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WigWam Scalford 2014 pics etc

Tony L

Administrator
A tale of horns:

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Controversy:

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And plenty of other cool stuff:

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A few more pics here (the ones tagged 'Scalford 2014', the rest are from earlier years).

As ever a great selection of kit and a great fun day out. A spectacular effort by all concerned.

The most amusing room for me was the Naim 32.5 / HiCap / 250 blind-test vs. the Yamaha AS500. That was great fun, and yes, I picked the AS500 as better. Twice. As did another ex-32.5/Hicap/250 owning friend. Ok it was through a nice easy to drive pair of Quad 11Ls, but you'd be amazed by how close they sounded!
 
Great pictures Tony thanks for posting.
Gutted I couldn't make it this week end
I would have loved to hear the Studer R2R
Alan
 
Yes, brilliant. I think it should become compulsory for every audio guy to own at least one pair of horns. And, while we are at it, a Studer on a trolley....a proper Walkman.
 
The thing I love about this show is it proves beyond all doubt that there is still a whole world of proper old-school enthusiast audio buyers / builders / tweakers etc out there. The mainstream market may only be interested in selling cheesy little lifestyle boxes, soundbars iPod docks etc these days, but a lot of folk clearly want a lot more - it may be a 'niche market', but it very much exists and it is wonderfully self-sufficient / self-sustaining too.
 
The thing I love about this show is it proves beyond all doubt that there is still a whole world of proper old-school enthusiast audio buyers / builders / tweakers etc out there. The mainstream market may only be interested in selling cheesy little lifestyle boxes, soundbars iPod docks etc these days, but a lot of folk clearly want a lot more - it may be a 'niche market', but it very much exists and it is wonderfully self-sufficient / self-sustaining too.
Very well put Tony and I totally agree, the bake offs I have been to also produce the same results and its not surprising that its the old school equipment is what produces the Jaw dropping moments at these events;).
Incidentally I couldn't make it today as I had t drive down to Brighton and back to pick up another Reel 2 Reel Revox PR99mk2 :)

Alan
 
Caught the last two shows and thoroughly enjoyed them, but not able to this year. Hot off the press, Tony; well done !
 
Excellent show. Good to catch up with people and some great Snells, ESLs and Horns. Highlights would be Simon's La Scala look-alikes, oh my oh my ... what beauty in both sound and form. A true labour of ingenuity and love. Then, for the second year, the Snells made the great party rooms; Dean's Js and Brian's Js and then those fabulous As. A Snell festival would be a great place to be. And then the stats...what a feast of ESLs this year. All squeezed into compromised spaces; sometimes sounding sublime, sometimes asking for walls to be knocked down.
 
I think that what we are seeing is the hobby returning to its roots...the overblown, overpriced world of 'high-end' audio has largely alienated its own client base. It has lurched off in pursuit of wealthy people, mainly in Asia, who see audio as 'status.'
The rest of us are returning to the traditional world of diy, vintage and simply weird components. The hobby is now split into those polarised groups. Those in the middle will probably drift off into audio as commodity..a source of easy, effortless, music on demand.
Scalford is simply where the divide becomes most visible. That divide will accelerate.
 
I think that what we are seeing is the hobby returning to its roots...the overblown, overpriced world of 'high-end' audio has largely alienated its own client base. It has lurched off in pursuit of wealthy people, mainly in Asia, who see audio as 'status.'
The rest of us are returning to the traditional world of diy, vintage and simply weird components. The hobby is now split into those polarised groups. Those in the middle will probably drift off into audio as commodity..a source of easy, effortless, music on demand.
Scalford is simply where the divide becomes most visible. That divide will accelerate.

Good post, from one enthusiast to another,

Louballoo
 
I heard the Yamaha/Naim demo and had no difficulty hearing a difference between the two with the Yamaha sounding rather 'thin' - even at the low levels used.

As always, an interesting show and very well attended - some perseverance was needed to get into some of the rooms. Biggest disappointment for me was the stacked Quad's, something odd going on there I think. This year quite a lot of the rooms failed to excite much in me. However, the reel to reel and active Rogers room had great transparency, focus, detail and coherence (qualities that unfortunately escaped many others). The room next door with the green horns and Guy's new phono and direct drive turntable was also very interesting. Although not the last word in integration the system did show good dynamic and the turntable sounded very promising.
 
A show where nobody minds a pre sitting next to a psu and on top of a power amp. How refreshing :)
 
There were two systems with Snell Type J speakers and valve amps, I thought both were very listenable and enjoyable.

Steven Toy's system spun a sound stage even when I sat to one side, and the music showed off some beefy bass.

The stacked Quad ESLs were cool. When live Hendrix poured through the open door later on, I popped in for a second listen!
 


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