Northern Sound & Vision Photos

[Rick O]

Hello from the Hi-Fi show. Just to let you know we have the first set of photos online from this year.

Audioworks photo gallery

Rick

[Marco]

Great pictures, Rick.

Just to let everyone know... Rob, Steve and me attended the show today and lots of high quality pictures were taken in the various rooms. These will likely be ready for posting on the forum on Monday (28th), along with a full write-up of what we heard from this year's exhibitors, and I can promise that it will make very interesting reading!!

Stay tuned...

Marco.

[Lefty]

Superb stuff.... looking forward to hearing how it all went

[Filterlab]

Superb stuff.... looking forward to hearing how it all went

I'll get on to it fully later - at the mo I'm just dumping my CD player and passive pre after hearing lossless music files and a Benchmark DAC-1 USB running into a pair of Nuforce Reference 9 amps. Feckin' amazing!

I've just wiped clean my iTunes and I'm re-importing at full AIFF, as an experiment I connected my Mac directly to my power amp this morning and it sounds leagues better than my player and passive. Once I get one of those Benchmark DACs it'll positively shred my player/passive combo, and that's before I upgrade the power amp! Mmm, wonder what I'll choose?

[Lefty]

Interesting. I briefly owned a Benchmark DAC 1 (regular version) which I bought at the time it was getting all the hype. Must admit I never really got on with it. It sounded a bit too clinical and dry for my tastes. I much preferred the Naim CD3.5/APX2 I had at the time.

However, my recent experiences with a Squeezebox/Beresford DAC has rekindled my interest in the whole DAC thing and I'd love to revisit the Benchmark in this context. The new Benchmark DAC with built in pre-amp looks interesting.

Lefty

[Filterlab]

...I briefly owned a Benchmark DAC 1 (regular version)...The new Benchmark DAC with built in pre-amp looks interesting.

Lefty

The one in Robson Acoustics' room was the Benchmark DAC-1 USB with a switchable pre-amp - the output can be set either at a fixed value (with options of 10dB, 20dB or 30dB gain) or be used as a full pre-amp.

Basically the sound of their system easily matched Audioworks' £40k Puccini / Spectral / Avalon system, it was seriously seriously good.

For me I didn't find it that dry, just very very natural and with detail to die for, particularly on live recordings.

[Lefty]

I might have to get another listen to one. The price is certainly right, especially if you can get it imported from the US with the current favourable exchange rate.

Lefty

[Marco]

Yep, Lefty, the system Rob's referring to was seriously impressive, particularly the speakers, which are about the only ones I've heard that I felt outperformed my Spendors in key areas, and I've had the SP100s since 2001. I'm notoriously fussy with speakers!

The computer/DAC combo was also food for thought to those who hadn't heard something like that before...

Rob, if you can get the pictures on tomorrow, we can then add the text write-up underneath each room image

We heard some more really good systems today. Steve took some shots on his mobile phone, so if you can guys can get them sorted out so picture-wise everything is up on the forum tomorrow. Then we can do reviews of the various systems.

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Before we get to the photos and write what we thought of the various systems I would just like to thank the show organisers Roy and Jason Bird from The Chester Group for allowing us to distribute 2000 flyers advertising the forum to the people attending the show, not including the ones we handed out to all the exhibitors, and to Jenny and Sue for being so kind as to put the flyers into the show guides for us. Time will tell if we obtain any benefit from this, but in these situations all one can do is 'speculate to accumulate'. We certainly made some good contacts with dealers and manufacturers who we hope will use The Art of Sound to advertise and promote their businesses, and also join in discussions on the forum.

Regards,
Marco.

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Yes thanks indeed for two great days and to Roy, Jason, Jenny and Sue for allowing us to promote this site at the show. Thanks also for free admission

Regards,

Steve.

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I'll third that Roy, many many thanks for your enthusiasm and a HUGE thanks to Jenny and Sue for sorting all our flyers out. As promised, below is a link:



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Okey doke, apologies for some images - most of these were taken in almost complete darkness so I had to seriously compensate with the shutter speed (particularly the Audio Note room).

Click on the dealer / manufacturer logos at the top of each post to be directed to their website.





Once again, Robson Acoustics' speakers absolutely blew me away! They just destroyed everything else at the show regardless of price, and all from a company consisting of one chap - Rob, and his mate Lee who is a customer and ex-next door neighbour and helps him out at shows. The speaker's real boon is the ribbon tweeters which give a high end that is so airy and clean it has to be heard to be believed. It really raises questions about the suitability of dynamic drivers for reproducing clean and powerful highs, these ribbons are simply remarkable.

Also, and this is what has forced me to completely change direction in my system, Rob is using a laptop running FLAC files for his demo music. From the laptop the output is via USB to a Benchmark USB DAC-1 and from there into a NuForce P9 pre-amp and a pair of NuForce Reference 9 v2 power amps.

The amps are class-D and are seriously seriously good! Apart from the fact that "they takes three days to warm up" (Rob's words), they sound absolutely marvelous. I'm not going to string superlatives together, but I will say that they're the most unstressed, free and powerful sounding amps - completely musical in every way.

So I will replicate this system, DAC first then the power amps (but no need for a pre). Then if my Revels aren't up to the Robsons, a visiting I will go.

Great system, great speakers, nice chaps and a really eye opening experience.

[Filterlab]