Munich High End 2015 Begins Tomorrow

The lead photo is from last year's show. Preparing now for this year's show, which promises to be bigger and better—and last year's show was impressive in every way.

While waiting on line at the airport yesterday I overheard a conversation between two pharmaceutical executives. One had a distinctive "Aussie" accent I thought. Turns out he was from New Zealand but living in Munich. The conversation turned from business to Ebay. He told his friend he'd been shopping for "stuff" recently. He'd bought a clarinet. He used to play one and decided to take it up again.

Then began the vinyl conversation: he had an old Luxman "valve" amp his father had given him that he'd decided to refurbish and set up. He also decided he wanted to play his dad's collection of jazz 78's and LPs that he'd inherited but never played. So on Ebay he found a Luxman turntable that he bought and had restored.

Then he began extolling the pleasure he was deriving from listening to the turntable. "It's something totally different than digital", he explained to his friend. "It's amazing how much more information you hear on those records and how much more pleasurable is the listening". You probably know what came next: he was on Ebay regularly buying records. He'd gotten hooked.

Of course at that point I had to inject myself into the conversation. He knew about the Munich High End Show but hadn't planned on attending. However, as we boarded he said he just might go on Sunday.

Stay tuned for analogplanet show coverage here, and via Facebook and Twitter too. Meanwhile, I had forgotten that the panel discussion at CUNY Graduate Center hosted by the distinguished jazz critic and author Gary Giddens in which I'd participated along with Amanda Petrusich and other collectors and preservationists had been recorded and was available online. You might find the discussion interesting. You'll certainly relate!:

COMMENTS
sunderwood's picture

Have you noticed that there seems to be be more of a passion about records now than there was all those years ago when it was pretty much the only format we could get? At least that is the way it feels to me. There are facebook pages like Vinyl Records Forever where members will post photos of the records they are playing or just bought. I went for about five years of digital only and I get more excited now when I find something nice used or new in a vinyl store than I ever did with a cd.

wao62's picture

I own a small, but nice, collection of about 500 78s and let me tell you, they can make an LP of the same material sound like an MP3! Of course back then the compression nessesary to cut a microgroove record was not needed to cut a 78 (I believe because of the groove size & depth). If I really love some Jazz, blues or early rock tune, I'll look for a clean 78 of the same recording. Even worn they can still sound wonderful. Playing 78s becomes an active sort of intimate experience with the music because one needs to sit next to the record player in order to change the record every 3 minutes!

bmurphy777's picture

Somehow I can't help picturing the Marshall McLuhan scene from "Annie Hall". The vinyl enthusiast must have got quite a kick out of the experience!

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