Novotel Hi-Fi Show

On the whole the exhibition was a real pile of shit, with really abysmal sounds coming out of many of the rooms. The attendees (apart from myself and the Mullet Audio crew) we really sad too. People salivating over brochures, stroking speakers, caressing poweramps, etc. I had forgotten how anoraky the punters were!

Anyway here is the defintive mullet audio ranking of the rooms I visited, my other colleagues who had more time and patience than I did will no doubt add to this.

Here is our rating scale.

1. Horrible
2. Pretty crap
3. Alright but played shit music
4. Cool but played shit music
5. Cool but played good music when I gave it to them

The rating:

a) Wilson Benesch - 2
b) Krell/Martin Logan - 3 (I told Ricardo he needed a hearing aid)
c) Chord - 4 (I told the distributer he was deaf)
d) Exposure - 2
e) Krell/Krell speakers - 1
f) Linn - 1 (but really zero because it was truly shit - I told a Linn rep that she was really ugly and deaf)
g) ATC AV system - 4
h) Marantz - 1
g) Pioneer - 1 (I told John Bamford that he was deaf)
h) Proac - 4 (I told Stewart Tyler that he was deaf)

Anyway after that lot I was really depressed but perked up massively when I went to the Neat Room. They scored a 5! The sound was great, even though the system was in a really small room. I really liked the Roksan deck and the sytem CDS2/52/4x135/Ultimatums. They even played some techno! and Bob was a nice guy. Wicked.

Then I went to the Naim room and met Mark Raggett and some nice big bloke who looks like a member of the Addams family (turned out to be Paul Darwin). Definately a 5 for sound. Very cool sound in my book, but again they were playing some polite 40 something music. Luckily Mullet Audio saved the day (and nearly cleared the room) when they played some hard core drum and bass.

So anyway really shit show, the only cool sounds came from Neat and Naim, but it was worth it to hear them.

DB/Mullet Audio
'we know whats best for you'

• The Naim demo with my Winton Marsalis CD
• Those fabulous speakers from PMC
• The ProAc speakers
• The Wilson demo downstairs

• The Wilson Discovery on the end of £60k worth of amplification
• The Linn Komri - Yuk - this is such a shame

Are you refering to those Lamm valve amps? 60K? No wonder the Discoveries sounded half decent.

Alex

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It was good of Linn to show respect for the events in USA last week, by playing sombre type music all the time

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I hope you're right. I thought it was the Komri.

Alex

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Originally posted by CKB:
Has anybody any experience of Kef with Naim?

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Yes;

1. Kef have. They usually use Naim amps at shows, and their speakers get a good spanking, which they thrive on.

2. I have a friend currently using my old NAIT 1 as a stand-in for his Musical Fidelity Electra Pre / 2 x Electra power amp combo (400 watts total), as the pre is with MF for repair. His speakers are Kef RDM3s. Using a CD5 as source, the NAIT 1 spanks the Kefs sufficiently hard both to start and stop them on time, and goes at least as loud without hiccups.

I suspect that if you like what Kefs do, you'll get more of what you like with Naim powering them. If you don't, then there are better speakers for the money.

Best;

Mark

(an imperfect
forum environment is
better than none)

Were you there for the magical way that the Naim system dealt with the 1st track on the CD? I was looking for something that is missing on my system at home and the 500/Allae combination brought it out a treat.
With respect to the Chord demo. I was so disappointed that I didn't bother. I would like to hear those ProAc's and the PMC's on the end of the 500 though. I reckon it would be a bit special.

Nigel

On the whole a pretty depressing load of equipment that was almost without exception incapable of reproducing music in any way. A few rooms that stuck in my mind…

Naim – The new Allae speakers sound good, and the Naim room was the only one at the show consistently playing any decent CDs. It seemed to sound very different dependant on where you sat, I got both a good and a bad seat at different times. Good fun, good system, and great to meet up with a few people.

Neat – The recent SBL priced speaker the Vito is an absolute stunner, fed with a maxed out Xerxes 10 and high end Naim amplification they rocked. Albumen by The Egg sounded stunning, I really must buy a copy. I was much less impressed with the big Ultimatums which sounded overblown and stodgy, though they may well do the biz in a bigger room.

Nottingham Analogue – I love these decks and I love Tom Fletchers whole attitude. I did however not think much of the amps or speakers he was using, though have heard the NA decks sound great elsewhere so know they do. The weight of the new NA Dais platter is absurd, it is a real struggle to lift it.

Fujitsu Ten - Eclipse TD speakers, strange looking egg shaped single driver speakers that Brian Eno is endorsing. Eno gets most things right, and liking these is no exception – they are incredibly fast, have no cabinet coloration, and have a remarkably extended response for such a tiny driver. They fundamentally worked, and seem to have a lot of the traits that make Kans such winners, but without some of the trade offs. I would love to evaluate these with known electronics (you know who) rather than their unbelievably cool looking dedicated amps. Very interesting.

Path Premier – Dark room with a large video screen that was showing something totally unconnected to the music when I went in. The room was full of ultra high end Levinsion, Revel etc kit, I am not sure what exactly, but it did work. Seemed like a good balance between round and flat earth virtues, in fact it was stunning on the couple of pieces that I listened too. First time I have heard high end kit actually play in tune and in time. I believe the system playing was worth about 130 grand… enough said.

Chord – Absolutely appalling. They played a Suzanne Vega track that I have knocking about on vinyl somewhere so am familiar with, and boy did that system kill it. It took the musical content outside and shot it, surgically removing any swing or human feel. I was stunned by how musically inept this megabuck system was – a P3 / Nad 3020 / Royd A7 system would take it to the cleaners in every way that is important.

Exposure – Excellent as ever. Real bargain stuff, and amongst very few demonstrating affordable hi-fi.

Creek / Epos – I heard the M12 speakers driven by the dearer Creek CD player and amp, they were playing some of the Boom Boom album by John Lee Hooker, and they definitely got one of the best sounds at the show. A seriously good system, and one that was well good enough to question the need to pay more.

Electrocompaniet / Castle – Sounding very musch less good than they did at the Chester show, but still passable.

Leema Acoustics – Tiny little metal boxed loudspeaker (smaller than a Kan) that sounded really open and dynamic. Definitely had potential.

Linn – Showing their new ultra expensive speakers. This made me laugh, they were playing a quite up tempo jazz piece that I have somewhere, but was unable to identify, and absolutely no one in the room was tapping their feet, I tried to consciously, but the system was so broken musically that it seemed impossible…. Linn in failed tune dem shock.

LS3/5A room – A room hosted by a LS3/5A user group, they were playing the very first pair ever made when I popped in, and they sounded pretty good. They also had a dismembered pair that it was very interesting to have a good look at the construction. Don’t tell anyone, but I have a bit of a soft spot for LS3/5As…

That’s about it for stuff that did, or would be expected to hang a tune together. There were however some radically stupid looking bits of kit that really demanded a double take, the funniest for me was some new blue painted horns from Beauhorn that made the room look like one of those BBC 2 trailers where the number two pops up in a bizarre location.

Tony.

Naim: Easily the best musical sounds, in fact, the best sounds full stop. Perhaps the room wasn't perfect. Perhaps the choice of music didn't always suit (although most of the time it was ok to good). Perhaps not too many Allaes will wind up on the end of a cdsii/52/500 (although they must be IDEAL for the source-first brigade). Despite this, the Allae sounded stunningly good to me with NO apology needed for the bass unlike every other small/medium speaker I have heard. If you were even half thinking about a pair of £2k speakers you would be silly not to give these an audition.

Chord: Dreadful. There must have been something seriously wrong with the room/set-up. I couldn't sit more than two minutes.

Absolute Sounds: I'm sure Alison's leather skirt is getting shorter each year! Explosive! (the sounds, not Alison!). I had my doubts about the neutrality of the sounds, but I would certainly audition the kps25/mono blocks/LAT1 (or Sonus Faber or Wilsons). Not everyone's cup of tea, no doubt.

Path: Mediocre choice of music clips. Two-channel system wasn't up to last year's standard by a long chalk. Almost the same kit each year, same room, and same team. So could it be that the new Ref40 controller is letting the side down? OTOH, the multi channel movies had superb pics and sound. The kids wondered why I commandeered their copy of Dinosaurs when I got home.

REL: I asked Richard Lord? how you connected a sub-woofer into a hifi system and the entire audience was treated to a 15-minute emotional lecture ranging from hotel bills through staff pension schemes to 10mm grooved joints in the cabinets. But it drew in twice as many punters and he followed it with Roy Orbison/Pretty Woman with mega bass and twice as many punters again!

Linn: Not as dreadful as I had been led to believe.

Classic FM: Interesting, pleasant, couldn't live with it (the Naim contribution was static)

Audio Freaks: I have never heard Thelma Houston sound so insipid.

B&W: ??????? nowhere to be seen!

Cheers

Don

[This message was edited by Don Atkinson on MONDAY 17 September 2001 at 22:21.]

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Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
_Linn_: Not as dreadful as I had been led to believe.

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Good grief, man - what are you looking for in a system?

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Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
_REL_: I asked Richard Lord? how you connected a sub-woofer into a hifi system and the entire audience was treated to a 15-minute emotional lecture ranging from hotel bills through staff pension schemes to 10mm grooved joints in the cabinets. But it drew in twice as many punters and he followed it with Roy Orbison/Pretty Woman with mega bass and twice as many punters again!

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Ha. Presumably with much hand waving and even a little jumping up and down? He's a great chap.

cheers, Martin

It was the MB1's and they were wonderful. They reminded me of Isobarik.

James,

The Allae's danced. I think that this is the best way I could describe them. The thing I need to check is whether this was because they were on the end of a 500. There is no doubt that this amp is a bit special but the Allae's seemed to have REAL synergy. With the Winton Marsalis CD, the music was real, feet tapping and exciting. The symbols were alive and when I got home to my system I felt quite deflated that mine is nowhere near. Now I have to save for that damn 500 and see what it can do with my Nautilus's!

First impression (subsequently confirmed by many exhibitors' comments) was that this was a quiet show. Not surprising really given the events of the week. However, I don't think that's the only reason given that many manufacturers weren't even represented at the show.

We thought the best sound at the show came courtesy of Naim Audio and by a long way. This was the smoothest, nicest, grooviest sound there. The Allaes were very impressive by being so together and nicely full - Jude was asking if I could buy a pair since mine are big coffins as far as she's concerned. Of course the demo was immeasurably enhanced by Paul Darwin's presence. FWIW, I was told that the CD racks will be available at £500 for the long low one and £750 for the tall one, although they're very modular and you can add different heights for DVD/video as well. The TV stand will also be available - I forget the price.

The Leema Acoustics Xen speaker was such good fun! Chris said he'd lend us a pair to play with.

The Beauhorns were ridiculous in shape, size and colour but the sound wasn't bad I guess - I like single-driver, hornloaded speakers.

Biggest Surprise: Schroder tonearm on the Loricraft stand. A tonearm that works by having two strong magnets pulling each other, but suspended by wires. The strength of the magnets is such that there is absolutely no lateral movement possible! The armtubes are wood. Fascinating!

Biggest Caveats: Couldn't get into the Path and Nordost rooms.

Biggest Disappointment: Chord Electronics were doing their best to make a clinical sound with no life to it as usual. They never seem to get show demos right. I really wanted to hear the Dynaudio Temptations at their best - shame.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Good grief, man - what are you looking for in a system?

Well it sounded mediocre, no life, no emotion, but not even neutral - perhaps bland. I think for the asking price I would prefer the BIG Krell set-up, you might get a head-ache, but at least you couldn't ignore it!

quote:

Ha. Presumably with much hand waving and even a little jumping up and down? He's a great chap.

Thats him, but there was a LOT of jumping up and down, especially when the bass went LOUD!!

Cheers

Don

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I asked Richard Lord? how you connected a sub-woofer into a hifi system and the entire audience was treated to a 15-minute emotional lecture ranging from hotel bills through staff pension schemes to 10mm grooved joints in the cabinets.

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I really like this guy - anyone who can display that much enthusiasm and get really excited about products he is obviously very familiar with will get my vote every time.

Fortunately the product is VERY impressive too.

Andy.

He really is an entertaining, enthusiastic, character with a really good product.

I don't know if it would improve my hifi, but I would like to try a home dem.

Cheers

Don

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LS3/5A room – A room hosted by a LS3/5A user group, they were playing the very first pair ever made when I popped in, and they sounded pretty good. They also had a dismembered pair that it was very interesting to have a good look at the construction. Don’t tell anyone, but I have a bit of a soft spot for LS3/5As…

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It was interesting to hear the 'other side' of the Kan equation!

I was also somewhat beguiled by these - I expected tonal accuracy and little else, but they were much better than I expected.

What a complex crossover though - I'm surprised any music got through.

Andy.

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It was interesting to hear the 'other side' of the Kan equation!

I was also somewhat beguiled by these - I expected tonal accuracy and little else, but they were much better than I expected.

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They are not the antiKan that many seem to expect. My first hi-fi speakers were the JR149 which were effectively a LS3/5A in a slightly larger cylindrical aluminium cabinet. They were designed by Jim Rogers of Rogers loudspeakers after he left the company, and the pair I had were the really early ones with the 15 Ohm crossovers – I suspect they would be worth a fortune now. They looked kind of cool in a wacky 70s way. You are right about the crossover, the one in the 149 was massive and on a round circuit board in the base of the speaker, the speaker cable was screwed directly to it which was kind of cool, would have made for really easy soldering, but I could not solder back then.

Hearing LS3/5As really brought back memories of my old system, I would have loved to hear them on the end of a kick ass source and Naim amplification. I let my 149s go blaming a bass problem on them that was actually upstream (Lenco 75 / Quad 33 / 303), this was many years before I came across the front end first concept. I had them on crappy stands too.

LS3/5As are the sort of speakers I would love to have stashed away in a cupboard just in case…(along with Quad 57s, Isobariks, Gale 401s, AR3a… I need a bloody big cupboard).

Tony.

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LS3/5As are the sort of speakers I would love to have stashed away in a cupboard just in case…(along with Quad 57s, Isobariks, Gale 401s, AR3a… I need a bloody big cupboard).

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You need a garage!

Cheers

Keith, who has 2-3 pair of speakers, other than the Kans in use, in the garage...

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Chord - urgh! Had to leave the room to avoid laughing out loud.

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You got that right. We walked in when they were playing "little fluffy clouds"... it lacked even the bounce a CD3/32.5/140/Kytes portray with ease. Listened for a while, but became somewhat distressed (me, not the system - that came later) at the usual crap audiophile music that went on next. I left the room, and was waiting for the others... but Jawed had them play some Panasonic, which of course had me straight back in for a listen. As the track built, you could at least pick out the build-up through the mushy, soft, diffuse presentation. A number of others in the room (all ages I will note) were starting to nod-along a-la the Beta Band scene from "High Fidelity"... and 30 secs into the track the bloke on the controls pushed EJECT. No lowering of volume, just "very nice - thank you", thrusting the disc into Jawed's hands. More a case of "take your disc and f#*k off out of my room", I surmised. He either missed a trick (the other punters getting captured by the track), or it may have been a case of damage limitation (hearing the bbuildup and sussing that the system might end up doing it pretty badly). Or hey, perhaps he just needed some time to chill out in the bar, ragged nerves etc. Anyway, the blue-lights inside the Chord kit look kool if you have the money for what IMHO is soggy boring beatifully finished ugly kit.

I had previously ventured into Linn's room to hear the outrageous Komri... seeemed all (yep, they were playing boring audiophile music there too) were singing through megaphones... the most impressive thing about the Linn room was running in to Mr Afro Audio himself, Patrick. Cheers, mate, sorry not to have run into you again later on!

Endured 30 secs of the Eagles playing on DVD in an AV room alongside Linn's - sounded like they were all bored, past it, and going through the motions.. oh, they are? Well ok, but they don't sound that way on the Hell Freezes CD. I left quickly, and went to do a quick lap of the "snake oil" salesmen, noting Naim label marooned amongst them doing brisk trade. Found a hugely priced tape solution lead in the Chord bins, and again returned it to the bin at £50 - I really must finish that ARO cable.

That was when we went around to the Chord room. After that took a detour into the Pioneer room for a peek at Arnie doing his stuff T2 style - was pretty impressed with the picture depite it being on a flat panel TV. Have watched this from my own Pioneer DVD many times on my former 21" TV, and had never noticed the clarity and contrast I saw before me - seems I'm either missing a trick or two, or must get in to some better display system in the future. Also ran in to a friend of mine, a distinctly round-earth dude. I wonder what he thought of the Naim room - must ask him.

En-route to the Naim room, I passed a nordost room which was packed full of punters in stark contrast to the other rooms on the floor - it was playing fairly good music, and most notably was the material - Jimi Hendrix was wailin'. Hmm - could there be something in this, in that the punters do like to hear real music (Yes, even! ) at shows as in their own homes! Almost immediately after that met Mr Darwin, and that was the end of the show for me, barring a quick step in to the Naim room for a brief listen - porr Doug had been left to man the discs and decks and paly the rock and roll on his tod.

Tim and I headed for the bar in search of black gold, fully intending to return for more music searching amongst the HiFi detrius above - but alas it was not to happen. I am pleased to note I was hangoverless on awakening at 0600 sunday, and could only surmise in that position that it was a well successful show! Thanks for hospitality and entertainment - will attempt to place some long overdue photos on my ricomuzk site in the next day or two!

Oh, and for anyone flying out of T3 at Heathrow allow some extra time, the "increased security" is farcical. See "plastic cutlery" in all the restaurants, yet still using steel cutlery on planes, "abandon dangerous twin-blade razor cartridges" in your hand luggage - man you can do some damage with one of those eh? And watching inconsistent body searches by thoroughly unprofessional guards while other punters slipped around the metal detectors was entertainment enough.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

PS - Paul Darwin, if you send me your e-mail address I'll forward you the Kim Crawford e-mail.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio