Gentlemen .. Your Coments Please...

richard, the point is that dev is making has got a valuable point as to what i was triying to splain about those days , the dealers will do their job to show and dem equiepment to the so future customers, that is their job, the hi-fi events are there to educate people who need guidence as to what... the reason that they ask those questions is because they want to get involved but feel threatend by the attitude of "i know best" i am the manufacturer there for i know more than you, typical attitude of this industry, o.k. there are bag colectors whose blame is that , not the punters is there for the taking a token of a day out, something to show and red on the way home, just like if you went to buy a pair of shoes , what colour do you have , oh water resistant,what's the issue? after all it's our job to put and take , if not then don't do it people dream of one day owing their perfect hi-fi some will get there most will have to compromise but never spoil their dreams, enough said.nando

 

There is a thread here from about a month ago about NVA - go back have a read otherwise I have to repeat it all again.

Basically still being my usual cantankerous self. NVA functions in an underground sort of way, my main pre-occupation nowadays is www.art-of-energetics.com But I must admit I am getting back into the soldering iron bit again, lost the habit for a while, so not so often stabbing parts of anatomy with it by accident now

Richard

 

I agree 18 year olds dont have money, but there are plenty of rich people in their 30's and 20's etc.

Getting young people in now, will reap rewards when they have more disposable income in the future.

Funnily, I was thinking of a punter, say of the age of 56. In the 60's and 70's he/she could have been listening to zepplin, hendrix, the beatles, the doors - loads of cool music. There's a presumption that we all want to listen to plinky jazz, and in fact taking ZG and PFM as an example it doesnt seem to be reflective of the listening habits of the target audience - even the slightly greyer audiophile!

 

I don't think a Hi-Fi show guided anyone to anything apart from the wrong equipment and probably the occassional suicide

Obviously take me as a little tongue in cheek.

Yea for punters, especially when selling direct. I personally now hate the us and them attitude, I was just making a point that it helps to turn perception on its head and look at it from the other guys perspective. You do all seem to take it as a personal afront that someone is (in your terms) making a bad sound, and the insults that fly around are quite frightening (though I must admit the wammers and the fishies are worse than you lot). This is about someone trying their best and making a living to pay morgage etc, just like you. Show some respect!!! it is not the end of the world it is *only* Hi-Fi.

Richard

 

Well where to start.....

Had an excellent couple of days thanks to some excellent company from Tony L, Simon, and the two Davids. Good also to meet Dev, Dean, Mike L, Thorsten and a few others from ZG and PF.

Heard some impressive sounds despite the show conditions with the best of the bunch for me being Funk, AMR, Naim and McIintosh. Funk were getting superb results from an old LP12, Technics amp and Spendor BC1s - total cost used - about £700!
Just a lovely, simple coherent system that wasn't upset by the room. The Funk mods to the LP12 remain the only mods that I've heard improve an LP12 while retaining everything that's good about the original. We persuaded Arthur to pose for a photo - eventually.

The McIintosh kit on display was awesome both in terms of the size and presence of the sound created and also the price tag - $100,000 for the speakers and probably double that again for the electronics. A huge, room filling performance and the ability to cope with huge dynamic swings without strain. The stuff also looks stunning and if I had the cash and the room I'd have placed an order.

AMR were sounding good and clearly Thorsten has been working hard on the new kit. The LS77 speakers were on show for the first time and impressed with the amount of LF control and extension for such a small speaker. The crappy room was making life difficult but I heard enough to know that the new kit is excellent and should shine under better conditions. £4399 per box and per pair of speakers isn't cheap but you get bullet proof build and some impressive internals for the money.

Lastly I'll give an honourable mention to our old friends at Naim.
I've seldom heard Naim sounding good at shows but I really enjoyed the CD555/202/200/Alae system. Tonality wasn't exactly brilliant but the system sounded lively, dynamic and entertaining in a way that much of the overpriced, oversized kit at these events fails to achieve. Naim kindly agreed to our request to do a back to back comparison of the CDX2 with the flagship 555. No question IMO - the 555 was clearly far superior but a considerabe £12k premium.
The new SuperNait was also on show though only in pre production form. Plenty of power, lots of inputs, built in DACs and a £2250 price tag should make it a hit.

Those were the highlights for me with much of the rest being decidedly average. Had a few good discussions and a long and heated exchange with some idiot selling the Funniest Loudspeakers In The World..... and took a few pics.


Arthur from Funk with his funked up LP12



The Roksan room was just too much for some......



Naim's new SuperNait




The Clearaudio Statament....a snip at £70,000....I'l take two.



Thorsten's AMR AM77 integrated amp, CD77 disc spinner and LS77 speakers





These pro inspired beats had awesome dynamics



And finally....... what is it with these frigging blue leds everywhere?
These damned things infested nearly every box and every room.
This was one particularly daft example.

 

Yes I thought the same about the mac gear......if I had the room and the dosh .....not totally right and a bit garish but damn good all the same.

did anyone else listen to the phonosophie dems ?

 

not totally right ???

 

Meaning that the bass was a bit off [soft?] and the kit is a bit garish. In the real money rooms the audio note stuff sounded as good at a fraction of the price. If your spending £150k the gear needs to be spot on !

 

"sounded as good" is naturally a personal opinion. I haven't heard the systems at the exhibition so I cannot say anything specific on that MacIntosh system. They were certainly certain sound characteristics which other systems at a fraction of the price weren't doing so well (dynamic?, soundstage?,..???). Especially when a system has to fullfill with sound a much bigger room it needs other qualities.
But of course not every body is interested (or less interested) in certain sound characteristics. No system is spot on (this is also a very personal taste) even if would cost £300k. A McIntosh system has a special sound which some people love and which other stuff at a fraction of the price don't have. For those who like that special sound and that can afford it, is £150k not a problem.
I'm not a great fan of McIntosh sound, even if I have as second system an old (this year revised) system, but I can understand people loving that kind of sound.

 

Titian, if I could afford it, I'll have the McIntosh system for looks alone. Not sure if anyone ever needs 2KWPC for home use, even if they lived in a mansion, but it looked "cool" and sounded alright. I can't judge properly simply because I didn't hear it with familiar music.

 

We got several of our discs played ...though one cleared the room !!!

I was very impressed ...but don't get me wrong it was not perfect !

I think its up there in the top five systems I've heard .....nuff said.

 

You where not there shortly after opening sunday where you, and you had to wait a few minutes till you could put your cd on?
If so i was seated behind you.

 

Mr Sukebe and myself were there on saturday ....
but yes that did happen in the mini mc room though late on 4pm ish. Before we went back to the phonosophie room for whale sperm.

 

did any one visit the M.F. room? the new x-series sounded super with those pro--ac tablettes, iwalked out when two girls started demoing the more axpensive stuff using an ipod as a source, what a joke , still the sunday was more civilised,nando

 

I did briefly go in to look at their latest and greatest but didn't stop to hear it. I'm afraid I've just had enough of their marketing. Pity really as I used to own their kit and liked it a lot, but their marketing will alienate customers IMO.

 

i agree about their marketing, is not exactly lemon and lime, having said that their products do offer great value for money, i also went to hear the new revolver speakers, quite liked them, , i don't know if you heard them ? nando