Heathrow High Fidelity Show

Ah but I was only there for the gossip.

I gather the reports were quite favourable.

 

Dont let the clippings get into the wrong hands

Did the slate plinth for the SP10 work out well?

Andy

 

OK I admit I dropped in for 10 minutes.

I don't know why. I still found the TW Acoustic turntable to be too warm and cuddly for my tastes. The SP10 in the Puresound room was far more to my tastes. Very similar findings to Munich.

Coherent were actually making some half decent sounds which came as a shock. Anything else I saw/heard was dross to my ears. Still I didn't pay to get in so at least I got some excersise. Nice to see so many friends.

Andy. my SP10 plinth is now finished and working really well. I've nothing to compare it to so a judgement is difficult but it looks good to my eyes and sounds superior to my SME20 in a number of ways.

 

You have friends? .

Seriously though, for many, the main reason for going to these shows is to meet up with friends and have a chin wag.

I overslept and felt too tired for some reason and decided not to go.

 

As someone keen to look at DD decks, I expected great things from the SL10 in that room, but instead the sound was grey and uninvolving. Just goes to show that we all hear differently and have different preferences.

 

I couldn't make it - did anyone hear the strain gauge?

 

I did! Non-stop for two days!

In tandem with the Klipsch Jubilees it was very revealing and it doesn't flatter poor recordings in the way that say an XV1S or Benz LP do. However it is fast and dynamic in a way that makes an MC sound sluggish.

The room sounded fine on set-up evening, however with the higher ambient noise levels from the corridor during the show, the level needed to be higher. The bass energy occasionally found the resonant frequency of the suspended ceiling and at higher levels we excited the room mode around 100Hz. Bass traps in the corners next time!

Ralph

 

heathrow show

Hi guys,
I heard the guru speakers sounded very good, also was extremely impressed with the phasonics gestalt speakers ,very fast bass ,timing was impeccable, sound staging and image height excellent etc etc. Other outstanding speakers were ones in the abc dem room not sure what make, Paul had them sounding excellent.Also audionote E s., symposium druids also sounded reasonable ,however played at too high volume level. focals nova sounding excellent however need much larger than normal living/listening room. Any one else with comments i.e phasonics etc.
Keep on rocking
John

 

Hi

The E's were sounding very good, they often do well in these show-rooms though don't they? Don't know why.

Very impressed with the acoustic room treatments room. The sound from inexpensive dali's sounded much better than it had any right to IMO.

Quite liked the Avant Guarde speakers, driving a difficult room. I bet they can do more.

The Mac turntable (a clearaudio I believe inside) was too cool for school, with a translucent platter that shone green, and a blue VU meter style speed meter.

Rountree Omniman was clear and great sounding. I suspect the treble to be a bit much under the wrong conditions, but I still liked a lot http://www.rountree-acoustics.com/

Noteworthy were making some inexpensive £1k Proacs sound pretty great.

The Dali standmounts, and the Proacs showed just how good a standmount can sound in a dodgy hotel room.

Aspara horns sounded better than last year. They needed a bigger room, and sounded a little harsh so close up - some room treatments might have been good too. Still a good horn sound, very dynamic.

Harbeths sounded very natural, a pleasure to see some bigger Harbs in a show room.

Worst things were the musak in the Meridian room - I can only describe as ''dolphin-elevator music''..
Avid for playing so loud I had to leave the room immediately too.

Lots of stuff inbetween.

Oh, since you asked about Phasonics, they fell into ''inbetween'' for me, showing what happens if you put 20 inexpensive drive units in a big yellow box... a big, yellow, inexpensive sound.

 

I visited the show on Saturday along with Martin (mobettermusic) and Chris (supercapman).

Those of you who read my Bristol Show report may recall I was quite scathing of many of the sounds on offer. The words 'hard', 'harsh' and 'uninvolving' making a regular appearance. I'm happy to report that this show was much better. There was very little evidence of hardness or harshness (although one system managed to be completely uninvolving).

I didn't make such detailed notes this time so here is the best of my recollections based on what I did find worthy of note...

The High Spots

I know the Zu Druids are fabulous speakers and I still want a pair but I didn't know quite what to expect from the Zu Definition with it's twin main drivers and four rear mounted bass units. I'm happy to say they sounded superb. The bass was a tad boomy in the second row due to the room but having moved to the front row, this issue went away and the music flowed forth in the natural, unstressed and real sounding way I've come to expect from Zu. Simon at Musicology has assembled a fine system here. The Atmasphere valve amp was a honey as was the Emm Labs CDSA disc player. He even let me play some Dream Theater (amongst other things) and it all sounded great. Best in show? Maybe, but then there were...

The Klipsch Jubilee cinema speakers in the Artisan Audio room were superb. So naturally, effortlessly good. If you have a room that can accommodate these, they are a must hear at the price.The rest of the kit was clearly up to the job. I've never heard of Soundsmith or Artisan or Galibier before but I think we'll be hearing those names some more in future if this was anything to go by. Very good.

Puresound also assembled an excellent system. The Puresound CD player is a great player for c. £900. This is the first time I've heard the 2A3 but driving the Aspara HL1 horn hybrids it sounded superb. The Asparas are very good, my only comment being that they are quite low and I felt they might present a more believable soundstage if they were raised up a bit on stands. Then again you could always sit on the floor. Great speakers and fair value at c. £6000 or so, except that the Klipsch are only £6400 plus crossovers (they would normally be driven actively). OK, the HL1 is much prettier but the Klipsch is a lot of speaker for the money. No such caveats for the 2A3. If 15 Watts is enough for your speakers and tastes, this amp is great value. I bet it would be ace with a pair of Druids. The Technics SP10/SME V/IO I have heard before and is just superb.

Advanced Acoustics were showing room treatments. OK, a tricky thing to demonstrate at a show but several other rooms were using the large Signature corner bass panels and those rooms had few if any bass boom issues unlike some of the rooms which were untreated so they seem to work. They are quite big but if you have the space they seem good value.

Stereonow showed a North Star Design CD, LFD pre-power and the Harbeth M40.1 which is a large monitor speaker - very large. It sounded very good. These should stand shoulder to shoulder with Spendor SP100, big ATCs and PMCs, big Tannoys, etc. At c. £6500 I believe, these are direct competitors to the Aspara HL1 and cost somewhat more than Zu Druids. OK, I've been hypnotised by the speed, dynamics and effortlessness of high efficiency speakers. These Harbeths, along with the others mentioned, simply don't have the top to bottom speed of the high eficiency mob. Other than that though they are very good. The LFD amps are superb and worth seeking out.

Other Good Stuff

The Coherent Systems room was rocking as usual. The Nova Utopias were in full effect. I didn't look too closely at which amps were playing as I've heard all Tony's stuff already. It sounded superb, all the more so considering the huge room it was being asked to fill. Excellent but at a high price. The Klipsch Jubilee would fill that room with effortless natural sound for a lot less dosh and with a lot less amplification but without looking so pretty. The Zu Definitions would do the same and look pretty. Makes me wonder what we should be expecting for tens of thousands - you could buy the Klipsch with a nice source and valve or hybrid amp of modest power and build a room to house it in!

GT Audio's Tron system driving Avant Garde Mezzo Duo sounded very good but had some integration issues. If I had these I would want them in a large room so I could sit at least 15 feet away. Then I think they would sound great. As it was, in the show conditions I was too aware of the separate sounds coming from bass, mid and tweeter. Otherwise excellent but again at a very high price so the same comments apply as above.

ABC Audio were showing the Marten Miles 3 floorstanders fed by some nice MSB stuff including the M200 class A/AB monoblocks. Those things are monstrous and can double as central heating. It all sounded very nice, very quick and dynamic. So why not in the high spot section then. Well, because we went back later in the day and persuaded Paul (hifi addict) to let us play some Dream Theater ('Lines in the Sand' is one hell of a test track). The Martens didn't quite hold it all together in the busiest sections of the piece, mainly in the midrange. They got a little confused at times and a little aggressive - only a little. This suggests to me that the speed and attack one initially hears from these speakers is mainly in the treble. The rest can't quite keep up. The Zu's don't have this problem - they are lightning quick from top to bottom. The Martens here cost £8000 but that would also buy the Klipsch with crossovers and the Zu Druids are somewhere north of only £3000. So, a good system but for the money being asked, it needs to be better compared with other offerings at this show. I like the MSB CD III and Platinum DAC III. The M200 seems expensive to me though.

In the Avid room, we heard the Escalante Design Fremont, the big red speaker with the big driver noted above by Gromit. Actually it has two 12 inch paper drivers, the other being hidden inside in what we are assured is a novel arrangement and not at all like an isobaric. The tweeters had some interesting foam tweakery around them and they have managed to make this look good. The rest of the system was Avid and Naim and it did sound very good. We asked how much for the speakers expecting to hear £3000 to £5000. Er, no. Make that £13000 to £15000. Right. So not planning to actually sell any then. Good speaker. Wrong price.

Audionote had the Type E placed right in the corners. The sound was good, not amazing, but good - bass was a little plump at times. If that's how much bass they produce in a corner then I would say corner loading is mandatory with these speakers.

McIntosh with, I think, ART speakers sounded very good.

The Rountree speakers sounded a good deal more impressive and interesting than they had at Bristol - perhaps the superb LFD amps played a part here - but I still couldn't have something that looked like *that* in my living room.

In the UKD room I finally got up close to a pair of Triangle Cello speakers and they do look superb. Expecting great things as per the Celius and Earl's Naia's, I sat down to listen. Source was a Pathos CD player and the amp was the new Unison Unico 100 hybrid integrated. The speakers are certainly refined. The tweeter is a good step up from the lower ranges and the speaker sounded refined and clean with no obvious vices. However, the sound was a bit restrained. Maybe the new Unico was too new or maybe these Cellos don't have enough hours on them - the bass was a little restrained too - or maybe the Pathos CD is laid back and polite. I don't know where to point the finger but this system, while nice, wasn't very exciting. Live Rory Gallagher didn't sound particularly alive.

The Low Spots

The Lyngdorf system seemed on this occassion to be olibterating bass issues by olibterating the bass. I don't know what those odd looking subs were but they weren't producing any deep bass that I could hear. Very disappointing, particularly since they (Lyngdorf) have been so impressive on other occassions.

The Lovington Horn room seemed to be missing something, namely any sound whatsoever below about 200 Hz. Sounded like a small (and bad) transistor radio. High treble was also notable for its absence. Bizarre!

Once again I am confounded by Ypsilon. On solo voices or instruments it sounds excellent. Accurate, realistic, open, clean etc. etc. but when asked to play 'Creole Moon' by Dr. John, a track which should induce toe-tapping or other bodily gyrations, it totally failed to connect. I looked around at the 6 or 7 others seated and they were equally unmoved. It was completely sterile and uninvolving. How many tens of thousands for this absence of music?

Tannoy Revolutions, MF and Icon Music Server. Shrieky and unpleasant in the extreme. Not sure what was to blame. Didn't want to hang around to find out. Awful.

The Ashbourne Gestalt speakers in the Phasonics room looked home made. The several dozen drive units didn't line up with each other. The sound didn't line up either.

Meridian were playing dire elevator music through their DSP speakers. Why?

 

Hi,

I went down to the show today. The yellow jacket paid off.

Some nice looking stuff. Good to meet many from this and other forums.

I liked the Avid room. The new Diva looked good. The Acutus produced a powerful sound through the naim amps & Escalante speakers.

The Stereonow room with the Harbeth 40.1 and Funk firm deck sound good. I can see why people like Harbeth speakers.

I liked the Border Patrol stuff. (No surprise there!) The sound from Esoteric transport with tyhe protype dac sounded very good.

I like the Townshend turntable. I would like to hear it in another system.

The Aspara speakers have great promise. The smaller HL2 produced some good music. I found the bigger HL1 sound very good with a number of tunes. Guy's Technics SP10 MKII was doing the business into his amps.

Audionote did it's stuff again. Enjoyable but not without it's faults.

The advanced Acoustics treatment look like something worth looking into.

I liked the look of the big Klipsch Jubilee horns & the Soundsmith cartridge in the Artisan Audio room. Good to meet Ralph. Not sure of what to make of it all. It didn't strike me as a big step from everything else. I would like to investigate the speakers again. It had good points and have good potential.

The GT Audio was a bit disappointing. The TW decks didn't strike me as being loads better than the competition. It was expensive.

The Lovington horns are worth a look. Nice on the mid range but lacking at the extremes.

I wouldn't mind having a good listen the MC REF V phono stage. Could be a winner.



I enjoyed it overall.

A big Thumbs to Chris (Bottleneck) for supplying me with food & beer.



SCIDB

 

Hi,

Here are some photos














SCIDB

 

Dropped in for a couple of hours on Sunday. Mostly interested in listening to CD players to replace my ageing Wadia6. Found the North Star player /DAC to have a very open natural and easy sound, probably helped by the big Harbeths. I also liked the MSB Dac, perhaps an option keeping the Wadia as a transport.
Quite a lot of rooms sounded quite nice, biut no better. I would place the Avid, the Naim, in this category. Sounding not very nice at all was the Ypsilon room. Looks gorgeous, just doesn't engage musically.
I found the Rountree speakers to lack midrange, whilst the ones in the phasonics room just sounded really bad.
Nice relaxed show, however

 

From someone that isnt the retailer of the SG

 

Briz I think you would have to hear it in your own system.

 

Hi,

More hifi porn,












SCIDB

 

Hi,

A few more

















SCIDB

 

great pics .......

just sorry not to have made it down this time ......

just fell on the wrong weekend for me.

Any of the small companies doing good thinngs ?

floorstanding aurosal ?

phonosophie ?

 

I thought it sounded quite promising although I'd need to hear it with other equipment I was more familiar with. There seemed to be pro's and cons. In its favour, the stylus assembly is user replaceable and only costs £200 or so, which, when compared to other similarly priced MC's makes ownership less risky for the ham fisted. Against, is that it has to be used with its own dedicated phono stage but that just needs to be considered as part of the total cost which I believe was about £4300 or so. You'd need to hear it to weigh up whether the SoundSmith package was preferable to a less expensive MC but with the extra additional costs of a good matching transformer & Phono stage. Such a comparison might be very interesting. All 3 elements in the 'conventional' set up would need to be chosen very carefully.

 

My two cents:-

THE GOOD.

The Border Patrol/ Devore speakers/ esoteric proto dac in the sound practice room-a really elegant and involving sound, with good depth. Would like to own this set up.

The Hovland amps/Lumley TT/ Hansen speakers in the Sounds of Music room sounded engaging, punchy and spacious. Good balance of naturalness and weight, liked it.

North Star/ Harbeth/ LFD setup in Stereonow room. The harbeth's looked cool- two huge retro lumps on civil engneering stands. Commendably neutral, though I would have liked to have heared them on the end of something other than the LFD's which sounded too soft for my taste in the bass. ( characteristic's confirmed in the Rountree acoustics room)

The Gamut set up in the Right Note room. Sounded much better at Heathrow than Bristol-nothing to criticise.

The 2A3 in the Pure Sound room seemed pretty good value to me. Would need to hear the Aspara speakers at greater length as not totally convinced.

Ypsilon Audio set up. Again sounded much better at Heathrow than Bristol, where I thought it sounded terrible. ( They swapped the floorstanders for stand mounts , which suited the room better) One of the most natural and unfatiguing sounds from a CD player I've heard (though I'd expect nothing less for £10000-not exactly fabulous value)

The Audio Note Uk room sounded obviously coloured but no less enjoyable - would like to hear the speakers away from the corners, however. The music they played was pretty interesting.

Thought the Luxman mini-system (can't remember what room it was in ) looked cute and sounded pretty good for a lifestyle set-up.

The GT Audio Room sounded sweet and involving-would like to hear the Avantgarde speakers in a 'real world' room to see how they cope.

THE (NOT SO) BAD.

Audion Black Night amp/ cygnis speakers-great sound, tad expensive.

PS Audio set up - in the Signature Audio room-just sounded right. Would like to hear it through something other than the Egglestone works speakers. Might be slightly more involving.

The avid room- good sound, good fun though too loud and too expensive.

AND THE UGLY

The Show Magazine Lay-out. Virtually undecipherable.

The McIntosh room-the kit looked fantastic-the sound was less so-- muddy,congested with softish bass and lacking detail and air- did not sound high-end; and played way, way too loud (egged on by some fat gobsh*te called Bob)

The Coherant system room-the focals sounded slightly shreiky-the treble being razor sharp-failed to fill the room.

The Phasonics room - ' Yellow? ' for Christ's sake, why not just stab the wife in her eyes. Sound was underwhelming, too.

The Arousal speakers room- TOO LOUD, can't tell whether your product is good or crap, interfered with other rooms,too.

Angelsound audio room-just did not sound special-lacked presence, seaparation, detail etc....

The other rooms were either unremarkable or I couldn't get a clear or long enough listen to make an honest assesment. All in all a good show.