Bristol Show Snippets
Posted by: Tarquin Maynard - Portly on 21 February 2004
Muchachos
Had an anorak day at Bristol today; cannot claim to have seen everything but here are some highights, IMO
1. Me obviously
2. Naim DVD Its there, its stunning. Watched Alison Kraus (sp? ) Live in Paris; the fleshtones are completely natural, no hint of painting by numbers: grain on the woodwork on a semi acoustic guitar looked real and warm, just like it does in real life. Detailing is fantastic; wispy stray hairs are exactly right, very well detailed with no ghosting, colour bleed or echo visible. The black backgrounds wherejust that - black. Full rich colours throughout. The sound is what we expect, although the rokmm did the bass no real favours - this improved some hours later. I realised how good the video replay was when I saw the same DVD in the Spendor dem room, through an Arcam player. Expect around £2300 retail.
3. REL not subwoofers but sub-bass, according to the guys there. The Boss man was in slippers, which I rather liked. The actual bass was cranked up to plate tectonic level and was at a "check teeth for loose fillings " intensity. I heard one of the reps saying he was at a club last night with the speakers cranked too loud and he could not hear a thing. No comment as to how that affected the dem. The standard of manufacture is very high.
4. UKD Up on the 10th floor, some fabulous sounding valve amps from Pathos Acoustics, what amazed me was the particularly loud private conversations being held by the team; if you are going to dem kit bloody well shut up and let us listen.
5. Seventh Veil Much respected by Tom Alves, I now understand why. There are seriously good speakers, as one would expect for a £7k price tag. Fantasticaly fast, good solid bass, no hint of strain even at high sound levels. One to short list if you are looking to spend that kind of money. The guys running the dem are particularly friendly and enthusiatic.
6. Sony SACD. Just left me cold. Totally uninvolving.
7. Rega The new turn table is there, I photographed it as requested on the Forum but have not figured out how to download it here! Good old fashioned enthusiasts, I particularly liked the Union Jack finish T/T
Spent some time talking to the Naim guys, Paul Darwin in particular feigned interest for some time for which much thanks.
Regards
Mike
On the Yellow Brick Road and Happy
Had an anorak day at Bristol today; cannot claim to have seen everything but here are some highights, IMO
1. Me obviously
2. Naim DVD Its there, its stunning. Watched Alison Kraus (sp? ) Live in Paris; the fleshtones are completely natural, no hint of painting by numbers: grain on the woodwork on a semi acoustic guitar looked real and warm, just like it does in real life. Detailing is fantastic; wispy stray hairs are exactly right, very well detailed with no ghosting, colour bleed or echo visible. The black backgrounds wherejust that - black. Full rich colours throughout. The sound is what we expect, although the rokmm did the bass no real favours - this improved some hours later. I realised how good the video replay was when I saw the same DVD in the Spendor dem room, through an Arcam player. Expect around £2300 retail.
3. REL not subwoofers but sub-bass, according to the guys there. The Boss man was in slippers, which I rather liked. The actual bass was cranked up to plate tectonic level and was at a "check teeth for loose fillings " intensity. I heard one of the reps saying he was at a club last night with the speakers cranked too loud and he could not hear a thing. No comment as to how that affected the dem. The standard of manufacture is very high.
4. UKD Up on the 10th floor, some fabulous sounding valve amps from Pathos Acoustics, what amazed me was the particularly loud private conversations being held by the team; if you are going to dem kit bloody well shut up and let us listen.
5. Seventh Veil Much respected by Tom Alves, I now understand why. There are seriously good speakers, as one would expect for a £7k price tag. Fantasticaly fast, good solid bass, no hint of strain even at high sound levels. One to short list if you are looking to spend that kind of money. The guys running the dem are particularly friendly and enthusiatic.
6. Sony SACD. Just left me cold. Totally uninvolving.
7. Rega The new turn table is there, I photographed it as requested on the Forum but have not figured out how to download it here! Good old fashioned enthusiasts, I particularly liked the Union Jack finish T/T
Spent some time talking to the Naim guys, Paul Darwin in particular feigned interest for some time for which much thanks.
Regards
Mike
On the Yellow Brick Road and Happy
quote:
Originally posted by Naimerhifi:quote:
Originally posted by Justin:
Damn - that Rega p7 is one freaking ugly deck. From what I've seen of the p5, I like it better. Unless the p5 is reasonably priced (and supposed to outperform the p25) I guess it's a used p25 for me.
judd
It is one bloody ugly deck, and to think that they have it on a Hutter rack ! I wouldn't let that thing sit near my Hutters
O.J.
i would like to have bill Gates money
and to look like new rega p7.
Why?? 
Because of:Having bill gates money,it does not matter how i look like.
O.J.
Many thanks to Mike and others who have commented favourably on the sound in our room. No speakers will please all of the people all of the time but it's great to be enjoyed by some.
Pev, of course you can dance to them. All that happens is that you'll lose a few dB in the higher frequencies. When you're dancing, who cares? At a hi-fi show, most people would prefer to hear the whole frequency spectrum so we recommended sitting.
Hmmm, I wonder if audiophiles only dance in their normal hi-fi listening position? The mind boggles.
Steve Margolis
defy convention - make music
quote:
Originally posted by Pev:
I thought the show was about as usual but was surprised that 7th Veil had a notice saying you had to be seated to listen to them... What's the use of speakers you can't dance to??
Pev, of course you can dance to them. All that happens is that you'll lose a few dB in the higher frequencies. When you're dancing, who cares? At a hi-fi show, most people would prefer to hear the whole frequency spectrum so we recommended sitting.
Hmmm, I wonder if audiophiles only dance in their normal hi-fi listening position? The mind boggles.
Steve Margolis
defy convention - make music
There's nowt on their website about new models Alex?
How are you getting on with the Ref 1s?
Nime
Everyone has the right to be wrong.
How are you getting on with the Ref 1s?
Nime
Everyone has the right to be wrong.
Hi
There has been a lot of intrest in Rega but I must say they put on a poor show. The new speakers needed much better amps than Rega make.
Just how many turntables are they making (P2/3/5/7/9). We want quailty not quantity.
The Naim room CDX2/XPS/282/250/Allae sounded very good but the best Naim system was in the Ruark room, but I am a Ruark fan.
This is easy to say but the best dem's used Naim front end, I wonder if this is a trend as last show we went to only place you found Naim was in the Naim room.
Colin
There has been a lot of intrest in Rega but I must say they put on a poor show. The new speakers needed much better amps than Rega make
.Just how many turntables are they making (P2/3/5/7/9). We want quailty not quantity.
The Naim room CDX2/XPS/282/250/Allae sounded very good but the best Naim system was in the Ruark room, but I am a Ruark fan
.This is easy to say but the best dem's used Naim front end, I wonder if this is a trend as last show we went to only place you found Naim was in the Naim room.
Colin