AUDIOSHOW DELUXE
By David Campbell
This year, I was able to attend the AudioShow Deluxe which took place at Whittlebury hall right beside Silverstone Racetrack and in a beautiful Hotel and Spa. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the previous years event, but I heard some great feedback from those in attendance so I didn’t want to miss it this year. Boy, was it good!
What Impressed Me
Although not being the largest list of exhibitors, the 35 rooms/spaces meant you could spend a decent amount of time where you wanted and weren’t rushing around and missing things just to get to every room for only a few minutes.
The atmosphere was so relaxed and I loved the fact that there was live music both days. The show organiser Kris was always on hand to help and answer questions as were a team of young ladies all around the Show to point you in the right direction. The Show brochure was one of the best I have ever seen.
The quality of the exhibitors was extremely good and in most cases the sound was too. Normally at Shows only about 20% of the rooms would impress me in this case it was more like 50%.
Finally the Show Organisers and their Media partners Stuart and Linette from Hi Fi Pig laid on a Champagne reception for visitors both days and during the Live Music events there was beer, wine and canapés. That's certainly the first time I have seen visitors so well treated, that alone was worth the £10 charge in.
Finally the live acts themselves were simply superb. The Bowfiddle Trio were back for a second year, this Jazz oriented trio were amazing. They have played in Buckingham Palace and Blenheim palace and worked with artists like Joan Armatrading, Take That, Madonna, Peter Gabriel and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The Sweethearts are female vocal Trio who can really sing. Again they have played in Wembley Arena, The Barbican and the Dubai Opera and have worked with the National Symphony Orchestra and Kid Creole. Glamour and charisma.
On Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing live the unbelievable guitarist Antonio Forcione. often referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar he played everything from The Pink Panther to Jazz, to Spanish Guitar, to African music and it was all mesmerising . He also introduced a lot of humour into the act and I never wanted it to end. In fact he ended up coming back at the end of the Show to play again as so many people missed the first performance because they could not get into the room.
Finally on the Sunday I saw the Lily Dior Band from Australia. Lily is widely regarded as one of Australia’s best singers and she has played many of the World’s top venues including the Sydney Opera House, The Catania Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott’s and the London Jazz Festival. Again a superb act and the accompanying musicians were also world class.
Additionally the show featured bean to Cup coffee machines and snacks on both floors, which being a first for me was much appreciated. So huge thumbs up for the organisers and Hi Fi Pig, this is by far one off the best Hi Fi shows I have ever attended.
THE EXHIBITORS
As I mentioned earlier most shows are bigger than this but a smaller show has many advantages including a more relaxed atmosphere and time to take everything in. Also the ratio of really good sounding rooms was significantly better than most other shows.
Absolute Sounds
Starting off on the Ground Floor Absolute Sounds had three rooms, the smallest was showing off the De Core Fidelity speakers being driven by Traumatic valve amps but also on show were Prima Luna valve amps and the Western Electric valve amp and DCS sources. Really nice relaxed sound in this room.
Two of the bigger rooms featured Wilson Audio speakers and Dan D’Agostino amplifiers and the larger room had darTZeel amplifiers and Magico speakers. Also featured were Franco Serblin speakers, Copeland electronics, EAT, Dohmann Audio and Reed turntables.
A lot of the demonstrations were by appointment which is how Absolute Sounds normally work. I’m not a great fan of this but I understand these are popular brands.
Airt Audio
Fraser Robertson of Airt Audio is one of the most passionate people I know in the Industry and all his brands including Gold Note, Avalon Audio, Metronome, Kallista, Entreq cables and grounding, Room treatment from Acustic Applicata were all on display. Fraser was doing talks on the three stages of lowering noise floor which were constantly packed and I think people are really interested in this at the moment. It’s something I constantly try to get customers to do in their own systems as it has a huge bearing on how the music and system sounds. Some of his demonstrations on dropping the noise floor were very impressive.
Auden Distribution
They had two rooms at the Show featuring Hegel electronics and Egglestoneworks speakers as well as Merason. One room was much bigger than the other and had larger pre/power amps and larger speakers.
Audio Group Denmark
AGD had certainly the most expensive system at the show at well over one million pounds. Their four brands are Ansuz, Aavik, Borresen and Axxess and the company was founded by Lars Kristensen and Michael Borresen. At the Show they were showing off their reference system comprising Aavik i-880 200 watt Class A amplifier, SD-880 streamer/DAC, Borrensen M6 reference loudspeakers (£500,000) and the Ansuz Gold Signature Cables. To say this system was impressive would be a gross understatement.
Audio Note UK
Audio Note feature at most UK shows and this show was no exception. The company is one of the few to offer complete systems, turntables, cartridges, digital sources, amplifiers, speakers and cables. In fact they have over 150 separate products in their range.
Audio Physic/Cyrus
German brand Audio Physic teamed up with Cyrus Electronics. Their speaker’s are hand made in Brilon Germany.
Blackwood
Blackwood was a new name to me but they manufacture high end handcrafted loudspeakers. They had both passive and active loudspeakers on demonstration. While not cheap I think the active speakers were £50,000 they did sound very good. I think they may have had some room correction also.
Boyer Audio
Boyer Audio is a distributor whose brands include Shunyata Research mains products and cables, Engstrom valve amps, Kromer Atelier speakers and Italys Bassocontinuo equipment stands. This while a very high end system did sound very good.
Connected Fidelity
This is a UK distributor whose brands include the very popular Hana Cartridges, however they also manufacture their own cable range and accessories like isolation pucks and mains products including a balanced power supply. They were also featuring a new turntable the TT Hub and some interesting tonearms called Sorane.
Connecting Music Distribution
Another UK distributor who were featuring the Italian Mastersound valve amplifiers, as well as Bricasti digital products.
Decent Audio
Yet another UK distributor whose products include Ayre Acoustics, Audio Analogue, Van Den Hull cables, Radio and Scanspeak speakers.
Electromod
Electromod were demonstrating headphones and headphone amps including Dan Clark, Vioelectric, MS HD power, Schi, Topping and Dekoni audio. In the same room were products from Orange including a valve tester and Black Rhodium were showing cables.
House of Linn
As the name implies this room featured Linn electronics and speakers. Strangely they also had Innuos and Melco music servers.
Innuos
Innuos music servers are very popular with people who want to stream and store music collections on their servers. They had the Statement products on demo through a high end system.
Karma AV
Karma are another Uk distributor of multiple brands including Primare electronics and Perlisten speakers. They were the only room running an AV system rather than just two channel.
KEF
Kef named after Kent Engineering and Foundry was formed by Raymond Cooke. They were using the huge Muon speakers which I felt were way too big for the room. While impressive in the base, it was very bright.
Music First Audio
Their passive preamps were on show along with a few other products including step up transformers. In the same room were Black Rhodium cables and Puritan Audio Labs mains products.
Reference Audio Distribution/Titan Audio
One of the busiest rooms at the show was RAD's. Their system contained a full combination of distribution brands which, was you would expect, paired very nicely. They also had a really interesting pair of Loudspeakers called Silent Pound from Lithuania which sounded really amazing. This room was playing some of the most musical and relaxing music at the show and was one of my favourites.
Symmetry Systems
One of the oldest UK distributors on show, they were playing Brinkmann turntables, Lyra cartridges, as well as the new Goldernberg and Brinkman cartridges as well. Chasing the Dragon records were also on display and on sale. There was also a Studer A80 8 track on demo.
Technics
Technics not only had their turntables on display in this room but also a full system with amplifiers and speakers. The performance of the system was matched by the impressive room set-up, featuring an array of illuminated banners to help showcase the range.
Vertere
Not only were they demonstrating their turntables and phono stages but they had some new mm and mc cartridges. The DG-1S, SG-1 and MG-1 were all on display.
Wellbeing Strategist
I have to say this room divided opinion. They were using Sound Healing to demonstrate the benefits to health and wellbeing. They were using gongs, tank drums etc. I’m not so sure its for me.
Luxman/Dali
Luxman had their full range of products on demo including turntables, cartridges, amplifiers, SACD players and even a new CD player streamer. Their big pre/power was partnered with a huge pair of Dali speakers and it sounded pretty good, however I think a pair of X3's or Challenger speakers may have been more influential.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
As I mentioned earlier there were a lot of good sounds at this show but I think the highlights for me were the Audio Group Denmark room, which given its a million pound system, you did expect a lot but I was not disappointed. The demonstrations from Fraser at Airt were very impressive and informative. Reference Audio Distribution had some exciting additions including the Titan Audio HS Cables and Silent Pound speakers. The Blackwood speakers were also among a surprising contender. The Boyer room and Absolute Sounds rooms were very good also.
I really enjoyed this show it was one of my favourites, EVER. The quality off the exhibitors, the live music, the relaxed atmosphere created a pleasant environment. Pairing this with free coffee, snacks and beer, it didn't disappoint. If you get the chance, I highly urge you to visit this event next time you get the chance.