An enjoyable day out overall. Went along mainly for the meet up but thought I'd browse around a couple of rooms whilst I was there, going into the rooms where there the non a/v or slightly more specialist brands were, or if a room happened to be playing some interesting music at the time I'd pop my head in.
It was good to meet a lot familiar faces again, and to meet Titian and Penance for the first time. My apologise to nsherin too, we didn't really stay in the main bar area for long after 2, before being told that everyone else had already adjourned to the area that B&W were using for their multi-channel presentation.
Now, a/v and multi-channel isn't really an area of interest for me, but as one of the rooms which gave me the most enjoyment/grin factor was in fact an a/v set-up, so I thought I'd start off by giving Canton a mention whose room I walked in on towards the end the day. They were demonstrating a 5.1 speaker package whose appearance was decidedly aimed at the contemporary designer interiors market. The front and rear speakers were identical, very slimline cylindrical floorstanding units finished in aluminium silver coloured cases and making use of tiny metal coned drive units (a bit like the units in 7V's Seventh Veil speakers but they're probably not Bandor units?). To complete the speaker complement there was a matching oblong cylindrical shaped centre speaker that lay horizontally under the big plasma screen and a single subwoofer which sat in the corner of the room. A sat through a number of tracks from the "Queen - Live At Wembley Stadium" DVD that was released last year. Those slimline cylindrical speakers really disappeared, but the sound wasn't obviously thin or weedy sounding. The sub was doing a great job of supplementing the output of the main speakers when required, but yet I couldn't say that I could really detect its presence in an obvious way such was the integration. The sound was really immersive, and what with the lively overall presentation there was a real sense of being there at the concert - this system was really rocking out. Great stuff.
Have no idea what this system would sound like with more subtle music or films, as I only heard it playing a handful of track from the Queen DVD. They also had some ordinary box speakers which I sat briefly listening to after the DVD had been taken off, and whilst they match the a/v speaker package in the bass department without need a sub they sounded more run of the mill and didn't disappear as well as the a/v speakers IMO.
As with others, I really enjoyed the sounds from the Living Voice room who were playing a wide range of music from vinyl on a rather desirable looking SME 20 t/t when I was there. Music ranged from the famous bit from Albeniz's Suite Espanola (orchestral version), through some dub and D'n'B which I didn¡¦t recognise but enjoyed, through to 90's Seattle based rockers Mad Season. A decent mix of hi-fi and musical communication attributes demonstrated on a wide range of tracks there then.
A controversial thumbs up next... Chord Electronics!
Although I must state that I only heard 2 classical tracks in this room, they playing the Playful Pizzicato from Britten's Simple Symphony and Delius's On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring, it was certainly one of my favourite sounds for classical/orchestral music that I'd heard all day. A very open and spacious sound. Although I know a lot of people came away with that usual accusation that the Chord room was sounding "hard"
when they were in there, I didn't get to hear any more contemporary music in there so couldn't really compare meaningful notes.
Interestingly, the new compact floorstanders that JM Lab were demonstrating in their own were, I also noticed being used by Chord Electronics as well as by Sony in their SACD room. Erm, JM Lab's own room IMO produced by far the worst sound from those speakers, very muddled. I've heard the pairing of Spectral amps and dCS front-end with Transparent cables driving my very own speakers and sounding so much better than what JM Lab were getting in their room, quite a surprise, as it did sound like the driving electronics were compromising the sound to me rather than the room in this case. The same speakers on the Chord Choral system produced a much more transparent than I'd ever heard from a set JM Lab speakers before, whilst the pair that Sony had on their room on the 5th room was also a lot more acceptable than in JM Lab's own room. I'm not a great fan of JM Lab speakers personally, as almost every pair of I've heard sounds very coloured in the lower mids and just generally matter of fact in presentation.
Another couple of speaker pet hates would include for me Mission and Wilson Benech. Missions always seem to have a very toppy balance, nothing I heard yesterday blew away that image. Wilson Bench always seems to have a very thick and artificially over thumpy mid bass character, again heard the same thing that I've heard every year as I passed through those rooms. Both ranges would give me severe headaches after any kind of extended listening I'm afraid.
Spent quite a bit of time up on the 10th floor in the two Naim rooms. Now, even though I've heard components from the 5 series on a number of occasions both at dealers as well as in real systems around at other people's houses, I must say that I've never heard Naim kit sounding as laid back and un-anxious as it did in both the rooms I sat in on yesterday. The room housing the entry level system with 5i components didn't seem to offer anything special or unique at the price point IMO, although that same system with a Rega P3 (and a nice green one at that
) into the new Stageline phono stage was OK and enjoyable enough if veiled in the usual way that Naim can be IMHO. The Classic system next door when driven by the CDX2 CDP was probably the most enjoyable sound I¡¦d ever heard from an all Naim rig, even the Allae speakers were surprisingly inoffensive. At the end of the day though, even I found both systems to be a bit lacking in grooviness and forward momentum with more upbeat material.
The system that UKD were demonstrating I felt definitely had potential, although there was definitely some very bad room interactions effects going on with the tall and narrow electrostatics that they were using in there. There were some very definite phasey and beaming effects destroying the otherwise decent coherence which could be heard if you sat in the right place - neck brace anyone? It was certainly refreshingly to hear a pair of stats after all the box speakers that I'd heard everywhere else ¡V it simply reinforced the fact in my mind that every box speaker really does sound boxy/coloured and masks low level detail unless played loud. The music being played was the laid back "Neck and Neck" guitar pickin' album from Messrs Atkins and Knopfler, certainly enjoyable enough. Would have been nice to hear how the stats would have coped with something a bit more rocking, but then only out of curiosity's sake rather than because they were being eyed up as potential purchase material.
On an amusement and entertainment level I'm going to have to give the Quadraspire room a mention. :lol: I was the only other person in the room at the room at the time, as I witnessed one of the Quadraspire reps being a bit acerbic and belittling of a guy who was already in the room and dared to even contemplate buying a Fraim. Taunts of "you'll completely screw up your system if you do", "you'll kill the music", etc. The rep proceeded to demonstrate the difference between 3 different stands with a 20 second burst of a Vanessa Carlton track played on an Accuphase CDP which was subsequently moved between the other 2 racks from the initial one. First rack was a steel and glass rack which gave a comparatively sharp sound and made the vocals very sibilant. Second rack was wood, which gave a much more muddled rendition - interesting to hear the rep tell us all that "it's out of tune isn't it?" - OK I don't agree that the pitch of notes of change but I can see what he means, yes pitch definition in the pass was now more muddled or less defined, the presentation/flow was a bit more turgid, but the piano and vocals remained the same pitch as far as I could hear. The 3rd and final rack was acrylic, which produced a half way house between the two, yes it was the best out of the 3, as the guy from Quadraspire had wanted us to think. For me, the differences were significant enough, although whether I¡¦d spend that much on a rack to fine tune those differences would be quite another matter. Instead of buying an entire rack, why not buy whatever rack looks good, then get some isolation platforms of the appropriate composite/construction to suit to taste, surely a lot cheaper.
Briefly popped my head into TCI's (True Colour Industries) mains cable demo, but only because the sound of Madonna's Pappa Don't Preach track caught my attention as I walked past the room.
Didn't stay for long though as the room was crowded, although I have sat in on TCI dems at other shows in the past, and it was nice to see them carting around their usual demo system made up of components which are very real world and don't cost the earth including items which you can buy second hand like the MF Tubalog DAC and B&W 7NT (?) speakers.
Finally, Seventh Veil speakers. Nice to hear these speakers for the first time and what with them having received a total internal rewiring since they were last heard by many forum members. Some nice coherence from the 7V speakers, and the sub/sat integration really works. The Steinhart valve amps were also quite a surprise too, giving the impression that impression of authority that you usually associate with SS but not always with valves, quite pricey though IMO. Only one criticism with the 7V speakers, hopefully a constructive one, but I'm sure I could detect some kind of cabinet resonance going on in what seemed like the lower mids - noticeably on certain male vocals or other instruments which appeared to add colouration. Apart from that a musically transparent design, congrats. Also sharing the Seventh Veil room was some cables and mains treatment devices from some nice guys calling themselves Omiga Audio, but did they really make a difference?
, so apart from all the problems with logistics, I was under pain of something nasty to spend a few hours at home with gf etc. so had to duck out at 6, especially as I'd left her on her birthday the Sunday before......
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