Question worth a visit

[wolfram]

I once visited a great hi fi dealer in Cambridge, Massachusetts - just opposite MIT. It was in an old wharehouse building and the walls were 4-5 foot thick brick and the floors and ceilings concrete. The building has such mass and the treatment on the walls was such that the demo system sounded excellent.

I have been in so many poor HiFi dealers over the years - in hight street stores with springy floors and polystyrene ceiling tiles. I was just wondering if anyone knew of some of the best to visit around the country? Especially keen to visit one in london on December 6th - as I have a day to myself in the old smoke and its one option to fill it.

 

[Tarzan]

What do you want to demo?

 

[wolfram]

I ended up booking a demo at premium sound in Abingdon road, just off Kensington High Street. https://premiumsound.co.uk/?gclid=C...BqFxE_xK9PSXYtefUbTOJcf_P1Tyux9BoC4esQAvD_BwE

they were excellent, with a well treated basement listening room.

I auditioned audiolab 9000, linn majick dsm, lyngdorf ta1120, and Hegel 120. They had chosen some excellent focal floor standing speakers and we streamed either through the amp or bluesound node.

had a pub lunch at the Abingdon just before, and a quick scout round the design museum just round the corner afterwards. (The design museum has two technics 1200 turntables, but not much else true hifi except the Braun display).

premium sound had a wide range of kit and very knowledgeable staff. They even set up the p300a/h30a Hegel top of the range combo for me to hear (considerably over my budget at £27000) - it's nice to know what you might be missing. We concluded not much with those speakers, but given unlimited budget the amps paired with similarly spendy speakers woul probably be a step change...

i preferred the Hegel to the linn, with the lyngdorf and audiolab trailing in behind. However, the Hegel has no phono stage, and did not present the vibrato in Sade's vocals as well as the linn.

 

[sunbeamgls]

Hifi Lounge near Bedford is old very solid outhouses - variety of demo rooms including the upstairs one with open beam ceiling (good if you also have one, bad if not!).
Brian and Trevors in Manchester is a solid old Victorian end terrace with thick walls and high ceilings.
Both are best visited by appointment - plus you always get a tea or a coffee as a minimum

 

[Jazid]

@wolfram Premium Sounds is about 200m from me I discovered 🤣. I went in, the guys are great, very helpful, knowledgeable and patient. I listened to some Klipsch Heresy and an El34 amp (I forget which) with CD source and summat streamed. Interesting and educational, the amp took 15+ minutes to come on song and was worth the wait. The speakers aren't for me but will be for many wammers, and are IMHO attractively priced at approx £3.7k if memory serves. I want to go back and hear some higher end Klipsch models to see what they bring to the table.
Interesting that you thought the room well treated, I think it's quite lively, for me there is a very audible decay. Either way, at maybe 6x6m it's a reasonable approximation of a (well heeled) Londoner's living room acoustically.