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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 20:13:48 GMT
It was quite a small show and not very busy at all. Discussing the attendance with others it did seem to have been marketed pretty poorly. I don't know for sure but I get the impression that it was only really the hobby regulars that got to know about it and a lot of them were at the Wigwam show. We wondered whether someone missed a trick, given the current interest in vinyl among younger folks and the fact that Manchester has a massive student population.
I didn't actually get into all of the rooms but I took a few photos in some of some stuff. Back in a moment!
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 20:23:44 GMT
Here's another one with that album cover! As I said to Nick: good effort in this room. Very nice indeed.
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 20:37:07 GMT
How many dealers are up for giving a meaningful demo of phono cartridges nowadays? Not many, I'll bet. So this was interesting - a comparative demo of stylus profiles. They were being plugged into an AT moving magnet generator mounted in a modified AT turntable. I'm unsure of what the preamp was, but it was tucked under the turntable. Speakers were actively driven Yamaha NS-1000 The amps and crossovers were mounted into enclosures in the stands. The amps were Class D Hypex modules and I both Jules and I didn't think they were doing the sound any favours. The owner told me that he had replaced the previous Lab Gruppen pro amps with these and he couldn't tell the difference. Not sure what I can say about that! An interesting demo, nonetheless.
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 21:07:23 GMT
An impressive looking system with a beautiful Luxman turntable and a fairly lofty price tag. Avid phono stage, Bryston amps and Proac speakers. It sounded a bit ordinary to me though.
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 21:08:27 GMT
I didn't know Bryston sold a turntable.
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 21:11:11 GMT
The Project room. I knew they had a large range but this queue was longer than the one at the bar!
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 21:16:50 GMT
Pristine Vinyl RCM. It's based on the Keith Monks thread and vacuum principle but a good bit cheaper. Still £2K though!
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Post by ChrisB on Mar 20, 2017 21:38:50 GMT
The Air Audio room. Planalogue turntable, 100wpc Astin Trew integrated amp, Trichord phono stage, Pearl Acoustics Sibelius speakers (using Mark Audio drivers).
There was also an Air Audio AC-2K balanced power unit. Built into a sturdily constructed case and, I was told, an internal enclosure, all mounted on shock resistant bits and bobs - £1,600. The most interesting bit of kit in the show for me was the arm mounted on the turntable in this room, the Abis SA-1.2 tonearm. It was discussed here on The Audio Standard back in September 2014.
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Post by MartinT on Mar 20, 2017 21:50:16 GMT
I wish I could have made it to the show.
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Post by julesd68 on Mar 20, 2017 21:58:17 GMT
Here’s just some brief thoughts about what I saw and heard at the show. I left my camera in London but fortunately Chris came fully armed!
The first room I ventured into was run by The Audio Files who had a very interesting demo of the new Audio Technica MM carts with interchangeable styli that allow you to upgrade from a humble spherical upwards. We got to hear what each ‘upgrade’ brought to the party. Deck was a very respectable upgraded direct drive AT LP5 IPT deck which retails at £695. Active Yamaha NS1000M speakers were fed by class D power amps. These sounded a bit on the cold side to me and for me it would have made more sense to demo them in a more ‘standard’ set-up.
Fanthorpes demo’d a very nice looking Luxman belt drive deck - particularly liked the look of the arm on this. Amps were Bryston and speakers were nicely finished PMC. Listening to some Queen I felt that whilst the system was resolving plenty of detail, I found it overly analytical and ‘hard’ sounding and didn’t want to listen for too long. Of course I can’t be sure but possibly the PMC speakers were the issue here. I would like to hear the Luxman in a different set-up for sure.
I didn’t spend long in the Inspire room as there didn’t appear to be much happening when I went in and there was some very strange music being played at very low volume! I should have gone back there later as it was one of the very few rooms where there was a range of interesting decks including their Monarch. I would like to check them out another time.
Pro-ject had all of their range on display but not actually hooked up in a system. They had a myriad of designs and finishes which I can’t say I found appealing. Everything looked very lightweight and not overly engineered in my opinion.
I then spent a fair amount of time in the Longdog Audio room with Nick Gorham and Ali. The new LDA monos were fed by a Garrard deck with NWA cart. Speakers were the modestly sized Graham Audio LS5/9 speakers. The sound was beautifully balanced, spacious and a pleasure to sit down and chill out with. If anyone is in the market for a serious pair of monos I would seek out a dem. The new solo cello album by Vincent Belanger was portrayed with a lovely timbre; I also really enjoyed the Mighty Sam McClain vinyl. For me it was the best sound of the day and felt this was a system I could easily enjoy at home. The speakers would not be my first choice at that kind of price point (3.5K) but were well suited to the size of the room; at home I would enjoy a bit more bass wallop.
LongDog went to some trouble to make the best of the room’s acoustics with GIK acoustic panels and bass traps. I had a good chat with their friendly rep who obviously knows his onions from dealing with recording studios. I really liked the visual appeal of the panels as well as their function and would very much like to give these a go at home - you can send them photos with dimensions of your room and they will then advise how to get the best acoustic balance in your room. The panels did not seem overly expensive individually but I guess it depends how much treatment your room needs!
I also very much enjoyed the friendly AirAudio room and had a good chat with the guys there including the designer of a new British tt that I had not heard about previously - the Prelude by Plananalogue, demoed with an Abis tonearm & Hana SL cart. The Abis seems to take its cue from the Dynavector arm that Martin uses, but didn’t appear to be quite as sophisticated or rigorously engineered. Didn’t see the price though so maybe not a fair comparison. There was an Astin Trew integrated amp with Sibelius loudspeakers by Pearl Acoustics. By today’s standards the Prelude is modestly priced at around 2.5K in base form I believe. My only criticism of the system would have been the speakers, which had an effortless midrange but seemed a bit limited at the frequency extremes - possibly not surprising given their full range driver design. Overall the sound was very fluid and natural sounding. The Hana would be a direct competitor to my AT33PTG/II cart and certainly worth auditioning in that £600-ish price bracket.
There were a number of RCM’s on display including an uber expensive German made ultrasonic that was demoed playing dirty and cleaned vinyl at deafening volume into mainly one channel of a pair of headphones (!!) but the Vivac RCS was the most interesting for me. It’s actually quite a handsome machine which you could even leave out on ‘display', which is quite unusual for an RCM! You can check out the details on the Pristine Vinyl website but if I had £1600 to blow on an RCM this would be a very serious contender - it cleans quickly and quietly with the minimum of stress and chance of contamination to the vinyl. Great to see such a carefully thought out design and wish them the best of luck with it.
Overall I really enjoyed my time at the show. It wasn’t rammed but this made it very easy to move around and gave you the chance to speak to the exhibitors. I hope they do the show on a bigger scale next year.
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Post by MartinT on Mar 20, 2017 22:06:29 GMT
My main centre panel is a GIK, Jules. The price was considerably lower than the Acoustic Sciences PicturePanels and it does the job well. I chose the artwork for the finished item.
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Post by julesd68 on Mar 21, 2017 10:36:56 GMT
Yes they seem good value and I do like the latest designs in their Impression Series ...
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Mar 21, 2017 13:13:18 GMT
Yes good value and look good too.
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