I'm a hifi newbie so my reactions may be flamed to bits, but I'll post them anyway. This was the first show I've ever been to. I'll omit most of the negatives since I too was rather unimpressed with many of the rooms. I rather enjoyed the Focal Chorus 716Vs that were there, and am considering purchasing some. These ones only cost £749 so I don't think they're the ones that were discussed above. Without getting into a hifi justification, I liked the sound of them and wouldn't mind having them in my house. The Dali Lektor room was impressive since each of the sets of speakers was under £300, and I thought they sounded quite decent even compared even to speakers ten times the price at the show. I found the Acoustic Energy Radiance to be exciting and involving from the few tracks I heard, but I got the sense even while I was there that hifi people don't like them. Oh well, I suppose I'm the philistine. Waterfalls also sounded decent even if the look is a bit flash. (I thought the Eclipse were really ugly and didn't sound very good.) I also thought the DLS M66 sounded pretty good, but probably not worth the price. Same thing for the Totem Acoustics -- nice sound for such small floorstanders, but they were quite expensive for their sound/size/look. Oh, and finally: I thought the Sennheiser HD-800 sounded great, although unfortunately I can't go out and spend £1000 on headphones, and from what I understand it was hooked up to about £16,000 of kit. The look was a bit robocop-esque but not awful (I think pretty much all grado headphones look worse, flame me if you must). I also agree that they were doing something wrong with the vinyl. I think it might have been cheap cartridges on expensive turntables, which is sort of like drinking cheap wine from an expensive glass. Or maybe it was something else, but generally I was unimpressed from turntables that apparently cost many times what my Roksan Radius V cost me.
Not a bad show at all. Stand out rooms for me were: World Designs - Simple little system using their latest 25T speakers with new cabinet material, uprated crossovers and fancy Seas Millenium tweeter, fed by the WD88VA valve amp getting signal from a cheap n cheerful DVD player. Open, airy and unforced sound was the result from about £2k worth of kit. DPA - Yes they are back and with a new range of kit that retaines the classic styling. Sounding typically tight and controlled. Naim - didn't get to hear much but did hear the brand new Uniti all in one box. At last, the product they should have released a year or two ago. This combines a CD player, FM/DAB/Internet radio, 50wpc linear amplifier based on the Nait 5i and wireless network streamer all in a 'Reference' case. looks very like the HDX with it's neat little screen but the best bit is the cost - £1995. If it really does sound like a bunch of 5 Series components in one box it should fly off the shelves IMO. Best bit of the show was spending 5 hours with Martin and Stephen drinking cocktails and getting rat-arsed after the show
Some absolute stinkers there, not going to name and shame as some listers may be offended. Things I liked : Bryston & PNC stand, some good sounds coming off there. Totem: Every year I leave thinking how good they sound, my Veenas may have to be kissed goodbye ! Tannoy : Yikes....I sort of liked the new Definitions. Leema : The Xanadu's ? sounded pretty good. Had a spend with Diverse Records and on the Naim Vinyl stand. Bumped in Max Townshend there, always a pleasure to chat with.
Martin, that sounds remarkably similar to your impressions of last years show. You do know you don't have to insult your ears at all and can just go straight to insulting your liver don't you?
