The UK Hi Fi Show 2023

Yes I was a bit confused by that too, he was inferring that it was a poor source, maybe they were low quality rips, you’d think they’d want to demo their speakers with the best they could.
Speakers were certainly beautifully finished, an extra 1k to have them painted in British Racing Green :slightly_smiling_face:

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I agree, your impression matched mine

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I popped into Nottingham on the way back home yesterday from the UK Audio show as I had something to drop off.

Had a listen to the new Living Voice R80 speakers with some 300B mono blocks.





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Phew, I thought it was just me!

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Pure Audio Project for some reason had a small room and the bass wasn’t greatly controlled but that Voxativ mid/treble was weaving some magic, man those horns have such ‘pop’ and presence.

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Any particular favourites/highlights at the Ascot show?

It was a nice view from the terrace.

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Rogers LS3’s sitting on their integrated subs/stands were cool.

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How did the Living Voice loudspeakers sound? I have always been interested in listening to a Definitive Audio setup.

I occasionally pop into Spiritland in Kings Cross when I am in London but they never seem to have the Kuzma on.

All sounded very nice, as it should do with a no expense spared high end set up which included the top of the line Kuzma Car 60 cartridge, Kuzma air Bearing etc etc etc.

The new R80 speakers sounded very easy and natural and managed to present a bigger scale with it’s larger mid/bas drivers with very noticeable cymbals/hi hats which sounded exceptional with Jazz recordings.

So often you lose all that delicate drum and cymbal taps and brush work.

I have a pair of the smaller Living Voice Auditorium OBX RW speakers with the external crossovers, so compared to those the new bigger R80’s are just a lot more of everything and then some whilst remaining completely natural

I’m a big fan.

This recording sounded first rate.

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22GBP to get in classy venue but far too large (6 floors!) a few big names missing Audio Research Riga,Stax among others only one outlet in the ‘food court’ 13 quid for fish and chips (hot at least) large record fair area but mostly second hand not new 180g was after listening to the new PMC Prodigy but no avail
Still as its the UKs only high end show loads of Americans and Germans so they must rate it

Agree with all that was no one young their apart from kids with families surely they should be targeted away from their sad cell phones talking to a hi fi guy not connected to the event he opined that high end high fi has become a niche inside a niche

Er yes oooops :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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I wouldn’t worry. The important thing is to forget anything he might have said. :wink:

How did the Pure Audio Project speakers sound?

The whole Pure Audio set up sounded rather nice and particularly the speakers, I spent about 40 mins to an hour in the room.

The single top driver on the speakers is from Voxative which is a very good quality driver, can’t remember what make the big bass driver was. The amplifier was using KT 150 tubes.

The Greek guy in the room played Monks Dream and Duke Ellington - Blues in Orbit and some classical that I can’t remember, all sounded very nice.


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Forgot to mention, it was really nice to meet up with Dunc (again) and his friend in the bar at the show and have a good chat.

I think it was 2017-2018 that I had last seen Dunc when I posted a thread asking if I could listen to active Naim systems and TimUpNorth and Dunc (of this Naim community) very kindly offered.

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It was nice to meet up once again, and listen to a few rooms.

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I preferred the Windsor Show venue even though you had a few stairs to climb. My first Audio Show was at the Russell Hotel and that goes back to the 1960s. Anybody remember being there?
Seeing and speaking to ARA of SME and seeing both Peter Walker and Harold Leak.
Ascot has some advantage in having the rooms spread out so little or no noise interference. That’s not from me but Jason Gould who I met at the Infidelity 300 demo a few days later. Plus the rooms are mostly too small with little height and a glass front to the racecourse.
My days of trudging and standing around for eight hours are no more, see the above!
Audio Shows are usually good for getting a taste of what’s on offer but there is no real chance for kit to settle down as at a dealer or better still a home situation.
As for lack pf young people they are too busy paying mortgages and bringing up children.

The standout for me at Ascot was the Nagra/SME/Rockport system.
They also made the effort to have some interesting demos/guests in the mix.
That system had an effortless almost invisible presentation whatever was thrown at it, the Fleetwood Mac session tapes and the Montreux Jazz mixing console archive recordings (in that case digital playout from a Nagra 7 from the source tapes) being particular highlights.
It’s not often you hear something that truly stands above the crowd but that was one of those setups.
The 300 Series Naim system was not in an ideal listening space and didn’t leave any particular lasting impressions, doesn’t stop me still wanting a NAC 332 at some point having said that :man_dancing:

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