UK Hifi Show Live at Ascot Racecourse post mortem

[sonddek]

I couldn't find a thread about this show so I'm starting one even though it's over. A couple of pfishies identified themselves to me at the show. Perhaps there's not much to be said, but the show went well for me. I had the usual struggle getting my system/room to the state where I was happy. Finally on the Sunday afternoon I got one of my old Garrards working OK with a RigB VM540 and it gave no ground to the Technics SL-1210G I was using through most of the show. A big thank you to KEF for lending me a pair of Reference Meta standmounts and to Audio Technica for an AT33Sa.

If you came to this show, please post about your experience here.

 

[Rana]

I popped in on Sunday, wanted to stay and but you were busy with the Garrard at the time, and my friend who I was with isn't a TT fan, so it would have felt a bit selfish if I had stuck around. Your tonearms look really nice in the flesh.

 

[sonddek]

I popped in on Sunday, wanted to stay and but you were busy with the Garrard at the time, and my friend who I was with isn't a TT fan, so it would have felt a bit selfish if I had stuck around. Your tonearms look really nice in the flesh.

Thanks Rana. The Garrard had been sitting there feeling left out all weekend so I really wanted to get it going before the end of the show. I hope you'll be able to have a good listen next time.

Can you tell us anything about the rest of the show? I missed it as I was so busy in my room throughout!

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Rana]

I frequented the show every year when it was based in Windsor, and I thought most exhibitors there had solved the usual room acoustics issues. The glassy Ascot racecourse boxes was problematic for many rooms, and felt that this letting them down. A lot of rooms had a harshness to them that I can only attribute to the glass. My friend was of the same opinion. I will probably go again next year, but do hope they go back to the hotel in Windsor or somewhere else more easily treatable.

 

[Rana]

Biggest disappointment for me was actually PS Audio's new FR30 speakers that I was dying to hear. They were dwarfed by their location in a rsther large hall.

 

[sonddek]

Did you have a listen at Absolute Sounds? I had a two-minute listen there to the Döhmann Helix One system at the end of Saturday. Not everybody's cup of tea perhaps but the clarity, scale and power were quite an experience. The impressiveness came in conjunction with a wide open window into the musical factors like rhythm, harmony and drama, not to their detriment. I don't know how much that system cost, an amount I couldn't dream of certainly, but it was fun to hear what can be done. Even those rooms had a little difficulty with ceiling reflections, I suspected, despite the curtain enclosure.

 

[rubycat]

Did you have a listen at Absolute Sounds?

I would have liked to have done but after waiting on Saturday for about 10mins for them to get it all working I gave up.
Agree with the sound quality / glassy rooms, but everyone was playing their setups way too loud anyway, listener fatigue soon set in.
Highlights for me was Hifonix and focal headphone areas, very impressed by the Focal Stellia and Meze Elite.

 

[bobovox]

I could only make it for the last few hours on Sunday afternoon. The rather spectacular building was confusing at first but once I had my bearings I found what I wanted to see. The rooms being spread out worked well as there was not the usual sound leakage and everyone turning up the volume ever louder in order to drown out the neighbours as happens at Bristol. Lovely view out over the race course too.

Highlights for me were KEF LS60s & Blades, PS Audio (mains foo notwithstanding) and Kii Sevens & MBL stand mounts.

One of the larger rooms on the road side of the building had three systems playing - consequently not really demonstrating any of them to good effect.

All in all an enjoyable afternoon - wished I could have spent longer there.

 

[narabdela]

...but everyone was playing their setups way too loud anyway, listener fatigue soon set in.

Unfortunately this is a problem at most shows. Either that, or the reps are chatting away loudly to each other while the punters are trying to listen to the merchandise.

 

[sonddek]

One thing that was wonderful at Ascot was that when people had questions I could usher them out onto the 5th floor grandstand balcony, with its stunning view and London's skyline visible on the horizon, and slide the very quiet glass doors shut. Happy days.

 

[HifiDan]

Did you have a listen at Absolute Sounds? I had a two-minute listen there to the Döhmann Helix One system at the end of Saturday. Not everybody's cup of tea perhaps but the clarity, scale and power were quite an experience. The impressiveness came in conjunction with a wide open window into the musical factors like rhythm, harmony and drama, not to their detriment. I don't know how much that system cost, an amount I couldn't dream of certainly, but it was fun to hear what can be done. Even those rooms had a little difficulty with ceiling reflections, I suspected, despite the curtain enclosure.

They played a cd that apparently cost £500 and to own, you have to sign a disclaimer and get some sort of license (or something like that). It did sound good, and there was a noticeable difference compared to the cheaper HD cd he played first. The chain rattle from the snare drum was just so realistic, he could have been playing them drums in the room if you didn’t know. That was some seriously expensive system though, think it was DCS electronics and Wilson Audio speakers. I was at the back so couldn’t get close enough to see.

I still preferred listening to the PMC Finestrias though, first time I’ve heard them and now deciding which kidney to sell so I can get a pair (over £66k a pair, ouch).

Apart from the PMC room and the Absolute sound dem (can’t call it a room really) not much else sounded that great, some systems costing more then I paid for my house sounded terrible.

 

[dave charlton]

Some footage by My HI-End :-

I watched earlier and not much stood out for me although I did like the look of the P.S. Audio kit and the Totem room using Rega. Definitive Audio's new speakers looked serious and I did like the look of the Naim gear on their own racks. Nothing else floated my boat but interesting to see some of the cabling solutions. Digital looks (and probably sounds) bloody awful.

 

[per-Sony-fied]

Having watched the rather long above video yesterday skipping through some of the more boring bits just to reduce it's watch time I have to say it looked very quiet for that day with most exhibitors show casing very expensive gear with silly looking cables & even more so cable lifters. For me it did not look very exciting Don't feel so bad now that I couldn't make it.

 

[Beobloke]

Sadly I could only visit for a few hours on Saturday so I had to make it a much speedier visit than I would have liked. Personally, I think the venue is absolutely spectacular and makes a real change from crowded, hot hotels. The signage was also vastly improved over last time and I had no trouble navigating my way around. One other point about the place being 'dead' - it certainly outwardly looked like it when I arrived at about 10:30am, however I then realised that a lot of the rooms were busy, the record sale and cafe areas were packed and I remembered that I'd been directed to the overflow car park. I think the sheer size of the venue simply spread everyone out well and didn't give a good sense of visitor numbers.

Highlights for me were:

Monitor Audio. I was blown away by the Hyphn speakers in prototype form at Munich a few years back and still think they are incredible.

Origin Live – A really well-balanced system that sounded very decent indeed. Also, the sub was nicely integrated, which is never guaranteed at these shows, sadly.

PMC – I still love the Fact Fenestrias. Superb speakers IMHO.

Stratton Acoustics – I've been wanting to hear these since they came out and I wasn't disappointed - I really liked them. They had that lovely big sense of ‘ease’ and control. As I said to the chap there, though, it's just a shame I don't do sensible standmounters...

Yamaha – I still really like the RN-2000A receiver and NS-2000 speakers but I’ve heard them demonstrate this identical setup at three or more shows now. I had hoped they’d do something a bit more exciting for this show, such as the full 5000 system which I’m not sure they’ve ever demoed in the UK.

MoFi – their turntables are great and I thought the new phono stage and the point source speakers all sounded very decent together.

The vintage room - Tim Jarman's Philips Motional Feedback setup was sounding great. Mind you, I'm sure a lot of that was to do with the magnificent speaker stands he was using, which he borrowed from me! And as for the Gale GT-2101 on display....

In fact, my only real disappointment of the day involved Goebel loudspeakers from Germany. The company appears to now have UK distribution which is magnificent news and a pair of the Divin Marquis speakers were at the show. However, they were just stuck in a small room on static display, whilst the distributor used something else in their room next door. As Goebel has consistently produced some of my favourite sounds of every Munich Hi-Fi Show for the last ten years or so, it was a huge disappointment not to hear them, especially as i had to miss Munich this year.

 

[davidavdavid]

I was really hoping there'd be more excitement from the UK HiFi Show at Ascot. A number of my mates were covering the show and had precious little to share as well. And now if I'm not mistaken you all have another HiFi show this weekend. I thought we were ... in the States, with at least one show a month from February to November, but wowzers

 

[hifinutt]

well sadly they completely upset one of the biggest hifi forums by refusing the leaders trade passes so it got a very very negative press because of that . which is a great shame . bit of an own goal there

 

[DonMarks]

Did any one experience the Lowther room?
I am aware the brand is very polarizing, however my one and only experience with it was goosebumps positive.

Many years ago I visited Audio Consult in Copenhagen, a historical shop with a long standing collaboration with Audio Note.
Lowther being high efficiency were being demoed with some AudioNote triodes.
Honestly I don’t remember the setup, couldn’t afford it, just that the combination left me in awe and is one of the fondest hifi memories I have.
Keep wondering if I am a SET/high efficiency guy… alas my current setup is more easy to live with.

Curious if the “new” Lowther is being received positively.

 

[davidavdavid]

well sadly they completely upset one of the biggest hifi forums by refusing the leaders trade passes so it got a very very negative press because of that . which is a great shame . bit of an own goal there

I'll bite. Which hifi forum was being refused trade passes?

 

[Peg legg]

Why was actually buying a ticket such an issue? Too tight to cough up like the rest of us punters

 

[herb]

Some footage by My HI-End :-

I watched earlier and not much stood out for me although I did like the look of the P.S. Audio kit and the Totem room using Rega. Definitive Audio's new speakers looked serious and I did like the look of the Naim gear on their own racks. Nothing else floated my boat but interesting to see some of the cabling solutions. Digital looks (and probably sounds) bloody awful.

An awful lot of irrelevant 'music' for HiFi purposes as expected. Though I liked the MBL and Living Voice sounds through my Grados. The Absolute Sounds section was poor until they played Shostakovich 10 which I can relate to, quite good. At least there was no reference to the foot stomping of the Dave Clark Five in the '60s recording as a valid test..