The last year has seen significant movement in terms of the ownership and leadership of several established and important brands in high-end audio. Some, such as Audio Research, seem to be in a downward spiral: we’ll see whether that’s a precursor to recovery. Others seem to be in rude health. Vienna was an opportunity to see these companies up close and personal, look in their eyes and read the tea-leaves. In a short series of reports, I’ll be visiting them in turn. First up is house-favourite Avantgarde, who arrived at the show with new management, new PR and a new speaker, to go alongside the more familiar faces and established design team.
The Opus 1 is a compact column speaker, pairing a spherical horn (700Hz to 20kHz) with a 10” fibre-cone bass unit. It’s a ‘full-range’, active system, with an equivalent sensitivity of 103dB. The active electronics offer 1 Watt of Class A (10 watts of A/B) for the midrange/tweeter, 250 Watts for the low-mid and bass, DSP-based bass management and extension to 35Hz. That’s a potent package for the €13,000/pr (inc. sales tax) asking price. Combined with the compact dimensions (35cm square footprint, 110cm tall) it brings Avantgarde performance into range for far more systems and spaces. The company were playing it in a large space, fed from price-appropriate sources: a Clearaudio Ovation turntable/Da Vinci cartridge and Innuos Stream 3. Pre-amp was the company’s own, under-rated and no-longer available, XA-Pre. The sound had effortless scale and dynamic range, but it was also refined, spacious, tightly communicative and engaging. Let no-one mistake the fact that this is a genuine Avantgarde system – but at a price far more people can afford and in a package far more people can accommodate.
The Trio G3 threw down a huge challenge to the established and far more expensive high-end competition, delivering performance that many listeners have always assumed would cost considerably more. The Opus 1, with the advantages of mature, horn loading and innovative active technology (based on, but not identical to, the iTron current-drive amplification found in the flagship systems) threatens to do just that to the more affordable end of the market.
Visitor Numbers In Vienna…
By Roy Gregory
The High-End Society, who organise the Vienna (and past Munich) show(s) has just published its attendance figures and breakdown for 2026.
Trade Visitors/Countries of Origin
Munich ’25 – 10,562 from 87 countries
Vienna ’26 – 10,603 from 93 countries
Public attendees
Munich ’25 – 11,675 from 63 countries
Vienna ’26 – 11,957 from 76 countries
Media Representatives
Munich ’25 – 581 from 43 countries
Vienna ’26 – 549 from 45 countries
Total Visitors
Munich ’25 – 22,818 from 92 countries
Vienna ’26 – 23,109 from 104 countries
A slight nudge up (almost) across the board: Quelle surprise – and not predictable at all!
All this at a time when international travel prices have sky-rocketed, flights and the numbers flying are all down, the world economy is teetering on the brink of recession and most manufacturers reported low attendance by distributors, especially from the far East.
