Scalford show 6th March 2011

[Reid Malenfant]

Ouch, a cable touching the wall

Better get out the helium balloons me thinks

[Beechwoods]

It's all in good fun Mark, bit of an ongoing joke TBH

[Reid Malenfant]

It's all in good fun Mark, bit of an ongoing joke TBH

Glad to hear it, i'd be worried if there was a serious side to that

[Alex_UK]

Steve Toy has written up some thoughts on Scalford, and has posted a few pictures as well, over on AudioFuture - http://www.audiofuture.net/showthrea...Hall-Show-2011

Nice write up - sorry Steve for teasing you about the cable touching the skirting board!

[MartinT]

I think Steve would have heart failure if he saw my cabling behind the scenes. I simply can't avoid some of them touching the wall and many of them (interconnects, speaker, mains) lying alongside each other.

Ah well, I'll take the opportunity to tidy the runs when I rip it all apart to try Mark Grant's balanced cables when they're ready <cough>.

[jandl100]

I think Steve would have heart failure if he saw my cabling behind the scenes.

That sounds like my system ... cable spaghetti. Yummy!

[Rare Bird]

Just keep your signal cables away from the mains. my wires have always been perfectly laid out cos thats how i am anyway, not for reasons some do. saying that if peoples mains cables are so fantastically effective at doing what they do why worry eh

[Marco]

Interesting thread that I missed on Wigwam, started here by Steve Toy:

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread...it-more-detail

It's nice comments like that which make the (considerable) effort involved in exhibiting (our third year in a row) all worthwhile!

I will comment on some of the observations made later

Marco.

[chris@panteg]

Marco

What about this statement from Steve !

Oh, one more thing, as much as the praise of our system felt good, the speakers played only a very small part. If a system is setup properly using good components and ancilliaries, any old ropey pair of speakers will do...

Was he not too keen on the 66's then ?

[Marco]

LOL! Far from that - he loved them (much like everyone else)

What he was getting at was the fact that people were attributing the good sound we produced mainly to the sonic qualities of the speakers, and somewhat ignoring the (huge) influence everything else was having, particularly our attention to detail in terms of cabling, supports, and 'mains management'.

It's that attention to detail which Our Ethos here (and also that of AF) is all about, and speakers aside, the results we achieved speak for themselves...

I will tackle the problems with having a speaker-first philosophy to system building later, but it's safe to say that I think people should consider spending less on the boxes (and yes, also speakers) which make up a system, and more on ensuring that they're able to hear the full potential of whatever equipment and speakers are chosen in the first place. That is only achieved through optimising the set-up.

Experience tells me, time and time again, that a system containing well-chosen, yet fairly inexpensive (or not outrageously priced) boxes and speakers, set-up optimally, always outperforms a mish-mash of overpriced 'audiophile jewellery', badly, or less optimally, set-up - FACT!

Ok, so the AoS system we demonstrated wasn't exactly cheap, but neither was its total cost equivalent to the value of large detached house, as are some systems demonstrated at commercial hi-fi shows!!

I mean, has anyone heard as good a sound from the system demonstrated in the Absolute Sounds room at Whittlebury Hall, often totalling a cost high into six figures, as we achieved in the AoS room at Scalford with a pair of totally unmodified 1970s speakers? Think about it, and then wonder why I always bang on about 'badge-fi' and SPPV

Marco.