As usual I didn't make the show till later on, giving myself about 3 hours to look round and consequently missed a fair few rooms. Still a good day with much better sounds than most of the Bristol efforts, and it was good to meet up with some forum members at the end of the day.
My favourite system was probably the Audio Consultants/Whest room, but playing their CD system of Ayre CD-7, McIntosh integrated and some Thiel speakers. I didn't hear their analogue setup. A surprising amount of McIntosh kit around on the day actually, sounding good in virtually all cases.
The AudioNote room was very enjoyable using their TT. I asked to have a listen to the CD setup (CDT Zero transport and DAC1.1x/II filterless DAC) which was not too impressive really. I think I've been at a show before where they've had the CD system just sitting there being ignored; I can see why now
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Tusk were a new name on me and had an enjoyable room, with a friendly guy running it. They're a new company but I hope they get somewhere as they certainly seem to be doing some things right so far.
A bit controversial this, but I actually also thought the TACT room was pretty good, provided they didn't play something bassy enough to set the ceiling vibrating, which was somewhat distracting.
Disapointments? Well the £100k Boulder/Rockport system bored the pants off me. I'd take 2nd system over that thankyou very much. Worst sound of the show I heard was in the Acoustat room. I think they'd just killed their McIntosh and were making do with some other amp. With this in place, the system gave the worst recreation of an organ piece I've ever heard. There was zero low bass, and no solidity/body to anything else. Abysmal. To be fair to them though I think they'd literally just swapped the amps over, so possibly they got in sounding better later.
