Some thoughts on Heathrow

Goes to show indeed!

To elaborate further, I listened to the Pinsch standmounts. Expanding slightly further, (and once gain, with the aforementioned caeveat that I spent at most 10 minutes with them), they sounded very lightweight, with no real bass to speak of. OK, so they have a small woofer and were well away from the walls, but I was sitting fairly close.

The treble seemed very recessed - almost non-existent. Like it wasn't actually doing anything. Overall, just a very unintersing, dull sound.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the Tusk set-up. I honestly think it's laking a bit of shimmer/body on cymbals and high hats. Didn't sound like metal on metal. I asked him to play something that would test the treble a bit and he did put on some jazz for 2 minutes before changing it for another vocal demo - agaisnt my wishes! Vocals were very good, but it was defintely lacking a bit of bite & HF extension IMHO.

DT

 

I know, I know. Do you think I could find any though? I'd forgotten it so I tried a few rooms and I couldn't find anyone else who'd remembered to bring any either. Crazy isn't it?

Next time I'll take GaffaTape plus something squidgy to stop the door slamming whenever it closes - BlueTac perhaps.

Two layers, eh? Would you recommend C37 on the tape?

 

Hi,

We agree on that part then, bass was rather light.

I found the balance slightly on the bright side, though not enough to worry me and the midrange was quite even.

Funny, they where playing some more less generic Jazz/Rock while I listened and the cymbals has just the right amount of shimmer, shine and all, but very smoothly much like these things in reality, without the edge that reproduction seems to give them.

So it seems you prefer the treble a good deal boosted up over what I prefer.

Ciao T

 

Hi,

Well, as Roadrunner allways sez, "Beeep prepared"....

Self adheasive felt pads. In fact, take enough to treat the room as well and use a few spares on the door, they should also prevent it from closing completely, if not double them up....

Not in this application. But try some on your speaker cones, they may loose that faint metallic coloration they hae... :MILD:

Ciao T

 

i found the whole thing a little boring to be honest - nothing earthshatteringly new, nothing that made me want to sell my existing kit and buy a system on demo. it was good to see / meet a few old friends and new faces. mind you i had had an 'interesting' previous night so that could have had something to do with it.
from what i can remember of it...

best sounding room - audionote, this sounded like music to me. i'm not saying it did everything right, just that i found it the nicest to listen to.

best looking room - a toss up between the macintosh (green valves mmm) and the one with those victorian darleks for speakers. the emmitter 4 box integrated was interesting too.

worst sounding room - a tossup between those lumpen proacs which thumped away like a chav's nova, the 'best speakers in the world' whcih just sounded like a, well, a poor chavs nova and those druid things (although they sounded ok with plinque just not with music).

worst looking room. hmm probably the one with the ruddy great car battery stuck on the rack.

it was good to see mike, dev and neil again and to bump into a few other forum regulars - sorry i wasn;t very talkative - especially in the mcintosh room
cheers


julian

 

BTW, I think I was the only person there under 40 on Sunday. Where's all the fresh blood?

Also, you guys need to spend less on records and more on shaving foam. Badly dressed bunch too

Saw three women too, which is three more than I was expecting!!

DT

 

Nice writings guys, I enjoyed reading this thread. Sometimes I regret not to live around London..

Could to all tell me more about the Tannoy's Glenair:

• how did they sound
• which equipment were driving them

 

AFAIK they were being driven by some strange wireless music server thing and SS amps. Can't remember the brand. Probably the last thing in the world the big T had in mind in terms of partnering amp/sources.

I did listen to them but given the completely innapropriate source/amp, it wouldn't be fair to comment.

DT

 

Titian,

They sounded coloured. They sounded coloured the last time I heard them too. Hugely disappointing.

 

Dread full sound from the tannoys .....when we went in there was a couple having a demo ....and they talked over them all the way through. Very poor all round, which was a shame as I rate the westminsters amongst the best I've heard.

 

Interesting comments on the Heathrow show. I am just travelling too much at the moment to get to any Hifi show
Were Living Voice there? If so, I gather that they have a new top of the range 'Avatar' speaker; the OBX RW. If anyone heard it, especially if they have heard the OBR R2 which I have currently, I would be very interested to hear opinons on it.

Many thanks,

Mike

 

No sign of Kevin or LV at the show. I have IBX R2's and very little at the show struck me as a major improvement. Some of the horns sounded very sweet (ster forward Avantgarde and Lovington), but others didn't do it for me.

 

When I heard the Pinsch at Manchester I was seriously disappointed. They were bland and a little overbright. Were Icon at Heathrow? Because their system was awful at Manchester, it damn nearly made my ears bleed and everyone with us agreed. There was something badly wrong there.

 

I specifically went to the show to listen to some valve amps.
Those Icon mono's are truly beautiful looking amps. Not sure if they're a bit long for my or any rack. How could they not sound wonderful when they look so good?
I spent quite alot of time in that room and the quality was really music dependent. It ranged from really really nice to a bit dull.
I don't think the speakers are particularly interesting but did anyone notice the cd player? A cheap Rotel...

The Naim room ranged from stunning to harsh and unbearable.
The Audionote room was tremendous! 8 watts making a sound that big doesn't make sense!

 

my overiding memory from the show..





v promising..

 

You liar!!!

The speaker on show was not naked. It had grills on (at least while I was there).

I agree Chris, the best sound came from this newcomer IMO.

 

The Lovington's were poor IMHO. There's good soundstage depth, and then there's recessed treble. These suffered from the latter condition IMHO. Poor tonality & coloured sound too.

.

Maybe Ming-Da's sound better in their own skin !

Yes, they are a bit too long - not really practical IMHO. The 845 & 805 SET monos are a little shorter and now have nice gloss OP transformers, so they look even better. In absolute terms though, I don't think they're the prettiest amps (i.e when compared to Viva or VAC for example!!)

And there's nowt wrong with Rotel CD players!

DT

 

I'm now thinking I must have been mistaken with the Lovingtons.As I was on a fairly tight timescale nothing got a huge listen, but they sounded balanced with that great horn sense of depth and ease to me. Perhaps if I'd listened longer I would have noticed the bass-shy, recessed treble others have noticed.
Then again, I do like the treble to be smmoth, and delicate, rather than etched and detailed, which I find gets in the way of musical flow
Each to their own

 

Hey Mr Turtle.
Sorry I wasn't slagging off rotel, it just looked and sounded a bit out of place in such exotic surroundings.
So the Icons aren't pratical but aren't the Viva's fookin huge?

I do think I'd leave my wife and run away with one of those pretty little Art integrated's tho'

 

Don't blame the messenger. All the AP speakers I've yet heard have had superb bass control, if a tendency to sound a tad lean on the smaller speakers. What you've read would suggest to me that something very wrong was happening up-stream.

What AP speakers were they? My Avanti mkIIIs can stop and start on the head of a pin, so I would wager a lot of money on it being some problem elsewhere (probably the amps...)