“Are you not entertained?” It’s a meme wrapped in a movie—Russell Crowe in Gladiator, feeding the red meat of a fight to the death to a hungry crowd, and then calling them out for it. Somehow, that scene rattled around in my head for the entire time I attended High End 2026 in Vienna, Austria.
As I take you through my impressions of the show, I’m not going to delve into whether the move from Munich to Vienna was a success or not (I think it was)—Doug Schneider addressed that topic in great detail in our show coverage. Instead, I’d like to share my highlights with you, in no particular order.
First off, the city itself. Vienna is absolutely lovely. Even the industrial areas—our hotel was in a bit of a drab pocket—have their charms. Everywhere you look, it seems like the Austrians are doing their best to make the city look clean, livable, and aesthetically pleasant. Buildings, statues, stonework, everything. It’s history gift-wrapped, with a bow on top.
But that goes for much of Europe. There’s stratified history, built up on the base of previous civilizations, so different from Toronto, where anything even remotely old gets torn down and replaced with disposable glass and prefabricated fast-food architecture.
Beer was reasonably priced also, just below Toronto prices for a pint, which is a bonus. We spent our first afternoon in Vienna at the Schweizerhaus beer garden, where I found myself fascinated by the ridiculously large pig-foot thingy that the person next to me ordered. Even though it was sized to share, I didn’t eat any of it, given that I’m Jew-ish (said with fingers spread, making a see-saw movement) and I don’t eat anything with pork in the name. Bacon is OK, as is ham if you slice it very thinly, but that’s a story for another day.
So Vienna was a marvelous base for the new High End show. The subways were fantastic, rapid, and clean, with excellent signage. The show venue itself was also great, once we’d gotten used to navigating its somewhat labyrinthine layout. The Austria Center Vienna is more spacious than the Munich Order Center, and despite—from what I gather—show attendance being on par with last year’s event, it never felt crowded.
As with the Munich show, there was so much to see that it was essentially impossible to cover even a small percentage of what was on offer. As at past shows, my methodology was to just vibe it out. Unfortunately, that meant I had to do my best to avoid just scoping out personal favorites, but as usual, I failed.
Doug and I started our tour on the lowest level, which hosted some of the larger rooms. Several of these exhibits were huge and put to wildly different uses. I stopped into the room shared by Pro‑Ject and European Audio Team to take a deep look at Pro‑Ject owner Heinz Lichtenegger’s new project—the resuscitation of Verdier Audio and the Platine Verdier turntable. It’s always a pleasure chatting with Heinz, as he’s an enthusiast first and a businessman second (at least that’s how he presents at shows). Jozefina Lichtenegger was also present, and I took the opportunity to catch up and get a quick photo of this audio power couple in front of one of Jozefina’s paintings, which perfectly matched her dress.
The Pro‑Ject/EAT room was massive, and it seemed that they’d dragged along every current product from their extensive lineup. The wide swings, from all-in-one ultra-affordable ’tables to huge, expensive audiophile confections, are the reason I pretty much always advise anyone who’s looking to pick up a turntable to check out Pro‑Ject’s website and pick the price point they’re comfortable with.
There were two other huge rooms on that level that I suppose I must mention. Three years ago, I was stunned by the scope of ESD Audio’s horn system. This wasn’t so much a system that you listen to. Rather, it was a spectacle, an exercise in excess. This year, the company was back with an equally over-the-top system. Close by in another room was another pair of horn speakers that were competing for the title of the world’s most outrageous stereo system. In this case, they were from Cessaro Horn Acoustics out of Germany. Huge, impractical, and in some ways pointless. These massive systems are, I guess, loss leaders that buffalo media and showgoer attention toward the company’s more affordable products that are actually saleable and practical.
At any rate, I briefly stepped into both rooms, long enough to determine that the frequency response in each case was as lumpy as a cancerous testicle. They played loud and all, with that typical dynamic horn quickness, and that was almost enough to get past the weird resonances and odd peaks. I could certainly see how it’s possible to bamboozle yourself into looking past the flaws of these massive, impressive concoctions, and in some ways, that’s what I did back in 2023. So staying around the edges, not really looking and not being intimidated by these monsters, I think I avoided being forced to appreciate the sound. So, yeah, not for me, but still, are you not entertained?
At the other end of the show, way up on the top floor, was another speaker that leaned toward spectacle. JBL was showing its new Summit Series Everest loudspeaker. And the reps were making sure you knew it, given that they were playing the pair loud. This is an impressive speaker system—large, with lots of big-ass drivers. The sound here was bass-heavy, as you’d likely imagine, but it was well balanced, with a touch of the smile EQ from bygone days. While it put a smile on my face (who doesn’t like high volumes and corresponding whomping low end?), this was another system that put grandiosity just slightly above sound quality. You’d obviously need a correspondingly large room to support these speakers, but it wouldn’t need to be ballroom-sized, not like the bridge-troll horns I saw downstairs. I’d say that the Everest is at the absolute size limit of a speaker that’s designed for humans.
Some big news from Ortofon. I had fully intended to cover Ortofon’s new Vertex cartridge in our show report, but we ran out of time. As I said, I tend to use my feels to guide show coverage, and sometimes it bites me in the ass.
Anyway, Ortofon introduced the Vertex cartridge, which employs a diamond cantilever, pure silver coils, a sintered titanium body, and their new Vertex stylus. Some post-show digging into this stylus via Ortofon’s literature indicates that the Vertex is a modified, advanced line-contact geometry, and this is the first time that Ortofon has used this particular stylus profile. The Vertex cartridge employs all of the nifty enhancements and proprietary technologies that Ortofon has developed over its 100-year life. It’s an extremely advanced cartridge, and represents the brand’s new top-of-the-line offering. That high-end performance comes with a high-end price. The Vertex retails for US$16,999.99.
Of course, you could always shift the decimal one place to the left if you instead purchase Ortofon’s also-new MC X50 cartridge (US$1699.99). This little guy is the brand-new top offering in the company’s fairly new MC X line, the previous top model being the MC X40, which I reviewed almost a year ago. Among other refinements, the MC X50 uses a Micro Ridge stylus in place of the MC X40’s Shibata stylus.
A box? Who cares about a component’s packaging? Well, as a reviewer, I have to decant and then repackage a ton of equipment, so the box is of some importance to me. I’ve received a pair of $75k speakers that each came in a single-layer cardboard box with a piece of foam at either end. At the other end of the spectrum, I’ve also been mighty impressed by several components that have arrived in Pelican-like plastic flight cases. The arrival and presentation of a component are quite important to me.
Doug and I stopped by the MSB booth to see what was up, and while he was chatting away (as is his wont), I snooped around a bit, taking in the beautiful casework on the equipment on static display. What really caught my eye was not so much the impressive M500 mono amplifier—it was the shipping crate that supported it. Made from top-grade, good-one-side plywood, this crate’s panels were very cleverly designed, and obviously cut via CNC. The design was not only functional, but it was also aesthetically pleasing. The MSB logo was deeply routed into the side, and each screw hole had a corresponding arch above it. If I ended up buying a pair of these impressive amplifiers, I think I’d stain and lacquer the crates, top them with a slice of marble, and maybe use them as end tables.
What a great show. I’ll echo Doug’s sentiment—High End 2026 was a success. Oh sure, there are some bugs to work out, a tune-up here and there, but for a first-year effort, I was very happy with High End 2026, as were most of the exhibitors I spoke to. And I’ll reiterate: Vienna is an absolutely beautiful city and a feature of the show in ways that Munich can’t match.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
