"The Hi-Fi+ Show" (Manchester Airport Hilton)

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Is anyone meeting up at the show?

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I'm going on Sunday, and hope to spend most of the day there.

Tony.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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Andrew

Andrew Randle
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I was planning to go but have decided to spend the day listening to my own system instead! The London show was so dissapointing last year that I am struggling to get excited about such events.

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Short of taking permanent residence in the Naim room (which was the only room that sounded like music to me) I think I'd rather stay home too.

Andy.

Look out for Ruddles Ales!

(BTW, this is not an advert - I haven't drunk the stuff since the brewery was moved from Rutland. )

It's always a nice day for it Have a good one!
Steve.
It's good to get back to normal.

Must say I was disappointed with the NAIM room even though it was a NAC52 + NAP500 + NBLs and a CDS2 it sounded very digital and gritty. A bit harsh and penetrating to the ears and lack of real base. Some CDs they played were terrible but the odd one (Doors - Riders On The Storm) approached OK - but I am still no CD fan!.

When I got home to my Naim, which I am playing now with some great vinyl I go from Vivante & Diverse Vinyl it blows away the Naim system at Manchester.

I guess you will all say: what do you expect from a hotel room!.

True.... but.....

The room with the Michell Orbe was really-really good and involving. Maybe I need to re-consider my trusted LP12?

Also the room with the Art Loudspeakers (Impressions) - was by far the best with real base. Wow - my poor old SBL's came no where near neither did the NBLs at Naim.

But the Fraim looked great - even if expensive - must dem them at home. Wife says we will have to re-decorate the lounge for them and I may need to replace my black SBLs with..... Impressions??? (but they look too industrial as 'she who must be obeyed' says!).

Anyway I had fun and was glad that my system sounded fantastic when I got home but that Orbe and those Impression speakers - wow - imagine what they would be like outside a hotel room!!!!!

Richard

Highlights were the Living Voice room, once Kevin dumped the faulty Wadia in favour of a lucious Helios Model 1. Some serious sharing of music went on in that room, which is what I like to see .

Sim Moon gear rocked.

Roy Gregory's LP/CD/DVD-A/SACD comparison demo was well executed, a lot of painstaking effort has gone into that.

The new Royd RR2s were sounding fantastic on the end of a CDX/82/180. However, the exhibitors (Audio Counsel) were swapping the mains with and without a power-block filter.... sounded better without!

Linn were supposed to be there, but didn't show up.

Overall this was a fairly small get-together. About 100 exhibitors, if that. However, I enjoyed myself more than at the last Novotel show (Y2K).

Nowadays, I know the direction my system will be going. So the reason for going is to share music with the exhibitors from Naim/Living Voice. My next pay cheque is in for a battering, so mission accomplished.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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And what about Roy Gregory's dem? Did LP/vinyl win the day? WHat equipment was he using? How close did SACD come? And how did CD sound?

Would love to know---thanks

Ali

The main Naim demo was a bit harsh around the edges, but as I think Andrew said, the fundamentals were there. In the Naim AV room everyone, including the current Mrs Quigley and Jez junior were riveted by the Dr. Who thingy, but why SO loud. Now I like loud, let me say again I like LOUD, but as Jez junior commented "well if YOU think its too loud, then it must be".

I got to see the new,new, QS.The S.O. type table vs QS worked for me enough to want to seriously home dem (read 'buy'). Mrs Q thought they look better than the Fraim, her previous favourites from photos.

The Living Voice sounded fab, as did one of the tube rooms, but I can't remember which (DOH!)

Jez jun is a very un-possessions oriented guy, and normally would prefer to have his fingernails pulled out than spend any money (God only knows where he got that trait from), but as a result of the show he now wants a serious home theatre system, not the bit of wire from the digitalTV to the 72 we have now.

Afterwards we went on to the Trafford Centre where there is an 'entertainment' area. After listening to the fine stuff at the Hilton, Jez jun and Mrs Q are really aware now how truly awful most other sound systems are. Mission accomplished.

So well worth the effort in getting to the show and, almost, the £8.25 paid for 3 Hilton coffees.

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the current Mrs Quigley

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Alex

The "Riders On The Storm" track by The Doors has recently been remastered on cd. It was released in 2000, in a special "lp" looking packaging and sounds superb. You can also buy a "Complete Studio Recordings" box set with the same quality.

Andrew Randle

The Audio Councel demonstration was far better with the mains extension block. Each to his own. It is not a filter.

Ali

The Audio Councel mains block has a plug at one end attached to a block of 4 or 6 sockets by a mains lead. Simple as that. They were only plugging the equipment either into the mains socket or into their mains block. The leads from the Naim equipment were standard Naim.

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Too far to go from London. So, some queries--first, about the Audio Counsel mains leads and block--the leads that sounded better without the block: were they Audio Counsel mains leads?
And what about Roy Gregory's dem? Did LP/vinyl win the day? WHat equipment was he using? How close did SACD come? And how did CD sound?

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Firstly, it may have been the Audio Counsel's own block (as they were doing to demo). It did smooth the sound, at the expense of timing.

With Roy Gregory's demo, IMHO vinyl sounded miles ahead of CD/DVD-A/SACD (!!!). The final part of the demo involved comparing the same record on DVD-A and SACD. The problem was, that the presentation sounded totally different! My theory was that the Eq was set differently for SACD and DVD-A....

This demo also showed that there is a lot of mileage to the fact that turbo charging the CD player replay technology (as all serious hi-fi companies do) goes a long way... the high-end CD players were very close in quality to the DVD/SACD players.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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[This message was edited by Andrew Randle on SUNDAY 18 November 2001 at 12:49.]

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so my question is about Living Voice. What was their system?

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Firstly they started with a Wadia 86x cd player. This was player abandoned - it wasn't sounding right (very mechanical and sterile), Kevin reckoned that the player was suffering some fault. Swapping this for the considerably less expensive Helios Model 1 ($1500) dramatically improved the sound, making it more lush with lots of meaning behind the tunes.

The amplifier was a Canary Audio class B valve integrated with Border Patrol power supply.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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Mrs Quigley and Jez junior were riveted by the Dr. Who thingy

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I was there too. Apparently it was a hidden track on a DVD. Don't know what CD or how to get the 'Easter Egg'.

Can someone let us know?

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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A warm welcome to the land of heated debates...

It's always a nice day for it Have a good one!
Steve.
It's good to get back to normal.

Please enlighten me

Thanks very much

Al

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I'm looking forward to Bristol already...(where Naim will demonstrate their new pre-amp to partner the NAP 500)

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Just like they did at Manchester. What, you didn't notice?

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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do you mean that a CDS2 or Linn CD12 were very close to a "simple" SONY DVD/SACD player or what?

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No, they were using a Tom Evans Eikos and a champagne coloured slim Marantz CD player. The SACD and DVD-A players were roughly £2k... from some Japanese manufacturers.

Anyways the record deck, some German kontraption with RB300, was better.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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To Alex S. - I call her 'the current Mrs.Quigley' to keep her on her toes

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did not know Tome Evans was manufacturing a CD player!
only tought he was "grooving" and "micro grooving"
Apparently he has not got the same success in digital ...?

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Well Tom Evans is also involved with Trichord - amps and clock modifications. The Eikos has received many accolades from several of the magazines. However, in this setup it was difficult to really get a feel for the player, particularly as they were only playing snatches of music. The only clear winner was the turntable, although I did note that the Eikos had more headroom, to cope with louder music events, than the cheaper Marantz.

The CDX would probably dumped on the Eikos, and the German turntable. Such is the complication of this game.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
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Andrew

Andrew Randle
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There is a review in the Nov / Dec HiFi+ if anybody is disinterested.

Also in the HiFi+ is RR1, FB1, Fraim, and Magnum Dynalab tuner. All are rated very well - especialy the fraim.

Can anybody sum up the recent re-review of the Linn Kan, ( Listener I think ) I cannot find it in any shops in my area. Being I own a pair, I would like a review for posterity.

regards,

mykel

Craig
MMNAIT 2