Royal Ascot HiFi Show

[walpurgis]

My white one was £25 complete with SME 3009, V15, Leak Varislope, Leak Stereofetic and Leak Stereo 20. All mint and mounted in a fifties Hi-Fi cabinet.

(Mind you, this was in the late seventies )

[southall-1998_mk2]

My white one was £25 complete with SME 3009, V15, Leak Varislope, Leak Stereofetic and Leak Stereo 20. All mint and mounted in a fifties Hi-Fi cabinet.

(Mind you, this was in the late seventies )

I wish we had a time travel machine!

S.

[Barry]

My white one was £25 complete with SME 3009, V15, Leak Varislope, Leak Stereofetic and Leak Stereo 20. All mint and mounted in a fifties Hi-Fi cabinet.

(Mind you, this was in the late seventies )

And have you sold it all?

[Beobloke]

I feel rather smug. My 301 was a £150 garage find purchase! £18K?????

Then I should feel REALLY smug - both of my 301s were free!

[walpurgis]

And have you sold it all?

Yes. All gone, long ago. Although I did use the Stereo 20 for a couple of years.

[graham67]

I went to the Ascot show and enjoyed it, good selection of kit from the affordable to stratospheric. As mentioned the venue was impressive with good selection of room.sizes. By far the best new UK hi-fi show i have attended. As with any new event, there were a few teething troubles, signposting needs to be improved and I am glad I took my own lunch! ��

Highlights included the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5A playing Rammstein, and a good long listen to the reborn JBL L100 Classic, which just confirmed my own prejudicial views on what speakers should sound like..... All that was missing was Tannoy and I would have completed the trifecta! And an honourable mention to Henley Sounds for their excellent free pod coffee. Given the lamentable catering, it is no surprise it ran out in the afternoon....

The biggest disappointment was Absolute Sounds which artfully displayed rows of very expensive kit, but little in the way of working systems, so was very sterile in the manner of a luxury car showroom. The few demos areas were ticketed only and rammed.

I also had a good chat with the SME/Garrard manager and the rebuilt 301 is essentially a very low volume halo product, no doubt to drum up interest in the brand and, judging by this thread, it seems to be succeeding!

My take was the level of work in the 301 was fairly painstaking with new parts being manufactured or old parts refurbished as required. I have no doubt that the rework is above and beyond a typical 301 refurb. And I can confirm the rather attractive plinth doesn't use squash balls! Unfortunately it seems there is no plan to make these redevelopments available to existing owners.

IMO, the job of the 301 is to pave the way for the WHOLLY new Garrard which wont be released for some time yet. In answer to the obvious question, SME would not confirm if it will be an idler, but my bet is that it will be. I understand it will be priced below the SME range.

Personally I wish SME every success with this venture, it would be amazing to see a new UK-made idler deck being released. And who knows, much as we buy quality kit from the 60/70s, our kids may be buying used 2020 Garrards in the future.

[Beobloke]

IMO, the job of the 301 is to pave the way for the WHOLLY new Garrard which wont be released for some time yet. In answer to the obvious question, SME would not confirm if it will be an idler, but my bet is that it will be. I understand it will be priced below the SME range.

They also refused to confirm to me whether there is a £99 SP25 Mk7 in the pipeline or not...

[Lawrence001]

They also refused to confirm to me whether there is a £99 SP25 Mk7 in the pipeline or not...

Stick a zero on and you might be right

I mean the number not the deck

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[jahsavage]

The venue was superb, my only complaint was finding my way about since the show was so spread out. I'm sure a more logical grouping of rooms would help?

I did enjoy the Avant-garde/SME/Garrad/Nagra room and could have spent all day listening to it and the wonderful presenter.