HIfi Deluxe March 25/26 - Northamptonshire

DomT

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The Vertere room was a huge disappointment in two ways. First I really didn’t like the sound. It didn’t have the open breathing musical sound of the other turntable based systems. The guy with the ponytail in the room was telling me that the turntable sounds exactly the same as the digital file recorded from the lathe. He was planning on demonstrating the difference between this file and his turntable. I wasn’t around to hear it. He also said that the only thing that mattered in the signal chain was the turntable. With any other turntable not as accurate as his I would listen to less music. Of course the opposite is true in this case. Also he said that there are millions of accurate amplifiers. Clearly just a turntable salesman.
809AEEE9-59A4-4239-95FF-3EF1C9B9138F.jpeg
 
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DomT

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The Innuos room using a dCS Bartok as a DAC and Magico A5 speakers sounded great. I expected it to be different based on what people say about Magicos. It was a nice surprises. My joint first digital room 550B96E8-64FF-4583-B65E-8265DB68FACA.jpeg
 

DomT

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I visited the Audio Note room twice briefly. On one occasion they were playing Human League Dare. It sounded bloated and muffled. I have the album so have no idea what happened as I had quite a different experience to @rabski

Edited to add that I was standing up in the rear corner which probably didn’t help the sound. It was ironic that the Audio Room was rammed full and other huge rooms empty.
 
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George 47

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Overall an excellently organised Show with a touch of Class. The free drinks and nibbles at the music events were welcome. But £12.00 for a small burger?

Audionote were doing their usual good sound in a hotel room although the reflective surfaces were not helping.

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The new product was the field-coil speakers in a fetching colour with power supply and crossover boxes in AN black.

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On to the Absolute sounds room with the fetching kitchen blue colour speakers.

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Rabski loved them so much I will add a close-up.

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There were crowds and crowds to see the real, live music as opposed to the hifi
part that was crowded. Guys, the real thing is here.


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Falcon Acoustics with their traditional BBC speakers


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All fed by this stack. Quietly confident sound with no grating, excessive treble, pushed forward mid-range sound.

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Thought I would NEVER see this, Audiofreaks excellent Karan amps feeding a 'kindly lent' Wilson Alexia. The speakers did not spontaneously combust but actually sounded very good.


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Innous Statement (you guessed right) feeding a dCS and into the D'Agastino power amp feeding Magicos. It should have sounded better but I am not a fan of the Magicos. The rest I am.

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Another audio oasis with the Living Voice R80 and the oval-shaped dust caps.

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Fed by these turntables playing some old recorded Opera. Superb and it was not 'hifi'.

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An eclectic mixture with unusual valve amplifiers.

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The whole shooting match.


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A really LOUD hifi system with free dental treatment. Not quite to my or Rabski's taste.

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Met and talked to a lot of Wammers and apologies to those I did not stop or recognise as I heard a faint Hello George a few times but did not recognise them.

A well-organised show from those nice people running Cranage.
 

rabski

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Back again today for a more extended listen to a few in particular. Somewhere between coming in and going out, I managed to put down the guide that I made loads of notes in, and picked up someone else's that is pristine, so this is just a few more notes based on failing memory.

A lot of the issue is what Danny has already mentioned. Some exhibitors just get a bit overly enthusiastic and do the 'look how loud it goes' trick. This rarely a good idea, as was amply proved today - ironically (see Danny's post) in the Bovey room, where they were playing a Stevie Wonder track at exactly the right volume for it to be piercingly uncomfortable. That room sounded excellent yesterday, but I couldn't take more than a few seconds of it today.

By contrast with yesterday, the KEF room sounded a lot better when I put my head round the door, as they were using a smaller pair and were far less intense with the volume. Didn't do the 'image' trick for me, but that's hard in a room full of people and an off-centre seat. I'd enjoy an extended listen I suspect.

The Devore speakers Dom mentioned were I believe Orangutang 0/93. Very lifelike tonally and great dynamics to my ears. The room was a touch small for them, but they still worked very nicely. Can't remember the amplifier, but it was a 300B single-ended. If any of you lot 'won' my guide, the amp is written down in it...

The MBLs were interesting. The first time I went in they had the large floorstanders fired up and I didn't think they worked well at all. Tonally they were fine, but the image was far too diffuse for my liking. I'm happy with 'wide and deep', but there was a lack of focus, with voices especially having no apparent location. Later on, they were using the smaller standmounts, which despite the large room, seemed to work a lot better.

Mike Valentine's room produced some outstandingly good reproduction, as usual, with a string ensemble recording that was breathtakingly accurate. I have a fair few classical recordings, but I don't listen that much and would normally think 'very nice' and move along. That one was so beautifully recorded (Vivaldi in Venice) that my bank card got an unexpected hammering.

To echo and somewhat contradict Dom's comment, I was in the Audio Note room a few times. The first, I was a touch disappointed as something sounded not right, later, all was fine again. I suspect the bass with those field coil speakers was simply a bit much for the relatively small room, and any recording that was a touch bass heavy really pushed things too far.

I also spent a fair while with Kevin, Lynn and Simon in the Definitive room. I'm doubly biased, of course. First because I already have Living Voice, and second, because I'm shortly going to actually throw some of my own money at a newer pair (watch this space). Anyway, nothing I heard there made me question my sanity.

More later when I've downloaded some pictures and tried to remember the rest.
 

bencat

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I am now really happy that I did not go to this show far too many Vinyl rooms none of which I can listen to for more than about a minute . :mad:
 

DUVET

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I am now really happy that I did not go to this show far too many Vinyl rooms none of which I can listen to for more than about a minute . :mad:
Actually Andrew from my experience most rooms chose streaming as their primary source even though they had turntables
 
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StingRay

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Can't say the choice of music, I have read so far, would inspire me to go. Not keen on overloud volume either. What sort of dbs was it, anyone measure it?

Music choice is always going to be tricky though.

£12 for a burger :ROFLMAO: well it is expensive Hifi.
 
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bencat

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Your ears and your view , must not have had a better clock to use .😂
 
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karlsushi

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But, but they used valves.....:oops:
Yes, who would have thunk it (although £130k's worth of them!)

Lots of great systems, but the two that really stood out were Definitive's Kuzma turntable, SJS valve amplification and Living Voice extravaganza and the aforementioned Boyer room with silly amounts of money thrown at every possible aspect of the audio chain (right through to the quite ridiculous-looking Shunyata speaker cables costing £20k and of course those stunning valve monoblocks.

Both very different styles of system. The former focussing very heavily on a musical and convincing representation that was impossible not to love and the latter offering a microscopic and crystalline level of detail that provided a window into the music that was hard not to be utterly fascinated by.

So different, both very much high-end in their own way and I loved them both.

The rest of the show kind of fell in-between these two wondrous extremes and some great systems there were too.

Not many I didn't like to be honest (I'm pretty easy to please!) but I'm sorry Audio Note lovers, but once again, that was one of the few systems that I just couldn't get on with. Maybe it's the 'stick 'em in the corners' approach they go for at shows, but whatever it is, I am still yet to hear what many others seem to hear where AN are concerned. All boom and bloat to my ears.

Overall though, a really professional and well-organised show and I would definitely go again, especially with the added bonus of some real live music performances to remind us how it's supposed to sound!
 

nak

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My first hi-fi show for a long time and really enjoyed it.

To me, some systems sounded a bit lifeless. Most sounded good but a couple made me want to go back for more.

I totally agree with @karlsushi. Definitive Audio and Boyer audio were the most engaging to me.

The Definitive system was just pure entertainment and the grip of the Boyer system was incredible.

I bought an extra lottery ticket last night just in case. I didn't win but I'll put an extra one on again next week. You never know.
 

Gizza

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Back again today for a more extended listen to a few in particular. Somewhere between coming in and going out, I managed to put down the guide that I made loads of notes in, and picked up someone else's that is pristine, so this is just a few more notes based on failing memory.

A lot of the issue is what Danny has already mentioned. Some exhibitors just get a bit overly enthusiastic and do the 'look how loud it goes' trick. This rarely a good idea, as was amply proved today - ironically (see Danny's post) in the Bovey room, where they were playing a Stevie Wonder track at exactly the right volume for it to be piercingly uncomfortable. That room sounded excellent yesterday, but I couldn't take more than a few seconds of it today.

By contrast with yesterday, the KEF room sounded a lot better when I put my head round the door, as they were using a smaller pair and were far less intense with the volume. Didn't do the 'image' trick for me, but that's hard in a room full of people and an off-centre seat. I'd enjoy an extended listen I suspect.

The Devore speakers Dom mentioned were I believe Orangutang 0/93. Very lifelike tonally and great dynamics to my ears. The room was a touch small for them, but they still worked very nicely. Can't remember the amplifier, but it was a 300B single-ended. If any of you lot 'won' my guide, the amp is written down in it...

The MBLs were interesting. The first time I went in they had the large floorstanders fired up and I didn't think they worked well at all. Tonally they were fine, but the image was far too diffuse for my liking. I'm happy with 'wide and deep', but there was a lack of focus, with voices especially having no apparent location. Later on, they were using the smaller standmounts, which despite the large room, seemed to work a lot better.

Mike Valentine's room produced some outstandingly good reproduction, as usual, with a string ensemble recording that was breathtakingly accurate. I have a fair few classical recordings, but I don't listen that much and would normally think 'very nice' and move along. That one was so beautifully recorded (Vivaldi in Venice) that my bank card got an unexpected hammering.

To echo and somewhat contradict Dom's comment, I was in the Audio Note room a few times. The first, I was a touch disappointed as something sounded not right, later, all was fine again. I suspect the bass with those field coil speakers was simply a bit much for the relatively small room, and any recording that was a touch bass heavy really pushed things too far.

I also spent a fair while with Kevin, Lynn and Simon in the Definitive room. I'm doubly biased, of course. First because I already have Living Voice, and second, because I'm shortly going to actually throw some of my own money at a newer pair (watch this space). Anyway, nothing I heard there made me question my sanity.

More later when I've downloaded some pictures and tried to remember the rest.
Been giggling for the last 5 minutes, Richard, after reading about your guide refurbishment trick. Sorry, it just tickled my sense of humour. I've had a few senior moments myself 🤪.
If I hadn't had my niece's 21st birthday party last night, I'd have attended the show today. Hopefully next year....
 

rabski

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Been giggling for the last 5 minutes, Richard, after reading about your guide refurbishment trick. Sorry, it just tickled my sense of humour. I've had a few senior moments myself 🤪.
If I hadn't had my niece's 21st birthday party last night, I'd have attended the show today. Hopefully next year....
I can only hope that whoever picked 'mine' up is as confused as I was when I got home and all my notes had disappeared. Possibly they'll similarly wonder if they're going mad and had written down a lot of stuff and forgotten doing so.
 

newlash09

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Am I the only one who thinks that a lot of the speakers were placed too wide. And to componsate for the loss of imaging owing to the speaker to speaker distance, they were probably cranking the volume too high to increase the throw of the speakers. But going by some of your experiences, still failed it seems.
 

rabski

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Am I the only one who thinks that a lot of the speakers were placed too wide. And to componsate for the loss of imaging owing to the speaker to speaker distance, they were probably cranking the volume too high to increase the throw of the speakers. But going by some of your experiences, still failed it seems.
I wouldn't say so. Most of those were about right for the speakers and room size really. Probably it's more basic. Some exhibitors wanted to do the 'impressive' sound, without accounting for the fact that there's a fine line between impressive and painful, shrill treble.
 
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DomT

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I am now really happy that I did not go to this show far too many Vinyl rooms none of which I can listen to for more than about a minute . :mad:
The vinyl did sound great though and the tens of thousands of pounds worth of digital came in an honourable second place 🤣🤣🤣
 
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rabski

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Looking at pictures, incidentally, the amp with the Devores is/was a Traffomatic Rhapsody parallel single ended 300B.

Also, the odd-shaped and remarkably lifelike speakers in Mike Valentine's room are/were Franco Serblin Ktêma.

Considering the ethos of the show, it goes without saying that neither are what you would call cheap. The Devores, mind you, seem to be around £10k, which looks quite sensible 'value'.
 
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