Silverstone Hi-Fi Show 2009

[User211]

Pretty sure this is quite new - Dr Feickert Woodpecker with a Kuzma.

More info here.

 

[Bernard]

Get a load of those ugly curtains....and combined with that carpet - upchuck city !

Thanks for the porn Justin.

 

[User211]

Get a load of those ugly curtains....and combined with that carpet - upchuck city !

Fair point, Bernard - and look at the RMAF decor in Tim's posts. What is it with these hotels?

Anyway, a few pics of cars that were hanging around - a Naim'd up Continental Flying Spur, Porsche Panamera 4S and Carrera S. I'll take the Panamera

 

[User211]

Close up of the Esoteric amp Tim just posted at RMAF, plus preamps etc. Details obvious!

 

[MiTT]

Awesome stuff Justin, keep it coming. I just love the Trans-Atlantic show coverage we've go going on the site; probably better than what any of the "big boys" are doing!

 

[User211]

Awesome stuff Justin, keep it coming. I just love the Trans-Atlantic show coverage we've go going on the site; probably better than what any of the "big boys" are doing!

Well it's probably more comprehensive than the mags - whether my prose is better is another question I seem to be putting a bit less effort into this report than other previous efforts, but hey...

Anyway, here's a TT using a Soundsmith strain gauge cartridge. This is interesting, and worth a read up on, so there's some more info here: http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/sg.html

Not sure what the TT is, actually. Also, the volume was very low in this room - too low to make any conclusions on the cartridge. The rep was talking about being at RMAF to some chap, though

Pictured speakers again unknown... I didn't get the chance to talk to the rep to find out what they were. Nice overall tone at the low volume setting, however.

 

[MiTT]

Well it's probably more comprehensive than the mags - whether my prose is better is another question I seem to be putting a bit less effort into this report than other previous efforts, but hey...

Anyway, here's a TT using a Soundsmith strain gauge cartridge. This is interesting, and worth a read up on, so there's some more info here: http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/sg.html

Not sure what the TT is, actually. Also, the volume was very low in this room - too low to make any conclusions on the cartridge. The rep was talking about being at RMAF to some chap, though

Pictured speakers again unknown... I didn't get the chance to talk to the rep to find out what they were. Nice overall tone at the low volume setting, however.

Hey Justin, I saw the Soundsmith guys yesterday at the show and I agree, it's an interesting approach. They've been at RMAF several years running now and seem to be sounding better each time. Their pre-amp is also looking better this year. It looked pretty "clunky" and cobbled together the first time I saw it.

That turntable is a Gabilier. I've got some shots of it I'll be uploading in my RMAF coverage. It's made here in Colorado. The speakers are Alon's, but I don't recal the model.

 

[Bernard]

Awesome stuff Justin, keep it coming. I just love the Trans-Atlantic show coverage we've go going on the site; probably better than what any of the "big boys" are doing!

The thing that amazes me about both shows is the number of new (to me, at least) turntables (and at high prices too).

 

[User211]

Hey Justin, I saw the Soundsmith guys yesterday at the show and I agree, it's an interesting approach. They've been at RMAF several years running now and seem to be sounding better each time. Their pre-amp is also looking better this year. It looked pretty "clunky" and cobbled together the first time I saw it.

That turntable is a Gabilier. I've got some shots of it I'll be uploading in my RMAF coverage. It's made here in Colorado. The speakers are Alon's, but I don't recal the model.

Thanks for that Tim. Yup, the next picture shows it is a nice piece of kit, indeed.

 

[User211]

Some pics of possibly the most enigmatic headphone brand... not sampled by me on this occasion, but I have heard an expensive pair driven by a Bow Technology ZZ Eight CD player a few years ago, and was extremely impressed.

As the pics show, the price tags aren't low, however.

 

[User211]

The thing that amazes me about both shows is the number of new (to me, at least) turntables (and at high prices too).

Here's some random TT pics, Bernard, just to show that they are, indeed, alive and well...

Rest assured there were way more than this, and I have photos of pretty much all that were there.

 

[twich54]

here's a TT using a Soundsmith strain gauge cartridge. This is interesting, and worth a read up on, so there's some more info here: http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/sg.html.

Justin, my listening experience was good in the Soundsmith room listening through the strain gauge cartridge (Knopfler / Dire Straights - "Brothers in Arms") my thought recall was "airy and open", tt was the Teres model 440, arm was the Illius.

 

[User211]

Justin, my listening experience was good in the Soundsmith room listening through the strain gauge cartridge (Knopfler / Dire Straights - "Brothers in Arms") my thought recall was "airy and open", tt was the Teres model 440, arm was the Illius.

Good to hear ypu seem to like it, Dave.

Here's a pic of an Ayre KX-R pre, milled from a solid block of aluminium. Very nice looking, I think. Unfortunately, not in use. More info here: http://stereophile.com/solidpreamps/1108ayre/

 

[User211]

Chord Red Reference CD player. This was playing through some relatively modest Focal loudspeakers, again at lowish sound levels. Impossible to assess, really, though I do like the styling on this particular Chord.

Posted for no other reason than eye candy, like quite a few of the other posts in this report. No harm there, I guess.

 

[MiTT]

Posted for no other reason than eye candy, like quite a few of the other posts in this report. No harm there, I guess.

No harm whatsoever if you ask me. As a design guy by trade I LOVE the eye candy/audio porn! Great shots Justin.

 

[User211]

This room had me a bit flumoxed - those wall mount speakers can't possibly work, right? Especially when they were just floppily mounted on a stand.

Wrong - they sounded absolutely brilliant playing a compilation disk of movie soundtracks. I tried to find out what the disc was it was that good, only to discover that it had been made by a chap sitting in the room. It must have been a lot of work to do - it had been very skillfully done.

Anyway - the amps were Audion Black Nights at £5,895, Revolver wall speakers, and an Austin Trew CD player. Try as I did, I couldn't get a decent picture of the amp. And what a great sounding amp it is too. It is well up there in my ratings.

From the website: "Our Newest Powerhouse, The Audion Black Night is hard wired with pure silver in selected parts of the audio path. It is fully integrated with remote control volume, channel change and mute as standard. Delivering 18 pure Class A watts per channel into a 4 or 8 ohm load from 5 channels.

The design is intended to deliver astounding reproduction and fidelity as well as speed, dynamics and precision. Utilising a full polypropylene power supply, which makes the bass incredibly tight, clean and fluid."

The amp is 300B based. 300Bs, 211s, 845s - I rarely find amps containing these triodes that I don't like.

 

[User211]

Origin Live Calyso and Sovereign TTs and a bunch of OL tonearms. The tonearms are very highly rated by some reviewers. More signs of life on the analogue front... Again, unable to make any sensible assessment of performance in this room.

 

[User211]

Here was a great sounding room - Aspara H1 Horns fed by Pure Sound valve amps and a Technics TT running an SME V and an Audio Note IO. I felt it bettered many more "expensive" rooms.

The speakers did well considering the oversized room. Just a great, easy sound that you would guess would never offend on the basis of what was heard here. Nice and open, free and easy. Good kit, for sure. The price of the Pure Sound electronics is extremely reasonable, too.

The amp was a Pure Sound Integrated 2A3 at £1949 (at the bottom of the rack).

The dude in the pic sez "excuse me"

 

[twich54]

Here was a great sounding room - Aspara H1 Horns fed by Pure Sound valve amps and a Technics TT running an SME V and an Audio Note IO. I felt it bettered many more "expensive" rooms.

Justin, don't you just love it when you 'stumble' onto rooms like this, I know I do, they are always my favorites of a given show. I guess it nice to see David slay Goliath now and then !

 

[slowGEEZR]

Wilson Sasha and Krell Evo 600s.

Entrance by ticket only. Then you get treated to a talk via a Krell rep, followed by a Wilson rep. The Wilson rep was a bit too much for me. I found him a bit pretentious to be honest, as he introduced each musical piece, proclaiming pretty much how great it'd sound through this system.

The only trouble is, to my ears, it just didn't. After 15 minutes of BS and lack of any sign of an enjoyable performance, I simply got up and left.

So what precisely was the problem with the sonics? Well, the tweeters sound pretty metallic to me, and the Krell's simply don't help here. Granted, you do get good, solid bass performance, and there's no doubt the imaging is very good too, but the whole system just sounded sterile and uninvolving. Artifical rather than natural. Synthetic rather than realistic.

So, just like last years show where I heard a Krell Evo/Sophia II system, this just failed on me. Serious waste of money.

The only time I have heard Wilson's sound good is driven by big ARCs many years ago. So I believe they can sound good - or at least better than this, with the right amp choice.

My opinion only, if you catch my drift.

Interesting observation. The Sasha, at the RMAF, was one of my favorite sounding speakers. Different rooms, different equipment and setups. I have listened to Watt Puppies 6 a few times at a friend's house and thought they sounded pretty darned good. He was using pcs digital gear and Mark Levinson amplification and a bass DSP. I thought the Sasha I listened to sounded even better. Must be that Krell/Wilson combo?