If anyone gets a chance to listen to the new ProAc speakers at the show I would be interested in your thoughts on D2R… Thanks…
The Kanta 1’s sounded nice but the music selection when I was there wasn’t in any way challenging. Showed promise though.
The big Dynaudios were the best car hi-if system you’ve ever heard. Very similar in character to the ATCs elsewhere. Dynamic and punchy but lacking in emotion and a little confused.
Rega room was as you’d expect; decent quality and sounds at a v. reasonable price. Not as good as previous years.
Exposure room with active Kudos 606’s suffered from a dodgy crossover configuration. They need Derek in there to sort it out as it’s doing no one any favours at the moment.
Cyrus was producing some surprisingly decent sounds with their new streaming thingy.
Kudos 505’s with the new Linn Selekt was far and away the sound of the show. I thought this Linn all-in-one was supposed to be rubbish according to reports on the old forum. Not on this occasion it wasn’t. Very Naim-a-like voiced and, to me, better than the Nova’s I’ve heard. Of course that may be the 505’s but, heck, makes you think…
Very interesting chats with Jon Honeyball (of this parish) and Alan Gibb from Chord, who are doing things that will cause some of the local dinosaurs to go apoplectic.
A pretty good day all in all.
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Oh yes, the new Neats were very disappointing. Congested and dull, they resembled pedal bins.
It is a shame Bert is not going to the Bristol Show. He has delivered some superb reports from European Hifi shows to this fine place.
Bert, any chance?
The last time I went I was convinced I wanted ProAc speakers not SBLs, but I had a suspended floor and the ProAc speakers I demoed at home literally caused vibrations in other rooms via the central heating plumbing!
My dealer no longer stocks ProAc which is a shame as I’d like to look at them again.
That leaves it to the new evoke to be the next new breakthrough speaker. I’m very curious about them as I’ve also found a shop near me that I thought deals mostly in video and rubbish now carrying some very good lines including dynaudio. I heard the special 40’s there - very nice and attractive in the red birch
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… I previously owned a pair of D2’s and loved them, my curiosity is what people think of the speakers with the new Ribbon tweeter. …and if they are familiar with the current version how do they measure up vs updated D2’s with the Silk Dome tweeter.
They had:
Core
XS2
NDX2
NDX2 with psu
ND555
Unannounced pre-amp (it had two knobs so above 272)
NAP500DR (I think that’s what was said - couldn’t see that Fraim)
all feeding Focal Sopra 3 (which I liked a lot)
Super Lumina speaker cables - other cables hidden behind Fraims (3 of them)
I hope that’s right, apologies for any errors… I didn’t make notes.
All streamers were good - I think the XS2 is a bargain compared on a sq/cost basis
They played a track on XS2, then same one on NDX2. Another track on NDX2, same track on NDX2/psu, etc. I though the NDX2 was voiced differently to the other two…not better or worse, just different (I mean tonal balance, which is, I think, voicing)
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I don’t know Benjy, I popped in twice during the day a good few hours apart, and it was only the new floorstanders being demoed.
The pre amp was the 552
Hi Dave,
Intriguing:
“Very interesting chats with Jon Honeyball (of this parish) and Alan Gibb from Chord, who are doing things that will cause some of the local dinosaurs to go apoplectic.”
Such as ???
All the best,
Richard
…with passive preamps perhaps?
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For me, the sweet spot was the NDX2 + 555PS.
To add to Tallboy’s kit list, I pretty sure Jason said that they were using bog standard Ethernet in 10 metre runs.
However I still do not like Focal speakers, nor do I like *12 foot wide guitars”.
And we had a fine example of a “single speaker demo”…amusingly it took several minutes for anybody to notice!
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I will also mention the demo from ISO Acoustics of the Gaia speaker Isolation feet, worth a listen to and quite impressive.
I understand Spendor are showing an updated D7 and D9.
Anyone see them ?
I heard a rumour they’ve modified the tweeter and it will also be available as a mod to existing D7’s and D9’s, probably as a result of the frequent reports of them being a bit toppy.
Ah, right then. Thank you, so not new versions just a slight update.
Hi Richard,
Jon mentioned a planned review that will be of real interest to at least a handful of people here. It was in confidence, so best wait for that to materialise.
However, on the Chord front, as my system spec will reveal, I’ve been doing my damndest to pay off their mortgage over the years, so I’ve had regular discussions with Alan about stuff they’re working on down at the factory. About three years ago, he mentioned something that he was testing and wanted to establish its longer-term benefits before considering putting it on the market. He had been pretty excited about it in a way that I knew meant there must be something in it (he and Nigel had played me some prototype Music and had been equally excited at the time). Anyway, he handed over this…
Has anyone visited Chord Electronics at the show, and if so, was the Hugo M Scaler being used? Any comments please?
Silver cleaner?