Acoustica Show Report (from Saturday)ā¦
Thoroughly enjoyed the event, but as per last year, it was a slimmed down affair, to just a couple of rooms downstairs and four upstairs.
Downstairs there was the Naim 200 system, and that sound āokā, but every time I went in (three times) the bass of the huge Focals seemed to be all over the place, that said, it was probably more to do with the space as it was a large room.
Also downstairs was the KEF room. It was great hearing the full fat Naim Statement & 500 streamer playing into KEF speakers, although, there was a degree of artificiality that I sometimes pick up on with KEF speakers, that makes them sound a little odd to me, hard to describe, but it is there. I asked myself, was this system worth the price. Always subjective, but on hearing what I heard in the Dynaudio room, the answer would be no - Iād have bought that system and used the rest to move house to accommodate it! It would have been interesting hearing the Statement powering a pair TOPTL Dyns, or Kudos Titans - yes please.
Leading to the Dynaudio room, and that sounded overall, very good indeed. The new ltd edition Contour Legacy being fed by a large Naim New Classic double Fraimed stack, consisting of streamer, pre, twin power supplies and 350 monos. On some tracks the bass got a little out of control and boomy, but that was only occasionally, and that was at a bonkers 1-2 (or 11) on the volume knob.
Kudos & Chord. An excellent sounding room if your like your sound impressively āHi-Fiā. Amazingly tight punchy bass, superb projected airy high end detail, and a walk in soundstage. But, for those strengths, it was a sound I admired rather than liked, as it somehow sounded āplasticyā and lacking soul or engagement. Taste in music was āvariedā and the room didnāt feel welcoming. Kudos reps - have a chat to the Dynaudio rep as to how itās done. Having heard Kudos speakers with Naim amps, I know how good they can sound (as do many here), so this may be the Chord amp effect - just a bit too sterile - buy some tubes Chord.
I missed the Chord Cables demo, as each time I passed their room it was not āon the hourā, but would have liked to hear the power block dem as it were, just experience if there was a difference.
After hearing āaccurate and soullessā in the Kudos room, then to āaccurate and engagingā in the Rega room, well, partially. My show highpoint was hearing the Rega Naia and Mercury pre-amp and Solis power amps. Competition, be afraid. Although, I really felt for the Rega rep (as others have mentioned), as the speakers were just not working in the room at all. The bass of the Acoustic Energy Corinium was dominating the space and sound. They switched to KEF (oh dear) in the afternoon, which to me sounded worse, and very lacklustre. They were aiming to try Kudos Titans today, so all being well that has worked for them.
For reference, the rep said they had to rely on what Acoustica had in stock for speakers as they do not (yet) manufacture anything in the appropriate price range and so context of the system on dem.
Negatives aside, I can tell there was something very special going on with that new Rega pre / power set up, especially being fed by the Naia, as I was hearing things on records I know very well, that I hadnāt heard before from my current RP6 and LP12s of old. It is the system I would have taken home, irrespective of cost and issues with speaker matching. The poor repās frustration was palpable.
All in all good day out, so thanks to Acoustica for making it happen - fabulous! Please expand the show to other smaller rooms like it used to be, as most UK listening rooms are not cavernous hotel suites!
Some picsā¦