All prices are in German marks unless otherwise noted.
At time of show report, 1 U.S. dollar is worth approximately 2.1 German marks.

Post-Show Report - Vinyl in Frankfurt
by Vangelis Lazarou

I always love to visit the Kempinski Hotel, mainly for audio equipment and vinyl at the annual High End show! Actually, this year at the Kempinski I found many new and interesting vinyl-related products that you can read about below. And I have to mention that the turntables at High End 2000 were always playing -- they weren't around for looks.

This is only a prototype, but Robert Suchy, the restless ClearAudio man, showed me how it works. This record-cleaning machine begs us to ask the question, “Is it possible to clean both sides of a record at once?” The answer now is yes. In the same room, I noticed the new ClearAudio magnetic bases, which you put under hi-fi components.

Stig Bjorg of Lyra cartridge fame holds the new Helikon cartridge.  Helikon is a Greek mountain near Delphi, like the other mountain, Parnassus. This cartridge is the replacement for the well-known Clavis DC. The Helikon has at the front a piece of Corian and "a more balanced generator system." I listened to the audio system with the Helikon very carefully (I've used Lyra cartridges for a long time), and I found the result to be a combination of the old Clavis (in terms of accuracy) and the Parnassus (in terms of musicality).

The Avantgarde Duo horn speakers were at the business end of the Verdier La Platine turntable (my reference). To my ears, the sound was very close to that of live music.

Eddy Driessen makes products under the Pluto name -- turntables, tonearms, cartridges, cables and stands. Here is the model 12A turntable sitting on its huge base (made from carbon fiber), and the whole system is isolated with an amazing (even at its exotic price) stand.

Believe it or not, the dream is here! Yes, this is a real vinyl recorder by Vestax, the VRX-2000. Will we soon be wondering if recording on vinyl is killing sales of the format?

The reason that I discuss the Tannoy Kingdom 12 speaker here is simple -- it sounded amazing. The Kingdom 12 is a very good loudspeaker from a legendary company. Now back to our regularly scheduled vinyl programming….

A record-cleaning machine by Loricraft of England. Loricraft also makes new plinths and has new parts for the well-known Garrard turntables.