North West Audio Show 2023

[Macca]

Suppose we might as well have a thread about it since it's coming up soon - 18th and 19th June.

Link here

https://audioshow.co.uk/#Header_wrapper

[Pigmy Pony]

Yep, it's only 3 weeks off. I'll be going on the Saturday with my next door neighbour, and Sunday with Macca. Be nice to meet up with other forum members while there for a brew or a beer.

Who else is going?

[Jac Hawk]

I’ll have a look along I think

[Pigmy Pony]

I’ll have a look along I think

I thought you might :) Even if we have no plans to buy anything, it's always interesting to see what's out there. And do a bit of socialising (beer drinking).

[hifinutt]

looks to be a superb show . well done for doing a thread

[Ali Tait]

Be helping out in the Longdog room as usual.

[Pigmy Pony]

Be helping out in the Longdog room as usual.

We'll be sure to pop in and say hi, and see what your hairs like these days :)

[Ali Tait]

Lol still long Steve.

[Gazjam]

Can bear (recent) witness to that. :)

[Pigmy Pony]

Can bear (recent) witness to that. :)

He does suit it though.

https://media.glamourmagazine.co.uk/photos/6138b1d269a8a3323e6d8d76/4:3/w_1280,h_960,c_limit/davidBowie12_glamour_11jan16_rex_b.jpg

[Ali Tait]

:lol:

[hifinutt]

Be helping out in the Longdog room as usual.

fab .. often wondered about their monoblocks

[sanchezxxx]

I'm going just to try one of the burgers everyone is talking about.

[Ali Tait]

fab .. often wondered about their monoblocks

I’d happily live with a pair, if I could afford them lol.

[Bourney]

Saturday for me I think.

[Macca]

Just back from the show. Didn't take my phone so don't have any pictures :doh:

Ran into a few people, Alan (Firebottle) and his wife, Paul from NVA and Colin Topps and Ali Tait in the Longdog room.

Highlights - Coherent Audio - with the TAD floorstanders, once again one of the best sounds. Everything there but never hard or in your face, pleasant to listen to with all music.

Kii - Had another go on the Kii3 - he'd managed to clear the room with his music selection so as there was only me and Steve left we asked for some Steely Dan and got to listen to 'Babylon Sisters'.

I spent six months last year talking myself out of buying some. I'm still impressed by the bass on these speakers, the depth and control are immaculate and they can be configured for any room so what you hear in one room will be the same in any.

But I just don't think that bit of upgrade over what I have is worth the substantial cost. https://www.kiiaudio.com/

NVA - had a pleasant sound going on from their monoblocs and some prototype 'Cube' speakers, didn't have the awesomeness of some of the mega systems but it was much more listenable. Paul put on some AC-DC for me and they made a good fist of it, the upward firing main driver adds a sort of 'live' feel without it being distracting. or weird.
https://nvahifi.co.uk/collections/all

Longdog Audio - with Colin Topps new speaker - Big floor standers with two ten inch active bass drivers, two arrays of multiple midrange drivers and a beryllium tweeter. Sound was reminiscent of an electrostatic but with proper bass. https://www.longdogaudio.com/

Phonia loudspeakers - Never heard of them before but they were impressive. Monumental solid and controlled bass but they were only playing electronica when we were in there so not much clue about how delicate the mid band will be. But it was one that interested me. https://www.hifipig.com/north-west-audio-show-2023-debut-for-phonia-loudspeakers/

Falcon Acoustics - were demming their LS3/5a. They have no bass and not that much top but I do totally get why people love them. https://www.stereophile.com/content/falcon-gold-badge-ls35a-loudspeaker


PMC - the Prodigy 1 mini monitors were quite impressive, although when I was in there at least I thought they might be playing music that showed them in their best light i.e all bass and top. But worth checking out if you're looking for a miniature that has bass. Was never much for PMC domestic stuff like the FACT range but they seem to have upped their game in last few years. https://www.whathifi.com/news/pmc-prodigy1-and-5-take-audiophile-speakers-mainstream

Chasing the Dragon - had their giant active ATC again, I like those, problem is they only dem with classical, at least on my visits.

Indeed as usual some truly terrible banal 'music' in a lot of rooms. A bloke in the corridor said 'I'm not going in any more rooms where they're playing pretentious shite.'

I think we got to that point too, passed one room playing some Hendrix, dived right in there even though probably would have passed it by as the kit they had wasn't really of much interest to me.

Maybe we should start boycotting rooms en masse and sort that problem out?

I know it's what we all want to hear - but it was true - the mega-money set ups generally didn't sound so good. Most expensive system in show was Doug Brady with full DCS stack into D'Augustino pre and monoblocs, and Magico S3 speakers. I think with all the cables and that you're getting on for a million quid and it really wasn't a pleasant listen. although obviously in terms of scale it was monumental. https://www.hifipig.com/magico-s3-2023-loudspeaker/

Some of the other serious money set ups were impressive in hi-fi terms, but they all had something about the sound that wasn't quite right. In some cases I couldn't quite identify what it was exactly, other times it was pretty obvious - mushy mids and bass, or too much bass, or too hard and strident. or a combination of those issues.

Had a tasty burger and glass of lager at half-time. We forgot to attend the free raffle at 1500 so don't know if we could have won something. There were some quite tasty prizes like various sets of loudspeakers. Booby prize was some magic fuses.

Weather was beautiful until about 1630 as we were leaving, when the heavens opened, so we were able to eat outside and nip out for an occasional smoke without getting soaked or frozen.

Anyway, another good NW show, always worth the trip to this one.

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the review of the show Martin. Sounds like you had a good day out and some decent systems there. I expect there was a fair amount of real world priced gear unlike the TAD speakers;)

[Macca]

Thanks for the review of the show Martin. Sounds like you had a good day out and some decent systems there. I expect there was a fair amount of real world priced gear unlike the TAD speakers;)

depends what you call real world. I still think a grand for a component is pushing the limit of what I'm okay to pay, but the world (and inflation) have moved on.

I'm sort of idly looking at getting a new CD player or transport, but it's got to satisfy in terms of cosmetics and build quality. One of the dealer rooms was demming an Exposure CD player that had the sort of look I'm after. It's not on the market yet but I asked what the price will be - two and a half grand!

[Jimbo]

Yep that unfortunately is almost the bottom end price of new gear and with the economic storm coming not sure how many they will shift at that price.

I referred to real world price as I presumed the NWA show would have some reasonably priced gear unlike many of the bigger audio shows round the world where so much gear is eye wateringly priced.

Maybe not!

[Barry]

Great write up Martin and an interesting summary of your impressions of the show.

I agree - the mega-buck systems sound 'impressive', and can do things that cheaper systems cannot, but they never justify their cost. The argument is that the knowledge gained in developing the components will 'trickle down' to the benefit of development of future components.

Again, like you, I dispair of some of the music chosen to demonstrate these systems - but I'm quite happy to listen to "classical" music: it drives out most of the visitors so I can hear the system on my own! ;)

[Macca]

Yep that unfortunately is almost the bottom end price of new gear and with the economic storm coming not sure how many they will shift at that price.

I referred to real world price as I presumed the NWA show would have some reasonably priced gear unlike many of the bigger audio shows round the world where so much gear is eye wateringly priced.

Maybe not!

Like I say depends on what you mean by 'reasonably priced'. I didn't ask the price of everything and some did not display prices, but I would say that if you put together a system of streamer, dac, amp and speakers from the cheapest stuff there you'd be maybe doing 8 to 10 grand for the lot.

[Jimbo]

That’s a reasonable price nowadays. I think my system cost me about that to put together and I would say it is quite modest.

[Macca]

That’s a reasonable price nowadays. I think my system cost me about that to put together and I would say it is quite modest.

Yes, serious kit's always been expensive for anyone on a normal wage. Back in 1985 when I was taking home fifty quid a week, Rotel's cheapest amp was £150.

Lucky back them that you could get bin end Jap stuff at third retail from Richer or Hyper-fi or I'd never have got started. I got a whole system for that £150. Okay it was only Tensai and Sanyo-Fisher but it was a start.

[Stranraer]

[QUOTE=Macca;1350748] I'm sort of idly looking at getting a new CD player or transport, but it's got to satisfy in terms of cosmetics and build quality.
Hi Macca. I'm starting to take an interest in Teac CD players. I think there's a tie in between them and the exorbitantly priced Exposure players. I'd be interested to know if anyone has any experience of them.

[Pigmy Pony]

depends what you call real world. I still think a grand for a component is pushing the limit of what I'm okay to pay, but the world (and inflation) have moved on.

I'm sort of idly looking at getting a new CD player or transport, but it's got to satisfy in terms of cosmetics and build quality. One of the dealer rooms was demming an Exposure CD player that had the sort of look I'm after. It's not on the market yet but I asked what the price will be - two and a half grand!

I think your show report covers pretty much everything that we saw (no doubt there was, as always, something we missed, as well as the raffle :doh:

I googled Phonia, and there's next to bog all about them online, not even any prices. Those active standmounts were very good I thought, but I wouldn't want to be chucking thousands at an unknown, so it's probably a case of wait-and-see-what-happens. We suspected they might be East European, and it turns out they're Polish.

And as for the £2.5k Exposure player, that's the same price as this:

https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?76127-FS-Accuphase-DP-430-CD-Player

You know it makes sense. "The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten" :)

One more thing - I thinks there was much more modestly priced kit than your estimated £8k, it's just that we didn't give it our attention - we were too busy being distracted/wowed/disappointed by the higher end stuff.

A special mention to Ali Tait's hair, which is indeed most impressive, though he can't be too complacent with Firebottle's barnet snapping at his heels...

[Mr. C]

Would just like to say a big thank to everyone that dropped into the room and said hello, great to catch up with a few long time faces, Simon SQ popped in as well we had a serious hiccup on the set up day which lead to a 750 mile rally around the country to make this happen thanks to a delightful individual in a Telsa who decided to try and remove the front of our vehicle on the M6 toll charming fellow.
Also thank you for all of the very positive feedback from visitors and fellow peers. Jimbo the Tad's were not the most price tag heavy speakers being shown I counted at least twelve pairs that exceeded their retail outlay by a not insignificant margin, about on par with a non poverty spec (Copyright T. Price 2023) Volvo I am lead to believe :eek:

[Pigmy Pony]

Would just like to say a big thank to everyone that dropped into the room and said hello, great to catch up with a few long time faces, Simon SQ popped in as well we had a serious hiccup on the set up day which lead to a 750 mile rally around the country to make this happen thanks to a delightful individual in a Telsa who decided to try and remove the front of our vehicle on the M6 toll charming fellow.
Also thank you for all of the very positive feedback from visitors and fellow peers. Jimbo the Tad's were not the most price tag heavy speakers being show I counted at least twelve pairs that exceeded their retail outlay by a not insignificant margin, about on par with a non poverty spec (Copyright T. Price 2023) Volvo I am lead to believe :eek:

Tony, your set up was like a breath of fresh air after having our hearing assaulted by all the silly-price gear we saw beforehand, which were further ruined by the exhibitors trying to flatter their rigs with godawful plinky-plonk music no one had ever heard of, with no serious effort given to setting up. just my opinion of course.

Best in show (also imo).

[Mr. C]

Hello Steve

Thank you for your great comments all of the team appreciated the feedback we received through out the show period. Its not easy to make a quality audio system sound good in a hotel room yet alone when some twazac tried to turn one of liquid music amplifiers in to a Ritchie Blackmore California Jam end of set spectical :stalks::lol:

The object of the excerise if you like was to play the music you would at home, rather than Nils L Keith don't go, Clapped out/ Floyd was only played once during the whole weekend we even threw in some Ozric's on the Sunday, everything from Elvis's whistling tune to ZZ top Tush.

You can't please everyone we know, one gent moaned we played plinky plonky jazz all the time, possible he came in mid afternoon on Sunday where a couple were enjoying some Boz scaggs, then we selected a couple of more mellow tracks, but hey we all like different things.

Again on Sunday around lunchtime we gave Purple an airing with 'Lazy' and you couldn't more in the room or hear a pin drop :) At the end lots of big thumbs up and thanks for the crowd pleaser.


I must also mention Ali T's hair is quite something, like Scotlands answer to the Yeti only perfectly groomed :)

Good to catch up with Nick G (Longdog) and all of the other chaps that came in to listen and stayed quite a while, it shows us we must be doing something right!

The Cranage show for ourselves is the star of the UK audio calander, great venue, superb hotel staff and the organiser Chris and his first class staff all made this show a resounding success. Special mention to the visitors as well, what a very pleasant, entertaining and knowledge group of people that are so relaxed and a joy to engage with.

See you all next year

[Mr. C]

Sorry double post

[Ali Tait]

Lol thanks for the hair comments, good to see you all there, was a very enjoyable if warm weekend. :-)

[Ali Tait]

I think your show report covers pretty much everything that we saw (no doubt there was, as always, something we missed, as well as the raffle :doh:

I googled Phonia, and there's next to bog all about them online, not even any prices. Those active standmounts were very good I thought, but I wouldn't want to be chucking thousands at an unknown, so it's probably a case of wait-and-see-what-happens. We suspected they might be East European, and it turns out they're Polish.

And as for the £2.5k Exposure player, that's the same price as this:

https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?76127-FS-Accuphase-DP-430-CD-Player

You know it makes sense. "The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten" :)

One more thing - I thinks there was much more modestly priced kit than your estimated £8k, it's just that we didn't give it our attention - we were too busy being distracted/wowed/disappointed by the higher end stuff.

A special mention to Ali Tait's hair, which is indeed most impressive, though he can't be too complacent with Firebottle's barnet snapping at his heels...

Lol, said the same to Alan.:lol: