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The very first Hi-Fi Show you attended.

London circa 1974/75 Penta Hotel Heathrow, I was a teenager and it was very crowded I saw very little but it was very exciting!

I also remember a show at London Olympia, maybe a year later, not a great show because each exhibitor had a marquee in the main hall, little or no sound proofing between them. On the plus side it was bearable to walk about. I recall seeing a fair bit of quadrophonic kit that I had never seen in the shops back home.

These were the days of big and bold stereo kit, the massive receivers from Marantz, Rotel, Sansui etc. Large speakers made by everyone, including Wharfdale, Celestion, AR, IMF, the lovely Transcriptors turntable, SME arms everywhere complete with Shure V15 MKiii cartridge and a massive range of Koss headphones. It was truly a fantastic time for the hobby of home stereo/HiFi

The new wave minimalist UK kit like Naim was either barely visible or had only just arrived. either way i don't remember seeing it.
 
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Belfast Hifi show 1999 organised by Kronos AV (previously Zeus Audio) , Hifi + magazine was launched at the show.
The Rockport TT and speakers was very impressive, I don't remember what the amplifiers were, it wasn't exactly affordable so didn't really hold my interest.
The Michell room would've been my 'Best of show' room, a pretty standard size room, Gyrodec, SME tonearm, Michell amplification, Orca and Alectos and Innersound Isis (hybrid, ESL panel & 8" TL woofer) speakers.
 
That would be the Australian Hifi & AV Show at the Rialto Hotel back in 2016. That was the best show (and venue) i've attended thus far. Fremer was one of the attendees, and he ran expert tt setup clinics during the show.
 
Somewhere in London around 1972, Everyone was using reel to reel tape as source and I was impressed with Quad ESLs and Cambridge R50s. I got an enthusiastic lecture about why my 401 was flawed compared to his new belt driven Ariston. Soon after Linn LP12 was introduced, politics. There was lots of classical music played.
 
Heathrow Penta show around 1995-2000. By reception Meridian had a room (and a lot of presence) in general. It was at the time of DVD becoming a thing and they had 7 DSP6000s set up in a decent size room. Bob Stuart led the demo with some organ music (possibly the Meridian cd label) then replayed it with some room correction tech - before it was a product in the 800 and G series. He totally undersold it which made the experience impressive - the room correction (taming the bass a little) was pretty subtle in reality and both options sounded good. They ended the demo from memory playing a Boyz to Men DVD (I think it might have been an LD source) though all 7 speakers which sounded amazing as the voices panned around. Been on a slippery slope of hi fi spend ever since…
 
Think it was Jeffries Hifi show, Brighton, 1982 maybe?

In a hotel on the corner opposite the pier.

Some really big Tannoys there, and I think kef 105.2s...

The first time I wore my new contact lenses for a whole day - my eyes were crying in agony the whole time (train down from waterloo) - people were probably thinking 'what's going on?'!
 
Theo said:
Probably one at the Last Drop Hotel in Bolton (1979 I think). My first siting of the Trio L-07D and a long-standing love affair.

Long story short: it was part of the Bespoke Audio system - the Trio L-07D, Albarry Amps, Allison speakers. I was beguiled: it really was a wonderful system. I couldn't afford it then, but lusted after the t/t. Go forward 30 years, and I met Albert to buy his L-07D. He was an ex-Bespoke Audio staff member, and told me that in all likelihood the t/t I was buying was the one from that show. Reunited with my first love.
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That was my first venue for a Hifi show too. I think Cleartone Audio organised them for a few years. My first was around ‘86 or ‘87 where every other room was playing “ Don’t Give Up”. I desperately wanted a pair of those Allison CD6 speakers at the time. Antonio Forcione was there one year I went.
 
Cant remember the year but it would have been early mid 80s. A Linn event in a Park Lane hotel with different systems in different rooms. I still remember how good Tukan speakers sounded…
 
First one would have been in the early-mid ‘80s or thereabouts. Manchester city centre hotel at the cathedral end of Deansgate (Marriott?). I remember the crowding, but thought it was brilliant to hear all these different systems in one place. I still remember a pair of Focal (PS something or others) which I thought were stunning. Being demoed by Falcon Acoustics who were the Focal distributors at the time (back then, their main activity was OEM drivers IIRC). They actually did a kit of the drivers, crossover components, with a cabinet drawing. I made a pair a year or so later and used them for about 15 years.

There was also a very nice Audio Synthesis system with a pair of B&W Silver Signatures which I really liked. But the abiding memory is Tim deParavicini with his amps, a classic Garrard or Thorens idler TT, into a pair of gurt big plywood Klipsch speakers. Brass marching bands never sounded so good!
 
Ptah said:
That was the Vincent Rocks Hotel in 1982, just after the Celestion SL6 had come out - LP12/Ittok/Asak into Crimson amps and a stunning sound for the size.
Meridian's active speakers were pretty good too.
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That was the first show I attended. The Crimson amps had such a different look that I have never forgotten. I also remember someone playing Apostrophe by Frank Zappa which similarly stuck with me.
 
I've been to a good number of the Bristol shows, including some of the earlier ones where Linn did those tune dems. Very suggestive, but so enjoyable at the time. Certainly wanted to get an LP12 and did, a little later.
First show though, a little earlier.
My dad was into hi-fi in the mid 70's and he took me down to London. Olympia, I think. We had to go on the dotted green tube line, which only ran when shows were on.
Massive music centres everywhere. My fave was a great looking National Panasonic.
Great memory, but that place was packed. Imagine that today?
 
St Vincent Rocks Hotel, Bristol 1982, whilst a student at Bristol Poly'. All I can particularly recall was being impressed by some Chartwell speakers. Otherwise I was probably lusting after an LP12, a wish not fulfilled until the end of that decade.

It was probably only a brief visit followed by a longer stay in the Coronation Tap!

My next, and only other show, was Bristol earlier this year at the Marriot.
 
The first proper would have been Manchester 2006 - Marriot Hotel, closely followed by the more high end jobbies at Manchester Airport the next year.

However, I recall when I was living in London getting an invite early 1991 to the Camden dealer of one of the hi-fi chains (Audio T, Superfi? - they also had a shop in Enfield Lock if anyone can remember?) to listen to Linn turntables. When I rocked up there there was quite a crowd, I would say in excess of 100 (bearing in mind this was in a shop, albeit fairly large). They set up a particular demo to highlight the superiority of vinyl over cd - a couple of guys would swap between a Meridian cdp and an LP12, and yes vinyl was the clear winner - BUT as it was so busy I had only managed to squeeze in at the side and noticed that when they were about to use the Meridian it looked as if they they were fiddling with the amp and cables to possibly downgrade the sound? So possibly it was not a fair comparrison, which for me took the shine off the event.
 
For me it would be at Ringwood Hall near Chesterfield in the mid/late 90’s with my Dad.
To be honest I can’t remember much about it other than record stalls and some huge horns and maybe a guy with a 9 and 12” tonearms demo.
There was some Naim speakers up against a wall in one room that sounded dreadful.
I think Avondale and NVA were there, but don’t quote me!
 
The first audio show I went to turned out to mostly be a car audio show, not hifi, at the Gmex in Manchester. I'm guessing some time in the late 90s. The only hifi equipment I remember seeing there were some ungodly expensive Alchemist pre and power amps. The power amps were 60W class A monoblocks and cost at the time £14,000. Each. I didn't really understand why something so unpowerful

Alchemist HiFi Products | The Alchemist Range | Alchemist The Mono Power Amplifier

Alchemist HiFi Archive - Alchemist The Mono Power Amplifier information
www.alchemisthifi.info

Went to several shows at Heathrow, one in Bristol (iirc) and another at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester. All more than 20 years ago now.
 
The only thing I can recall from the 1st show I went to is seeing Uncle Clive's "Neoteric" amp and thinking how pretty it looked IF you only ever needed the control set so all the bars used as knob-tops were aligned vertical! Fairly obvious that any claims about power level, etc, were... erm... optimistic.
 
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