Kegworth hifi show

[cheeseboy]

...It looked like a great idea for a show, much better than the usual trade style shows - here it's real hifi by real people...

Wigwam folklore is that it all started in a thread where people were complaining about the generally poor sound at trade hi-fi shows.

To which a trade member responded with a "If you think you can do better, go ahead and try doing it yourselves."

So they did. And here we are, having just had the 10th annual Scalford / Kegworth hi-fi show.

awesome, long may it continue

 

[insider9]

This scalfold show is too niche, and I don’t buy it being an exhibition of great hi fi. They also tend to be way too anorakey and listen to very smooth sounding music, always have record players, often no digital streaming, and listen to music 20 years too late. 

Wow! For someone who argued about power strips when the show was in full flow you certainly know all the details.

For anyone reading this... it's absolute nonsense and vast majority of the rooms took requests. All you needed to except for being there was to bring your own music. But streaming was also available in some rooms.

In one room we compared Melco with Arcam CD73 as transport and streaming I believe Spotify into Merging NADAC. Streaming sounded awful compared to either. No wonder many preferred CD, rips and/or vinyl.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

 

[cheeseboy]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

you still here, can you please leave? Remember to shut the door on the way out and turn off the light please.

 

[insider9]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

Does it? Yesterday's show was at Kegworth not Scalford. And it was yesterday not in 2015. What conclusion are you drawing from that?

Please kindly stop trolling you have a grudge against Hifi Wigwam that's fine. I'm not going into details. Worth pointing out to others why you feel so strongly about a show you've not been to.

 

[lindsayt]

"They also tend to be way too anorakey and listen to very smooth sounding music, always have record players, often no digital streaming, and listen to music 20 years too late. "

Quest, I took my Copperhead Road CD out of the car autochanger when I arrived and got the title track played in every room with a CD player. Making my music choice 30 years too late, but at least it's not a smooth sounding piece of music. The point being that part of the culture of the show is visitors bringing their own music and getting it played in every room with a compatible source.

The Linn Exakt and miniDSP systems were not the only ones, by any means that were streaming at this years show.

And of course it's anorakey. It's Hi-fi!

 

[lindsayt]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

Yes, it's an amuisng article.

It is however a terrible summary of Kegworth 2018 - where a big theme of the show was - as I said - how many fine sounding sub £999 systems there were.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I have no problem with the people at wigwam. Ive watched the videos and systems and it is a very distinct group of people who as the article says, own very specific unknown stuff, that most of us don’t know about. We are meant to go away and think yes I want this bizarre bit of kit bought by a few hundred, not many thousand in more mass market offerings, I just don’t think so. The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something. The last time I brought music around to someone’s was literally many years ago, bringing lps and CDs when we live in 2018 and stream, and regardless of what sounds best, digital streamed music still sounds fantastic through great systems. Cd will be dead soon, and lp, well it’s just a cottage industry.

 

[cheeseboy]

We are meant to go away and think yes I want this bizarre bit of kit bought by a few hundred, not many thousand in more mass market offerings, I just don’t think so. The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something. The last time I brought music around to someone’s was literally many years ago, bringing lps and CDs when we live in 2018 and stream, and regardless of what sounds best, digital streamed music still sounds fantastic through great systems. Cd will be dead soon, and lp, well it’s just a cottage industry.

your opinion, no matter how highly you regard it is not fact, so don't represent it as such. You are so full of yourself it's hard to work out if you are for real or not. Either way you are still trolling, give it a rest please.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I’m giving an opinion, which is that - opinion.

 

[Electro]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

Yes, it's an amuisng article.

It is however a terrible summary of Kegworth 2018 - where a big theme of the show was - as I said - how many fine sounding sub £999 systems there were.

Maybe, but you can't deny that the article is absolutely spot on in so many ways.

Much of the rest of the thread might be mind numbing bollox , but it was worth wading through it all to read that link *good*

No offence intended to anyone . *angel*

 

[insider9]

I’m giving an opinion, which is that - opinion.

What is it based on? Have you been to any of 9 Scalford shows or yesterday's Kegworth show? Or any enthusiast (not trade) hifi show? If not it's only speculation not opinion.

I don't comment on trade shows as don't have any experience with them neither do I compare enthusiast shows to trade as would only be speculating.

However I'm happy to talk about differences to last year Scalford show and this year Kegworth as they are huge.

 

[davidf]

"They also tend to be way too anorakey and listen to very smooth sounding music, always have record players, often no digital streaming, and listen to music 20 years too late. "

I do find it funny when writers try to be condascendingly witty when writing their little articles. Surely when he wrote this (2015) he was aware that turntable and vinyl sales were on the up, and had been for well over 5 years? I bet he owns a turntable now.

And as for listening to music "20 years too late", what does that say about people who like music genres that were popular last century? Music is forever. Are they trying to alienate a whole younger generation who are exploring and enjoying the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones because music back then had "something" about it that it lacks now? He's generally right about having no streaming though - either because they don't want to get inolved in it because they mostly have the music they want, or because sound quality just not good enough to play on their system - I wouldn't use streaming services as a main source in my system either.

 

[lindsayt]

"The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something"

We can all have different reasons for going to hi-fi shows.

For me the main reason is for an enjoyable day out.

It's also an interesting, informative and mind-broadening experience for anyone into hi-fi.

Other reasons for attending are perfectly valid. Such as wanting a trip in the snow and a meal out.

And the vast majority of equipment being exhibited is available via ebay. That modern way of buying consumer goods instead of the 20 years out of date method of going to a bricks and mortar shop.

The show included B&O's first ever turntable, from the 1960's. Fine sounding, lovely looking little thing bought at the bargain price of £100. It had a cool looking hammerite plinth and unique cartridge. The owner told me he prefers it to his Pro-ject. I asked him where he get's replacement styli from, thinking they might difficult to find. "eBay" he replied.

 

[lindsayt]

Maybe, but you can't deny that the article is absolutely spot on in so many ways.

Much of the rest of the thread might be mind numbing bollox , but it was worth wading through it all to read that link *good*

No offence intended to anyone . *angel*

As a balanced summary of Scalford 2015 and even more so Kegworth 2018 - it is very wide of the mark.

It's an amusing piece of journalism. It's putting a particular spin on Scalford 2015.

It's like writing an article on Americans and focusing on people that weigh more than 40 stones.

 

[insider9]

Maybe, but you can't deny that the article is absolutely spot on in so many ways.

Much of the rest of the thread might be mind numbing bollox , but it was worth wading through it all to read that link *good*

No offence intended to anyone . *angel*

As a balanced summary of Scalford 2015 and even more so Kegworth 2018 - it is very wide of the mark.

It's an amusing piece of journalism. It's putting a particular spin on Scalford 2015.

It's like writing an article on Americans and focusing on people that weigh more than 40 stones.

+1

 

[davidf]

James from HiFi Wigwam is not a man much given to mysticism - he's funny and self deprecating and tells me that the best upgrade you can buy for your equipment is "a couple of bottles of wine" - but he has a theory that audiophiles might be wired differently to everyone else. "You know how you get super-tasters for wine and people who have particularly good food palates for tasting food? I wonder if our hearing might be like that, and that's why we get drawn into it."

I disagree with this quote from the article. We're all capable of becoming good food and wine tasters. We're all capable of being able to appreciate well produced music. It's just down to whether we can be bothered. We all grow up and become interested in different things. If you like building stuff, you get into DIY, you practice, and become good at it. Anyone can become good at DIY if they practice enough. Anyone can become a decent wine taster if they drink enough of the stuff. Anyone can appreciate good tasting food, and you don't even need to get good at that, as we've all been eating for our whole lives - you just need to take notice.

 

[jjbomber]

This about sums it up

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

''For the past 40 years, every major technological advance in hi-fi that's caught on has been about convenience rather than sound, such as the Walkman, the MP3, the iPod and streaming. Even the CD was marketed more on its size and alleged indestructibility. The ones that tried to tempt the public with sound alone were the ones that withered and died and now languish forgotten: Quadraphonic, Super Audio CD, DVD-A, Blu-Ray Audio. The general public, it seems, couldn't give a flying one about sound.''

 

[BigH]

The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something. The last time I brought music around to someone’s was literally many years ago, bringing lps and CDs when we live in 2018 and stream, and regardless of what sounds best, digital streamed music still sounds fantastic through great systems. Cd will be dead soon, and lp, well it’s just a cottage industry.

So why don't you, instead of buying amps from some obscere British manufacturer. I'm sure Marantz sell 1,000,000s more amps than Cyrus, so they must be much better in your theory. CDs won't be dead, do you know how many cds there are in the world? Streaming is ok but not everything is available all the time and you can't choose which mastering of each album, most are over compressed recent remasters.

 

[Electro]

Maybe, but you can't deny that the article is absolutely spot on in so many ways.

Much of the rest of the thread might be mind numbing bollox , but it was worth wading through it all to read that link *good*

No offence intended to anyone . *angel*

As a balanced summary of Scalford 2015 and even more so Kegworth 2018 - it is very wide of the mark.

It's an amusing piece of journalism. It's putting a particular spin on Scalford 2015.

It's like writing an article on Americans and focusing on people that weigh more than 40 stones.

Yes to be fair you're right, but there are many people in the Wam and elsewhere that fit the mold highlighted in the article .

I thought the author was quite fair in his description of the average dedicated audiophile and he did admit that some of the systems sounded astonishingly good with a sense af awe in his description .

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something. The last time I brought music around to someone’s was literally many years ago, bringing lps and CDs when we live in 2018 and stream, and regardless of what sounds best, digital streamed music still sounds fantastic through great systems. Cd will be dead soon, and lp, well it’s just a cottage industry.

So why don't you, instead of buying amps from some obscere British manufacturer. I'm sure Marantz sell 1,000,000s more amps than Cyrus, so they must be much better in your theory. CDs won't be dead, do you know how many cds there are in the world? Streaming is ok but not everything is available all the time and you can't choose which mastering of each album, most are over compressed recent remasters.

not quite with that theory. I’m talking about good British hi fi, the best in the world, although I wouldn’t mind a really top marantz. Brands like arcam, cyrus, naim, are not obscure. They are very well known and very decent indeed on the whole. It happens to be they are good because thousands think so and buy with their wallets, unlike brands at that show people have often never heard of.

cd manufacture (players and new cd) will become dead when production houses stop making new CDs and content will go digital. That’s going to be in about 3-4 years on current extrapolated trends, and it will be when the break even point is not reached in production houses of cd discs. So it’s a good time to buy your last CD player now or in the next few years.

 

[BigH]

The real point of going to a show is surely to get good stuff that really is selling as that surely tells you something. The last time I brought music around to someone’s was literally many years ago, bringing lps and CDs when we live in 2018 and stream, and regardless of what sounds best, digital streamed music still sounds fantastic through great systems. Cd will be dead soon, and lp, well it’s just a cottage industry.

So why don't you, instead of buying amps from some obscere British manufacturer. I'm sure Marantz sell 1,000,000s more amps than Cyrus, so they must be much better in your theory. CDs won't be dead, do you know how many cds there are in the world? Streaming is ok but not everything is available all the time and you can't choose which mastering of each album, most are over compressed recent remasters.

not quite with that theory. I’m talking about good British hi fi, the best in the world, although I wouldn’t mind a really top marantz. Brands like arcam, cyrus, naim, are not obscure. They are very well known and very decent indeed on the whole. It happens to be they are good because thousands think so and buy with their wallets, unlike brands at that show people have often never heard of.

cd manufacture (players and new cd) will become dead when production houses stop making new CDs and content will go digital. That’s going to be in about 3-4 years on current extrapolated trends, and it will be when the break even point is not reached in production houses of cd discs. So it’s a good time to buy your last CD player now or in the next few years.

So unknown brands are all rubbish because they are not mainstream?

That's like saying mainstream music is great because many people buy it.

I don't need to buy a cd player I've got one that 25 years old and still works fine. If I wanted a new I could buy a BluRay dvd player so no need to panic about CDP there are still millions still about, in fact they are getting good value now, I may look out for something exotic.

That's what they said about vinyl and thats still going, in fact sales are higher now than 25 years ago. Anyway I don't care because most of my music was recorded many years ago and there are millions of use copies around at mostly low prices. CD content go digital?? What is it now then?

 

[Paulq]

I have no doubt that Exakt would trample Minidsp. Saying that I believe Minidsp is excellent value for money but in a different league to Linn approach.

I can't comment on Minidsp but I'd be wary about extolling the virtues of Linn Exakt too much.

I have listened to a number of Exakt systems and pretty much all of them have left me with an empty feeling. I found it to be sterile, non-musical and pretty lifeless to be honest. I think Linn have screwed up big time with it and all apart from die-hard Linnies will baulk at the extortionate cost involved in embracing it. I walked away from it as an upgrade path some time ago and can't see it remaining in Linn's offering (at least in its present guise) long term.

I know some Linn dealers who absolutely hate it.

In an age where people are striving to combine quality and simplicity, I have never quite been sure how their idea of adding in an extremely expensive digital crossover box makes any sense at all.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

No I didn’t imply/mean they are all rubbish, unknown brands are not tested by the market so they probably are not as good.

Mainstream commercialised music is great to a large degree because people buy it. Otherwise artists can’t exist and be great. There could be a guy making CDs himself but if it doesn’t get to a big market, how on earth am I going to know about it and appreciate it being good. I’ve got to go to some show miles away to decide on an obscure amp and getting one sent to me by a dealer. Why would I do that. I go to audio t, Sevenoaks and listen to stuff there which is selling and has been rated by thousands or millions buying it.

Vinyl wasn’t still going. It went and came back as a drop in the ocean of total sales. But it’s unlikely you will just be able to keep playing CDs assuming you like new music, when production of CDs stops. You’ll have to format shift. Maybe one reason vinyl exists is because people don’t buy or listen to new stuff, so it’s good for them. Not getting new stuff is a yawn for me.

 

[insider9]

I agree to some extent however the article used Scalford show more as a setting to write an article about audiophiles. And in fairness to anyone who's been to the show or the forum it's anything but. Considering what he tries to imply it's not a group gathering of lunatics. If the writer made more effort he would've know that. Or maybe it wouldn't be so catchy to write about.

Most of the people I met yesterday were not deluded nor the picture he paints. These were people who love their hobby, really enjoy banter and in 99% of the cases can do it having a lot of distance to it all.