupled support. Crossovers sit at 200 Hz, 1200 Hz and 10000 Hz, and the rated response is 35 Hz to 23 kHz within 3 dB. Sensitivity of 98 dB per watt and a 6 ohm nominal impedance come from horn loading of the midrange and treble. Because the woofers take power from their own amplifier, the main amplifier never sees the bass array. At the debut the horns ran from a Viva Solista MK III, a Class A single-ended triode amplifier with 845 valves and 22 W per channel, and the US room added the two-chassis Viva Linea preamplifier and the Viva Numerico DAC.
High End Munich 2025 Systems - Estelon XB and MSB
3 components
Estelon XB floorstanders from Estonia run here from an all-MSB Technology electronics pair, the Cascade DAC feeding an S500 Stereo Amplifier directly. The room was shown at High End Munich 2025, the year Estelon marked its 15th anniversary. The idea behind the pairing is simple, a compact three-way speaker in a cast composite cabinet and a two-box digital chain whose converter also handles volume, so no separate preamplifier sits in the signal path.