CeriTech Audio Open Day in deepest Gloucestershire

I went along yesterday (26/7/08) to an Open Day held at the Speech House Hotel in Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean. Only about 10 minutes drive from my house, so I wandered along to see what was up.

CeriTech Audio http://www.ceritech-audio.com/ seem to have an excellent range of kit to suit most tastes (from Lyngdorf to Naim to ProAc to Dali .... etc etc) and pockets. "Real Hifi" and Home Cinema and Multi-Room.

Sorry about the poor pics, I'd hoped they'd come out better!

The main demo room was set up with 3 sets of speakers connected to various equipment stacks .....



On the right there is a Dali Helicon 400 (£5,300 pair), then Lyngdorf sub from their (£2,700?) new sub'sat system and on the left Neat Momentum 4i (£1700) for Flat Earthers! A nice range to cater for most musical tastes. Far right is the Plinius stack, then the Lyngdorf and NAD electronics.

The main event of the afternoon was a series of dems.
First off, the Lyngdorf stack utilising their Room Perfect room correction software and the very interesting sub/sat speaker system. Turning the room correction on, the bass gained obviously in solidity and impact and the tonality of the mids filled in quite nicely. Quite a convincing demo, benefiting both rock and classical music. This clever stuff is def still on my Want List.

Next a very tasty stack of Plinius electronics was used to drive the Dali Helicon 400, then a NAD stack of their higher end kit also drove the Dalis. A stack of Naim kit then drove the Neats.
Simon (The Boss) was obviously keen that direct comparisons using the same music were not in favour (pointing out that the electronics were from very different price points and wanting to focus on the musical validity of each setup rather than A/B comaprisons). Well, the audience would have none of that! Musical selections were played on each allowing direct comparions to be made.

Well, the Lyngdorf system sounded good - powerful and clear, perhaps a little too smooth for my tastes, especially with the room corrcetion on. Plinius stomped the much cheaper NAD stack - as it should at the price. The NAD demo guy played an interesting a capella vocal track which sounded quite nice thru the Dalis - then the same track was played thru the Naim/Neat system. Sheee-it! the Naim/Neat gear sounded fantastic! Clear, lucid and palpably present. Talk about surprised - me liking Naim gear?! I could definitely see some high end Naim gear in my future at that point. Then they palyed some classical ... whoops, so that's how Naim pull their PRATy tricks - thinned out midrange forcing a focus on leading edges - sounded awful. Strike Naim from my Want List after all. But it sure did sound impressive on some music.

Chatting with Simon after the dems, he conceded that they generally play Blues & Rock thru the Naim/Neat setup, not classical!

A very entertaining and interesting afternoon. Many thanks to Simon and his crew from CeriTech Audio, I hope the afternoon was worthwhile for them business-wise - they certainly seem to have most of the bases covered.

Here's some more pics

The Lyngdorf and NAD stacks ....



The Naim stack ....



Simon leading a demo ....



A Dali / ProAc etc silent display ....



The Home Cinema Room ....

 

loreena Mckennitt.......great artist

I clear rooms at the heathrow show after playing a couple of the more folky based tracks !!

 

I love all of her stuff, I think I have everything she has released - including the recent stunning DVD of her Spanish concert.

I usually take a disc along to Shows to play as a demo - the response I usually get is to be asked by other show-goers and the retailers themselves what that fantastic music is?, and they write down details to buy it themselves. I must ask Loreena for a commission on her profits!

Stunning sound quality, too.