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North West Audio Show 29-30 June 2019

There was a funny moment in the MCRU accessories room. Being a hotel bedroom, there was an ironing board and iron hanging from the wall. Some comedian wanders in, points at it and jokes "Is that for fixing warped records?"
 
Chops54 said:
Thank you Mark.

I found the turntable quite intriguing. Built like a brick outhouse comes to mind. I was going to say sh1thouse but I didn’t want to lower the tone!
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The turntable was the Kondo ‘Ginga’ (yes, that’s really what it’s called!). Built very much in the style of Micro Seiki it apparently costs $110,000.00! An interesting feature, for me, was the use of a tensioner wheel on the thread drive.
 
Strictly Stereo said:
We configured two curves and swapped between them over the course of the weekend. One was a simple Toole 1dB/octave fall off (10dB between 20Hz and 20kHz). The other was the Bruel and Kjaer curve (flat to 160Hz then falling by 6dB between 160Hz and 20kHz. In each case, the corrections were all limited to 250Hz and below. The rest was down to the speakers and room. We also set up two different sets of filters for each curve. One using deeper but narrower filters and one using shallower but broader filters.
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Sorry couldn't stop and have a chat about the speakers Lee (did come in and shake your hand), as i did had a demo of the Kii's at your house a while ago although you probably can't remeber. I thought the D&D's much more convincing on the acoustic tracks i heard playing on them, a lot like ATC's, Opals or any really good monitor.
 
No doubt the kondo boys dislike AN uk because Qvortrup basically stole their name and designs from them with the help of the uk courts.

Obviously Kondo have moved on in design and circuits a great deal since then.
 
Kondo is now distributed in the UK by Select Audio, Steve was in the Kondo room for the 2 days as well as 3 Kondo guys including the president himself.

Brook Audio is a Kondo dealer, anyone who wants to demo Kondo can do so in my demonstration room or at home on request.

There is a substantial amount of Kondo equipment now in the UK including all the items at the show.

The Maxonic speakers are my own. They are field coil loudspeakers made in Japan.

Personally I thought the Kondo room sounding really good. I was looking forward to hearing what their kit does with my speakers.

The system did take quite a while to warm up though.
 
Through much of the 1980's Audio Note Japan was a tiny boutique audio company making cartridges, step up transformers, and a very nice FET pre-amp. Their main export customer was PQ in Scandinavia. There was an importer in the UK (DW Labs) who didn't do very much as the products were very expensive by any standards. Towards the end of the 80's they moved into the more serious manufacture of electronics (Ongaku to begin with) and also chose to cease making cartridges as it appeared then that CD was taking over. At that point PQ asked to be able to continue making the cartridge designs in the UK & I was one of a team of 2 who went and spent a few weeks sitting with Kondo learning how to build them. That's a story in itself but it made for a fascinating trip. PQ pushed on buying their electronics which sounded great but had a few production issues (basically most of it needed thoroughly sorting out on arrival here) He also invested large amounts in buying the cable, effectively financing the bulk purchase of the particular kind of silver wire. So while he was making the effort to market these products (worldwide by this time) and investing quite heavily in stock, when the parting happened (I can't recall the exact reason but to do with distribution rights) he felt, rightly or wrongly, that he'd contributed as much to making the brand desirable as they had. This is just to make the point that it wasn't as simple a falling out as it sounds further up the thread. When the case for the ownership of the brand name Audio Note came up in the UK, all of that involvement was taken into consideration. I'd long moved on by then so wasn't close to any of that court case. The upshot was that the Japanese company ended up having to use the name Kondo.
 
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It is also fair to say that none of the ANUK stuff uses the original Kondo circuits they are all bespoke to ANUK. ANUK did not steal the designs as intimated upthread.
 
YNWOAN said:
The turntable was the Kondo ‘Ginga’ (yes, that’s really what it’s called!). Built very much in the style of Micro Seiki it apparently costs $110,000.00! An interesting feature, for me, was the use of a tensioner wheel on the thread drive.
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The Ginga turntable is indeed a fine turntable I have been fortunate to have had both Ginga 1 and Ginga 2 a few years back, I have been told 10 of the original ginga turntables were made and 30 of Mk2. The turntables were made in batches of 10 the current batch has almost sold out. Kondo are unsure if they will continue to manufacture the turntable or even possibly introduce a revised version.

The current UK retail is around £105,000 inc VAT £110,000 with the optional isolation base as shown at the show. The modified Sme/kondo V12 is around £13000. The Ginga also utilises fluid damping of the plinth and arm board. I am not sure if they will be still be supplying the tonearm as Sme are rationalising there OEM work.Kondo were purchasing the tonearms in batches of 5. The first kondo Tonearm was based on the aluminium 312 which was rather nice.

Ginga trasulates to Galaxy and I.O is one of the moons that orbit saturn. I wish I had kept the Ginga MK1 as it would be almost impossible to find.
 
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Went on Sunday. Good and enjoyable day.

General thoughts:
  • I do find ‘audiophile’ music (obscure jazz and unknown breathy vocal stuff) both a bit nauseating and unhelpful. A bit ‘So what?’. Like testing a car’s ride and handling by cruising on a smooth runway.
  • When you walk teeth-clenched out of a room with tens of thousands of pounds worth of many units and 2” thick cables raised religiously off the floor, to go next door and get seduced by a humble two-box set up… You’ve got to ask.
  • The song they happen to be playing makes such a difference, and you are obviously only getting a snapshot.
  • Pink Floyd t-shirt count only got up to four...
Main things that stood out, in no real order, and room compromises notwithstanding etc.
  • Audio Emotion: didn’t stop to pay much attention (only noting the large Tannoys) as it just sounded so OTT and in your face. Harsh even. Shame as it was a favourite a couple of years ago, again with big Tannoys.
  • Absolute Sounds: Krell integrated, large Sonus Faber speakers, Melco streamer, playing SRV. Nice and full and stunning punchy clarity. Not that soothing, but very enjoyable.
  • MFA room: some TT with VDH cartridge, MFA pre, Howes modified Leak Stereo 20, original Rogers 3/5, Townshend super tweeter. Relatively humble set up but just sooooooo nice to listen to. Really does put some of the big daft system to shame. They did this a couple of years ago too.
  • Doug Bradie room with Naim streamer, Sugden amps, and large ProAcs – just a solid all round sound.
  • Audio Counsel: both AM set up (with Audion Sterling amp, Helco speakers and Audio Note other bits) and PM one (all AN, with Js at the end). Both sounded nice if different. In both they did CD and vinyl with the new TT3, which TBH wasn’t shown at its best with old, noisy (and widely unfamiliar) vinyl.
  • Falcon 3/5 and Primare amp room – so very simple and so very nice. Surprisingly oomph from the speakers too.
  • D&D 8C. Really interesting approach. Notably what you couldn’t hear is the room obviously adding to the sound. Seemed to float in space more. As such it initially sounded a bit stark, but then you can tell that the recording is coming through, and a nice quality to the sound too. My guess is I’d probably want a bit more meat on the bone than a truly neutral setting (if that’s what it was) but the fact you can tailor it is cool. Sorry Lee that my Tom Waits song request seemed to send a couple of chaps out the room!
  • Room with all Gold Note gear (using Mediterrano TT) and Audio Vector speakers. This was stunning. Detail and impact but didn’t seem fatiguing.
  • Audio Note room. Really liked it (am AN fan) but it was a bit boomy. Noted the speakers (Es) were on some kind of angled box stands which might have added to it? Again the TT3 was used with some obscure minimal music that gave no relative impression, to me anyway, of how it actually might sound.
  • Cad room. Was quite blown away by the little Boenke speakers, and the whole sound drew you in naturally. Very nice.
  • Relative bargain of the day seemed the Kralk TDB-12 speakers.
 
Fretbuzz said:
I do find ‘audiophile’ music (obscure jazz and unknown breathy vocal stuff) both a bit nauseating and unhelpful. A bit ‘So what?’. Like testing a car’s ride and handling by cruising on a smooth runway.
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The issue is the dealer or whoever wants to keep people in the room and so many genres (classical, proper jazz, prog, drum ‘n’ bass, metal, techno, rap, soul etc) will have large numbers heading for the door despite really pleasing some. It is fascinating to sit in a room that allows people to play music they have brought and see how many others head for the door with a given choice. Some girl with an acoustic guitar and well recorded band behind her tends to keep people on seats the longest IMO.

These days I’ll actually ask for proper jazz (Miles, Coltrane etc) or chamber music as to my mind it is just so much better as test material than over-produced studio pop or rock, but again it tends to empty rooms.

I’d be interested to hear our exhibitors views on this one as the subject often comes up for criticism, but to my mind it can’t be anything other than a compromise as so much interesting music will empty a room in seconds! If I was ever to do something like the WigWam show (which to be honest I wouldn’t as I just don’t enjoy exhibiting) I’d be very tempted to limit the music choice to late period ‘free’ Coltrane, electric Miles, and 2nd Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern) classical just to see what effect “difficult” music actually had on room numbers! I bet there would be a few free seats in that room regardless how good the sound! The same would apply to say metal, rap or whatever.
 
Space is the Place said:
Sorry couldn't stop and have a chat about the speakers Lee (did come in and shake your hand), as i did had a demo of the Kii's at your house a while ago although you probably can't remeber. I thought the D&D's much more convincing on the acoustic tracks i heard playing on them, a lot like ATC's, Opals or any really good monitor.
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I remember you coming over to listen to the Kii Three. That was back in 2016, I think. I shook quite a few hands this weekend. Many were new, some were very familiar and others were in that awkward grey area of "I know you but I'm not sure where from". That and perhaps also the general sense of overload you get from working at one of these events means that I didn't recognise you at the time Jon, sorry. Anyway, I am glad that you enjoyed the speakers. I am sorry if the EQ wasn't quite to your taste. We were using the 10dB curve for most of the weekend since that seems to have the broadest appeal. These speakers can of course be tuned to suit individual tastes.
 
Tony L said:
The issue is the dealer or whoever wants to keep people in the room and so many genres (classical, proper jazz, prog, drum ‘n’ bass, metal, techno, rap, soul etc) will have large numbers heading for the door despite really pleasing some. It is fascinating to sit in a room that allows people to play music they have brought and see how many others head for the door with a given choice. Some girl with an acoustic guitar and well recorded band behind her tends to keep people on seats the longest IMO.

These days I’ll actually ask for proper jazz (Miles, Coltrane etc) or chamber music as to my mind it is just so much better as test material than over-produced studio pop or rock, but again it tends to empty rooms.

I’d be interested to hear our exhibitors views on this one as the subject often comes up for criticism, but to my mind it can’t be anything other than a compromise as so much interesting music will empty a room in seconds! If I was ever to do something like the WigWam show (which to be honest I wouldn’t as I just don’t enjoy exhibiting) I’d be very tempted to limit the music choice to late period ‘free’ Coltrane, electric Miles, and 2nd Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern) classical just to see what effect “difficult” music actually had on room numbers! I bet there would be a few free seats in that room regardless how good the sound! The same would apply to say metal, rap or whatever.
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Fair points, always a compromise.

I'm guessing, despite what audiophile pretentions folks may have at these shows, in the real world most will just go home and listen to their favourite bands/artists: Beatles, Neil Young, R.E.M., Kate Bush, erm Aqua, proper jazz as you say, yeah even dance, G-funk, whatever... Stuff likely not recorded to sound good. This tests a system in one way but not another, a fundamental one to me.
 
I'd like shows to have a playlist of maybe 5 to 10 tracks. 50% of the music played (every other track) would be from the playlist - if 50% is too repetitive then 30%. This way comparisons between rooms can be made even if it means hanging around until the specific track is played or the track could be requested. A process could be sorted out.
 
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