Nice write up Dusty……we were probably in some rooms at the same time as we were early too……i had my wife along to keep my wallet locked😂
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Can I just add to the views above and say that I thoroughly enjoyed the event yesterday.
As stated by many, myself included, we all have different ears and expectations. However, without events like this we wouldn’t get to exercise our ears or our wallets😁
Thank you very much Alastair, Mick, Andy and Kevin (who I got to meet briefly over a cup of tea).
Already looking forward to next year😊
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At the show yesterday on the Melco stand I came across an ADOT Audiophile Fibre Network Connectivity Kit, which I found intriguing.
Never seen or heard of one before and after speaking to the chap on the stand, I now understand what it is supposed to do.
Has anyone got one and does it make the improvement that they suggest.
DG…
So what does the chap on the stand say they’ll do?
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There’s a whole thread dedicated to the ADOT…
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I found the Adot solution worthwhile in my system and now contemplating upgrading the power supply too.
The whole switch thing bamboozles me a little but there is definitely performance to be gained looking at what goes on before your streamer!
Gary
Hi Dusty, sorry I missed you. Good to see you’re still up & running well.
Best wishes! 
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I didn’t see anyone from on here sadly but I had a great time at the show. Yes it was small, but the timed demo’s worked really well, the larger rooms enabled companies to bring their bigger systems and the small number of rooms enabled people to spend a decent amount of time in each room.
All the rooms sounded good I think and best of all there was an almost total absence of audiophile muzak!! Everyone seemed to be making an effort to just play good ‘real music’. I discovered quite a lot of great records that I hadn’t heard until the show, so my shazam list is now somewhat full!
I will be writing a show report for Soundstage early this week so I’m sure some of your mugshots will appear in the accompanying pics!!
Great fun catching up with the guys from various companies too. Sadly there seemed to be a total absence of women and indeed young people. I suspect the latter may prove to be an issue for the industry and it’s something I give quite a lot of thought to. How do we attract people to quality audio? What can I do as a writer to inspire the next generation? It’s abundantly clear that young people love music just as much as we did back in the day, but unless they are introduced to quality audio somehow it’s hard to bring them into the fold… Why didn’t the kids in Ipswich HMV on a Saturday buying vinyl want to come to a free show to hear great music reproduced well?
It’s a conundrum for sure…
JonathanG
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Glad you made it……my wife came along, as did @MichaelF and Pamela……probably saw a dozen or so women on friday morning amongst the music rooms. But agreed, most were middle aged or older men. My daughter did come with me when i first auditioned the Nova, Star and Atom. She could clearly tell the difference……but she is quite happy streaming from iphone to muso…….i guess she will save a packet long term.
Glad you enjoyed yourself.
Take my younger son. He’s 25 and lives in London. He pays over £1,000 a month, excluding bills, for a tiny room in a house share. He loves music, he plays piano and guitar and has played in a band. He is trying to save money to maybe one day be able to put down a deposit on a place of his own. Hifi is the least of his priorities. He has my old Qb1 for Spotify and is quite happy with that.
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Mrs QS would definitely have been there if she had been free. Sadly, as she is still working and harder than most people half her age, she was unable to attend.
My sons investment in HiFi is keeping on my good side (but he’s not very good at it) so that I leave my system to him.
The jury is still out…
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Ouch. Average I know, but it is worth shopping around. My son, also 25, recently started a job in central London and is paying £570 for a decent sized room in a Peckham semi.
G
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Maybe a non audiophile version would work as well, it’s just a couple of fibre to copper media converters and a couple of SFPs.
Anyone compared one against an other?
I did drag SWMBO along on the Saturday, in the somewhat forlorn hope that she’d warm to those lovely big ATCs. She did appear to be totally bored, but I reckon that was just an act & at heart she was really bowled over and enthusiastic about them!
My kids both enjoy hi-fi but I do find, even with folk who have stereo systems, the stratospheric price territory most of us occupy is a real killer. New visitors inevitably ask to hear my system, which, after gasping at the size of my DBLs, they generally enjoy, but as soon as the question of cost arises, the subject quickly gets changed.
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The thing is though Tony as you and I know one can put together a very impressive system much more cheaply than the level we occupy. Rega Planar 3, maybe a Nait, some decent Wharfedales or similar plus a Cambridge or Audiolab streamer and you’re all set for probably £2000-£3000. If you go secondhand I reckon you could do it for half that…
Such a system will blow any sound dock into the weeds and last 20 years at least. Those same people who won’t spend that much are quite happy to pay £120 per ticket to see a top band several times a year - it soon adds up. Many of them have no problem paying £400 a month to put a new Mondeo or Golf on the drive every three years or to spend £20 000 on a kitchen, I just don’t get it, I really don’t…
Music is important to most people when they are young but by the time they are 40 most people seem to have lost the love and maybe just maybe that’s because in their homes they never get to hear it reproduced properly.
Perhaps the trick for hi-fi firms would be to advertise an event a bit like this show in record shops, in music magazines like Mojo etc and to tell people to come to hear music as they’ve never heard it. Get some artists in to talk about how important quality is to them and stage a gig at the end of the day with a well stocked bar. Do demos like having a singer songwriter type playing live on acoustic guitar and then compare it to the hi-fi system. Maybe use the 7 rooms to provide systems of ascending prices. Start at £2500, then £5000, then £10000, then £20 000 and so on. Mix brands to deliver the best system at each price point. Make it brand agnostic. Maybe that would inspire people who otherwise are not into hi-fi but are into music. Offer attractive finance terms (just like cars are financed). Few people have £30k to lay down on a car cash either so the manufacturers and dealers have learnt to make it palatable.
The problem with hi-fi company marketing is that they’ve forgotten it’s not about the geekery for Joe Public, the key to getting them interested is the music! The geekery thing only works for the already converted (i.e. the people who attended this show).
I have to applaud Rega, Cambridge Audio etc here - they build good kit at a price point that ‘normal people’ might actually buy. I gather Rega and Pro-ject can barely build enough turntables right now and I’ve heard Pro-ject are selling 150 000 turntables a year, so the public will buy decent kit, they just need to be shown it.
JonathanG
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Yes, you’re quite right Jonathan. That Rega system at the show was just great. I guess, to want to put together what most of us here would regard as a good hi-fi system requires exposure to the pleasures such systems can bring, and a fair degree of knowledge in how to select the components. But nowadays, unlike when most of us old farts began our hi-fi journeys, there are some very decent, neat, one-box-and-speakers systems around that can be picked up on-line. To then make the jump to multibox systems, better though they may be, just doesn’t interest most youngsters, neither are there anything like the numbers of high street hi-fi shops we all used to frequent (or even high streets…). Sad though it is, I cannot see many young folks embracing the hobby the way we do.
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My grown up ‘kids’ would find the idea of sitting and simply listening to a whole album an anathema.
Never mind what it might be played on.
G
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