That time has come around again. The Munich Highend show kicks off 10th May and runs till the Sunday evening. Flights are dirt cheap and it's a great city all on its own so why not come down to experience the single biggest gathering that the industry sees ?

I will again be found mainly in the Tidal Audio room, please come and say hello. Like last year this is sure to be one of the very best and most crowded rooms but there will be an open door policy this time around so no need to book an invite with me.

In session will be a very special launch from Tidal. Although last year we had the new Camira DAC and Ferios mono amps announced, this year the bespoke company from Koln will reveal an even bigger and exciting range of product aimed more at the affordable budget. I can't reveal much more but suffice to say that i've had a sneak preview myself and this is no small thing !

Sticking with Tidal for a minute. They have almost finished works on their brand new demonstration facilities at the factory and we will be hosting customers here who have an interest in the bigger speakers, Agoria Akira and beyond, and also the Assoluta Mono amps.

The other big player in Germany in May of course will be Vitus Audio and they will have a large presence across the Vitus, Purist Audio design and Marten rooms.

In the main Vitus room the biggest news will be the new RI-101 Integrated amplfier which will make its debut. This is a much improved RI-100 (which hardly needed upgrading) incorporating the superior volume control from its big brother the SIA-025 with more volume steps. The preamp stage is fully balanced, the transformer is all new, new DC modules, better cooling ventilation and pretty much a rework for every component. You can expect even greater neutrality, resolution and microdynamics and overall a sound that is even more Class A-like. UK pricing is expect to be around £12,000.

The actual running system will be the new reference RP-102 phonostage into RL-102 linestage and RS-101 stereo amplifier. A newly updated RD-101 will also be making its debut with an improved DAC and support for Melco. We are not certain on the turntable but the Alluxity Media one will be taking care of streaming duties.

There is a small possibility that Vitus will also be showing the long anticipated SIA-030. We know there are some timing issues getting it fully ready but hopefully this will be sorted in time for the show. This 'supercharged' SIA-025 is sure to be a very key player in the Lotus portfolio once it is in full production.

The Vitus Munich room will feature Marten speakers from Sweden and the Marten room will feature full Vitus masterpiece electronics including two mighty MP-S201's running as monos, so a visit there will be well worth it too. The Purist Audio Deisgn room will also feature a full Masterpiece system fronted by an Alluxity Media one streamer.

Mark Dohmann's new deck is up and running at Lotus and going great guns with a glut of early sales. This is a wonderful machine at a fantastic price given it's lofty performance right at the very pinnacle of the Vinyl tree. I can't remember the last time i've been this enthused about a new product and I was compelled to pen a very early report on the deck on my website which you can read here. The superb Schroder CB tonearm comes bundled free with the Helix 2 as an introductory offer. We are not certain how long this generous deal will last but obviously when it ends pricing will be some £4000 more expensive.

The Helix 1 and 2 will of course be at Munich in various setups. Look for the Thrax room hosted by Audio Union for the main Dohmann presence. I gather Frank Schroder is also planning a suprise new product.

At the more affordable end we do very steady business with the little £3000 Exogal Comet DAC. In combination with a Melco streamer this is a giant of a digital source. I have had this running into a really open system literally 20 times its price and it's more than held it's own.

Moving up from the Comet the next DACs we offer are the tubed Allnic D5000 and the Vitus reference units. The Vitus RD-100 has been unavailable for a while though and we are hoping for an up to date an improved replacement very soon.

Now although we sell lots of Brinkmann decks we don't really get involved in their electronics but their new Nyquist DAC has really made us sit up and take notice and judging by all the glowing magazine reviews we are not the only ones. At £13k this sits very nicely at a pricepoint above Vitus reference but significantly cheaper than a Vitus SD-025, so perfect perhaps for those of us who want a flagship digital front end but are finding the big Danish DAC just slightly out of financial reach.

The Nyquist is highly feature packed and very up to date; Helmut Brinkmann has not done anything by halves here. MQA 384Khz, DXD, DSD 256, valved output stage, headphone amp, AES / SPDIF / USB / OPTICAL & Ethernet input, Roon ready, volume control, the list goes on and on. I have listened to it extensively here and it makes for a fine addition to our portfolio. It is a tad less neutral than many of the pieces we sell but its slight bloomy and rich character makes it so damm enjoyable to listen to that it will make for a very compelling source inside many a system. Brinkmann reliability, build quality and the out and out profesisonalism of the company and the UK importer are obviously additional standout strong points.

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Many of you will know that we've been quietly selling the excellent range of British cables from TelluriumQ for some time now. We have tended to focus on the Black and Ultra Black ranges for customers who are on a more limited budget. We find that TQ wires are neutral, open and have superb timing. They make perfect sense as a low cost cable with highend equipment and we finally got around to placing them as a brand on the website.

Of perhaps more importance though is that we feel their top of the range now can stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Highfidelity Cables and Entreq. We have been doing quite a lot of business with their new multi award winning Silver Diamond product and have a number of customers with very expensive speakers in the £20-£60k bracket now using this superb speaker cable. The same holds true for the Silver Diamond USB. At £888 this has become my go to high quality USB for use with a Melco streamer and although we have higher performing than this, for many this represents a good pricepoint to be at.

Also of note, TQ have also just launched their new Statement range, placed significantly above the Silver Diamond. We will be looking at this closely. Expensive but sure to be extremely high performing. Watch this space.

2018 has shown no let up in new customers moving over to Lotus systems from popular UK brands. At the time of writing the preloved classifieds are chock full with 2017 Naim 500DR series, Linn Sondek LP12's, electronics from Esoteric, loudspeakers from Kef, Wilson Benesch and Gato. We also have a good smattering of used and ex demo Vitus and Avalon equipment from customers who have recently upgraded, and plenty of wires and accessories from Entreq and HFC. Full preloved listings available here.

The Advent of the Mk2 generation of Melco streamers has meant a new milestone in digital Audio. We have dropped other brands of streamers to focus purely on what we consider to be the market leaders, out on their own by a very large distance whether that be on sonics, support, development or basic company infrastructure.

The new Mk2 generation improvements mean that we are now certain that the venerable CD transport has been truly superceeded. It's amazing how far streaming has come in just 3 or 4 years. The flagship Melco ZS with it's SSD drive was recently compared back to a host of flagship transports. At half or even a third of the price, the ZS was just more neutral, more resolving and more coherent with complex music. Nearly all of my customers with highend DAC's from the likes of Tidal and Vitus have made the switch into a ZH or ZS.

At the Bristol show Melco launched a pair of new products in their "100 series". The E100 is a useful 3TB backup drive and the D100 a high quality CD drive and ripper which promises even better quality ripped files over a lower cost drives. Initial testing suggests that the D100 will indeed be a good investment as the resultant files are noticeably superior. I will be conducting a blog very soon on the differences between flac files, wav files and D100 ripped wav files.