(Also posted on some other fora)
These are my quick impressions from some of the demos at today's Bristol show. I only saw about 3/4 of the rooms, skipping cables, valves, sound bars, bluetooth and turntables. Unfortunately did not have enough time and had to drop just one from the wanted list - the WHF 4k demo as had to catch a train back.
All notes are 100% my personal subjective opinion. Also – blunt scepticism alert!
Naim
Unintentionally, first thing, I walked straight into the Statement demo. I did not even have a ticket but ended up in the room.
The sound was OK but nothing special. Bass dynamics low-ish, mids and highs a tad distorted, harsh at times. I do not get why would anybody want that rig over other better performing (and cheaper) kit. Amp lights were low taste and cheapo IMO (is taste important for this kind of product?), vol control knob looked cool but it is only visible from top
Wilson Benesch
Static display:
A turntable was playing. Regardless of that (and this is my second time hearing a WB demo) the sound was downright substandard. I do not get it. How can anybody do the sound so badly?! On a show!
PMC
The new 26 were playing at the time. Perfect looks - slim shape, high quality finish. The sound is very impressive. Extremely boomy and very tizzy. I think they got it right. These will have high appeal and will sell very very well. Fact 12 was on static display at the time. Very good looking speaker.
Q Acoustics
Not a bad sound at all.
Dynaudio
No actives or Xeo on demo. Ordinary, mushy, boomy sound. Imposing looks. Excellent finish. Cyrrus
The new streamer does look like a printer!
Quad
New small actives were on static display.
ESL:
Very good sound - clear, natural, undistorted, good imaging. I asked about the design (if it was a single es panel etc) and was told they have 4 panels each with a delay circuit but no crossover between them so I guessed it was for directivity control and this was confirmed somewhat - 'to make it point source'.
Spendor with Devialet (the shiny one on the wall)
Good sound (if a bit harsh in the 2nd room)
Graham audio
Reel Nagra with some rough boxy speakers with BBC something on them. The tape sounded OK, speakers nothing of note.
Eclipse
Small ones:
And medium ones, with a dedicated sub:
These had excellent dynamic sound with very good imaging. The sub I think was turned up too high and boomed.
Proac
Very nice veneers. Ordinary sound.
Elac AirX 403 and 407 (floor-stander)
Small wireless actives were on demo. Multi-source, multi-room. KleerNet 24/48. 70m range in free sight. DSP. 4 inputs in the box (small black box near the computer), so claimed lossless wireless stream to 4 pairs of speakers, independent source to each of the 4. Sound was decent, but bass was quite boomy at times. I think the demonstrators were trying to impress everybody with their size to bass depth ratio and overdone it by 3 or 4 clicks. Monitor Audio Horrible sound. Compressed, distorted, struggling. Sad as MA's were the first speakers I ever bought.
Tannoy
Nice finish, pleasant warm sound, but often boomy to extreme, a bit harsh.
JL Audio subs
These were demonstrated with an anthem AV amp and passive ATCs (new scm7) and active ATC C3c (which is one of very few things I would not mind adding to my own system). Superb bass quality from these subs. Very deep and clean. Side note - The C3c is very big!
Antelope Audio + Amphion
Guess what is the thing on the right… Atomic clock.
Good looking, compact, expensive. Mahoosive number of kHz sampling freq and DSD. Sounded ordinary (as per the speakers). (Amps were hidden under the drapes).
Lumin
I though the track title was good.
Canton AM5
for size:
Small actives, 250gbp per one. Very compact and nicely and simply finished, removable metal grille. Balanced and normal inputs, sensitivity and position trims, signal sensing (?), mounting holes. Heavy. DSP, soft clipping, class d amps. 115mm woofer. No demo was available unfortunately.
Usher
Some smallish model from their range. Sounded OK.
Magnepan 1.7, magneplanar speakers, 2,700gbp pair
Along with the JL subs and the Quads, the most positive impression from the show. Perfect sound - superb clarity, imaging, very low distortion including at high volume. The music played was a bit bass light so not a complete evaluation but everything including cello for example which does have reasonable bass was perfect. Really good.
Audeze LCD something, planar headphones, 1,600gbp?
Lots of people had these on demo (must be selling well and/or have very high margins) but only one had a 3.5mm jack to try with my own music from iphone. Very high quality of sound. Luxurious look of the wooden caps. Uncomfortably heavy and too tight clamping - would not be usable for me for these two reason. B&O, for example, are many times lighter and cheaper, not less luxurious, have iphone controls and mic and sound almost as good as these.
JVC 4K projector demo (no pics – just a dark room)
Very high image quality, both on 1080p upscaled to 4K and on native 4K. No idea what they played the native 4K content from but there was motion judder at the bottom of the screen and around busy parts of the image on both of the clips. I wonder why years into digital video the judder still has to be there. I would like to have a large scale video at home one day but would not want the kit/format to have any judder! Some static Tannoys on display.
Superb finish quality. Very large. I asked the exhibitor why they would not do active versions, given Tannoy's PA presence and lots of space in the cabs. The person must have been non-technical as his reason was that the extra mass of the amps would negatively impact the cabinet's sound. He should have said 'dunno'
So, the time flew by very quickly and it was time to catch the train. Useful visit as you see and hear a lot of stuff in quick succession/comparison, although the range is not as extensive as say Munich of cause.
I would have loved to see more exhibits of integrated control systems, wireless, multi room systems and more high performance gear.
These are my quick impressions from some of the demos at today's Bristol show. I only saw about 3/4 of the rooms, skipping cables, valves, sound bars, bluetooth and turntables. Unfortunately did not have enough time and had to drop just one from the wanted list - the WHF 4k demo as had to catch a train back.
All notes are 100% my personal subjective opinion. Also – blunt scepticism alert!
Naim
Unintentionally, first thing, I walked straight into the Statement demo. I did not even have a ticket but ended up in the room.
The sound was OK but nothing special. Bass dynamics low-ish, mids and highs a tad distorted, harsh at times. I do not get why would anybody want that rig over other better performing (and cheaper) kit. Amp lights were low taste and cheapo IMO (is taste important for this kind of product?), vol control knob looked cool but it is only visible from top
Wilson Benesch
Static display:
A turntable was playing. Regardless of that (and this is my second time hearing a WB demo) the sound was downright substandard. I do not get it. How can anybody do the sound so badly?! On a show!
PMC
The new 26 were playing at the time. Perfect looks - slim shape, high quality finish. The sound is very impressive. Extremely boomy and very tizzy. I think they got it right. These will have high appeal and will sell very very well. Fact 12 was on static display at the time. Very good looking speaker.
Q Acoustics
Not a bad sound at all.
Dynaudio
No actives or Xeo on demo. Ordinary, mushy, boomy sound. Imposing looks. Excellent finish. Cyrrus
The new streamer does look like a printer!
Quad
New small actives were on static display.
ESL:
Very good sound - clear, natural, undistorted, good imaging. I asked about the design (if it was a single es panel etc) and was told they have 4 panels each with a delay circuit but no crossover between them so I guessed it was for directivity control and this was confirmed somewhat - 'to make it point source'.
Spendor with Devialet (the shiny one on the wall)
Good sound (if a bit harsh in the 2nd room)
Graham audio
Reel Nagra with some rough boxy speakers with BBC something on them. The tape sounded OK, speakers nothing of note.
Eclipse
Small ones:
And medium ones, with a dedicated sub:
These had excellent dynamic sound with very good imaging. The sub I think was turned up too high and boomed.
Proac
Very nice veneers. Ordinary sound.
Elac AirX 403 and 407 (floor-stander)
Small wireless actives were on demo. Multi-source, multi-room. KleerNet 24/48. 70m range in free sight. DSP. 4 inputs in the box (small black box near the computer), so claimed lossless wireless stream to 4 pairs of speakers, independent source to each of the 4. Sound was decent, but bass was quite boomy at times. I think the demonstrators were trying to impress everybody with their size to bass depth ratio and overdone it by 3 or 4 clicks. Monitor Audio Horrible sound. Compressed, distorted, struggling. Sad as MA's were the first speakers I ever bought.
Tannoy
Nice finish, pleasant warm sound, but often boomy to extreme, a bit harsh.
JL Audio subs
These were demonstrated with an anthem AV amp and passive ATCs (new scm7) and active ATC C3c (which is one of very few things I would not mind adding to my own system). Superb bass quality from these subs. Very deep and clean. Side note - The C3c is very big!
Antelope Audio + Amphion
Guess what is the thing on the right… Atomic clock.
Good looking, compact, expensive. Mahoosive number of kHz sampling freq and DSD. Sounded ordinary (as per the speakers). (Amps were hidden under the drapes).
Lumin
I though the track title was good.
Canton AM5
for size:
Small actives, 250gbp per one. Very compact and nicely and simply finished, removable metal grille. Balanced and normal inputs, sensitivity and position trims, signal sensing (?), mounting holes. Heavy. DSP, soft clipping, class d amps. 115mm woofer. No demo was available unfortunately.
Usher
Some smallish model from their range. Sounded OK.
Magnepan 1.7, magneplanar speakers, 2,700gbp pair
Along with the JL subs and the Quads, the most positive impression from the show. Perfect sound - superb clarity, imaging, very low distortion including at high volume. The music played was a bit bass light so not a complete evaluation but everything including cello for example which does have reasonable bass was perfect. Really good.
Audeze LCD something, planar headphones, 1,600gbp?
Lots of people had these on demo (must be selling well and/or have very high margins) but only one had a 3.5mm jack to try with my own music from iphone. Very high quality of sound. Luxurious look of the wooden caps. Uncomfortably heavy and too tight clamping - would not be usable for me for these two reason. B&O, for example, are many times lighter and cheaper, not less luxurious, have iphone controls and mic and sound almost as good as these.
JVC 4K projector demo (no pics – just a dark room)
Very high image quality, both on 1080p upscaled to 4K and on native 4K. No idea what they played the native 4K content from but there was motion judder at the bottom of the screen and around busy parts of the image on both of the clips. I wonder why years into digital video the judder still has to be there. I would like to have a large scale video at home one day but would not want the kit/format to have any judder! Some static Tannoys on display.
Superb finish quality. Very large. I asked the exhibitor why they would not do active versions, given Tannoy's PA presence and lots of space in the cabs. The person must have been non-technical as his reason was that the extra mass of the amps would negatively impact the cabinet's sound. He should have said 'dunno'
So, the time flew by very quickly and it was time to catch the train. Useful visit as you see and hear a lot of stuff in quick succession/comparison, although the range is not as extensive as say Munich of cause.
I would have loved to see more exhibits of integrated control systems, wireless, multi room systems and more high performance gear.
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