I found the Michell set-up clinical sounding - exactly the same complaint I had when I owned a TecnoDec. Very good as 'hi-fi' but not really musically involving. I found the Wilson room the same to be honest.
The other gear I was disappointed with was the Audio Research electronics playing in one of the rooms. That was a £32,000 system, but I didn't think there was anything special about it at all. I would rather have the T+A/Vienna Acoustics set-up, the Quad/Dali set-up, or the Arcam/Focal set-up personally.
Of the big money systems there was nothing there this year that came close to last year's UKD room with the Unison Research Unico CD, Unison Research valve amps and Opera floorstanders. There was a lot of brash and 'banging' sounding systems this year and going to hear the Quad/Dali, Arcam Focal and T+A/Vienna Acoustics systems several times bought a very welcome oasis of sheer musicality.
The Marantz 6003s didn't sound their best this year either. The slight lack of bass control that the PM6003 suffers from was exacerbated by poor set-up of the Aviano 2s, which were too close to the wall - its a combination of excess at the best of times without further reinforcement. The Pearl Lites with the Performance 2s sounded very good indeed, but not what I would call exceptional for the money.
I managed to get into the KEF T-series demo as well as the Q series one. Love the new Q series but was very impressed with the T as well, particularly the larger set which had more detail and openess than the smaller ones. Very clever technology and, as is usual with KEF, built to a very high standard.
I've said it before but I thought the Naim room sounded terrible. It could well be that those Ovator speakers are just too big for the room they were in but there was no subtlety, spaciousness or real quality to the sound. Arcam left Naim standing yesterday.
On the compact/ipod dock side of things I thought the Arcam rDock was superb and much more musical than the blaring Harman/Kardon one, which sounded very impressive at first but which woud soon get tiring to listen to.
In terms of my own system the day was very useful. I realised that the 686s probably aren't going to get the very best out of my electronics and, after hearing an Arcam/Focal combination and discussing it briefly with John Dawson, I think a nice pair of Focals would really get the best out of my A18. That A18 really is a superb little amplifier. I want to look at a better turntable as well and was very impressed by the Pro-ject 6 in the Henley room. I am also, however, tempted by something older like a good Thorens or a Linn Sondek. Then I will also look at an upgrade of CD player and will probably look for a good Arcam CD192 before adding a P38 power amp to my A18.