Exclusive: Inside Vienna High-End 2026 — The Pinnacle Of Luxury Sound Unveiled
From flagship high-end audio debuts to artisan audiophile craftsmanship, this year's HIGH END 2026 Vienna hi-fi show sets a new benchmark for excellence in audio performance.
HIGH END 2026 Vienna Show Report By Jason Kennedy

Aries Cerat
Perhaps the most wonderfully extreme high-end audiophile company in the Mediterranean, Aries Cerat was found in a tower block near to the HIGH END show in a suitably capacious space with some huge 3D diffusor panels behind and around the system.

The Sirenes loudspeakers look like they are made of pearl and copper but are in fact wooden with 'liquid' finishes that go some way to accounting for their €265,000 price. These are open baffle designs with active drive to a pair of field coil midrange units, horn-loaded super tweeter, and no fewer than four 12" bass woofers per side.

The sound on the end of a Pandora Minor turntable via single-stage triode FET amplification was pretty darn fabulous, the depth of image was off the scale, and instrumental timbre has rarely sounded as good. These speakers actually sound better than they look, and I love the look!

Ideon, EMM Labs, Network Acoustics, Telos, And Brodmann
This group of brands put together one of the best-sounding streaming systems at HIGH END 2026 Vienna this year. Alongside the core components of Ideon Absolute Stream meta streamer and Axion DAC, EMM Labs PREi and MTRS power driving Brodmann JB175 speakers with active bass towers were some interesting ancillaries.

Network Acoustics brought their new Muon2 network switch, filter, and streaming cables to clean up the signal between the streamer and network, and the system featured a Telos Master Earth Grounding unit to reduce ground noise.

I am told that Jeff Lin of Telos set up the grounding unit by listening to a few notes on his iPhone for each device, and the result of this apparently simple process was a complete transformation of the system sound. It certainly imaged superbly when I managed to play something and sat in the custom-built hot seat, rarely does a show system have this much clarity and precision without sounding hard-edged.

Guru
Swedish speaker maker Guru signed a deal with Heinz Lichtenegger of Pro-Ject fame a couple of years ago and has been expanding their range ever since. The latest addition is the Elements range of sealed box designs that were created with the aim of bringing back the fun to listening in the home. It's a crazy idea, but that's Scandiwegians for you. I heard the largest Elements No.15 being demonstrated and have to say that it was a very enjoyable experience.

This model has an 8" paper cone woofer and soft dome tweeter and is voiced for near-wall placement in an effort to make these speakers easier to accommodate in the average home. Elements speakers are available in a range of finishes, including a rather attractive orange fabric called Satsuma, the guys at Guru clearly have their eye on the market beyond audiophiles.

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