Scalford Show pics

A very enjoyable day and good to see some old and new faces.

For me there were three truly stand out rooms.
I don't think the overall standard of sound at Scalford is better than most trade shows, but that's probably because most of the stuff that makes it to Scalford isn't to my taste, the rooms are mostly completely empty and untreated, and levels are just way too loud.

I tended to prefer the smaller, simpler systems playing at safe SPLs and would place Richard's (Gromit) PC/V-Link/Dacmagic/Sony ES amp/Royd system in joint first place with the somewhat surprising choice of Adam Smith's vintage B&O system. The former was clearly the most coherent sounding system at the show IMO.
The B&O just sounded open, sweet and effortless. I could have just sat there all day long and in fact we went back for seconds. I guess most audiophiles wouldn't give this old vintage B&O a second glance but it proved to be a popular room and Adam was receiving some very favourable comments. It did all of this in a pretty unflattering room too.

In second place I'd put Paul R's ATC system. That also sounded good last year and was one of the few system at the show which could go loud and stay clean.

Two honorary mentions must go to Steve for taking along that enormous horn system that had to be sawn apart and reassembled to get past the door. A fantastic effort. The sound wasn't really my thing but if you wanted a huge, effortless sound with strong projection, this had it.

Second mention goes to Serge as the activated B&Ws were sounding excellent - certainly on the Tchaikovsky. I thought the sound was a little too locked into the loudspeakers but that could have been the recording., but otherwise excellent.

Pics of the stuff mentioned above: (lots more to come latter)
























Serge gets 1st prize for his mains loom

 

Pics 2

 

Pics 3

 

Pics 4

 

I was quite underwhelmed by Serge's active 801's. However, I would agree that Paul's active ATC's were excellent and probably my sound of the show (I did find you had to sit dead centre between them though).

 

Nice pics - I hardly had time for any at all!

 

It's a lot to get around in one day. I think that Dev, Tony and I managed about 90% but it did mean lots of fleeting visits.

 

Hi Rob, glad to see you made it in to our room on the second floor (Heybrook TT2, Rotel amp, EPOS M12is), we had a great day and eventually got the system sounding good on decent LP's!

 

I cant see any pics its just has an iconabout bandwidth being exceeded?

 

Your system was excellent and one of my favourites, and I know that Tony L and Dev also commented on how well it performed.
That little Rotel can certainly drive!

 

Hi Rob,

Nice of you to pop in and the photos look great.

I was playing Radio 3 on the Leak Troughline through the Leak TL12.1 when Noel Keywood appeared.
I've never meet Noel but what an enthusiastic chap, we had a nice chat about my kit and he said that it was nice
to see a tuner at the show and his comments was it sounded just as it should and that it had been well maintained.

We talked about the quad loop antenna (the picture with the pebbles) and he was surprised
how a simple design had the gain to feed the Troughline and that it work very well.

I will put the antenna design in the Diy section for anyone who wants to try it.

Sharif.

 

Hi Sharif

You were making some excellent sounds and great to see FM used as a source.
The original version ES14 is also a favourite.

Please do put the antenna design in the DIY room as that's just the sort of practical stuff we like.