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