Silverstone (Whittlebury) UK Hi-Fi Show 2012

User211 · Sep 26, 2012

Spent the weekend at a hi-fi show here in England. It was held right by the famous Silverstone race track.

I am not entirely sure why, but the sonics were, for the most part, fairly depressing considering the cost of some of the systems. There's no doubt room acoustics play a part, but I have to say I felt the selection of music was pretty dreadful too.

Some rooms really are bad here - a simple hand clap reveals a mass of echo. I just felt a bit sorry for those lumbered with such rooms and no acoustic treatment to hand to try and help. Don't get me wrong, I am not anal about masses of treatment panels, but really obvious problems do require a solution!

No rooms blew my mind. However, there was some nice kit there as hopefully you'll see. I was mad enough to take videos of a lot of the rooms. I've stitched them all together into one YouTube play list lasting 23 minutes and 10 seconds. Not the greatest quality, and they are pretty shaky, but it is still worth selecting HD. This is probably a 5 year old pornograph as Bernard likes to call it, and I am sure a contemporary equivalent £250 camera could do quite a bit better. Sound and light is a problem for a couple of vids, but most are OK.

So click here: Silverstone in HD video.

User211 · Sep 26, 2012

I am pretty busy for the next couple of days but will post back with a few thoughts/ramblings/still photos on some of the kit, and generally try to be rather more positive. I'm sure many of the components are capable of far better performance than I heard. In fact I know so.

For instance, even the ML Summit X's weren't sounding great, as most of us know they can. More on that later...

Rich · Sep 26, 2012

User211 said:
I am not entirely sure why, but the sonics were, for the most part, fairly depressing considering the cost of some of the systems. There's no doubt room acoustics play a part, but I have to say I felt the selection of music was pretty dreadful too.

Some rooms really are bad here - a simple hand clap reveals a mass of echo. I just felt a bit sorry for those lumbered with such rooms and no acoustic treatment to hand to try and help. Don't get me wrong, I am not anal about masses of treatment panels, but really obvious problems do require a solution!

Honestly, Justin, it boggles my mind that so many high end retailers spend the time, effort and money to bring thousands of dollars of equipment to an audio show in order to hopefully stand out from the crowd with their wares, and yet so few of them spend a few extra dollars to purchase some acoustic treatments to bring with them to these shows in order to minimize the very well-known acoustic issues that most of these showrooms exhibit. It just boggles my mind. I mean, if you were a showing off a Porsche, would you do it on an oval dirt track? I think you would look for some nice curvy pavement to show off it's abilities, no? Something like the nurburgring, perhaps? Acoustic treatments aren't very expensive, are fairly portable and easy to setup, and make such a huge difference in the performance of any system in a crappy room that this should just be a no-brainer.

User211 · Sep 26, 2012

Fave turntable for me was probably the new Palmer 2.5 12. Made for 12 inch tonearms, in case you were wondering. Very nice indeed, and maybe my next turntable.

The system used for playback was pretty modest - some small Harbeth speakers - but the quality shone through using the Lyra and the 12" SME. I'd like to hear it with something more substantial in the way of speakers to assess it "properly", though.

Palmer Turntables

User211 · Sep 26, 2012

Rich said:
Honestly, Justin, it boggles my mind that so many high end retailers spend the time, effort and money to bring thousands of dollars of equipment to an audio show in order to hopefully stand out from the crowd with their wares, and yet so few of them spend a few extra dollars to purchase some acoustic treatments to bring with them to these shows in order to minimize the very well-known acoustic issues that most of these showrooms exhibit. It just boggles my mind. I mean, if you were a showing off a Porsche, would you do it on an oval dirt track? I think you would look for some nice curvy pavement to show off it's abilities, no? Something like the nurburgring, perhaps? Acoustic treatments aren't very expensive, are fairly portable and easy to setup, and make such a huge difference in the performance of any system in a crappy room that this should just be a no-brainer.

I agree. Not all rooms had obvious severe problems, but some definitely did. The trouble is, most exhibitors don't know what they are going to get until their gear is physically in the room.

One unfortunate company was a start up called BD Audio. What's more Jack, the owner, knew it, and desperately tried to borrow some traps from a room near by. He was unlucky - none spare. However, people do the job quite well, he remarked, and when the room was full there wasn't such a problem. Empty, a mere hand clap revealed all.

Despite this, I felt his system really quite enjoyable to listen to. Good scale, pleasing across genres and unlikely to offend anyone. An easy listen, I think. So one kind of wonders how well they'd do in a good domestic situation - rather well, given some breathing space, I'd wager.

The speakers were Tune Audio Marvel at £9K. I had heard the range topping Anima at Munich 2011 and they were impressive. Didn't take many pics of the speakers, but the video shows all. Worth exploring if you want something different. Nicely made and finished.

BD Audio

A few pics from Jack's room:

User211 · Oct 2, 2012

Hm... I seem to have neglected this thread a bit. Lacking in motivation these days... after shows like Munich and Hong Kong it is a little hard to get enthusiastic about lesser stuff!

Anyway, to the ML room. Summit X being driven by a Plinius amp and one of these: DaVinci DAC.

This room was not doing well. What it was down to, I do not know. It was a large room - but I have heard Summit X's being driven by all ARC kit sound a lot better than this in a room the same size(ish). What's more, my opinion is validated by others who thought the same.

The Summits were not being demo'd by Absolute Sounds as they do not attend the show anymore. Seems like they do a lot better with AS, some ARC kit and Peter Soderburg in the room! Oh well, can't have everything but the dem did the Summits no favours. People new to MLs can't have been overwhelmed, TBH. Even with a £20K DAC at the helm, the results just weren't representative of Summits at their best. Nevermind - they can't fool me. Been around too long

I'd have pushed them further out from the front wall, and turned the wick up a bit. That would have helped some.

Hi Fi Rōnin · Oct 3, 2012

Thanks for taking time to post the YouTube reviews of the show, I watched them with interest.

User211 · Oct 3, 2012

Hi Fi Rōnin;151904 said:
Thanks for taking time to post the YouTube reviews of the show, I watched them with interest.

No problem.

It turns out the amps in use in the Logan room were these: Anthem M1 - the Plinius was a preamp.

amey01 · Oct 4, 2012

I'd like to know your thoughts on some of the systems.

Australian show is coming in a few weeks.......I'll be sure to "cover" it.

Were those Tannoys in Part 4? Looked interesting - a very non-conventional selection of components for an audio show.

Also loved the dCS stack in part 12.......love it.

peacefulcargo · Oct 5, 2012

User211 said:
No problem.

It turns out the amps in use in the Logan room were these: Anthem M1 - the Plinius was a preamp.

That's interesting, what were your thoughts about the M1 sound with Summit X panel ?

User211 · Oct 6, 2012

peacefulcargo said:
That's interesting, what were your thoughts about the M1 sound with Summit X panel ?

Well as I have indicated I think you can do better. I didn't see one comment wowing the sound of the MLs at the show on a prominent UK forum - and the thread had an absolute mass of posts discussing the show.

User211 · Oct 6, 2012

amey01 said:
I'd like to know your thoughts on some of the systems.

Australian show is coming in a few weeks.......I'll be sure to "cover" it.

Were those Tannoys in Part 4? Looked interesting - a very non-conventional selection of components for an audio show.

Also loved the dCS stack in part 12.......love it.

Been busy but should have some time over the next day or two so will add a bit more, Adam.

User211 · Oct 7, 2012

Adam - no - they weren't Tannoys in vid #4 - they were these: http://www.hartaudio.com/

Considering the price of the MBL/REF 5/BAT amps, they weren't doing well. Original to look at, though, if you like that kind of thing I guess.

Onto one of my favourite rooms. It contained some Gallo speakers - a huge great line array in massively rigid cabinets: http://www.anthonygallo.co.uk/pages/products-reference-reference5.php

The were being driven by some Stereo Knight tube power amps, but a pre from them is pictured below. This room really did sound nice, but unfortunately it was rather small and low in volume. The Ref 5s look stunning in the flesh, and use a 360 ribbon tweeter. I heard a tale of Japanese trying to buy these tweetes from Gallo but they would not sell the technology/tweeters.

I think these speakers are going to be capable of more than I heard - substantially more, it a big room with the wick turned up. The price is £16K. My wife loved them to look at and also liked the sound.

Stereo Knight gear - the amps looked lovely, as did the preamp. It is also reasonably priced. The distributor has the same problem Todd did in trying to track some gear down. Stereo Knight seem to have disappeared without trace! The UK distributor has some stock left, but not much. I wonder what happened to them - if anyone knows - please post! The dealer was of the opinion the top Stereo Knight pre was better than the Cary in use at the time.

User211 · Oct 7, 2012

What else was good? Well, I rather liked the Bodnar Audio Sandglass speaker based system. It had an obvious flaw - a lack of extended bass from the speakers. But I thought it sounded great - crisp, clear, detailed, with no trace of hardness. Could I live with them? Probably not - I need bass - but I'd wager fans of acoustic music and strings in general may really like them. They look original and quite fab in the flesh. What's more, they are a very reasonable £3,500. Not bad, in the general scheme of things.

http://www.bodnaraudio.com/

User211 · Oct 7, 2012

Another good room was Analogue Alchemy, with a stunning looking range of non-suspended turntables and some rather nice speakers: http://www.analoguealchemy.com/

Apparently, this speaker design is available on the web, and one of the people I was with (the brother of the chap that refurbished my Apogees) was only too happy to size them up. Reason? He has all the drive units and is going to make a pair at home. The retail price was quoted as "not much" when I asked the sales rep. Apparently " not much" is £20K, which is quite a lot in my book

Anyway, they were pretty good, if perhaps exciting a bass room mode. Very well made and finished, though, so your money is going somewhere!

Good selection of free food and lager in this room. Spent a lot of time listening in here. A good sign! If I hear Hugh Masekela one more time, however...:devil::devil: it was rife at in the show. Far too rife!!!

All the TTs are caught in the video. One can't help but think "hello, Clearaudio"

JonFo · Oct 7, 2012

User211 said:
...

Onto one of my favourite rooms. It contained some Gallo speakers - a huge great line array in massively rigid cabinets: http://www.anthonygallo.co.uk/pages/products-reference-reference5.php

Interesting speakers. But they do not follow the usual model for a line-array, with the tweets and midrange drivers far too separated, resulting in lobbing and comb-filtering. But you say they sounded good Justin; did you hear them from what distance and seated vs. standing?

User211 · Oct 7, 2012

I wasn't sure you could call them a line array, Jon, so I sked one one of the sales reps "would you say it was fair to call the design a line array?". "Yes", he replied. Who he was, what his background is, I do not know.

Anyway, if you watch the video you'll get an idea of how small the room was. I was for the most part standing, but the speakers are amazingly tall. They obviously needed more space, particularly with the rear firing bass drivers. These are small, but there is a lot of surface area I suppose. I expect these units can manage a fairly long throw for their size to be credible in this design.

They did sound pretty good. Not amazing, just pretty good. They need more space and volume to assess properly. Sure you'd get vastly different impressions in that scenario, based on experience.

User211 · Oct 7, 2012

Onto the Furutech record demagnitiser demo. Records were played before and after a demag treatment. The room/equipment actually sounded pretty good to good, I think. Definately like the speakers. The demag? Hm... I might be a skeptic, but I'm sure I heard no difference before and after treatment.

Later on I gave the salesman a cigarette after he asked for one. He'd been on an electronic cigarette all day and was anxious for the real thing. When he asked me if I had heard a difference, I said I didn't. He then shrugged it off and said people should buy whatever they think works for them. Fair point, I suppose!

Anyway, a quick picture. The video shows a lot more, really.

User211 · Oct 10, 2012

Quick post with a link to a slideshow of all the show pics. If you hit the back button on the top right of the browser window, you should get access to each individual photo and the full size version of each pic.

Silverstone Slideshow

amey01 · Oct 10, 2012

Great - thanks for posting Justin. Getting me excited about the Australian audio show in Sydney N-E-X-T WEEK!

I'll be sure to post pics of that as well.

The slide show is great, but shame we can't discuss some of them.......I trust you have posted the ones of worth individually/already.

Silverstone (Whittlebury) UK Hi-Fi Show 2012

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