High End 2019: Day Two Mini-Report

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Day Two of High End 2019 was the first day that the show was open to the public. 

Among the systems I listened to on Day Two these are the ones that stood out.

Harbeth had its Monitor 40.2 speakers on demo, driven by Magnum Dynalab amplification.  This system produced male and female vocal with an extremely natural sound, solidly imaged in a deep soundstage.  Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" sounded great, with sparkling cymbals and drums with a very natural tone, again a wide, deep soundstage.

TuneAudio presented its flagship Avaton horns with the Rockna Wavelight server and DAC as sources.  Traformatic Audio provided the amplification, with its Lara line level preamplifier and a pair of Pandora monoblocks.  Cables were by Skrogrand.  The sound was effortless, emerging naturally from a huge soundstage, which was eveident even far outside the sweet spot.  These huge horns completely disappeared in the room.  A very impressive system.

Kaiser Acoustics and Audio Note had two systems on demonstration in their large room.  The first system featured the new flagship Kawero Grande loudspeakers in copper and black, matching the Audio Note Kagura 211 monoblocks.  The rest of the system comprised the Ginga turntable, SFz MC step-up transformer, GE-10 phono amplifier and the G-1000 preamplifier, all from Audio Note.  The Kawero Grande speaker were very new and had not fully broken so there was a slight edge to the sound, though their potential was most evident.

The second system comprised the new Kaiser Kawero Furioso Mini with a turntable from AMG, a digital front end from MSB Technology, and Audio Note amplification.   Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon sounded excellent on "Homeless" from the Graceland album on vinyl.  The system thew a huge soundstage with solid, palpable imaging.  This was one of my favourite systems at High End 2018 ... and is again this year.

The MBL 101 E Mk II loudspeakers, driven by electonics from MBL's Noble Line never fails to impress, with its power, resolution, tonal richness, and huge soundstage.

The day ended with a press conference with acclaimed singer, Jennifer Warnes and her producer, Roscoe Beck.  The discussed Warnes' new album "Another Time, Another Place." The stimulating and insightful discussion also dealt with "Famous Blue Raincoat," and their philosophy and process for recording and producing an album.

Here are the Day Two pictures:

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