HIGH END Vienna 2026: Our Recap

HIGH END moved to Vienna this year, and the Austria Center suited it. Rooms on one level, daylight in the corridors, and enough space between the big demonstration rooms that you could hear one system properly before walking into the next. We spent four days there with the brands we represent — listening, taking notes, and photographing more equipment than we can reasonably fit into one post. Here is what stood out, brand by brand, with our own photographs from the floor.

T+A — the HV line, driving Solitaires

T+A brought their flagship HV components to Vienna and put them to work driving Solitaire loudspeakers, which is the fairest way to hear either. The main room paired a full HV stack with a pair of Solitaires; along the front wall, a line-up of the Solitaire range stood on plinths next to a sectioned cabinet with the crossover and bracing left open to view — a very T+A way of saying that the engineering is the product. The demonstration had that unhurried HV authority, the kind that makes a full orchestra sound like it has room to move rather than something being pushed through a pair of boxes.

Worth noting for anyone building a system at this level: the entire T+A setup was wired with in-akustik. The HV monoblocs sat at the end of in-akustik's reference cabling, which is exactly the pairing we would suggest ourselves — and it says something that T+A chose it for their own flagship demonstration.

in-akustik — the biggest cable stand at the show

No cable manufacturer took more space in Vienna than in-akustik, and none of it was wasted on marketing. The stand was built around display cases showing the products with their internals exposed: the Reference AIR Pure Silver cable opened up so you can see the air-chamber geometry and the silver conductors inside it, the NF-2405 AIR interconnects laid out end to end, and a power strip dismantled to reveal the filter boards and the busbar work behind the sockets. It is a confident way to sell cable — here is the engineering, look at it — and it drew a steady crowd all four days.

The same cabling was audible elsewhere in the building, not least in the T+A room above.

Linn — the Pistonik drive units, demonstrated

Linn used Vienna to demonstrate their new Pistonik drive units, and did it the direct way: a pair of Linn 360 loudspeakers driven by Klimax Solo 800 monoblocs, with the driver technology explained on the screen behind while you listened to what it does. The 360s were in a copper finish that photographs better than it has any right to, and the demonstration leaned on material with real low-frequency content — which is, after all, the point of a driver designed to move like a piston and stop when the signal does. It was one of the rooms we went back to.

Wharfedale — the new EVO series and the Rosedale

Wharfedale's stand carried two stories. The new EVO series was there in its production form, and next to it stood the Rosedale — a big, wide walnut cabinet that belongs to an older idea of what a loudspeaker looks like, and which turned more heads than anything else on the stand. Seeing the two side by side is a fair summary of what Wharfedale does well: a modern series engineered to a price, and a heritage design built because someone wanted to build it properly.

Grado — the flagships, on the counter

Grado's stand was, as always, a counter with headphones on it and someone happy to hand you a pair. The flagship models were all there on their wooden stands, plugged in and playing, which is the whole demonstration — no room, no setup, just the headphone and the music. Hearing the top of the range the way Grado intends it is one of those small pleasures a big show occasionally makes room for.

Moonriver — the new Model 606

Moonriver used Vienna to show the new Model 606, and it was doing what a Moonriver should be doing: sitting on a rack under a turntable, playing records in a small room, sounding considerably larger than its specification suggests. The walnut cheeks and the understated fascia are unchanged in spirit from the 404 — this is a company that improves a design rather than replacing it.

What comes home

Several of the products above are on their way to our showroom over the coming months. If any of them are on your list — the Pistonik-equipped Linns, the new EVO series, the Model 606 — let us know and we will arrange a listening session as soon as they arrive.