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The Audio Show sep 22-23 2018

hifinutt said:
First class show with full car park. Some superb sounds especially from Kerr acoustic
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Indeed, quite a good show, no too crowded, nothing being played at excessive volumes and free coffee too.

Best sounds for me were in Nicks room, Longdog Audio. Also the Kerr K100’s in the MCRU room were very good indeed.

Anyone know what the speakers were in the Longdog Audio room?
 
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With family in Leamington it seamed rude not to visit and I needed some fresh Artdu'son.

Not too busy so was able to sit in most rooms.
Standout room was down the end of a corridor, the Oak Room with the blue floorstanders driven by a beefy Levinson amp. Very nice sound.
Also, unheard of (to me anyway) German brand XTZ with a very reasonably priced setup that sounded extraordinary value.
 
And I forgot the Audionec room, unremarkable apart from the super sized speaker cables - forget hosepipe, we're talking drainpipe thickness.:rolleyes:
 
adamk said:
With family in Leamington it seamed rude not to visit and I needed some fresh Artdu'son.

Not too busy so was able to sit in most rooms.
Standout room was down the end of a corridor, the Oak Room with the blue floorstanders driven by a beefy Levinson amp. Very nice sound.
Also, unheard of (to me anyway) German brand XTZ with a very reasonably priced setup that sounded extraordinary value.
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Got to agree both rooms very good.
XTZ & IOTAVX were extremely good, just goes to show hifi needant be expensive to sound great. The preamp is £299 and power amp £399, pream has aptx which is how they streamed the music from tidal. Speaker £1790 each.
Very cheap hifi.
Oak room had Kerr acoustic speakers, they were also in the mcru room. Great speakers and relatively affordable. They also offer colour matching at no extra cost. They use scanspeak drivers and can’t remember what type ribbon tweeters. Great sounding speakers.

Only disappointment was the rooms were very small and quickly got crowded.
 
Funny how tastes differ, For me, the best sounds were coming from the two(or was it three?) rooms that were using Graham Audio/Chartwell/BBC designs.
 
Thought the bigger blue Kerrs with the hifi from home were the best of the three they had, love to see them in veneer though. The thores set up sounded great as did the vivids. The audionec room was good with laughably ott wires, thicker than overhead national grid lines ffs.

Nice show, better than Silverstone as a venue.
 
Very enjoyable and relaxing few hours on a rainy Sunday.
Good to hear a few new pieces of music as well as the usuals. Also several extremes of system, from the Thoress/Emme room (which was great, but unaffordable) to the Arcaydis set up where they had a tiny D-class pre/power and their excellent speakers (sourced from a Pioneer bluray player!). The EB1s were great.
One or two of the rooms seemed devoid of listeners - own conclusions etc. I thought one of the best sounds was the Waterfall speakers room with a simple Roksan CD/amp (plus sub?).
Graham speakers very nice but a bit pricey. Kerr superb as stated above.

https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?60360-Audio-Show-2018-Leamington-Spa
 
Ptah said:
I thought one of the best sounds was the Waterfall speakers room with a simple Roksan CD/amp (plus sub?).
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I did ask about the sub, and was told it wasn't being used.

I also encountered the usual audio show ****pot in that room. Walked in, sat down at the front for about 30 seconds, stood up, declared loudly "Well that was a waste of time", and walked out again.
 
Nice Sunday trip, no crowds, the way I like it. Some very good sounds and no stupid £500,000 systems nobody could afford. I agree that Waterfall was a nice room, but I like those speakers and the small new Hybrid Electrostatic speakers were very nice too.

All in all, worth a trip up the M40.
 
Was helping out Nick in the Longdog room. We usually use Graham 5/9’s, but this time used Kerr Acoustics. Very pleased with them, definitely better than the Graham’s, which makes them a bit of a bargain IMHO. Not easy getting decent sound in a hotel room, Utd we were pretty happy with what we achieved there.

As an aside, was chatting to the guy from Qobuz, apparently it will be available through Roon in a couple of weeks’ time. Got a three month free trial off him.
 
It was a pleasant day out with free tickets, free coffee, nice surroundings, no crowds,... but I expect the exhibitors get charged a fair bit to pamper us punters. Then again, if they are small setups selling direct to the public this type of event is likely more important compared to those with a dealer network. Nonetheless two shows a week apart doesn't seem wise to me. Is anyone planning on visiting both?

narabdela said:
Funny how tastes differ,
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Indeed.
 
Biggest disappointment those new hybrid statys with the round top driver. Maybe they were off colour on the Sunday but they sounded muffled and flat.
 
I wondered what others thought of the NVA room. There was no-one else in it (apart from the 3 company members) when I was there.
 
Ptah said:
I wondered what others thought of the NVA room. There was no-one else in it (apart from the 3 company members) when I was there.
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Quite crowded when I was in, and sounding a bit mid-fi, though I don't think those speakers were doing the electronics any favours.

R.D. was moaning loudly to someone about something though, so critical listening was difficult.
 
sq225917 said:
Biggest disappointment those new hybrid statys with the round top driver. Maybe they were off colour on the Sunday but they sounded muffled and flat.
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We had a chat for a few minutes about the design with the music off and then he put a record on and something wasn't right. Was a bit awkward. Hopefully it was something silly which will soon get sorted because small non-mainstream companies like his are what makes audio shows interesting for some of us.
 
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