Ipswich Trip-switch! Audio Show East

Phil Harris posted:

tonym posted:

Name badges?

Surely that should be Naim badges...?

Phil

Other makes are available...

I will be the one bemoaning the coffee and its cost. And my wife, M, will be telling to stop complaining.

Nick from Suffolk posted:

I will be the one bemoaning the coffee and its cost. And my wife, M, will be telling to stop complaining.

Hi Nick,

Looking forward to meeting you.  Perhaps we can finally catch up on all matters Roksan/Vertere over a bemoaned coffee.

Best regards, FT

Excited 24 hours to go! Stop worrying Alastair it will all be splendiferous!!

Mr FT; the best (?) laid plans have clearly gone awry......

Perhaps you should bring along the Vertere..........

What's up Nick?

WARNING - for any of you folks going east along the A14 - there's a speed camera van just before the A140 Norwich turnoff. SWMBO's just alerted me. Not that any of you would be speeding or anything...

Look forward to seeing some photos if any of you get a chance to take any.

It’s a shame that Signals is so far from the south coast. This is the only show that seems appealing, and it would be really good to meet some of the Forum names. Ah well. And I agree with Chris, some pictures would be nice. 

If you're traveling to the audio show east fair,

where the rain hits heavy on the borderline,

Say hello to Andy who works there,

He just set up a Naim system of mine.

No to forget Alastair and Rhea also.

I hope to make this next year so I hope it all goes well and would encourage anyone within striking distance to take the plunge and travel, it will be like Woodstock in years to come, don't miss your chance.

.sjb

Hungryhalibut posted:

It’s a shame that Signals is so far from the south coast. This is the only show that seems appealing, and it would be really good to meet some of the Forum names. Ah well. And I agree with Chris, some pictures would be nice. 

Quite right Nigel. After last year's reviews of the show I was planning on it this year, even if it is a bit of a schlepp from the Midlands, then a family engagement got in the way. Hopefully next year!

Yes said hello to the boys and Rhea, first time at the show, a really nice, relaxed event. Could not help myself and got there too early, got a coffee and ended up in the Kudos room all to myself. Then playing “my music” with Russell K while he twiddled with his kit. Then it got a bit busier, but still plenty of seats, and great kit and music. Will write up some thoughts later.....

I aim to be there Saturday...

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

I aim to be there Saturday...

I'll be there too tomorrow. I assume you don't have a large bald head and bushy eyebrows. BTW, I don't wear a Fez. For those who have not met before, not sure how we are all going identify each other.

nigelb posted:

 

I'll be there too tomorrow. I assume you don't have a large bald head and bushy eyebrows. BTW, I don't wear a Fez. For those who have not met before, not sure how we are all going identify each other.

I'll be the one cracking the crap jokes ........... (see other thread)  

Yes it’s very difficult, perhaps for the next audio show we have our own ID tags, or well it’s still great anyhow...............

A good Kudos demo of 707 Passive on 500 vs Active on 2x 300. Ultra-fast pit-stop swap from Passive to Active and back in under 2 mins - impressive!

Demo results were such that you could not say the better amp Passive was superior to the next amps down in hierarchy Active.
To me Active 300 was more open, faster and far more dynamic with better tone colour rendition, but a little less controlled - Passive had better control and resolution but was comparatively shut-in sounding and far less dynamic clarity and life.

You could hear what the better Amp (the 500) was doing while handling the passive crossover as well as it did, but the two 300 Amps having the direct connection to the drive units had the superb control, start-stop and low colouration that gave the special Active presentation.

Some preferred the passive on the count of what the undoubtedly better 500 was resolving Passive - and some preferred the more lively dynamic Active configuration. Kudos said they were not saying one was better than the other, but it was a nice demo and possibly the best Active vs Passive demo I can remember in terms of swap time.

Fun was generally had and I'm probably back tomorrow again.

Good to see most of the usual suspects too.

Well done Signals crew.

DB.

thanks DB -- very interesting and to some extent, more or less what i would expect, having run 250passive/2x250active/300 passive/2x300 active/500 passive and then 2x500 active. 

enjoy

ken

I came to the conclusion that I marginally preferred the passive 500 on the day, but would need a longer test at home. I was surprised how compact the 707 is, particularly compared to the 808. I ventured in to the  Chord room with I believe Dave, Blu 2 and their high end amps with the 808,s, much preferred the Kudos room with Naim amplification and dac.

I really enjoyed the PMC  new amp the Corr driving PMC 20.23 in quite a large room. Very musical, and seemed effortlessly engaging. This and Russel K room were probably the most enjoyable for me, giving the best bang for the buck. Russel K was driving the 150,s  with n272, XP’s, 250, and he was as ever very exacting about his speaker set up.

The Naim room was playing the new Focal Kanta speakers with the New Nova. The music played was not really my cup of tea, but you could tell that this is a good system for £13 k, including the Core.

I was ooking forward to listening to Mark Levinson amps for the first time. Dropped in a couple of times and they were playing through some ugly looking JBL speakers that would look at home in the stack of speakers at a rock concert. It did not sound very good to me, disappointed, perhaps better speakers for these amps would have been better rather than what the distributor has in their portfolio.

Just to finish off whilst being nosy in the PMC room I was  struggling to make out which speaker cables they were using, as it sounded so good. Nice chap explained they had their cables made up for them by a cable company in boreham wood, they are on the web. They cost about £2 a metre, looked and sounded good..........his view( and mine) cables have an extraordinary mark up compared to other hifi products. With that controversial note for some, time for bed.

Great Show Signals

Gazza

Darke Bear posted:

A good Kudos demo of 707 Passive on 500 vs Active on 2x 300. Ultra-fast pit-stop swap from Passive to Active and back in under 2 mins - impressive!

Demo results were such that you could not say the better amp Passive was superior to the next amps down in hierarchy Active.
To me Active 300 was more open, faster and far more dynamic with better tone colour rendition, but a little less controlled - Passive had better control and resolution but was comparatively shut-in sounding and far less dynamic clarity and life.

You could hear what the better Amp (the 500) was doing while handling the passive crossover as well as it did, but the two 300 Amps having the direct connection to the drive units had the superb control, start-stop and low colouration that gave the special Active presentation.

Some preferred the passive on the count of what the undoubtedly better 500 was resolving Passive - and some preferred the more lively dynamic Active configuration. Kudos said they were not saying one was better than the other, but it was a nice demo and possibly the best Active vs Passive demo I can remember in terms of swap time.

Fun was generally had and I'm probably back tomorrow again.

Good to see most of the usual suspects too.

Well done Signals crew.

DB.

I couldn't have put it better DB. What you describe is exactly what I heard, unequivocally faster, clearer and more dynamic with active 300's, but missing the depth, richness and sheer authority of passive 500. Wonder what active 500's would sound like?...

Both sounded phenomenal and unfailingly musical - this latter aspect an underrated and not as common as it should be talent IME. Comparison with the Chord room next door was informative I thought. That system managed to make a pair of 808's sound consistently too bright and overly 'HiFi' and hence, clearly inferior to the Kudos rooms' 'lesser' 707 systems of either Naim Amp combo.

I think I must have spent 90minutes total in the Kudos room today in 4 seperate sessions. For me, perhaps the most impressive session was a sparsely attended moment in one of their 'quiet periods' (pre-agreed with the Chord room next door that each would have loud periods when the other was quiet since sound isolation between rooms was not ideal) during which we played the opening movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. A slow, quiet piece, played at low volume against a noisy backdrop, but it still managed to engage totally - mostly soft, limpid notes in the middle and upper range of the piano keyboard, but on the few occasions when the lower keys are brought into play, suddenly the entire body of the piano simply appeared before your ears - strong, powerful, yet utterly controlled. Superb. 

Sorry that I didn't get to meet/identify all of you, but greatly enjoyed meeting TonyM and Nick from Suffolk and the phenomenon that is Phil Harris. Thanks Phil for your generosity of time, insight and bonhomie. Very much appreciated. Super show Alastair.

Another excellent Signals show! Lots of interest to me, and I concur with DB's and Kevin's views on the active vs. passive Kudos 707s - a very professional and slick demonstration indeed, my only gripe was that the Kudos guys had decided not to adjust the volume level between the active 300s and the 500. As the latter has a greater gain I felt the increased volume swayed a few folks into favouring it. Still, a small matter. Pleased to hear some nice vinyl as well!

I spent more time chatting to old friends than indulging in listening sessions, but briefly - best room, Kudos. I usually really like the Russell Ks but not so keen this time; I was rather conscious of the porting "breathing". The Magnaplanars, although having certain pleasing characteristics, were not my cup of tea. The small PMC floorstanders (sorry, can't remember which model) driven by their own integrated amp was entertaining - big sound from small speakers. I had an interesting chat with Alan Ainsley about the Melco disc players. I've the N1-Z version which works wonderfully well in my system. also got a chance to talk to Rob Watts, designer of the Chord. He was a bit bemused when I told him I preferred my trusty old, yesterday's-technology QBD76HDSD DAC to DAVE...

Great to meet you too Kevin! I'm also popping back today to catch the stuff I missed yesterday. Many thanks to the Signals gang, Rhea, Alastair, and Andy for the best hi-fi show you'll ever likely to attend. I took a few photos, but since the demise of Photobucket (well, since it went silly anyway), I've yet to work out how to post images.

tonym posted:

I took a few photos, but since the demise of Photobucket (well, since it went silly anyway), I've yet to work out how to post images.

I've been using https://imgur.com (on a Mac) since Photobucket unceremoniously booted us out, and find it works in a very similar way, but is quicker, simpler and more reliable.

A bit off topic, but on topic in the sense of helping people post interesting  photos from the show, Flickr still works as a free photo hosting service and posting from there isn't hard once you have worked out how to link to the photo.....

best

David

Thanks guys. I've tried Imgur, but when I try to post a photo on here, all I get is a little blank rectangle. I've loaded the photos onto Flickr now, but it's not the most intuitive bit of software, is it? Off to the show now so I'll persist later.

Hi Tony,

I've been using Imgur to successfully post pics here. Just a case of selecting the correct link I think.

See you in a while.

John.