bristol show 2017

[the little audio company]

I'll be off to Bristol tomorrow to do the whole weekend again, as I have done for the past two years. I know much of it will be a bit mainstream for these parts, but there was some interesting stuff last year, including my first real exposure to TAD, which I really liked - I just wished I'd visited the room before 4:45 on the Sunday! Hopefully I'll get a better look this year, and I'm interested in hearing the new Tannoy Legacy speakers, amongst other things.

If I find anything really interesting, I'll pop a post in here :)

[CageyH]

I am off to Bristol this weekend too, but didn't know the show was on.

[the little audio company]

You might find something interesting, based on your avatar :)

[ReggieB]

I went to the show this afternoon.

For me, the standout room was Music First Audio (https://mfaudio.co.uk/) on the top floor. On show was their Classic QSE pre-amp feeding a Quad 405 power amp.

https://musicfirstaudio.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/quad_special_preamp.jpg

Sorry for the stock pictures, but the picture I took is awful.

The speakers were Graham Audio LS6 (http://www.grahamaudio.co.uk/products/ls6/). This is the second Bristol show in three years where my favourite room was using Graham Audio speakers. I may even be able to aspire to LS6s. Perhaps I've found the speakers to replace my Spendor S3/5R² .... one day.

http://www.grahamaudio.co.uk/images/ls6.jpg

The amps were being fed by two tape players, the top one of which was a digtal tape player. Very interesting.

The sum of the parts was a wonderful natural sound. Loved it.

Other rooms I enjoyed:


Malvern Audio were showing off a Ming Da amp into a pair of single drive solid oak speakers.
Harbeth had two rooms. One showing off their P3ESR which were very nice, the other a pair of their large speakers (Monitor 40.2?), which I found surprising lacking in bass, but otherwise excellent. I thought the two Harbeth rooms were a much better demonstration of the Hagel amps, than the Hagel room next door.
Leema were showing off a very nice one box solution.
Dali had some very nice floor standing speakers.
Quadspire were doing an interesting demonstration where they would play a record track on the standard rack, then put bronze platform under the turntable and play the track again. And then move the bronze platform to their bronze rack and repeat. With each move the sound became slightly clearer and more natural. I was an interesting demonstration.


I was a little disappointed with the Spendor rooms. It's probably me - I really love the sound of speakers based on BBC monitors, but all three Spendor rooms were demoing their floorstanders. They sounded fine, but not as nice as the large stand mounters they had on show last year.

[hifinutt]

absolutely fabulous show . really enjoyed it . good to see max and sue Townshend still there with their goodies . dave brook from MCRU always has some tempting stuff . really well worth going .

my favourite was the new kudos 707 prototype soon to go into production at 13,700 quid . lovely imaging and sense of realism . the naim system obviously doing a good job . the second time I heard them I had to go out as far too loud . these babies were pretty good waf factor weighing about 50kg and would fit well in many rooms. I believe there will be a 606

another little gem was this leema quasar all in one dac/amp/streamer which made a very good attempt with some atc 50 passive . at 13k for the system it was pretty good

next best for realism and texture was the audionote room with a m2 pre and 2 audionote power amps [I believe they were 18watts]

the new dynaudio contour at 7500 was big bold and very well finished and not bad at all

it was realty good to see esoteric at the show with a full rack of their very high end stuff with merecedes build jap mmade amps etc

so many good rooms and very enjoyable from spendor with the d9 , and the astin trew new amp

well worth a visit chaps

[ReggieB]

dave brook from MCRU always has some tempting stuff
Yes. It's always a pleasure to have a chat with Dave.


another little gem was this leema quasar all in one dac/amp/streamer which made a very good attempt with some atc 50 passive . at 13k for the system it was pretty good
That was the Leema unit I heard. It was very nice.

[the little audio company]

In reply to Reggie, I was quite impressed with the Spendor rooms, other than the Devialet based one. The D7 and A2 (I think it was, the smallest floorstander) sounded really good, enough for me to revisit the room over the weekend. I think sometimes whether you like a room could be down to the material being played when visiting...

[ReggieB]

I think sometimes whether you like a room could be down to the material being played when visiting...

There is definitely something in that.

I've been to quite a few shows now, and nowadays tend to move from room to room fairly quickly listening for something that catches my ear. The one consistency I seem to find is that I am drawn to speaker designs based on BBC monitors. The two exceptions for me being the Fujitsu Eclipse speakers (http://www.eclipse-td.com/uk/products/td712zmk2/index.html) (unfortunately not at Bristol this year), and the Teddy Pardo (https://www.teddypardo.com/) room at a show (not Bristol) last year.

The floor standing Spendor speakers at Bristol this year sounded fine - but for me they didn't stand out from other very good floor-standers around the show. Last year the large "classic" speakers Spendor (http://www.spendoraudio.com/HTML/classic.html) had in one room (I think they were SP100R²) stood out and for me that was the room I kept on returning to. I guess I was just setting myself up to be disappointed this year, with me so looking forward to repeating the experience from last year.

[willbewill]

Personally I found it very hard this year to find a room that I could even bear the music they were playing, far, far too much jazz for my liking. Although, once again, I really enjoyed the Audio note room and thought the small stand mount speakers in the Proac room were exceptional. The Tad setup showed promise but was far too quiet when I was there, speakers didn't seem to be driven sufficiently.

Was disappointed with Ming Da in that I thought the speakers sounded dreadful in that room, the bass was. Out of control and quite flabby.

[the little audio company]

There is definitely something in that.

I've been to quite a few shows now, and nowadays tend to move from room to room fairly quickly listening for something that catches my ear. The one consistency I seem to find is that I am drawn to speaker designs based on BBC monitors. The two exceptions for me being the Fujitsu Eclipse speakers (http://www.eclipse-td.com/uk/products/td712zmk2/index.html) (unfortunately not at Bristol this year), and the Teddy Pardo (https://www.teddypardo.com/) room at a show (not Bristol) last year.Yes, it was a shame Eclipse weren't at the show. I've had the TD508 at home for a few weeks, and it has been one of the best speakers I've had in my room that just works in the position that my speakers have to go in. Others can be made to work one way or another, but the Eclipse just worked, and sounded great!


The floor standing Spendor speakers at Bristol this year sounded fine - but for me they didn't stand out from other very good floor-standers around the show. Last year the large "classic" speakers Spendor (http://www.spendoraudio.com/HTML/classic.html) had in one room (I think they were SP100R²) stood out and for me that was the room I kept on returning to. I guess I was just setting myself up to be disappointed this year, with me so looking forward to repeating the experience from last year.I do find their Classic line to sound different to their more conventional lines - I really like some of the Classic stuff.

[ReggieB]

I shouldn't have mentioned the Eclipse speakers. I've just had a little hunt around and there are some affordable 2nd hand ones around .... must be good ... must be good.

[the little audio company]

I shouldn't have mentioned the Eclipse speakers. I've just had a little hunt around and there are some affordable 2nd hand ones around .... must be good ... must be good.
I've really enjoyed messing around with the 510Z model - love them!