Germany's Brinkmann always seems to put on a good display at High End, and this year was no exception. The aptly named Lautsprecher (48,500 €/pair) boasts an Accuton diamond tweeter that can be time-aligned by sliding the tweeter module back and forth.

Brinkmann also debuted a new turntable. The Oasis (9000 € without tonearm) is a direct-drive model that features an attractive wood finish. In this setup, it's sitting atop a Harmonic Resolution isolation base and stand.

Germany's ASW garnered a lot of attention with the new flagship loudspeaker, the Magadis (20,000 €/pair in various high-gloss-over-wood-veneer finishes, as shown). The Magadis’s driver complement includes an Air-Motion Transformer tweeter from Mundorf, Accuton ceramic midrange drivers, and Scan-Speak woofers. A variety of real-wood finishes are available.

It seems that high-end-audio manufacturers are always finding ways to utilize exotic materials to push the performance of their products further. This tweeter is a combination of ceramic and aluminum and belongs to Canton’s revised Reference Series, of which the 3.2 DC loudspeaker ($8000 €/pair) is the first model. But it’s not just the tweeter that’s new. We were told the cabinet has been revised along with the material and geometries of the bass and midrange drivers.

This tweeter comes from Chario out of Italy. At High End, the company was playing its newest loudspeaker, the Sovran. This three-way model incorporates a 170mm Rohacell midrange driver, a 200mm woofer, and a 32mm Silversoft dome tweeter. The retail price for the Sovran is 11,000 €/pair.

Speaking of speakers, Denmark's Dynaudio brought an entire new line of loudspeakers to Germany. The Excite series (780 €/pair. to 2500 €/pair for the main speakers) includes five models: two bookshelf speakers, two floorstanders, and a center-channel speaker. The smallest model, the X12 (780 €/pair), caught Doug Schneider's eye.

Norway's Electrocompaniet showed a number of new products. Seen here are two of the three new DP-series components: the DPA1C preamplifier (bottom) retails for 6000 €, while the much larger 250Wpc DPA1S stereo power amplifier is 12,000 €. A still larger mono amplifier is not shown. Electrocompaniet also displayed the new Nordic Tone Model 1 speaker that we featured in our ShowStoppers - Series 1 section.

The logo and the mesh of metal are rather unmistakable -- they belong to MartinLogan of the United States. At High End, ML showed the new Spire loudspeaker, a hybrid design that features a 44" electrostatic panel mated to a 10" dynamic woofer. The compact form factor and attractive cosmetics should make the Spire adaptable to many home environments.

Does that look like leather to you? It is. ReVox displayed one of the more interesting speaker finishes at the show. As seen above, the leather-wrapped L34 bookshelf loudspeaker (3600 €/pair) made its debut at this show. But leather isn't only available on the L34; you can get it on other models as well.