Series 2
All prices are quoted in euros unless otherwise noted.
1 €  is approximately 1.29 US dollars at time of report.

Germany's Avantgarde Acoustic, well known for its horn-loaded speaker designs, showed the new One series of electronics, which includes the One Power mono amplifiers, which are said to produce 50W of class-A power for a price of 15.000 € each, and the...

...One Control preamplifier, which is priced at 25.000 €. We particularly like the One Control's...

...volume control and input selector, which Jeff Fritz described as "thumbwheels."

Another company stepping outside its area of expertise is turntable maker Thorens, which has been operating since 1883, making it perhaps the oldest company in the audio industry. In Munich, Thorens displayed the new TEM 3200 mono amplifier, which will be released in August. The TEM 3200 is a hybrid design that is said to produce 200W into 8 ohms and 400W into 4 ohms. It will be priced at 5500 € each. Thorens also showed the accompanying...

...TEP 3800 preamplifier, a tube-based, fully balanced design. We were given no release date or pricing for the TEP 3800.

Esoteric showed prototypes of the upcoming AZ-1 integrated digital amplifier (top) and the UZ-1 universal audio/video player. No pricing or release dates were given. Both were gleaming and gorgeous. Esoteric also had on hand...

...the new X-03 two-channel SACD player, which uses the newest version of the VRDS-NEO drive mechanism and is equipped with an i.LINK interface. The X-03 is priced at 8000 €.