Scalford show 6th March 2011

[John]

Thanks for the link now working

[Dingdong]

Hopefully there are 147 pictures on the end of this link

It certainly looks like it works Please let me know if it doesn't...

Marco, you'll find the pics of AoS kit on page 8

I just loved that system in pic 127. Best sound of all IOM
The acoustics in that room seriously sucked. It sounded best with 6 people stood at the back. Couldn't fit any more in.

[Reid Malenfant]

Sorry Marco, i missed that post

The show was superb Now i have been to hifi shows before but i was a kid & went with my parents. I remember wandering round looking at all sorts of exotic gear including Optonica, Revox etc etc but a show like this is a totally different atmosphere entirely. Even though i was probably only 10 years old, though i honestly cannot remember how old i was as i can't remember where i was (might have been Bournemouth way) i still can't forget the kind of atmosphere that was prevalent, it was all about selling stuff & advertising

Scalford is a totally different kettle of fish, it's simply about getting to have a listen to kit you'd probably never get exposed to with nothing really to do with sales or promotions. It's about fellow music enthusiasts coming together with their respective kit & enjoying themselves in the process I had a great time, thoroughly enjoyed it & opened my ears to some vastly different kit.

Had a fun time with Alex who i'm very pleased to have met, likewise with the rest of the AoS crew even if i really didn't get very much of a chance to have more than a fleeting conversation which was unfortunate. I guess you got to see as many systems as i had minutes to chat to AoS members

As for the AoS system, lets just say that after about midday it rocked I thought i was hearing a very slight edge in the treble first thing, almost like there was a tiny bit of crap on the SPU tip. However on later listening it was totally fluid & sounded absolutely fantastic. It was a bit of a revelation to hear vinyl with such a low & consistant background noise, i can see why RCMs are popular & of course the obligatory make-up brush No - it truly did work, unfortunately i have so little vinyl it just wouldn't be worth the investment Nicks Nagra was frankly stunning & when it was first played which would have been early on i immediately nodded my head & thought "that's it"! This would have been mitigated later though as the Techie & SPU sounded wonderful..

The Ditton 66 frankly sounded huge which was a bit of a shock due to the room size, they still filled it though & did a superb job! By the way, i should have got you to play track 1 of that CD i brought along I think as me & Alex discussed though i think you'd have had a slightly better sound if the 66s had been moved in towards the equipment by about a foot or so. This would have given a better image on the front row seating whilst still accomodating those standing behind the rear seating... Just imo of course..

Other than that, top notch & yes 40W of class A valve amp does indeed go very loud A normal front room would be a quarter of the volume so i think that just about says it all

Brilliant day & i can't wait for Scalford 2012 in all honesty! A pleasure to put faces to names of all the AoS members i knowingly met..

[John]

I totally agree about the vibe its about people sharing their passion and gives you a flavour of the different approaches towars sound and a chance to hear stuff yo would never get a chance to hear When I went into peoples rooms I was greated with geniune warmth

[Bazil]

Great day, only visited a few rooms on purpose as I tend to get a bit blaise about kit and not give it the attention it deserves. Did go to AOS room twice , as Alex says hard to chat to people given we are all listening. Fabulous speakers Marco, possibly stole the show with them, reel to reel, wow this might start a new fad for people it was that good.

[Beechwoods]

It's lovely reading such positive comments about the Nagra. Thank you to everyone who's mentioned it! It's a good job I already have one, because if what you say comes true Barry, they'll end up too expensive for me to even sniff one!

[Alex_UK]

Hi again,

Well Mark has said a lot of what I was going to say about the AoS room. It wasn't us colluding - we both felt independently that there wasn't something quite right on the first visit with the vinyl replay. I can't remember what the record was that was playing, but it didn't sound quite right. The further visits proved that any fear was unfounded, as it was definitely a one off - either a dodgy record or recording, (most likely, I suspect) or possibly a bit of fluff or gunk on the stylus? Certainly when the Nagra kicked in, I was stunned at how good it sounded - (Pink Floyd I think it was) - and on our second visit Marco played Howard Jones - What is Love? (a track I know intimately) and thank goodness it sounded absolutely sublime, as did anything else I heard on the Techie. Steve's Eikos is certainly a fab CD player too, although I think I only heard 3 tracks on it at the end, and by then my ears were giving up and wanting to go home - certainly after Nick's final selection!

Regarding speaker placement, I did comment to Mark as he has suggested that I felt they were just a little too wide - actually, not so much they were too wide, but that the room was not wide enough for them! I can see that the compromise was probably to keep them away from the electronics to avoid (well minimise!) vibrations, but I felt that the image would have benefited from having some more clearance on the extremities, allowing it to extend beyond the speakers more than was possible as they were. Of course, I'm in no position really to judge from experience, it was just my instinct. That said, the slam, punch and scale of the system was awesome. I've read on here before that if you hear a system from outside the room and it sounds "right" then it probably is - mind you, I could still hear the AoS system even when we were in OB1's room and he was playing Marilyn Manson at silly levels through his Amatis!

I'll return with some more show thoughts in a while... Unless I'm already behind John's sofa after this post - hope you didn't eat all the custard creams, John?!

[purite audio]

Extremely good sound in the AOS room, wel done everyone, that Nagra is gorgeous!
Regards Keith.

[alfie2902]

What a great week-end that was!

Firstly apologies to Marco for not making it back with my SPU as I said I would! I wanted to hear it on the techie along side your SPU just for a comparison & a quick test of your SPU SUT. Time just slipped away far to quickly! I'm quite disappointed I didn't make it as the Techie was sounding the best I've heard it! New platter, PSU & cart have certainly stepped up the game! It would of given me an idea where my Denon would fit in too. Oh well I intend to take it next year!

I only managed two brief listens to the AoS system, but must say it was sounding very very good & as noted earlier, it has come in for a fair amount of praise on the Wam & around the forums! Well Done Chaps!

The Dittons were sounding very good indeed, & you have to wonder what speaker companies have been doing all these years? The copper amp certainly got a good grip of the Dittons, N.W.A was sounding very good & that was from outside the building while I was having a smoke! Steve's CDP likewise was sounding good, But to my dissapointment I didn't get to hear the Nagra Beechy!

All in all I think the show was again an improvement over previous years & all the systems I heard had something good going for them perhaps not always my thing but I could appreciate what they were trying to achieve, but it's just impossible to see everthing on show as hard as you try!

Noel Keywood from HiFi World seemed to enjoy it too http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/
attendance was well up on last year & with this sort of exposure the show should grow even more & go from strength to strength!

As Jack (Bigdur) said you should try & make the curry/beer run next year. There was 49 exhibitors & helpers on it this year! We took over the whole curry house apart from a small area & were well looked after.Perhaps if you intend to try the curry run do your best to get there for set-up a bit earlier next time. I believe some exhibitors arrived around lunch time or just after & the hotel welcomed them to set-up early where they could. This also allows the exhibitors to check out each others systems on the saturday making it not such a rush on the day itself to try & take in a few rooms.

Ive got quite a few photo's would you like to see them all or just the AoS ones?

[Jonboy]

Great day out i really enjoyed meeting everyone, you know who you are , loved our room and kept sneaking back, some rooms i stuck my head through the door and had to make a hasty exit either dull as dishwater or fingernails on the blackboard stuff, i was really pleased to of at last litened to a mini T amp through Tannoys and swiftly bought one to play with there and then using my phone to do so, i love technology sometimes, nice to reminisce over the rooms with the Quad stats, the jury is still out on horns, i love what they do well but not sure if could live with them full time, Bigdurs were a nice though.
It was really nice to see some good old kit doing good and out performing modern day show and shine stuff, really pissed off i missed Nicks Nagra.

One bad comment i must make was the lack of food on site, only having sandwiches is just not good enough IMO, we ended up driving back into Melton and having Shepherds pie and a pudding the bonus of that was it only cost a fiver each in the Co-op cafe,

my brain is dead and i can't think of anymore to say at the moment, i'm to knackered after a long week and to many miles driven so i'm off to bed


Looking forward to next year already