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Dublin Audio Show

Enjoyed it. Not too busy and some interesting kit on show. Impressed with cheaper Naim room, addictive sound for the money. Statement room upped the game again and really drew me in, but $$$$$.

Good.music in the B&W room with the Rotel Michi amps, they put on a good show.

Technics 1200G is nice, sporting a Vdh cartridge, shame about the fizzy speakers it was attached to.
 
Attended today too. Welcoming atmosphere. Questionable music in abundance. Could go happily through this lifetime and several more without missing Katie Melua. Somebody else played somebody covering Dusty Springfield - misguided endeavour at best.

Nice to see some €€€€ gear up close. Enjoyed the sound in B&W/ Michi room. Spendor/Cloney room good too. Devialet room keen to let punters choose the tunes.
 
Just back from the show. Very enjoyable with plenty of interesting kit. For me the best bang for buck item was the Focal Chora 826 coming in at €1400 approx. Sadly too big for my room but very impressive speakers for the money.
Not wanting to get into a CD V Vinyl thing (I enjoy both formats), but a 60 year old recording of Harry Belafonte on a Linn Sondek sounded sensational. Very enjoyable day.
 
+1 those Focus Chora were very good value and sounded well with the Nait. I heard and saw everything I wanted to.

I really wanted to hear a Naim system properly as I haven't for a long while and was able to do that. Tbh, I liked the infectious noise it made. Whether I could like it all the time though is questionable.
 
leroyd said:
Just back from the show. Very enjoyable with plenty of interesting kit. For me the best bang for buck item was the Focal Chora 826 coming in at €1400 approx. Sadly too big for my room but very impressive speakers for the money.
Not wanting to get into a CD V Vinyl thing (I enjoy both formats), but a 60 year old recording of Harry Belafonte on a Linn Sondek sounded sensational. Very enjoyable day.
Click to expand...

Agreed, those Focals are outstanding value.
 
I’m always a bit apprehensive about these shows in case I hear something fantastic and then become unhappy with my own system at home.

Well certainly today I had nothing to fear. Listening to Naim amplification (Statement) nearly 10 times the price of mine should have made me shiver, but this Naim /Focal mix, as has been said by many, just don’t work and the room probably didn't help either. I presume that the Statement with other speakers or the Focal Scala Utopia Evo with another amp should sound better than my 552/300/SL2 - but I'm glad they didn't!

I found the second Naim system with the new Nait and ND5XS2 with Focal Chora had quite good sound for (relatively) modest outlay.Definitely the best value proposition I heard on the day -(but I didn't really get a good listen to Rega which might affect this view)

The B&W 802 didn’t do it for me either, I usually detest when people use the word musicality as a description but today seemed to give some credence to this actually being a real thing. Nothing today sucked me in. So much sounded what I derogatorily would call digital.The 802's seemed to dissect John Grant's Pale green ghosts rather than convey the coherent tune I know it to be.

The KEF blades were the best I heard but the music for the main was undemanding, Nils Logfren Live, Ben Webster, Shelby Lynne. I thought Wish you were hear sounded a little cluttered. But definitely the best sound I heard. Didn't make it to the Linn room but the blades were powered by a KDS and Linn monoblocks but how much better this £60k system is better than the £6k Naim one is debatable.


Some sounded so poor it must have been embarrassing for the exhibitors (Esoteric). If me, with my high frequency hearing loss, is still hearing most systems as bright I cannot imagine what young ears would make of it.

Nice to have a chance to see all this hifi in Dublin though and some very good discounts available if one was in the market. 20% on Naim and 15% on Melco were the two I noticed, so if you are in the market for either it's well worth the journey.

It's great to be able to compare and contrast so many different systems.

.sjb
 
Saw loads of lovely gear from Naim / Linn / KEF / NAD / Rega / Chord / Focal / The Gryphon / Michi / Spendor / Melco & others I cant for the minute recall. I'd love a few spare bob to splash ...I measure my spends in 100s not 1000s.

I dont do much HIFI shopping .
Seems the future is streaming with vinyl a close 19th behind.
Trouble is I dont see the value of high end streamers when you can get 90% of functions with an RPi / Chromecast & DAC...
 
Well got to both Saturday and Sunday and s the show was not too packed it made for a more relaxed listen . Really dissapointed that many at the show would not let you play your own music (usb stick) and the choice in some rooms was very poor . The sound track to the Joker was an all time low as it appeared to be only played for the low bass it generated music content was minimal and i will be happy if i never hear it again .

Melco room was lovely with some very friendly people . They played a nice varied range of music , Miles Davis , Aphex Twin , Paul Simon and they also let me play some of my own music which was much better. I will own up now to say as i have got older I have become less fussy about the quality of systems I can listen to most of the rooms sounded fine . There were some very expensive Turntable / Arm Cartridge set ups including Linn's and they all served to remind me of all of the faults and reasons I gave up on vinyl , this is just my view many there were singing the praises of Vinyl and how much more natural and dynamic it sounded . Me I found the clicks and pops annoying and the background hiss intrusive .

One really good thing that did come out was in the room with the large B&W speakers the.y played a Kraftwerk track (Music Non Stop) which came off the 3-D Der Katalog 8 CD box set .Now the sound and depth was superb and I had only though that this was a live music box set complete with audience noise and ignored it. I now find out that the majority of the tracks while they were from live shows have no audience noise and are of superlative quality. Quick scan back at my hotel and i found a new unopened set in Belgium and bought them that night . Having now played all 8 CD's I can confirm they are all as good if not better than what I heard at the show . Love it when a show gives you music rather than equipment.

One last thing while I had read lots about Devialet equipment I had never seen or heard it . The room was small and on both days the people running the demo were approachable and they would play any choice of music even what I had brought . The Gold Phantom speakers sounded excellent and produced a very good room filling sound . Yes they are expensive but they are a one box solution of streamer , amp , speaker in a very compact package and they offer real imaging and bass . The smaller units were okay but just suffered by comparison . All in all I was impressed but was less happy with the attitude over servicing . These things are hugely complex and the best you can get is a five year warranty , plus as they admit they do not repair any units only exchange them as most of my system is over thirty years old not good enough .
 
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