The DARK Side of HighEnd Vienna 2026

I visited the show on business Friday and consumer Sunday. On neither day did I have a problem getting a seat in the top listening rooms. Sunday, 1pm, I listened in one of the highlight rooms. No queue, and a third of the seats were empty. At MBL and VTL I was listening alone. Good for me, but was it good for business?

It was the show's first time in Vienna, and it was my first time visiting the HighEnd show. So I can't compare it to the previous years in Munich.

On Sunday I visited the consumer part of the show for a guerrilla marketing stunt. I handed cards to visitors and exhibitors. And the different reactions were astounding.

The good, the bad, the ugly.

The good.

There is a difference in attitude between how founders and employed salespeople treat you. All the outstanding, welcoming conversations I had were with founders or brand owners.

I had an awesome conversation with Matthias Ruff, co-founder and master engineer of Avantgarde Acoustic. He told me some background about my Zero TA and many details about the G3 and the Mezzo. (To be honest, I understood half of it.) And he explained how huge a real bass horn has to be to go down to 20Hz. He took his time and was super friendly.

Paul from PS Audio was as charming as we know him from his YouTube channel.

Transrotor founder Jochen Räke and his son were like always. Amazingly supportive and friendly. My first high-end turntable was their Transrotor Plexi Iron with an SME 3009 II. It still runs and has survived many relocations since 1993.

On Saturday, I bumped into Daryl Wilson around the corner from my Vienna home. And even though it was his private day and he was with his family, he took the time for a little chat and explained why they decided to build the Autobiography without motors or a mobile app for the adjustments. What a nice guy to talk with.

And these are just a few examples to underline that the owners of some of the biggest high-end brands understand how to treat people who love the hi-fi hobby.

The bad.

In half of the rooms, the representatives were talking to each other instead of to you. It felt like you were disturbing them. I saw people shaking their heads and leaving the room. And don't you dare ask if they could play your favorite track, the one you use to evaluate a system. Some did. Most just refused. WTF.

Something I heard a lot: "Write an email to xyz. You'll find the address on our website." Wait. WHAT?

And it was not only visitors who got the cold shoulder. On the eve of the show, Stereophile published what a dozen brand owners and distributors told them anonymously. Brands that had exhibited in Munich for a decade landed on waiting lists. Some heard that members of the HighEnd Society, the organization behind the show, got first pick of the rooms.The Society denies it. One distributor called the organization "aggressive and haughty." Others stopped waiting and booked elsewhere. That is partly why three satellite shows ran within walking distance of the main venue, some of them filled with brands that could not get space at the big one.

See the pattern? When a trade show treats its exhibitors like an inconvenience, nobody should be surprised when exhibitors treat their visitors like one. Indifference runs downhill.

The ugly.

This needs some context to understand the situation. It was consumer Sunday, and I was dressed accordingly. All-black Air Max 89s, white Adidas tennis socks, knee-length shorts, an oversized white Carhartt t-shirt, and a NY Knicks baseball cap. In Brooklyn, where I lived before I moved to Vienna, and in my hometown Berlin, you would say: everything on fleek. And while Devon Turnbull might dig that, others don't. Fair enough.

But never judge a book by its cover.

Here is what happened. I had just left the Goldmund booth (best snacks of the show, btw) and approached a well-known, family-owned brand on the same floor. Three brand representatives had gathered around a standing table in their somewhat empty booth. I walk over and say: "You guys look like you like hi-fi," and offer them my Pure Neo cards.

Salesman: "What is that?"

Me: "It's a new online platform for the hi-fi business and hobbyists."

The salesman gives me the cards back.

Salesman: "That's not for us. We are not hobbyists. We are PROFESSIONALS!"

Me thinking: OKAY. Then start behaving like one!

Me saying instead: "I'll see you next year, and I promise you, you will know me by then."

I know. Neither funny nor very witty. But I was a little shocked. Actually, it hurt. I did not feel right. I am a fan of the brand. Even though I own a speaker from one of their main competitors, I have always loved their brand.

In the end, he is an employee damaging the brand. He is neither the founder nor the brand owner. And I know for sure he is not behaving according to their brand identity. But I think this is not okay at a trade show.

Yes, it was Sunday, the last day of the show. And maybe he had a drink or two at lunch. Or just a bad day. But this is not how you treat business people and potential customers.

I will get over it. The question is whether the industry can. Because that salesman did not dismiss one visitor in sneakers. He dismissed the exact people this hobby needs to survive. And they walk out of your booth more often than you notice.

Wake up. The reality is now.

What I observed most in Vienna was disconnection. Brands fighting to survive or grow while their core audience is aging out. And a new audience standing right outside the door. Sometimes literally, in sneakers.

Two things every brand in this industry should care about:

• The AI boom will mint thousands of new millionaires over the next three years, and a few dozen billionaires once the IPOs land. They are Millennials and Gen Z. They don't wear suits, and they don't care that you do. They won't dig your brand as long as you don't dig them.

• Looksmaxxing is the strange edge of an optimization-obsessed generation. Dealmaxxing is its default setting. No generation has ever researched a purchase harder than Gen Z. They want the best possible value for their money, and they will find it online long before they shake your hand. Ten years ago, the problem was print brochures. Today, you have a website. You probably paid an agency good money for it. But it was built for yesterday's internet: SEO-tuned for a Google search that is fading, and invisible to the AI tools this generation uses to research. And invisible brands don't get bought.

Here is the good news. This is the biggest opportunity this industry has seen in decades. The customers are coming. The money is coming. The only question is whether they will find you when they search.

We want to make sure they do.

The Mission

The internet as we know it today is already disappearing. The 'dead internet' effect is pushing manufacturer websites and hifi forums into the role of secondary sources.

This is why we decided to build the new primary source for hi-fi audio.

Connecting the dots.

Vienna showed me an industry where everyone talks past each other. Organizers past exhibitors. Exhibitors past visitors. Brands past their next customers.

There is no sustainable way to improve an entire industry by focusing on only one part or the other.
With Pure Neo we connect customers, manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and reviewers.

Be the wave

There are rare moments when technology transforms the way we live and work. Now is one of them. We stand at the edge of something extraordinary, and it's just getting started. AI is driving transformation at a pace and scale we’ve never seen before.

A massive wave of change is building. Faster than expected. Bigger than predicted. The way we search, discover, and decide is already shifting. It doesn't wait for permission. It doesn't slow down for anyone. Don't get run over by this wave — be the wave.

Pure Neo Hi-Fi is in public beta. The AI Assistant is live, with new platform features landing every week or two.

Explore hi-fi the better way.