Sound and Vision The Bristol Show 2008
Unfortunately Marco was unable to make it yesterday so I made an instant decision to go alone and basically just jumped in the car completely unprepared apart from the Satnav. This meant that I had no music in my bag and was therefore at the mercy of whatever audiophool tinkle favoured by many exhibitors out of the mistaken belief that this is what is required to show off their systems' music-playing strengths... I was also without notebook and pen so please excuse me for lack of vital information like the name of the particular exhibition in some cases where I'm not able to rely on memory.
I left at ten am, reaching the gates of the fair city of Bristol some two hours later. There was nowhere to park near the exhibition so I dumped the car at the other side of the city in an expensive and dingy multistorey and caught a cab to the Marriot.
At 12:50 I finally made it through the revolving doors with signs making it quite clear that this was trade-only day. This was not a problem thanks to Arthur of the Funk Firm who had prepared an exhibitor's pass with my name on in advance.
Arthur was demonstrating his mats, armtubes and fully-modded LP12. Given that he has a pending patent he was unable to make any of his turntables actually play any music so for this reason I imagine he'll be very tired by the end of the show. However, the engineering prowess of his designs seems to more than speak for itself. I certainly look forward to hearing the finished product in the near future. Arthur, best of luck with getting the patent sorted out.
The show itself was extremely busy and this was only trade day so some rooms were so full of people there were almost queues forming outside. I didn't really have time to spend much time in each and every room so I had to be quite selective and perhaps incredibly selfish regarding where I spent my limited time.
World Audio Designs were making some pleasant sounds indeed through their valve amp and speaker kits fronted by a Garrard 301.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ashley and his friend who has registered here as jcbrum. I found them to be very pleasant and interesting chaps. The AVI computer audio, active speaker and sub system I thought was a very competent system at its price point, representing excellent value for money for those placing convenience and a minimum of fuss ahead of audiophool nerdery and all the associated domestic disruption. However, for it to outperform a system costing over £17,000 the system would have to be incredibly badly set up or ill-matched. Good at what it does, the AVI system won't be replacing what I have any time soon. It ticks all the right (technical) boxes but doesn't really get the juices flowing for me.
The Exposure/Focal room was quite impressive and engaging at the same time but I didn't stay long in there.
I had a nice chat with Terry Miles of Spendor who assures me that Marco will be able to have his SP100s modified to R Specification as he is the owner of them from new. What they don't want is folks buying them second hand and then having them modified. Fair enough. The speakers certainly look nice and will sound great with decent kit. The listening room was busy though and I didn't feel like asking anyone to put on some music to my tastes.
The Arcam system into the new Focal 1007 standmount speakers was actually a very nice system that certainly exceeded my expectations. I had a great chat with Mark of Focal and I think we share similar ideas on how a hi-fi system should play music. These new speakers would sound brilliant with my system (and a new CD player.) I'm certain of that.
Naim were making some good sounds in all four of their dem rooms but I tend to take that pretty much for granted these days. This was the first time I've heard DBLs. They actually look a lot nicer in the flesh than in pictures. They sound pretty stonking too. I particularly enjoyed the CDS3/whatever amps/Allęs system but then I've always had a soft spot for Allęs anyway. Naim do things differently, always have. It's just a question really of getting what they are a about and liking it. I do on both counts. What stops me from going down the Naim route good and proper is affording what I'd ultimately just have to have. Give me £50,000 and I'd in all probability go out and buy a CDS555/552/500/Allęs system.
The star of the show for me was at the very end. For the first time I heard the full GamuT system. Both Jeremy Baldwin of The Right Note in Bath and Lars Goller of GamuT were very pleasant guys who made me feel very welcome in the Audio Reference room. I began listening to two tracks on the GamuT system which I think was a compilation put together for Dali. This system does not impress immediately but what happened to me was that about a couple of minutes into the second track, which was quite rocky and rhythmic with good guitar melodies too, I became aware that my journey to audio/musical nirvana had ended. The system just got out of the way and allowed the music to gently and subtly grab my attention and engage me in a way no system has ever done at a hi-fi show before anywhere, ever. This really was quite a moving revelation for me.
This system just seemed to have a very rare quality indeed where timing is concerned. I mentioned this and Lars was happy to point out that his primary consideration upon designing the system from front to back was addressing the issue of time alignment and phase coherence. This is a psychoacoustical concept that some audiophiles will just never get. Others may get it sooner or later. I suspect that the objectivists, measurement freaks and all those who disregard the psychoacoustic processes in listening to and enjoying music will probably all fall into the 'never' category. The brain is a powerful machine and how it connects with emotions needs to be addressed; listeners really should not be treated as potentially gullible fools by cynical designers of an objectivist persuasion. The enjoyment factor can be very real indeed. It can also be conspicuous in its absence.
This review makes interesting reading:
http://www.gamutaudio.com/media/pdf/...collection.jpg
notably the following:
The analoue output stage was 'tuned' using psychoacoustic rather than measured approach when it came to component choices. The selection relied on listening results more than objective analysis, although the specs are said to be very good.
Suffice to say that if the funds become available I'll be in the market for a GamuT CD3. It's an awesome beast of a player. If any digital server can pull off the tricks that this player can I'll be very surprised.
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, I was really hoping I could post a great review on them and had full intentions of buying them if I thought they would have suited me, I'm actually hunting for some stand mount speakers since moving home because my floor standers are just too big for the new room
