Heathrow show this coming weekend - who's going?

Hi,

I might try and pop in on Sunday.

SCIDB

 

Shuggie,

If you are planning to visit on Saturday, I would really appreciate a lift. Please let me know by phone or PM.

Thanks.

 

Hi,

I'll be there on Friday afternoon and evening.

 

hi guys, ETA, SIMON & CO 10.30 am both tomorrow and sat,
look fowrard to meet ,please use my mob. phone simon,
regards nando

 

normally go, but I need a break from it I think. Done 1 too many in recent years.

Have fun though everyone, I always like the Heathrow show the best.

 

i think more of it being a nice oportunity to meet people whom i normally only comunicate via the forum, the rest is fun, interesting on what is on show,
nando.

 

I'll be having a little dance at some cable demonstrations.

 

Hi,

Here are some people who have been trained by Quadraspire and musicworks to demo stands and cables.



SCIDB

 

Went, stayed about 30 minutes - found it joyless and depressing. Indeed the attitude of many exhibitors is just plain insulting to the would-be customers whose wallets they would dearly love to empty.

 

I went and had an interesting chat with Tenson, and a listen to the kensai speakers.
Also had a lengthy chat with Sue Townshend (Max's wife) and arranged a demo of the speaker cradles for after the show.
Also a lengthy chat with Tony from Coherent, which was most interesting.

I found the show less busy on Friday, and exhibitors seemed to have more time to talk to me, although some seemed more into mutual back-slapping and loud chats with each other!

 

For me there were two highlights (yes, only two )

First was a chat with Tony (Coherent Systems) who mentioned they will be releasing something truly revolutionary - let's just say, smashing boundaries.

The second was hearing the Creek/epos system. Something about that combination is so appealing and synergistic. Seems to respond well to late-night friendly listening levels. Creek will be releasing a very "on-topic" product at the end-of-this-year/beginning-of-next-year timeframe - something that will place Creek in a different class...

Andrew Randle

 

I thought the guys doing the demos were a pretty nice bunch really - they all put on the speakers or turntable I asked for and even played my CD when asked - nobody refused anything. The MBL guys were particularly friendly and even swapped whole systems for me (and played said CD twice).

 

I quite liked the McIntosh/Tannoy Canterbury/Klipsch room once they played some proper (rock) music. I just love the effortlessness of these large speakers. Surprising how quickly certain people leave the room when proper music is played .

Good to meet Rob and Simon. Good sound from such a down to earth system with B&Q cables Simon. Well done.

 

First time I've been and was pleasantly surprised, esp given the apparent small size of the show in comparison with other years.

I thought the following systems (in no particular order) sounded particularly good based on a spurious 5 - 10 minute audition:

1. Puresound / Heco, partly because he had that SP10MKII out, the vinyl was all over the poor little puresound CD. However, sounded good all the same, modest amp with very nice sounding speakers.

2. Emille (angelsound audio). Strange speakers with ribbon mids and tweeters. I thought the whole ensemble sounded really natural with a decent digital sound (albeit via 5 grands worth of North Star Digital transport / dac) although it still sounded much nicer with the new Dr Fieckert TT.

3. Coherent Systems. When streaming digital (through the BC Dac 3) a brief listen was really impressive, none of that glare or top - end harshness so common from CD but still with loads of information. Tony was as always more than happy to talk through his and other kit. A lot of retailers could learn from the way they do things at coherent imho.

4. I'm running out of patience here so my other picks were:
Thorens system via the new ref deck
Those Tannoys for their mid range
Tenson's room with those nice little monitors
Rountree acoustics, interesting speakers.

I have discovered that:

1. I am pretty easy to please sonically.
2. I like my top - end rolled off a bit.
3. Nearly every one of the systems that played sounds I enjoyed were vinyl-based.
4. I'll not be replacing the 840C with another CD player because the fuutor is PC -based (I know I am about 5 years behind the curve).
5. Most people play shite music at shows.

Got my CDs played whenever I asked and thought all stands were pretty friendly, especially those above.

 

On Friday I was in there for nearly an hour. We (an exhibitor, me and another unknown guy) compared the two combinations with several CDs, not only mine, and that was very interesting. We all came to the same conclusion, which was the better combination for our taste (McIntosh - La Scala).

I went yesterday evening to the first of the three concerts I'm going to this weekend and I must say that too many systems in the show have an innatural tendency to be bright or sharp. It seems that there is a need to capture somehow in short terms the listener attention. I personally don't believe this is an acoustic problem as some people try to convince me. These systems I heard also in other places and they didn't sounded in this regard different.

 

I would concur with that. One of the tracks I played was Elbow's "Grounds For Divorce" and it sounded so brash and harsh that it was almost unlistenable. Particularly bright was the Taiwanese system.
When I got home I played it again on my own modest system, and despite boomy bass problems in my new lounge, it sounded 100% better.

I also think Charles Ives would have loved the show. The cacophany would have been right up his street.

 

I was there this Sat. Nice to meet up with Simon (Tenson) and Rob in the audiosmile room and also Tony in the Coherent room. Have to say that the new Kensai speakers were sounding pretty good, although I'm not 100% convinced that the ancillaries were making best use of them.

Also good to meet up with Chris at the start of the day, hope you enjoyed the rest.

One positive note was that the systems seemed far better matched to the acoustics of the rooms this year. There were few systems suffering from real bass humps or similar.
There were also a lot more vinyl systems this year than last, which seems to be a reasonable move.
What I found interesting was again how CD somehow seemed to sound better generally when played through a valve amp.

Just for a change, I managed to get around both the Park Inn and Renaissance hotels.
Overall, I found the show as a whole to be a little underwhelming, although there were clearly some highlights.
Here's a few thoughts:
- At the Renaissance Hotel there were several mags and a dealer, all using I believe Avalon speakers, with plenty of other high end electronics driving them, e.g. some Zanden and Karan kit. I found both of mags systems a little underwhelming, but that could simply be the volumes they were being played at. The dealer's system certainly sounded a lot more awake.
What surprised me with both was their reaction to me asking to be able to listen to a track from a CD I'd taken along. Despite neither room having a lot of other people in it, both declined. Do they really think that I'd consider buying kit based on listening to some plinky plonky overproduced lift music?
Being fair, there was quite a lot of the plinky plonky stuff around, though happily some groups were making musical exceptions.
- Tannoy/McIntosh room. I clearly turned up at just the right time, i.e. to listen to some Led Zep, good lads. As already mentioned, awesome sound, but the cabinet colouration really does put me off, just too obvious for my liking.
- Proteus room. These chaps were showing off one of the most bling valve amps I've seen in ages. Had styling from the 50s chrome era of american cars. Sounded truly lovely though, one of the best rooms of the show for me, made even more impressive by the fact that they were driving B&W floorstanders, which I normally hate. The only downside was the £6k price tag. If you have the dosh, go have a listen.
- Nuforce/usher. These chaps were showing another bling looking turntable, with a pile of Nuforce digital amps into some monster usher speakers. Apparently £17k of kit. The bad news was how it sounded, even with the vinyl of Moonflower by Santana (an album I own and know very well). Just completely underwhelming. Small soundstage, no real low end and certainly no spark of life. I can see how some digital amps get a bad rep with dems like that.
- Coherent room. MASSIVE sound, incredible detail and easily the best "hi-fi" of the show for me. Unfortunately I didn't come out feeling really moved by it. Maybe it was the music being used.
- Chord. Simply unpleasant. Didn't stay for long. How they get away with charging so much I'll never know.
- Xindac. The real find of the show for me. These chaps were showing off a system that for the dosh was a complete steal. I believe they were using a £1k KT88 valve amp into a £350 pair of single driver speakers. Not sure about the CDP, but I guess it wasn't stupidly expensive. Whilst it didn't really have any low end to speak of, I found it to be about the easiest system there that "put me in the room" with the artists. It simply concentrated on the basics and got them spot on right. Quite how their amps would sound in another system that has wider bandwidth capabilities, I simply don't know, but given the chance and I'll be having a play.
- Pathos. They were having a quiet and chilled day from what I could see, playing at much lower volumes than most. What did surprise me was just how damn good it all sounded at those volumes. Probably one of the best sounding rooms of the day for me.
- EAR, also playing some lovely tunes, but just like Pathos, well out of my price bracket, or at least with the kit that they were using, which appeared to be the size of our local electricity sub station. I'd like to have heard one of their more normal amps.

 

Nice write up - I couldn't get along this year so it's great to experience it all vicariously. Out of interest, what was the CD that no-one would play?

 

I was hoping for a quick blast with a track called "morning dew" by Blackfoot. Reasonable 70s rock, certainly not GnR. A couple of other groups were more than happy to play it.

 

I had no problems in having tracks played.

The 3rd movement of Hovhaness' 50th Symphony (the volcano part of the Mount St Helens symphony) sounded good through the McIntosh/Canterburys.
Lots of tympani, cymbals and brass.