Best? Not a proper listening session but I once walked into one of the hifi shops that used to adorn the bottom of Tottenham Court Rd, this one had a flight of steps down to the lower ground floor. As I walked in a CD was playing and the image was of of a singer perfectly positioned between the speakers, and jazz trio standing in various places behind her. The speakers were huge, interconnects and spkr cables looked like lengths of garden hosepipe and the price was off the scale. It sounded absolutely mint tho.
At a stab, Iād guess this was early to mid 90s. That shop and all the others that were down there are long gone.
Iām with the folks here who reckon their own system is the best theyāve ever heard, though I wonder if thatās largely because itās the system / room to which weāve each become accustomed.
Having heard many top setups at dealers and hi fi shows, Iāve not been over impressed by many of them, and in some cases, Iāve been left wondering at the conundrum of the less than engaging sound and āOw mooch?ā
Those were the days ā¦
Was it the down stairs room or upstairs?
IIRC I heard a great demo downstairs with active 135s but mostly I recall great systems upstairs.
More recently, Iāve heard Statement systems twice, both with NDS and something Focal. The first experience, at UHES was the best, and it was a Bentley day so my workabout Subaru was out of place, it was this experience that convinced me to start streaming. Second, at a place in the Forest of Dean; the room was packed and did not show the system off to good effect, but it convinced me to move my music from a NAS to a dedicated server.
I once walked into the Sound Org. and Derek had left the previous demo set up, he greeted me with āWant to hear something silly?ā. It was an SME Model 30/SME V with I think a Kiseki cartridge, through top end Audio Research amps into a lovely pair of Sonus Fabers. We played a few things, at one point Derek cued up a piece of live chamber jazz, a few minutes later I stood up to applaud the group before I remembered it was a record.
Iād agree with others who suggest their own systems, in my difficult room I have a fantastic time listening to great music sounding superbly enjoyable on both the digital and analogue sources.
Naim cd555 maybe 552 I am not sure and a 300 driving the original version of Audiovector r11. this was a demo that could have gone on the whole night, unfortunately my dealer had to close it down not to annoy the neighbours. I have heard the statement used with focal speakers and compared to this system Statement was a disappointmen.
The most natural-sounding system I ever heard: Sugden electronics (A4 amp), top of the range JMR speakers (Orfeo?) in a fully treated room.
Not a particularly impressive system on paper - which is why I believe room treatment is absolutely essential, although we all insist on cramming Ā£Ā£Ā£ās worth of equipment in small untreated rooms. A waste of money in a way, but we have little choice: a fully-treated music room will cost more than the equipment itself.
Several responses in this thread mention the room, whether āwonderful roomā or directly referring to treatment - and of course my own contribution which was roomless. I really do think this is the ekephant in the room (if that isnāt a mixed metaphor!) as you say, people spend huge sums on equipment, and agonise over which ethernet cable, power fuse or wallpaper colour to use (alright, not the last one!), but few seem to take the room at all seriously. Yet getting the room right may make a lesser system sound better than the expensive one, and the expensive one sound as if you have hired the artists to perform for you at home. The more I learn about it the more convinced of this I become, and the only reason I have done nothing in my own room is because a house move is planned and so I am targeting that, easier to do from scratch while saving resources for it.
Of course I understand that most people live in places where the listening room has to be acceptable as a domestic lounge - but that need not prevent some treatment, and otherwise maybe it could be factored into house purchase and home planning.
Mine, unfortunately. I have heard other systems that were probably better, but it has been a lot of years. This says a lot more about the scarcity of good hi-fi dealers in this part of the world than it does about my system.
At Signals in Suffolk (edited!), Naim Statement pre & power, I believe it was an ND555 source and playing into Kudos Titan 808 speakers.
Otherwise, my own active LP12/NDX2/XPS2/252/Supercap/SNAXO362/Supercap/3x250s/NBL speakers which never fails to amaze me, despite its old age.
I also really enjoyed the NDX2 552 300 system into Wilson Sasha DAW speakers at Oxford Audio Consultants. Nice chaps there too.
ATB Peter