I went on the last day, something I've not done before. A few people said it was a bit quieter due a football match, but several rooms were still in great demand, such as KEF, Monitor Audio and Devialet, amongst others.
After a browse around the racks, headphones and accessories on the ground floor, I went early on to PMC, whose twenty:26 sounded wonderful in one of the larger rooms. Their Bryston source and amps are always squeaky clean, but the sound was not clinical, just very detailed. Delightful. Quad's new amp and speakers looked neat, but weren't playing when I looked in. One for another day. An interesting diversion from panels, with their new ribbon speakers. Origin live were teasing with a poster that read "how good can vinyl be with £169 speakers" or words to that effect. They were using modest Q acoustic speakers on stands and with cables that doubtless cost more than the speakers. Superb vinyl sound. One of many using turntables this year. Technics' relaunched SL1200 was playing, but with a fuzzy sound I recall but had long forgotten. Yes, a fluffy stylus! The guys seemed unsure about cleaning it, but when they did, good sound ensued. Not three grands worth, though, so they need to get realistic with their price when eventually it is released. 20:20 hindsight, perhaps, but perhaps they should have kept it in production. Not persuaded by all the reengineering waffle. Naim were blasting out their muso models in a tiny room, but I cannot say how good they were. Nicely built though, and the cuboid one looks more room compatible to me than the original. Their amps and streamers appeared widely elsewhere, to good effect.
The Hegel amps and dacs sounded wonderful through KEF reference stand mounters - the model one? They had bothered to treat the walls, with duvets!, while others had sound absorbing panels. Huge sound from relatively modest speakers. Elac's new Debut speakers were terrific at £250 a pair, albeit using extravagant cables, power conditioners and amps - which they readily acknowledged. It was like returning to the old 'source first' days of Linns with budget speakers! Mission's new LX were similarly excellent for £200 a pair. As someone noted above, the more modest systems often perform better at shows. Harbeth's dem seemed very restrained at first, but after a few minutes, their winning accuracy and excellence on speech won me over. They played Gilbert and Sullivan, and an episode of Sherlock Holmes, from Radio 4, I presume. Not so much room- filling, as transporting us to the venue. Hegel amps again. Neat have a new, bigger brother for the Iota, sounding much bigger that it had any right to, and beautifully balanced. Going to be around £1300 a pair, and no name as yet. Oldies like me might recall Sonab speakers. They were reincarnated in a brand whose name escapes me, but were deigned by the original Stigg Carlsson, unless I'm confusing his name with a rally driver! They are omnidirectional, if you never knew the originals. A fine sound, firing across the room, not along it as most opted for. Michell's dems are always modest and fine sounding affairs. By modest I mean no fancy wires, room treatments, or gimmicks. Just a big Sugden amp and effortless ProAc speakers. Near the end, I found the Devialet room, confusingly containing Spendor (A7, I think) alongside their silver Phantoms. Shame we didn't hear the same track on each, but the Spendors sounded more like PMCs than usual, and the Phantoms - in a stereo configuration (and therefore about £3,600) - were superb. Cannot really say they outperform a conventional setup at that price, but given they contain everything (amplifiers, DACs, speakers, etc) they are pretty amazing. A very coherent sound. I'm not a fan of sub-woofers, but RELs monster cabinets were moving lots of air, and look immaculate. Thankfully, far more audio caught my eye than AV, but I did enjoy a few movie snippets, on Oppo players amongst others. No claim that this is representative survey, but more a reflection of those that I remember. Would most like to own the Hegel amps (160?), and PMC twenty:26 speakers!