Anyone going?
I thought it was a bit meh last year but thought I’d give it another go this time around.
Still a funny place to have it but I’ll be there on the Saturday if anyone wants to say hello…
I’m there, or maybe that should be “here”.
Unimpressed so far
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Yep it’s mixed. Dali was Ok. Going to Absolute Sounds dem a bit later.
Those little JBL boxes are something!
Most of the chunky big stuff sounds as you would imagine.
Little SA sig 5 speakers are surprisingly adept
Want to say hello?
Gotta say the Karma AV rooms are good. I need to get myself a Primare CD35. Doesn’t matter what these things play into, it’s rather sound…
One of the more costly systems at around £750k apparently. Very good as expected but if I’m hyper-critical felt it lacked a degree of excitement.
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The best bass of the day in my opinion although at certain frequencies set off a sympathetic rattle from a glass door near the seat I occupied which the exhibitor had been unable to resolve.
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Yes, I thought the Karma rooms did a good job all round. Most exhibitors didn’t manage to make a strong presentation imo.
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Wandered into their room early in the day but everyone was preoccupied with the journos in the room. Came back later and it was a different set of them but same thing. On neither occasion were they bothered to play anything so didn’t hear it. A bit poor given I thought the Friday was for journalists…?
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The vintage room was quite interesting, tbf the two vintage micro systems and speakers should be consigned to the bin I think, but the 41 year old 1983 Marantz CD73 shone through, despite the obvious bloom it produced.
Attended the Ascot show for my yearly dose of looking at high end hi fi i can never afford!
Its a gorgeous venue offering a glimpse of how the ‘other half live’ its by its function a very large building and sadly the rooms are divided up into 6 levels and most of them aren’t very close
A few disappointments was looking to audition a pair of Sonus Faber Lumina 11 amato (bought but not delivered) and was told by my hi fi dealer to look out for the Meridian DSP speakers (a snip at 55k)
The best room was the Audeze hedphone was able to listen to most of them the CBRN and LCDX were a stand out.
Lots of 'speakers too a huge white PSP at 30k nearly as tall as moi! also i was impressed by Canton very well built and some models not at all high priced
(photo attached) made me wonder about my upcoming speaker upgrade.
Not a bad day except fighting my way back through the M25 closures!
Anyone else go and what comments?
I wish I’d seen this yesterday, it’d have been nice to catch up with @Jamiewednesday and @suzywong.
I was impressed with the RA Acoustics speakers being driven by Soolution electronics, probably my favourite room.
The massive Vivid speakers surprised me by how natural they sounded, although I think you’d need a massive room to use them.
High point of the day was the foyer.
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Big shame that we all missed each other!
I didn’t pick up Jaime’s post until I’d stopped at Fleet Services (M3) on the way home.
I liked the Karma AV system, but it was a bit ”in yer face” - even picked up their price list, for when our vintage Meridian 5.1 AV dies!
Went to Absolute Sounds’ demo of Magico speakers. Very nice but no fireworks.
I agree with the Avids; lovely sound, but bigger and uglier that the Focal Grand Utopias 
The spiel from the designer was interesting.
Nice to see Exposure. Good sounding and flexible system - including active crossovers and cough a phono stage, and at reasonable prices……other manufacturers should take note!
There was a notable absence……….despite being listed. In fact I hobbled up and down level 2 several times looking for them! I don’t consider two small units on the F_c_l headphones stand to be a “presence”. Shades of things to come perhaps?
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I was quite impressed by some of the big sounds coming out of little things.
The Activo and Mezes are on my shopping list.
The SA speakers initially sounded really good but then fell apart a little when he played a more complex track, but…Just as well I realised he was playing some ropey streaming thing on his phone and we switched to something better presented on Tidal and they sounded great again. Certainly not bad at all for a little box and for £800 in Denmark and a Grand in the UK.
The JBL one box things were frankly amazing. Fancied the portable garden one.
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I asked a chap in a F/N shirt whether they had another room as I was also surprised that a pair of HEs was the whole display.
And even they sounded like poor cousins to the Mezes and Audezes and others imo…