There are moments at audio shows when the air itself seems to change — when a room full of experienced listeners falls quiet not from politeness, but from genuine attention. High End Munich 2025 was that kind of moment for The Funk Firm, and we arrived with rather more to say than most.
Our presence this year centred on a straightforward ambition: to demonstrate, in real time, exactly why our physics-led approach to vinyl reproduction stands apart from four decades of industry convention. What followed was two days of conversations we won't forget in a hurry.
Main Listening Room: A Symphony of Innovation
The centrepiece of our main listening room was the Titanium Ice Vector — a turntable that earns its finish through what's underneath, not merely what's on the surface. Paired with our FZ tonearm and Akutrak cartridge tracker, this was a system assembled to answer a question most manufacturers quietly avoid: what does vinyl actually sound like when the engineering gets out of the way?
The FZ arm, priced at £6,000, is the result of years spent understanding why conventional tonearms behave so badly under real-world conditions. Where most arms rely on tube rigidity as their primary defence against resonance — and fail, because no tube is truly rigid — the FZ employs zero beam resonance technology to address the problem at its physical root. REER (Rear End Energy Rejection) then handles what passes through, redirecting energy away from the cartridge rather than allowing it to return as distortion. A proprietary decoupling system, developed from the same principles behind our Houdini, ensures the cartridge sits in an environment as acoustically quiet as we can make it.
The result, heard over two days of active demonstration, was a listening experience that genuinely challenged the assumption that digital has overtaken analogue. Several visitors used the same word unprompted: tape.
Technics Transformation
Alongside our flagship setup, we ran a parallel demonstration that made a perhaps more important argument. A modified Technics SL-1200 — a deck beloved by DJs and audiophiles alike, but rarely treated as a vehicle for genuine high-end performance — was fitted with our custom-engineered bearing system and Advanced Platter Mat (APM) technology.
The point was not merely to show that a classic turntable could be improved. It was to show how much performance lies dormant inside decks that owners already have. The Technics transformed convincingly. Visitors who knew the deck well were, in several cases, visibly surprised.
Hospitality Area: Where Innovation Meets Elegance
Our hospitality space served a different purpose — not demonstration through volume, but conversation through detail. Here, the debut of the AK1 arm drew sustained interest. Zero-tracking error technology has been a theoretical aspiration in tonearm design for decades; the AK1 represents our attempt to realise it in a form that is genuinely usable and genuinely musical.
A Kepler system finished in abalone provided the visual centrepiece, while a working display of our accessories gave visitors the opportunity to handle the products rather than simply observe them. The Cobra VTA adjustment tool, Houdini cartridge decoupler, APM, and Eeze-Lign cartridge alignment system were all available for close inspection and live fitting. These are the products that, in our experience, generate the most surprised reactions — because they demonstrate that meaningful improvement does not always require replacing the turntable.
Visual Showcase
Three 800mm banners guided visitors through the story we were telling across the two rooms. The first covered our Cobra, Houdini, and EZ-Lign technologies and the engineering logic that connects them. The second showed the breadth of finish options available across our product range — because the aesthetic deserves to match the performance. The third was dedicated to the AK1 and the breakthrough that zero-tracking error represents.
Our founder Arthur was present throughout, and his forty-plus years of development experience turned several brief conversations into extended discussions. That's as it should be. High End Munich is, at its best, a place where ideas are tested in public — and we came prepared.
Come and find us next year. We'll have more to show you.