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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2017 20:53:37 GMT
So who's off to the Bristol Hifi show this year?
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Post by MartinT on Feb 6, 2017 22:52:14 GMT
Not me, too much stuff going on.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2017 16:17:02 GMT
Well that show was a real disappointment.
There were some good rooms - Hegel/Amphion, TAD, Q Acoustics.
But the remaining rooms were a real disappointment, REL as always cannot demonstrate to save their lives, they just bang and crash and too loudly, utter nonsense and really puts me off their subs.
Also it was far too busy and too many people sitting outside blocking the corridors chatting or in the rooms chatting loudly disturbing the music demos.
For their 30th Anniversary I was expecting much, much more!
One nice find were the IsoAcoustics GAIA II speaker stands/cups... similar idea to the Townsend I think although a lot smaller and cheaper, so I must investigate further.
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Post by davidf on Feb 27, 2017 18:38:14 GMT
I don't like copying and pasting, as I find it a bit impersonal - I like to post individually to each forum I'm on. But this is a long post! So here's a few thoughts on the show I posted elsewhere: "I have to add that the Neat Iota Alphas were very good indeed. The second time I went in the room I wasn't sure whether they were playing or the larger floorstanders next to them, which says a lot about them. Decently big soundstage for such a small speaker. Quite impressed by the new Spendor models too, although not so much the D9, but then, it was on the end of some Devialet, which I'm not convinced is a great match, not for me anyway. The D7s sounded great on the Auralic though, as did the smaller models on the Rega Brio-R. I was extremely impressed with the little A2 floorstanders! Both rooms using Amphion speakers sounded great (Auden and Hegel), but after playing with them here, I sort of expected that! KEF's LS50W wireless speakers sounded fantastic, filling the usual KEF room with ease. The Nordost room sounded great too, using Moon electronics and ProAc D20R speakers. The AVM products were sounding suitably high end in the PMC room, even with a pair of Twenty5.22s. Awesome build quality and useful options. Extremely impressed with the TAD room for a second year running, this time with their "baby" ME1 speakers. Piano on these was brilliant, particularly the more impactful sections of the piece being played. Off axis was excellent too. Tight, fast, dynamic. The Sound Fowndations room with the GamuT integrated amp, speakers, and Clearaudio TT was amazingly detailed, and not your typical "warm" vinyl sound. The SVS SB16 Ultra was just crazy. With what it was chucking out, I expected it to bottom out numerous times during Super 8, but it took everything in its stride. I'm surprised the Marriott Hotel didn't get complaints from Temple Meads train station... The Kudos Titan 707s didn't overly impress me on first visit, but then, it wasn't my type of music. A second visit corrected that The Little Kudos speakers in the AudioQuest room were also doing a fine job, despite a very simple Rega system fed by a DragonFly from a laptop. Anyone with a carbon fibre fetish will love the new Elipson turntable, with its carbon fibre base and tonearm. A good option for those who also want a high quality Bluetooth turntable for Sonos/Bluesound/multi-room systems. I think Leema were cheating a bit with some hunking great ATCs, but it was the best sounding Leema room I've heard so far. Tried out a few Audeze headphones too, which sounded just as I like my music - tight, fast, dynamic. Suitably well built and weighty too. The Cyrus room sounded good, with the Cyrus One being used with a number of speakers, and a couple of models there from the PMC Twenty5 range. Ophidian sounded great, of course, and were playing some better music choices than most (Kruder & Dorfmeister). The Little Exposure XM5 amp was doing a really good job with them. Innuos were showing their new Roon interface - looked georgeous! Tempting... The B&W room were using the 800 speakers, driven very well by some chunky Rotel amplification, which were out to prove the 800s weren't out of their league. The baby Kronos turntable was looking just as desirable as its bigger brother... Last but not least. The Arcam AV room was excellent last year, but was even better this year! The larger Reference centre was being used, plus some custom subs, giving extra authority, presence, and naturalness to the whole soundfield. Well done again Andy, worthy of the award win! There were far more rooms than that, but not all are springing to mind right now!"
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Post by ChrisB on Feb 27, 2017 18:57:40 GMT
Did anyone take any piccies?
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Post by davidf on Feb 27, 2017 21:23:51 GMT
I only took a few of some products of interest, not really of the rooms. I couldn't take many as I don't have a lot of memory left on my phone, regardless of how much I seem to delete!
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Post by julesd68 on Feb 27, 2017 23:18:33 GMT
hmm - checked out the 'baby' Kronos - not so much a baby price tag at $21,000 or £24,950.00!
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Post by davidf on Feb 27, 2017 23:23:51 GMT
hmm - checked out the 'baby' Kronos - not so much a baby price tag at $21,000 or £24,950.00! Sounded stunning though. I don't know which album I was listening to, but you could hear just how good the turntable was. Non existent noise floor, clean and clear.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 9:05:00 GMT
No sorry I didn't think to take photos until I was leaving.
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Post by MartinT on Feb 28, 2017 10:42:36 GMT
Was our TonyC in the TAD room?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 10:53:21 GMT
Was our TonyC in the TAD room? He was the room opposite when I went in but was so busy talking I didn't get a chance to say hi. He was demonstrating a Belles integrated (think it's their latest model).
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 12:27:29 GMT
hmm - checked out the 'baby' Kronos - not so much a baby price tag at $21,000 or £24,950.00! Sounded stunning though. I don't know which album I was listening to, but you could hear just how good the turntable was. Non existent noise floor, clean and clear. It's a good TT and beautifully engineered but does it sound more than 5% better than a Michell Orbe? Unfortunately the pricing like TAD is mind boggling and likely twice what it costs in Canada where I believe it is made. The TAD speakers are fine to great but those stand mounters (which i assume are their 'budget' jobs) still had some of the restrictions typical of stand mounts and frankly a floor stander takes up no more space. I liked the ProAc D20R used by Michell. Was also impressed by the Rega P1. Frankly this is the best Rega TT I have heard and first I really liked. They have certainly got something with these new designs. Sound as usual was rather poor in most rooms which I put down to equipment set up and material played at too low a volume in most cases. Technics Dem of the SL1200GR was not that convincing but may be down to their new amps and speakers of which I have read criticism of poor sound before. Think I missed a few rooms judging by comments but some of the big names I generally ignore as they never fail to disappoint. Unfortunately only had a crappy phone camera on me so did not take any pictures.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 12:31:32 GMT
I agree that the Technics room didn't sound that impressive, they were ok on some music but on other genres it just didn't work.
Interesting you mention volume though, as I generally find that at shows they play the music too loud for me, not too quiet.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 12:36:22 GMT
The Audio Note room which is always a favourite of mine, didn't sound as impressive this year, but then I only popped in for a few seconds because I wasn't impressed with how busy it was in there, all chairs were taken up leaving only standing room and there were about 7 people standing up in that small room so it just wasn't pleasent.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 12:54:22 GMT
I agree that the Technics room didn't sound that impressive, they were ok on some music but on other genres it just didn't work. Interesting you mention volume though, as I generally find that at shows they play the music too loud for me, not too quiet. The thing was in some rooms it was hard to hear music properly over people asking the exhibitors questions at the back of the room. There is a fine balance here v trying to play loudest and drown adjacent rooms out. So often it's the same brands that get it right every year and others never do themselves justice. Audio Note have been demoing roughly the same set up too many times including the National Show at Whittlebury Hall. However it's likely the sweet spot between performance and an almost affordable price.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 14:34:01 GMT
I agree that the Technics room didn't sound that impressive, they were ok on some music but on other genres it just didn't work. Interesting you mention volume though, as I generally find that at shows they play the music too loud for me, not too quiet. The thing was in some rooms it was hard to hear music properly over people asking the exhibitors questions at the back of the room. There is a fine balance here v trying to play loudest and drown adjacent rooms out. So often it's the same brands that get it right every year and others never do themselves justice. Audio Note have been demoing roughly the same set up too many times including the National Show at Whittlebury Hall. However it's likely the sweet spot between performance and an almost affordable price. I see what you are saying, completely agree, a lot of the time I couldn't hear anything because there were too many people talking amongst themselves or to the exibitors. Not sure what it was, but this year for me was a real let down, maybe I have got to a level with my own hifi that wandering around these types of shows is no longer as appealing, don't know.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2018 10:41:54 GMT
Anyone going to the show this year?
I went last year and was a little disappointed but have enjoyed it the other times I have been so thought I would go again, it is a boys day out with my Dad and his best mate.
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Post by MartinT on Jan 17, 2018 11:10:26 GMT
I think I'm giving up on Bristol as it's not a show of great interest to me.
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Post by dsjr on Jan 17, 2018 14:25:05 GMT
Don't ever regard the rooms as a good place to hear music properly, as usually the sound is awful - the more fancy-foo the gear, the worse the sound quite often too, the least pretentious gear doing a better job I remember.
I thought you'd all be queuing for the Harbeth rooms so you could hear how 'good' the £500 Yamaha integrated really is and how un-necessary it is to have anything more expensive as it won't sound any better if the volume is matched to within 1/10 of a decibel and you do an instant switch.
Just think of the thousands of pounds you could save MartinT. A Yamaha integrated will solve all your system problems and you can buy another fancy car with the money saved...
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Post by MartinT on Jan 17, 2018 15:24:55 GMT
Thanks for the advice, Dave. I knew I was going wrong somewhere!
I'll bet those nice little Elacs will sound good in their crap rooms. Amazing speakers!
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