England's Abbingdon Music Research (AMR) explained to us the plethora of design features found in the PH-77 phono stage, many of which are apparent on the unit's back. But most relevant to vinyl aficionados is the internal analog-to-digital converter along with the enormous number of equalization curves it has available. In regard to those curves, not only does the PH-77 come stock with a lot of them, the company can custom-program curves for listeners who have even the most obscure LPs around. For vinyl lovers with diverse musical tastes, the PH-77 might be a dream come true. The price when available is expected to be approximately $13,000 USD.

Lyngdorf’s Millennium ADC (5500 €) now features an optional phono stage ($1500 €) to go along with its four analog line-level inputs. Cosmetically, it closely matches the other Millennium-series components.

Denmark’s GamuT demonstrated the new flagship loudspeaker, the Superior 9 (95,000 €/pair). The '9 is a very large, very heavy (185 kilograms each) three-way loudspeaker with three 10 1/2" woofers, one 7" "sliced-cone" midrange, and a ring-radiator tweeter mounted within a waveguide.

Obviously, Germany's Gobel isn't going for the imposing footprint and appearance that the GamuT is. Then again, this speaker is not likely meant for the same kind of application. Shown is the the Detaille S bending-wave loudspeaker (2490 € each) in two colors, with and without grille (on the right is grilleless). The Detaille S uses a small flat panel to emit sound from about 150Hz up, and is intended to be used with the Detaille subwoofer (not shown). The company also makes an on-wall version.

Italy’s Lector came equipped with several new products, including the Zor preamplifier (800 €). The Zor uses 6922 tubes and has five stereo line-level inputs. It is a great cosmetic match for the 105Wpc Z100 power amplifier, which sells for 900 €.

Germany’s Montegiro has been in the background, manufacturing other companies' turntables. Now this company is making its own 'tables. At High End, Montegiro showed a wide array of turntables ranging from the mild to the wild. Above is the least-expensive Legno (7500 € with tonearm) sporting a very attractive wood finish. The flagship Lusso (29,000 € with two tonearms) looks like an art-deco metal sculpture in its silver-and-black guise. If neither of these suits you, there are other models priced in between that look -- and probably sound -- quite different.

T+A's name always generates a few snickers when North American journalists say it, but T+A products never appear to be a laughing matter. At High End 2008, the company showed what seems to be a do-it-all music server, CD and DVD player, iPod docking station, and Internet and VHF radio player. What's more, it also has built-in drivers (tweeter, a midrange, and a subwoofer) all powered by internal amplifiers. The price is 1600 €. The only thing more we could ask for -- and we did -- was to take the acrylic lid off so we could get clearer photos of all the bells and whistles. The company representative wouldn't do it.

You don't often see paper-cone tweeters anymore, but, obviously, some still exist. Austria’s WLM uses one of them. At this event the company introduced the La Scala stand-mounted (2500 €/pair) and floorstanding (3000 €/pair) designs. According to a company representative, they're both called La Scala and have no other model name to distinguish between them -- a little odd, we thought. Both of these two-way speakers sport 93dB-rated sensitivity -- and that paper-cone tweeter.

You don't see orange components often, either. But it's not a show gimmick, at least that's what the rep from Germany's Vincent said. In fact, the company's brochure says, "pimp my hi-fi," which we assume is what the orange color is about. Shown from top to bottom is STU-8 tuner (price TBA), the SA-T8 preamplifier (1899 €), and the SP-T800 mono amplifiers (1999 € each). Some may differ, but Doug Schneider thought the color quite distinctive.