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High-End '99
Due to the coincidence of the Frankfurt High End ’99 and Chicago HI-FI ’99 shows being held at the same time, a number of the people who would normally be present in Frankfurt were not. Still, I met quite a few people over the four days of High End '99, and here are some of them.
Daniela Manger is not only the daughter of Josef Manger, the inventor of the highly unusual and superb Manger driver which is another go at a "Bending wave converter," she is also an engineer herself and has taken over the day-to-day running of the Manger company. You can catch a glimpse of this most unusual speaker driver on the poster behind her.
My acquaintance with Hans Henrik Möerch of "Möerch tonearm" fame goes back to the '70s, and he is still going strong, selling quite a few of his excellent arms. In Frankfurt, Möerch was exhibiting with Amazon/Audio Physic.
Audio Physic has a rightfully earned reputation as provider of world-class speakers, but general manager Hartmutt Janssen has another love that we see him exercising here. Playing LPs is what Amazon (his second company) is all about.
Bo Christensen has been around the audio block once or twice. Years ago he started Primare and a new tradition of superbly executed designs (both sound and looks) in Danish hi-fi. Now he is known for the equally superb Bow amplifiers and CD players.
Those of you who have read my report of last year's High End show or review of the TacT Millennium will know the person in this picture. It’s Peter Lyngdorf, president of Tact, here seen leaning nonchalantly on the new TacT RCS 2.0 room-correction unit and the Millennium Mk II.
If you don’t know these two friendly gentlemen, I won’t blame you. They were representing Jensen Capacitors and are, in fact, Hans Jørgen Tobias Jensen (left), son of company founder Tobias Jensen and current general manager of Jensen Capacitors, and his technical right hand and chief designer, Józef Harsányi. While not being properly exhibited, Jensen products (paper-in-oil and other capacitors as well as superbly executed coils) are used in some of the most highly respected audio products today -- from Audio Note to TacT. Let me just tell you that these guys know something about capacitors, and who says that solid industrial expertise can't be used for audio?
Aalt Jouk van den Hul requires little introduction among the many who have experienced his cartridges or his unique cables. The picture can in no way convey the tremendous energy with which van den Hul approaches almost any discussion or conversation. If you ever get a chance to have a talk with him, don’t let it pass. You will enjoy yourself and almost certainly learn something as well. I always do.
Coming from a background of producing measuring equipment for some of the most demanding applications in the world, H.M. Strassner entered the audiophile market some years back. Few people can explain the intricacies of high-performance cables so succinctly and in such a no-nonsense way as he can.
The Suchys, father and sons, of Clearaudio can truly be called an analog dynasty. Father Peter (left) and oldest son Robert (center) are designing and selling some of the world's best and most beautiful analog equipment.
Peter Qvortrup is not just a businessman. He is a music lover and somewhat of a philosopher. He is always good for a bold statement, and more often than not you have to agree at least partly with his sentiments. After listening to CD transfers of music recorded in the '20s, '30s and '40s, some show-goers left his room shaking their heads. But Peter has serious qualms about the directions both music and the hi-fi business are taking. He has threatened with the publication of a paper titled "High End or High Art?" Although not all of his old records moved me, some did, and perhaps some of these questions should be given our attention.
Peter Holstein started out as a very young man modifying and damping phono cartridges. He progressed to speaker units and then developed a kit speaker that was quite a hit in Scandinavia when discussed in High Fidelity magazine. Not satisfied with this, he then, in partnership with a friend, started developing electronics with a difference, which today gain much recognition throughout Europe under the Holfi name and are often recognized by their distinctive solid-wood fronts.
Manfred Zoller is a self-described audio anarchist. Besides having imported Focal loudspeaker units into Germany for a number years, he has produced a whole series of finished speakers as well as kits, many of which are of high-efficiency designs, to the great pleasure of those running low-power amplifiers. Today he is liberating us poor Europeans suffering under Code 2 DVD players with almost no software available, and he provided the best home-theater system of the show for nowhere near the highest price. My kind of anarchist.
Martin Dürrenmatt is a soft-spoken man producing some really unusual hi-fi gear. He is the executor of Oscar Heil's estate and uses a refined version of the Air Motion Transformer not just in his speakers but also in one of his headphone models. These headphones, which have developed out of a long history of building the Jecklin Float electrostatic headphones, are whole chapter of their own.
Ing. D. Klimo has a solid reputation in Germany for building 2A3-based tube amplifiers. He was doing this for quite a long time before the current craze, and listening to his setup proved that he is putting all of that experience to very good use.
Who is Lars Pedersen? Well you might not have heard too much of him. You might not even have heard of the company he runs. But if you are into better European hi-fi, you will almost certainly have heard of the two brands produced by Xena Audio. Lars started the company a good many years ago with a friend, and it shares the distinction of being a Danish/Swedish company. But Lars is one of the movers in European hi-fi, and today his company produces Copland and Primare equipment, both of which have been reviewed in SoundStage!
This very friendly gentleman is Njoo Hoo Kong. What caught my attention last year was not just that his speakers made beautiful music together with the KR Enterprise amplifiers, but also that his company, Venture, is based near Antwerp in Belgium. Nonetheless, I have been told (and not by him) that he enjoys a very high reputation in the Far East, where he has received several medals for his products.
Actually, I wanted to give you a picture of Thomas Sillesen, who is boss-man of Densen and a perfectly nice-looking chap whose amplifiers have received excellent press all over the world, including in SoundStage! But since his favorite musical instrument is the air guitar and his latest poster (hoping that it is neither too commercial nor too Danish to be appreciated) had me chuckling away for several minutes, I decided to use this picture instead. Talk about swinging ladies! And I certainly concur with the sentiment. |
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