Best Of HIGH END 2025 Blue Note Awards
Only the ultimate audio equipment deserves a special Blue Note Award.
HIGH END 2025 Audiophile Show Report By Jason Kennedy

  Receiving an Enjoy the Music.com Blue Note Award is an extraordinary honor that sets a product apart as one of the finest within the high-end audio industry. Selected by seasoned audiophile expert Jason Kennedy, the Best Of HIGH END 2025 Blue Note Award 2025 recognizes not only groundbreaking design and innovation but also an unwavering commitment to delivering an unparalleled listening experience. It may represent the culmination of decades of expertise and careful scrutiny, underscoring every nuance of sonic perfection and technical artistry.

To accept this accolade is to join an exclusive club of manufacturers and products who have achieved the pinnacle of audio excellence — a true beacon of quality and passion within a very competitive arena.

One system that I particularly enjoyed was that manned by CAD (Computer Audio Design) and Trilogy Audio. Scott Berry of CAD has completed work on the third generation of his 1543 MkIII DAC ($20,500) and this combined with his CAT streaming transport, numerous Ground Control devices including the GC-R Reference seen between the speakers, was allowing Trilogy's 915R pre-amp and 995R hybrid monoblock amps to drive a pair of Peak Consult El Diablo speakers in particularly engaging fashion.

Gillian Welch's April 14th (Part 1) proved particularly strong in this setting, raising the hairs on the back of my neck with its naturalness and communication skills. With Mop Mop's Spaceship Earth, the room was filled with atmosphere, the pulse of the bass, and the natural tone of Anthony Joseph's voice being very real. I could have, and should have, stayed a lot longer.

Here at HIGH END 2025, Métronome has integrated Audirvana streaming software into their entry-level DSAS music server. It makes sense that a French company would be the first to build a streamer based on French software. Audirvana has been making sophisticated software for PCs for over a decade, so it is about time someone made the connection. The DSAS (Digital Sharing Audio Server) is available with 2TB or 4TB SSD drive. The €5,990 price includes a three-year license for Audirvana's premium service.

This was one of several rooms playing a cover of Brothers In Arms, with a Jadis I-70 integrated vacuum tube amplifier and Davis Acoustics The Stage loudspeakers. The sound was nicely focused and calm, with an ease that made it relaxing to listen to. Quite a rare quality at the HIGH END audiophile event. Métronome also demonstrated an early sample of the DST CD transport (€5,000), with a slot loading mechanism chosen for its quietness and reliability. Digital outputs include I²S via modern HDMI, AES/EBU via XLR, S/PDIF via RCA coax.

Merason makes Hi-Res Audio DACs in Switzerland while Vinnie Rossi makes amplifiers in the U.S. QLN is a Swedish loudspeaker company. Put together, the combination of these three global brands was a pretty entrancing sonic experience. Melanie De Biasio's With All My Love provided the source sound for a hugely deep immersive soundscape with very low noise and heavy low frequencies. The new Merason Mountain DAC (€19,500) took signal from an Innuos Statement Hi-Res Music server and Vinnie Rossi's Brama stereo pre-amplifier ($39,995).

Amplification was provided by Vinnie Rossi monoblocks ($59,995 per pair), which in turn powered the QLN Reference 9 loudspeakers (€45,000). With cabling by Transparent and room treatment by HOFA-Akustik, this home audio stereo sound system is certainly high priced, but the sound was distinctly high-end audiophile in all the right ways.

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