Acoustica Show 2016 Visitor Thoughts

Will be there tomorrow for an hour or two

I thought the two big Naim setups were good. In one room i think it was NDS/552/500/ Focal Sopra 2 speakers. Very impressive.

the other big set up was in the Kudos room. NDS/552/3x300 diving Titan 808 actively. It was good, very good. The crossover was not Naim although a Naim one is being developed to work with the 808s. Also, i heard that some smaller 808 type speakers may be released at some point. Very interesting.

I thought the Chord demo session was excellent (better than last years).   Hearing a difference between Sarum, Sarum tuned array, Super array and then acrylic vs teflon plugs was eye opening.  And then the new Music cable (who's name wasn't announced, but the price roughly was - at £4k).

What puzzled me was if a teflon plug is so much better than an acrylic one which in turn is streets ahead of the old metal ones.... what about the din plugs which are huge chunks of metal?   Unfortunately didn't get the chance to ask this, but worth a return visit tomorrow to find out.

Dynaudio speakers particularly impressed me - just so listenable to.

The Kudos Titan 808 demo which I was particularly keen to hear was, for me, a disappointing toroid of what could have been hifi test tracks.  Percussive- yes, musical - no.  Did it demonstrate how agile the 808 is - yes, did it demonstrate how musical it is - no.  But maybe I was in there for the wrong 40 minutes of the day, or maybe I'm too old for this hifi hobby.

The B&W 803D3's were doing their stuff through Classé amplification... being an 802 owner I was hoping to be pursuaded that I should audition the new D3's (802 or even 803), but I was not, as they say, blown away.

The valve amp brought along by Henley Designs took me back a good few years to my Audio Innovations years, but, once you've trodden the 552 / 500 trail, there's no going back to tube technology  (well not yet anyway).

Unfortunately I had to dash away and was unable to join the exhibitors and Geoff and Pete for dinner and cocktails in the evening, but, hey, I'm sure they managed without me.  The one thing that makes Sunday more interesting is the observance of the effects of the Saturday evening's celebrations, and this is one reason I shall be going back again tomorrow.

Roger

It's funny how we can come to different conclusions. Possibly expectations.possibly the music played. Naim were everywhere but unfortunately, in my mind, Naim's own demonstrations were not the best sounding Naim amps at the show. 

I was looking forward to hearing the new Focals because of the positive comments on various forums. I had never got on with previous incarnations and I am afraid to say I didn't get on with the new ones either.  I realise they probably don't have much choice but I don't feel that Naim are doing themselves a favour using them for demonstrations. Too much boom and tiz hifi and not enough music.  

Sorry Roger but I actually thought the Kudos Titans were among the better sounds but as I said above it could be the music that was playing.

Not that many visitors this year compared to previous years

elkman70 posted:

I thought the two big Naim setups were good. In one room i think it was NDS/552/500/ Focal Sopra 2 speakers. Very impressive.

the other big set up was in the Kudos room. NDS/552/3x300 diving Titan 808 actively. It was good, very good. The crossover was not Naim although a Naim one is being developed to work with the 808s. Also, i heard that some smaller 808 type speakers may be released at some point. Very interesting.

 

That's 2 bombshells dropped- Naim is working on a Snaxo for the Kudos 808's and a smaller 808 JR is in the works?!

Fantastic news and I hope something actually comes of it...

Thanks for the report Elkman.

ATB,

Mark

The T-606 has been under discussion since last year's show. I suspect its not happened yet because of the time taken in getting 808 production up to Derek's high standards.

Looking forward to it when it arrives. A more affordable and easier to accommodate version of the 808 is an attractive prospect.

Any discussion of a SNAXO for the Super range?

rjstaines posted:

The Kudos Titan 808 demo which I was particularly keen to hear was, for me, a disappointing toroid of what could have been hifi test tracks.  Percussive- yes, musical - no.  Did it demonstrate how agile the 808 is - yes, did it demonstrate how musical it is - no.  But maybe I was in there for the wrong 40 minutes of the day, or maybe I'm too old for this hifi hobby.

Roger

That's unusual, the Kudos room is normally the one where real music is being played.

mike_g posted:

It's funny how we can come to different conclusions. Possibly expectations.possibly the music played. Naim were everywhere but unfortunately, in my mind, Naim's own demonstrations were not the best sounding Naim amps at the show. 

I was looking forward to hearing the new Focals because of the positive comments on various forums. I had never got on with previous incarnations and I am afraid to say I didn't get on with the new ones either.  I realise they probably don't have much choice but I don't feel that Naim are doing themselves a favour using them for demonstrations. Too much boom and tiz hifi and not enough music.  

Sorry Roger but I actually thought the Kudos Titans were among the better sounds but as I said above it could be the music that was playing.

Not that many visitors this year compared to previous years

Apparently someone was playing rugby yesterday afternoon ?

rjstaines posted:

 

The valve amp brought along by Henley Designs took me back a good few years to my Audio Innovations years, but, once you've trodden the 552 / 500 trail, there's no going back to tube technology  (well not yet anyway).

 

The 252/300 trail was sufficient to convert me from an 18 year long Audio Innovations habit. . But look at the price difference! Those were the days.

rjstaines posted:

What puzzled me was if a teflon plug is so much better than an acrylic one which in turn is streets ahead of the old metal ones.... what about the din plugs which are huge chunks of metal?   Unfortunately didn't get the chance to ask this, but worth a return visit tomorrow to find out.

Funny you should mention this ... I use an RCA to DIN interconnect with Eicmann Bullet Plugs at the RCA end (plastic bodied with a an earth "pin" instead of a metal shroud) and a DNM 5-pin DIN plug (polycarbonate shell, instead of metal), joined together with DNM interconnect. The whole cable is light as a feather, minimum use of metal, and sounds rather good. It replaced and RCA-DIN Hiline in my system.

hi all

just to be clear here - no work on a SNAXO for a kudos is in development at this time

Trevor

Allan Probin posted:

Funny you should mention this ... I use an RCA to DIN interconnect with Eicmann Bullet Plugs at the RCA end (plastic bodied with a an earth "pin" instead of a metal shroud) and a DNM 5-pin DIN plug (polycarbonate shell, instead of metal), joined together with DNM interconnect. The whole cable is light as a feather, minimum use of metal, and sounds rather good. It replaced and RCA-DIN Hiline in my system.

Hi Allan,

that would be an Amphenol Tuchel C 091 plug.

I would really appreciate if someone can provide more details on the Kudos/Naim system; components used including active crossover and impression of the sound quality.

Best regards

Hans

This is my second year down at the show, which was very enjoyable again. Of the rooms I managed to spend a bit of time in, I thought I would post a couple of thoughts, all in my honest opinion of course. Forgive me if I got any of the set ups wrong although I did ask when I wasn’t sure what was driving what…

Spendor D7 + 272/XPSDR/250DR: It was nice to get a proper listen to the highly regarded 272 combo. There is something very alluring about such a neat and compact 3 box set up. I had been pondering the 272, but listening to this system, I felt that it would be more of a sideways move for me (Hugo - SN2 - PMC 20.23) albeit I’m sure things could well be very different through my own speakers. The Spendors did the hi-fi stuff well and were nice and detailed, but ultimately they just didn’t excite me.

Muso / Muso Qb: I was surprised at how different these two sounded. I felt that the original Muso gave a far more accomplished performance. The Muso Qb sounded quite boxy, but I suppose that is a constraint of it’s size and design. If space isn't an issue then I think I would save the extra for the original Muso myself.

Focal Sopra 1 + NDX/XPSDR/252DR/300DR: I think this was the set up that grabbed my attention the most. It was pretty stunning to be honest. The Sopra 1’s have a surprisingly commanding bass and created a very deep, detailed sound stage. Vocals were very very good and emanated beautifully from the speakers in their own space in the mix. All very cliché of course!

Kudos Titan 808 + NDS/555DR/552DR/Active300DR: The nice Kudos gentleman stated that the cross over was a digital one but I couldn’t really make out what it was. Seemed like a funky piece of kit. I found this set up to be very ‘in your face’… however I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not normally used to this level of resolution. Sounds seemed to be coming from everywhere in crystal clear clarity... you could literally hear everything. Everything seemed to sound so ‘live’. In the end though, I just found it to be a little too loud and tiring. It felt a little bit like detail was being over-emphasised. However, listening to very unfamiliar music made me feel it was difficult to make a proper overall judgement; I'm sure it could have been different if I had my own personal favourites playing.

Focal Sopra 2 + NDS/555DR/552DR/500: Not sure whether the 500 was DR’d in this set up. Sopra 2’s were very impressive and I can see the hype. They seemed to really excel in the midrange. The system as a whole gave a very mature, controlled performance. Was great to hear a full 500 series set up and the effortless composure it seems to bring to the table. I felt that from a technical perspective, this was the best system I heard on the day.

I did also listen to a lovely set up with some nice Italian speakers and cool looking valve amplifier (can’t remember the brands). Unfortunately ran out of time and didn’t get chance to see the new B&W’s. Overall though it was a thoroughly enjoyable show, I just wished I had allotted a bit more time to spend there. I think I was able to get a lot more out of the non-500 containing systems as the demonstrators seemed much happier to hand over control of the music. Always much easier to get a proper evaluation using music you’re familiar with! Many thanks to Acoustica for putting on a fantastic show again.

That 500 will have been DR'd. You can safely bet on that.

Mulberry posted:

Allan Probin posted:

Funny you should mention this ... I use an RCA to DIN interconnect with Eicmann Bullet Plugs at the RCA end (plastic bodied with a an earth "pin" instead of a metal shroud) and a DNM 5-pin DIN plug (polycarbonate shell, instead of metal), joined together with DNM interconnect. The whole cable is light as a feather, minimum use of metal, and sounds rather good. It replaced and RCA-DIN Hiline in my system.

Hi Allan,

that would be an Amphenol Tuchel C 091 plug.

No, it's not one of those. I'm not sure of the manufacturer or part number but if you Google "DNM DIN Plug" you should be able to find it easily from there. The body is made of black plastic/polycarbonate, the only metal content being the pins themselves

Hi Allan,

I should have posted a little more as Amphenol makes a huge number of plugs, even within this series. Within the subseries C 091 B one has the parts number T 3394 998...

Mulberry posted:

Hi Allan,

I should have posted a little more as Amphenol makes a huge number of plugs, even within this series. Within the subseries C 091 B one has the parts number T 3394 998...

 

Following your initial post I Googled for "Amphenol Tuchel C 091 plug" and all the results I checked were for metal bodied plugs. However, T 3394 998 turned up the correct item ... yes, that's the one.