What did you think of the show Rob?
Well no sane person attends these things expecting great sound so I wasn't disappointed but I had good company (Simon and JonR) and there was lots to look at. The high and low points both came from Naim. High point for me was a good chat with Doug Graham for an hour or so after the show had closed and we got our own private dem of 'that' mains cable. Nice to hear his views on music, the future of audio, design and libel...... but we won't go there Low point was the dreadful head ache inducing noise being made by what must be £30k+ worth of Reference kit running into DBLs. A booming, honking mess. I felt duty bound to inform Mr Graham of the cacophony coming from this system - well I like to be direct Honestly, a fool with £500 in his pocket, an internet link to eBay and a half decent room could have done better. We also met the AVI crew and were treated to some 1940s digitally restored brass band music played RATHER LOUDLY which was fun.
Chris, I just dont know why Cyrus use MA speakers, they are not a good match imo and the relatively bright character of the new range of Cyrus gets exaggerared by the MA's. Spendor or Dynaudio are a much better match. Oh well. A lot of these issues must be down to the hotel rooms - I've not been to one of these shows, but I would imagine the same systems in more domestic settings would sound completely different. Basically it's an opportunity to see something you might like to hear properly at another venue. Shame really, but I cant imagine a venue where so many manufacturers could get together in one place other than a large hotel / conference centre.
As the small rooms are basically the same I think you can compare the kit as a total - esp if you take along your own reference music. None of it might sound brilliant but some sounds better than others to certain ears. From that you can take combinations of kit and start exploring. Just like the demo room at a shop won't be like your room, trying at home is the only answer...
technobear, small correction , the chord was playing into a dynaudio contour s3.4 not confidence. sounded fantastic
Just looked at the difference on the Dynaudio site. I can't remember now what it exactly looked like so I'll take you word for it. Ta!
I only know because the dyn rep told me and I went to listen as I am thinking of getting a pair. perhaps chord made them hard as you felt they sounded. I quite liked them .
I see that the beggining of this thread is about last years show - the end seems to be about this years show - how confusing.
