Statement statement.

Finally got to listen to Statement last night 15th at the Brighton Audio T NAIM event.

Usual caveats a Hotel Room, very many people and a restaurant the othe side of a not very sound proof room divider.

Doug, Steve and the guy from Focal struggled to convey their messages to the rear (where we were). You would have thought a mike and amp kit might be included in the travel kit maybe?

Format was Basic?? system 272/250  streamed music from HD into Focal Sopras.

Various substitutions made SL interconnects and DR versions of 250/300/500 were made and finally SL speaker cable on the last system.

Second half was Satement time with NDS 555PSU and the huge Focal Grand something or others, monstrous things size and looks IMO.

Explanations of Focal Sopra's  constuction points. Steve Sells short chat about Statement. Then various tracks played.

From my point of view it was an interesting show, no way would this substitute for a real demo. DR versions of 300 and 500 sounded sterile lost the edge boogie or what ever. In film terms sharper picture less colour.

One thing that happens in these sort of rooms is as the system gets better the room gets more active and bass starts to overtake the room. I stood up and moved a little further forward to the side for the second half. It was obvious that Statement was doing some great things , even if most of the music was some sound engineers sound demos. I had heard 3 maybe 4 pieces previously. Slowly building tracks stopped "improvements" made and then the track goes on into the more complicated bits. One piece of Classical I had heard before was included. There was something in the treble area in Statement dem that I didn't like but couldn't put my ears on it.

Any conclusions? In that room withthat music very hard , but SL Din - XLRs did shine and the 500 "old" sounded preferable to the DR'd one. Is Statement worth 3 times a 552/500 that is for any potential purchasers to decide, fortunately not a decision I'll ever have to make, I suspect.

I can only assume that Statement doesn't play rock music, it wouldn't hurt to have some music that more than 4 or 5 people in the room had heard of. If you have lesser know music you are learning the song and not necessarily able to say if its better or you just know it a little bit better.