North West Audio Show 2018

[lindsayt]

http://audioshow.co.uk/

Looks like a nice day out. It's on this Saturday and Sunday (23rd & 24th June) - IE tomorrow and the day after.

Free entry too.

And then there's Owston next week-end, which should also be a good day out, with a different take on the hi-fi theme to the North West Audio show.

http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7226

 

[nopiano]

I’d love to go, but it’s quite a long way from South Wales and the weather is super too.

Hope it’s a great success!

 

[insider9]

Is Steve who's organising Owston the same person who was at Kegworth with diy speakers and SET amps? It could be a coincidence but if remember him saying he lives in Doncaster.

 

[mond]

Free entry!

Wish they had that at the Bristol show, costs me about £20 as I invariably have to pay for myself and my partner to get in.....

Enjoy the show

 

[DIB]

I'm going on Sunday, it's only 35 miles from my home. I'll be going early, have a look round and then dependent on time might try and get back in time for the football.

I'm going to concentrate on mainly stuff that I could feesibly afford. I'm looking forward to listening to the new NVA Cubette speakers with their starter Pre/Power, the lovely looking Kralk Audio TDB range of speakers, and also the Arcaydis version of the EB Acoustics EB2 speakers.

I've got no money so not likely to buy anything though

.

 

[lindsayt]

I enjoyed my visit to Cranage Hall yesterday.

It's a nice venue too for this type of event.

I'd like to say a big thank-you to all the exhibitors who footed the bill for this show. And for giving us the opportunity to listen to some enjoyable music on their systems.

 

[lindsayt]

Is Steve who's organising Owston the same person who was at Kegworth with diy speakers and SET amps? It could be a coincidence but if remember him saying he lives in Doncaster.

Yes, that's the very same Steve. The one with the World Class DIY'ed speakers.

Nick Gorham, AKA Lurcher of Longdog Audio who is exhibiting at the North West Audio show this week-end will also be there. His amps are always worth listening to.

Along with quite a few others.

 

[Al ears]

Is Steve who's organising Owston the same person who was at Kegworth with diy speakers and SET amps? It could be a coincidence but if remember him saying he lives in Doncaster.

Yes, that's the very same Steve. The one with the World Class DIY'ed speakers.

Nick Gorham, AKA Lurcher of Longdog Audio who is exhibiting at the North West Audio show this week-end will also be there. His amps are always worth listening to.

Along with quite a few others.

Sounds like a very good event. Maybe I will make it one year when I am not working away.......

 

[davidf]

For one thing, there’s no retailer involved, so there’s no sales pressure on the visitors. Plus the fact it’s free makes it worth visiting. It was a little bigger than last year too, so it’s gaining momentum.

 

[lindsayt]

Photos from the Owston event yesterday:

http://simonsnewadventuresinhifi.blogspot.com/2018/06/audio-meet-owston-30th-june-2018.html

 

[Andrewjvt]

Photos from the Owston event yesterday:

http://simonsnewadventuresinhifi.blogspot.com/2018/06/audio-meet-owston-30th-june-2018.html

Very interesting

 

[insider9]

Looking good. Shame I couldn't make it.

 

[davidf]

So did anyone go in the end? Any photos or write ups of the show?

 

[lindsayt]

There's some write-ups of the North West Audio Show 2018 here:

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/north-west-audio-show-2018.216636/

A lot of the views expressed differ from what I heard at the show. That could be down to different recordings, different tastes.

I don't like to write publicly about my impressions at hi-fi shows. Because I know from personal experience that you can have a system that sounds good at home and rather less than good in a hotel room at a hi-fi show.

This still doesn't stop some people from making definitive judgements on the basis of hi-fi show demos. That is, of course, entirely up to them, but it's not a mentality that I would recommend.

Getting 2 systems into your room at home, playing the same tracks at the same volumes, on the other hand, are good truth tests of how good audio equipment really is.

 

[davidf]

I know about that forum, I was wondering about this one, seeing as a thread was started.

 

[lindsayt]

The two hi-fi events over the last 3 weeks have pointed me in a new direction hi-fi wise.

From now on my main focus for any system changes will be on creating DIY'd speakers.

Going from my extremely rough and ready impressions of the systems I heard at both events, the joint best one included DIY'd speakers with a £200 (brand new) amplifier and c£100 (used) CD player. Joint best with possibly, provisionally quite a few others.

I'm now scanning ebay for body parts to put into my Frankenstein speaker creation. As well as looking out for deals on minDSP to bring the monster to life.

All the expensive digital sources and amplifiers that I heard. They may well be great products, but the pareto is very firmly in the speaker camp.

 

[tonky]

Hi there - Be interested to know the DIYed speakers. All from kit? What drivers? etc. The amp too - just out of interest.

thanks tonky

 

[lindsayt]

The amp was an NVA - their least expensive integrated. It's a decent little amp that had good synergy with the speakers. The speakers were Steve's red and black 2 part semi ported semi open baffle with an 18" PA bass driver, a Fane full range driver, a ribbon type tweeter and a Fostex super tweeter. At full retail price the drivers in his speakers would cost about £3000. I believe he paid less than that.

His speakers weren't from kit. Steve (the host of the Owston event) has been building his own speakers for years. All of the ones I've heard have been very good. His latest are world class. Last year he brought them to a speaker bake-off. They won. Sounding better than £75,000 Maxonic field coil speakers. The Maxonics were good. But not as good as Steve's DIY'd speakers.

The thing is, there's nothing to stop anyone building clones of his latest speakers. They are not difficult to make. They are also OK from a WAF point of view and they sound fine in both small and large and huge rooms.

My goal is to put together something in the same league as his for under £1000. Maybe I'll achieve that goal maybe not.

 

[insider9]

If I remember correctly the drivers in Steve's speakers were unobtainium. So difficult to put value on them. They could cost more than £3k parts now.

I'm sure you'll do really well and I'm looking forward to reading about your project.

I'm not sure Steve's speakers would be ok for WAF. Not bad but definitely not pretty.

 

[tonky]

But still very expensive - even as a ' home build'. I'd like to build something very much like the BBC LS3/5 type (the smallest ones.

One or two kit speaker suppliers (like Wilmslow Audio and Falcon acoustics) offer similar designs . The WA one is way off original spec as it shows a much more high efficiency compared to the original (89 db/watt compared to 83 db/watt).

As an aside Falcon Acoustics built a model of the JR149 - pretty much the same spec and build - they even took it to a German hifi show - gained plaudits for it. And nothing now seems to have come of it. It doesn't appear to have been relaunched . Big shame - great little speaker in its day

Anyway - an interesting thread overall.

tonky