It took me until last year to realize that the ZenSati room at the Munich show was not to be missed–despite being “just” a cable manufacturer, they have the chops to assemble truly world-class exhibit rooms. This year, ZenSati paired with Brodmann Acoustics of Austria to create a truly memorable room with extraordinary, if slightly unorthodox, sound quality.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
I was reminded to visit the ZenSati room by Zoran Mihajlovic of Supreme-Analog–his Tangenta DB Eternal Edition tonearm (28,000 euros), with its 14K rose gold finish and diamond bearings, has been in very limited production and he wanted me to see one before they’re all sold. When I entered the ZenSati room, however, I was treated to a very unusual set-up: in the sweet spot, my nose was only a couple of feet from the spinning turntable, the huge Brodmann Signature Series JB205 towers with two active bass towers were placed behind the main equipment rack with a substantial amount of real estate devoted to some of the nicest cable dressing I’ve seen.
Amplification in the ZenSati room was from Viola Labs, the turntable was a Rui Borges Pendulum Reference with a Clearaudio Goldfinger cartridge and a Joaquim Pinto Brutus phono stage, and the digital was supplied by an Aurender server and a Metronome DAC.
This unusual ZenSati set-up delivered one of the deepest soundstages I’ve heard at a high-end audio show, with most of the imaging occurring all the way to the back of the room and beyond. There was a certain undeniable genius about this system configuration–more often than not there’s a rat’s nest behind the equipment rack at hi-fi shows that does not display the cabling in the best light. As someone who was in telecommunications for many years and knows how to dress cables, I have mad respect for ZenSati and their ability to pay attention to how the sound of cables can be compromised by the way they’re routed.
ZenSati isn’t a well-known name in the US, but perhaps it should be. Static displays throughout the room highlighted the care and imagination used in building these cables, and the sound quality of the system was haunting in its realism. I’m glad Zoran reminded me to drop by–it was one of the best-sounding rooms at Munich 2024.
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