Statements in High Fidelity | German Edition 2025

The magazine of my colleague Wojciech Pacuła, highfidelity.pl, and hifistatement.net traditionally award a component at the trade fairs in Munich and Warsaw that impressed us in the previous six months. When the High End will take place in Vienna next year, will we still be able to talk about a German Edition?

There will probably have to be some changes to the awards next year, but there are also two novelties this year: My colleague has always been very keen to award CD players such as the Gryphon ETHOS and the Ayon Audio CD-35 II HF EDITION, leaving streaming components out of the running. You can imagine my surprise when his choice this time fell on the Taiko Audio Olympus XDMI + I/O XDMI? Wojciech Pacuła wrote: „I am ready, although my readiness is about the “here and now, to say that the Taiko Audio Olympus, in the version I tested, is one of the best audio products I have ever heard. …The tested transport is distinguished by the fact that everything it does, it does perfectly, and it can put it all together. It delivers amazingly low and deep bass, there is also an almost warm but really natural midrange, and there is also an outstandingly resolving, accurate, saturated treble. Dynamics seem to have no limits although in this case it's mostly about micro-dynamics. The latter reminds me of what I know from analog tapes. The space is huge, but precisely organized.“

For me, it has always been important that the award-winning component is either an innovation, such as the Børresen 05 SSE with its chassis featuring greatly reduced inductance, or that it is very customer-friendly in terms of price, such as the Keces S4. This time, I opted for model refinement rather than innovation and chose the Alumine FIVE SX, with which Stenheim demonstrates the potential that was already present in the FIVE tested years ago and has been revealed through continuous development. In my review, I praised the FIVE SX in the Statement: „With the Alumine FIVE SX, Jean-Pascal Panchard and his team have succeeded in turning a very good high-end loudspeaker, the “simple” FIVE, into a truly impressive top-of-the-range high-end sound transducer. The FIVE SX not only stands out as an extremely reliable working device, but is also equally suited for purely hedonistic purposes. It is neither placement-critical nor does it place high demands on the connected amplifiers. I can emphatically recommend the FIVE SX to all music lovers.’

So, the first Statements in High Fidelity this year go to the Taiko Audio Olympus XDMI + I/O XDMI and the Stenheim Alumine FIVE SX. Congratulations to the winners!

Previous Statements in High Fidelity:

2024 POLISH EDITION

Ancient Audio Lektor Joy
MSB Technology Cascade DAC

2024 GERMAN EDITION

Norma Audio Electronics REVO CDP-2
Keces S4

2023 POLISH EDITION

J.Sikora KV12 MAX
WestminsterLab Quest und Rei

2023 GERMAN EDITION

Ayon Crossfire Evo
dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC

2022 POLISH EDITION

Crystal Cable Da-Vinci-Serie
Raidho X1t

2022 GERMAN EDITION