Heathrow Sound and Vision

will he or she? ..

 

With the music and volume level in each room being constantly changed by the reps, it’s difficult to really compare our respective impressions with any sense of reliability IMO. It would have been better if in each room they had repeatedly played one track and at the same volume level continuously- so we could have all compared the same thing . Would have been a weird show, though .

Seriously though, it was a daft idea to have 2 shows running together, as there were far too many rooms to visit during one day if you went to both shows. By the end of the day (Sunday), I was walking into one pokey room after another (with seemingly identical floorstanders to the last), taking one look around and then walking straight out again, regardless of the sound.

This was my first ever hifi show and it was nice to meet a few Zgers / PFMers including Rob and Simon who provided great company- but didn’t meet everyone I wanted to. Maybe next time, eh? Oh, and thanks to David for the lift home!

Highlight for me was the humble Valvet room. The prototype speakers (12- inch woofer and big nautilus-style horn-loaded tweeter) sounded immediate and weighty. They had two sets of amps, one 10-watt s/ended and the other 40-watts p-pull both solid state. During my brief visit, they were using the more powerful amp. A couple of people have commented that the sound was a bit too rolled-off in the treble but I wonder if those people listened to the s/ended amp, which may have been less suited to the speakers (?). I’m just guessing, of course, but it does highlight my original point above about how the sound can change markedly within one room.

The Townshend gear left a strong impression because of the incredibly low noisefloor- as if you were listening to the deep black spaces in between the notes. With Emporium Lector/Quad, I didn’t stay long enough to comment but looked very promising. The AMR gear sounded superb but was suffering a bit in the small room- but great to meet Thorsten for the first time (thanks for the Harmonisers!). I can confirm he is very much alive despite his sudden and sinister disappearance. Audio Note was, as expected, very enjoyable- a safe pair of hands- and I mean that as a compliment.

Those were my impressions- much too fleeting I’m afraid. Will have to get there earlier next time and go both days.

 

Show Impressions

Here are my impressions for what they're worth.
The Mac 2kw system had good realism although the speaker toe-in seemed a bit excessive. The sound was a good solid flat delivery, particularly good at the back of the room. One recording of a choir really giving it some stick was dead real. "Cartridge of the Show" award goes to the MacIntosh team for using the ZYX Airy 3.
The Green Mountain speakers in the small room were disappointing, but they could probably deliver some serious sounds if allowed to. After reading what the designer says on his web site I expected a lot more. Maybe the demo music was not the best? MC402 credentials are impeccable so it wasn't that.
AudioAcoustic's set up sounded very nice. The speakers were very close to silent. I think it might be possible to use slightly less exotic cables with this equipment! Wavac amp was producing something very special I thought. They were the only people in the small rooms that had dealt with their room acoustics problem sufficiently. Mr. Bhatti could well design some mid priced speakers and make a lot of money, but his philosophy probably would not allow that! Their equipment had something that no one else did, the result of fanatical attention to detail no doubt!
Krell 600 Watt monos were excellent as were their speakers. They produced the only sound at the show that had any emotional effect on me! Better dynamics than MacIntosh, although I'm sure with a different environment and music (perhaps cables?) the very big speakers could move air like no others!
Gershman speakers were good, they had their own sound but it wasn't a boxy cabinet sound. They reminded me of my big JBLs.
Listen Carefully had some interesting flat speakers - at about £3500 they must sell well I would think.
Living Voice speakers were very clean and stable and with those amps and the Kuzma reference turntable sounded very nice. Sorry but the cartridge is not worth £10k if thats what they go for. Very good indeed though it is!
Didn't have time to audition everything, one day is not enough, but I'll know better next year!

 

THAT'S IF THERE IS A NEXT SHOW , FOR WHAT I HEAR, I REPEAT FOR WHAT I HEAR, i must say during this show "both" one was verypleasing the effort that most exivitors was great, credit to those it always brings to me a touch of nostalgia , the atmosphere was a bit fustrated somehow, but i did meet some all friends"customers" who were very happy in someways but unhappy on others,me it was just routine, but the idea of two rivals hosting the show at the same time beggers belief, after all the coments of wich i heard were absolute crap, slanging tongues one against the other one felt that by wearing a trade badge was an enemy of the other, how childish i thought ,after all this is our show not for anybody "young" they were to create such a hostile atmosphere, as though it was a football game ,i was disgusted when a spotty young so and so told a lady and infront of her family because she was wearing a hfn trade ticket round her neck , in his loud voice said THEY SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF HERE SHOULD'NT BE ALLOWED ENTRANCE,what is that all about, i could of punched him or slap his rude mouth, we pay his way regardless, such attitude drive people away, sing of the times i guess...nando

 

Did anybody hear the 'World Designs' setup?

 

no, pass, where was it?

 

Apparently 'World Designs' (and 'Hi-Fi World'?) were in Room 1946 of the Park Inn.

Did anyone find them, and if so how did you find the sound?

 

Personally, I was underwhelmed with the compact floorstanders but found out later that they (the speakers) were a very reasonable price (£200-300 ish, I think). I was only in their room for a few seconds so cannot give a proper assessment of the sound.

 

Shiny Valve amp

Did anyone see the the shiny valve amp in the gershman room?
What was it?
It seemed very powerfull as they had the loudest room in the corridoor.

 

"World Designs" room.

Thanks for that - was it just being underwhelmed that caused you to leave so quickly?

 

"Seriously though, it was a daft idea to have 2 shows running together, as there were far too many rooms to visit during one day if you went to both shows. By the end of the day (Sunday), I was walking into one pokey room after another (with seemingly identical floorstanders to the last), taking one look around and then walking straight out again, regardless of the sound."

You will find this is pretty much par for the course with hifi shows regardless how many are running haha.

 

Not really Lord. I had been into one room too many by that point and was a bit burnt out.

I currently own a large pair of speakers with 15-inch drivers used in a small room, which can sound overwhelming at times. Virtually all the speakers at the show with drivers smaller than 12-inches came across as quite underwhelming. This was in no way a reflection of the quality of those speakers but because I'm used to listening to bigger ones on a daily basis.

Sorry but you really need to find someone else who went to the World Designs room and stayed for a bit- I should have kept quiet.