Manchester 2011....The Best Show Yet

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Having previously visited the Manchester show I was totally impressed this year by the quality of kit on display by all the manufacturers.

Holding it in the Renaissance Hotel instead of a barn like corperate facility only provided a more personal experience when viewing the products and made approaching the various staff a pressure free joy, ( unlike the usual sell sell sell atmosphere of a retail premises).

As usual the What HiFi staff were approachable and helpful as ever and totally bias free with their advice.

Roll on next year!
 

dirtydean

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Mar 19, 2010
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Sorry I disagree, I was not impressed by the show, last year was much better. It seemed a lot smaller this year, I took a days leave to go and wished I hadn't. It felt like one big shop more than a show.
 

kevin7.1

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Hi I went with my father in law and we had a great time. We didn't go last year so have no benchmark but yeah we enjoyed it. Helpful staff some were there to sell but others came across as real enthusiasts of music in general.

My highlights were the Audio Note system, The Audiolab system with the Wharfdale speakers, i liked the red Quadral bookshelf speakers (before the system cut out ruining the sound for the rest of the demo). The PMC speakers i loved, without question for me the best speakers i have heard.

Stars of the show for me and my father in law were the Neat Acoustics' Iota speakers in the sweet spot they just gave a sound well beyond their size.

I discovered how Clearer Audio have quite simply the best attitude to customer service i have ever experienced.

Was impressed with the new Samsung tv's we where sat in the pioneer demo area with big smiles on our faces watching theirs. They are probably a match for Sony's HX923 range gutted sony were not there so i could compare oh and my father in law fell inlove with the monitor audio speakers.

I was also shocked to find some of the high end kit that didn't sound good to my ears notably the Teac system with £7000 kef speakers although the rep next door in the audio lab room said that it was probably down to room acoustics and that he and his team had a lot of trouble trying to get their kit to sound anywhere near its best.

The Tannoy room had some award winning speakers which i thought sounded terrible BUT the L shaped room had no space for us to sit in the right place i think it could have been laid out better and maybe they had no room to breathe in that space.

I got all this and more from the show and a great appreciation for the value of auditioning kit before you buy it.

Cannot wait for next year !!
 

Frank Harvey

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Jun 27, 2008
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The new Twenty series is currently running in, and sounding rather good (way better than i-series) - not tried the equivalent standmount to the PM1 yet, but it'll be an interesting shoot out.
 
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Anonymous

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Just off at a tangent david have you had acoustic energy,s ref 1 and two in for demo yet ?
 
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The PM1's sounded good to me also BUT I have to say the demo was a trifle misleading. The front end feeding them looked worth an awful lot of money, more than what one may realistically partner with them and the speaker cables were plain ludicrous, must have been an inch in diameter and aside from any sonic benefits they were simply impractical from any sort of aesthetic point of view. I'm not qualified to comment on the science behind the cables but I would have though having to pass a signal through that amount of metal would actually cause signal loss. So tip for future exhibitors is try and reflect in your demos what happens in the real world. I know fo course that the purveyors of fine kit will want them to sound there best but this example to me at least was simply laughable. Other exhibitors managed with real worls cables/partnering kit etc so why B & W went to this extreme I'm not sure. So, what did I like? Naim room with their own speakers although partially that may have been down to them playing music I was familiar with, Michell room was fun, (my other half didn't realise turntable were still the "in thing" and couldn't believe the sound that was coming through), and finally the friendly but ever so persuasive What Hi Fi team who managed to get a subscription out of me.
 

kevin7.1

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The representetive from PMC said that cable(connecting their speakers) is £4p/m its not the cable that makes out speakers sound good!!! i loved that comment i really did.

I didn't personally find the high end cables offensive but i can see your point of view in regard to in my living room performance!
 

kevin7.1

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we caught a little of of one of the PMC floorstanders and then they put on the smallest bookshelf speaker its was so so good and lived up to what i have read about transmission line speakers. If i could i'd buy the whole range and find uses for them around my home!!!
 

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