Visit to Guildford Audio (2)

Visit to Guildford Audio

By George Sallit


01 Demo Room.jpg

I have written previously about a visit to Guildford Audio and Trevor (esteemed owner of Guildford Audio) suggested I might like a proper visit and spend the day in the demo room. Before he could say ‘possibly’ I had accepted the offer and was booking it into his diary! So, a week or so later I arrived at Guildford Audio towers.

Guildford Audio have their normal ‘room’ sized demo room in the house and now it is accompanied by a new demo room in a purpose-built external building. So, we sidled up to the work area and having grabbed a coffee we ‘spun the wheel’ about how things were going and the audio business in general.

Having had an exemplary career in the electrical / energy industry and having built a successful international business for other large organisations, Trevor decided to step out of the limelight for a while and spend time enjoying the finer things in life, primarily motorcycles and music. Being a radio amateur talented engineer, he became somewhat frustrated by the quality of the hifi dealer network. Consequently, he started his own business as he could not get anyone to provide the sort of service he wanted when buying audio equipment. He wanted personal service geared towards him, not what was easy to sell or gave the dealer the most commission. He wanted to compare audio products and select those that interested him and hear them at home in his system. Revolutionary at that time. And that was what he has set himself to achieve. His products had to sound great, last, and be easily serviced and well supported. Ambitious if nothing else as box selling was very common then. So, over the years Trevor has built up his dealership to provide high-quality service and sell some of the most desirable audio products around. The range is wide and although I will concentrate on two super systems Guildford Audio sell systems at a more achievable price from companies like Project, Harbeth and Lavardin.

However, I had come to see and hear the big boys! Yes, both systems were super expensive and I can’t afford them but that is not a reason to avoid listening and enjoying them.

I asked Trevor how business was doing and he said that with people trapped at home by Covid they wanted to improve their system’s sound quality. So, people were upgrading and business was brisk. Oddly enough the ‘super’ systems were also doing well with two systems based on Wilson Alexxs soon to go out of the doors. Add a sale of a pair of Wilson XVXs, as well as a Dan D’Agostino Relentless amplifiers and the usual Dan amps including the M300 and M400 monoblocks, sales were good. Trevor thought it was his best performance so far but I think Gavin was thinking about all that weight to carry around. Relentless amplifiers are a four-man lift as they weigh 0.26 tonnes!!! Oh, and if you like power they produce 1.5 Kw into 8 ohms, doubling down to 3 kW at 4 ohms and of course 6 kW at 2 ohms. Arc welding anyone? You will have to provide 10 kW of electricity to feed them as well.

Yes, the prices are high but these systems are some of the best there are and are showpieces of what can be achieved when the cost is not a constraint. All of these companies make more affordable products that benefit from the knowledge and technology used in the cost no object equipment.

02 Demo front.jpg
Over to the new demo room.

03 Demo room.jpg

Designed and built in-house, this is a modern room with no perfectly parallel sides and different depths of plasterboards to reduce resonance. In addition, there are adjustable room treatments but they have avoided that dead, monitoring room sound. It felt and sounded more like a real room that human beings would live in. Big but this was for the big systems. So, what was the system?

The speakers were the Wilson Audio Alexx, tall big and butch. These speakers look like they mean business and they do but in a surprising way as they have phenomenal power with great subtlety.

04 Alexx.jpg

Adding some scale here are the boys. The long of it (Wilson Alexx) and the short (LS3/5As). I just told Trevor I wanted a pair of Wilson Chronosonics hence his look of surprise!

05 Alex LS3 5.jpg

Feeding them was a pair of ARC 160M monoblocks, I heard the stereo version previously.

06 ARC Ref 160M.jpg

The preamplifier was the ARC Ref 6 SE, the latest version and at last, the pre and power amplifiers have the same livery. And yes, we played louder than 8.

07 Ref 6 SE.jpg

On CD duties was the ARC Ref 9 SE player.

08 Ref CD9 SE.jpg

For analogue duties, there was an ARC Ref 3 SE phono stage fed by a Tech Das Airforce 2 turntable with Graham Phantom Elite arm and a Koetsu Tiger Eye cartridge.

09 Ref 3.jpg

For streaming duties, there was the dCS Vivaldi stack.

10 Vivaldi stack.jpg

The cables were supplied by Transparent Audio with Reference XL for the speakers and the interconnects.

Feeding the electricity was a Shunyata Denali V2 Power Distributor Fed by Omega Power Cable.

11 Mains.jpg

Shunyata digital cables were the Omega for Ethernet and Sigma V2 for digital interconnects and clock cables.

So, what did this set-up sound like? In a word/two staggeringly good. It was beyond any previous references I had heard so a bit difficult to compare with other systems. Trevor gave me the Roon controller and said play what you want. So, I did. I started with a gentile track from Leonard Cohen, You Want it Darker, the title track from the same-named album. The track starts with a male choir and the voices just appeared in the room. It was easy to hear the individual voices, their individual tones and characters as well as hearing how they all came together, floating in space. And then in comes Leonard. His voice is deep, as the years have taken their toll, whispered, close-miked and real. There is some delicate cymbal playing and it was clear how it was being played, although it was more a background instrument. Next, no restraint, Hans Zimmer Are you Serious from the Batman film. A great mixture of an orchestra and electronic effects. Best played LOUD and boy could this system play LOUD, VERY LOUD. Totally in control. And forget any ideas about valves having soft bass. This set-up had real impact and power and it did not change, no matter what the volume levels were.

And so it went on for the next few hours. I was in audiophile heaven.

It was then time to hear a great solid-state based system in the house in a more typical living room. Yes, Wilson Alexxs in a normal living room!

The Wilson Audio Alexxs here were in a fetching silver.

12 Wilson Alexx.jpg

13 Wilson Alexx 2.jpg

The preamplifier was the Dan D’Agostino HD preamplifier. Note the lovely copper and polished stainless steel and multiply by 10 to get the look of these amplifiers in real life.

14 Dan pre.jpg

This fed the Dan D’Agostino monoblocks.

15 Dan power.jpg

Providing digital duties was the dCS Bartok streamer/DAC. This new baby from dCS is causing quite a stir based on its looks, build quality and most importantly its sound quality.

16 Bartok.jpg

No skimping on cables. Transparent Audio Opus cables were pressed into service for the speakers and balanced interconnects.

17 Opus.jpg

And the sound quality? On the same Hans Zimmer track, the bass was deep and powerful but I preferred the ARC valves for sheer shock and awe. The Dan D’Agostino bass was tighter and probably more accurate but the ARC’s bass had real blood and guts. Neither was dry and both just ‘breathed’. Either system would satisfy and there were more similarities than differences. But the differences were preferences and I like what the valves did. But if you offered me the SS amplifiers I would not say go away…..more likely come in and do NOT expect me to help you schelp them around.

And on the way back we had a look at their new Covid-safe demo room!!!

18 Demo room.jpg

In final discussions, Trevor said he always tries to ensure the customer gets exactly what ‘they’ want. Yes, some awkward people constantly change their minds and there are a few of the ‘give me a demo and I’ll buy from the internet’ but most people play fair and for Trevor, the main thing is to treat the customers as human beings and not walking wallets. That way they will want to return. He is more interested in long-term relationships, not a quick box-shifting deal.

Prices: OK. Both systems cost about the same at £280K and £360K with the TT set up but that is not the point, this is what they can do without cost constraints. These companies have all the gains of this equipment and can use them on less costly equipment. For me, it was a new reference point.

Great day and yes, I have a new amplifier from their used stock.

https://guildfordaudio.co.uk/
 
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