Bristol Sound and Vision Show

[Ray P]

I managed to get to the Bristol show yesterday and had the good fortune to enjoy a little conversation with John (aka Dr John), Lee (lilolee), Richard (Higgins), Shane and Peter - thankyou gents.

I spent a few hours visiting the various rooms and have to say that I was completely underwhelmed. Even allowing for the environment the sound quality being achieved in most rooms was almost universally poor. The intention was clearly to create an immediate impact, which many achieved, but just a few minutes left me with negative impressions such as 'strained', 'forced' and 'congested'.

Exceptions? There were just a couple of rooms where I had extended listens and came away with more positive views. Strangely they were both using tube amps.

The Living Voice room had a good sound that I could live with. They were using their high(ish) efficiency speakers driven by some Kondo amps, 300B tubes as I recall.

The other good room was World Design's. Peter's WD25A speakers were sounding very good, fed by Greg's 300B amp (source was a 401 TT and a CD player that I didn't note the lineage of). The sound was so much more 'organic' than most other rooms.

Peter also had a small discrete poster on the wall in the room, listing future World Design offerings. Unfortunately I didn't write the list down but it included a floor-standing version of the WD25 speakers, a power amp and a phono stage. He also mentioned that he is making good progress with buying the parts from WAD.

Ray

[Paul Barker]

Ah, Greg kept quiet about that bit.

[Richard Higgins]

Thanks Greg for organising the lunchtime refreshments. It was great to meet up with Peter, John, Lee, James, Ray and later Shane, and of course you.
Your Pre, 300B Amp, and turntable were working well with Peters speakers and showing that the speakers are excellent value for money and worthy of good associated equipment.

A few more pints and I would have got thrown out of the Show for asking ;
Why do the cinema/sub woofer demos turn the bass up to 12 (out of 10), result booooooom?
Why did the cheaper Naim audio system sound better than the top line version?
Why do Resolution loudspeakers call it a single unit when its just 3 speakers joined together, and since its rumoured to be a car speaker, would it sound better if the window was opened to allow traffic noise in, because it sounds poor as it is?

Most ott name for an amp? how about Einstein? Found in the Totem room, a nice pair of 45w OTLs using 4 of THE Russian valves per channel, and only £12k per pair, but they did sound OK.
There is life after death, Rogers (Hong Kong) are showing their new KT88 pp amp.

So, all in all, an enjoyable day out, the best bits were the chat with our landlord and the other BB members, the WD room, the politeness of everybody, occasionally feeling smug about the poor sound coming from expensive equipment, and coming home with 2 lps.

Regards Richard Higgins

[Ray P]

Yes, thanks to Greg for organising the watering hole - sorry for not mentioning it previously.

Ray

[Shane]

Altogether an interesting day. This was the first time I've visited a hifi show since I last came to Bristol in 1988, and the two overwhelming impressions were how little progress has been made, and how far there is to go.
I was disappointed at the number of rooms that sounded awful, and intrigued to find that those that did sound OK were using valves and/or vinyl, but I suspect that this is as much because those exhibitors care about the sound they are producing as it is due to the equipment itself. The good ones? Well, I liked the sounds coming from the Ruark room from various components called Vincent. Chinese? Probably. Everyone else is... Nothing else seemed special.
And the WD room? OK, I'm biassed, but I still think it was the best sound in the show. Not "Impressive", but the music shone through. My biggest surprise was how familiar the 25As sounded. It's getting on for 30 years since I last heard Dynaco A25s, but the similarities were obvious. So were the differences. Gone were the mid-range muddle (thank-you Peter for explaining why) and the recessed top, replaced by a clean, detailed and coherent presentation. And still there in spades was that lovely deep easy bass; startling from such a small enclosures.
Best of all was putting faces to some of the names I've got to know here, renewing an old friendship, and of course finding out why you all make such a fuss about those funny glass things!

[Basil]

I said last year - no way will I go again - what a load of *****. But I did and boy I am glad I did - day of Friday.

My main objective was to seek out the vinyl rooms but I felt I failed although at the end of the day I was not disappointed as there were several to choice from - highlights for me:

1. I arrived early so took adavantage of the Headphone offer on the Hifi World Magazine stand.

2. The HiFi World Speaker kit all praises to the design team: Bach sounded impressive, fast, clear and accurate, a drop of water fell from my eyes - reminded me of a friend "Colin Walsh" who played at Windsor Castle in the late 70's, I visited again during the afternoon session and heard some Pentangle sounded great!

3. Funk Firm. Vector drive (am) - I listened to Crime of the Century on the Linn LP12 and the Funk Deck and tried felt mat v Achromat - the Linn won with ease but I was unsure about the Achromat versus felt. I did go back in the afternoon and a gentleman wanted to hear an Eva Cassidy track off his newly purchased LP from Vivante - the Vector sounded good but the Linn was way better, the emotion was evident with the Linn. I bought an Achromat and have to say it has many good qualities way above felt but it does fatique over aperiod of time (tested Sunday afternoon), a change of cartridge cured the problem Denon Dl 304 replaced with Audio Technica OC9 -not the latest spec MC cartridges I know but recent eBay bargains.

4. The surprise for me - as a drum solo fan - were the PMC flat panel speakers and sub-bass system these were pretty damn good, sounded like a real drum solo.

5. Pinsh loudspeakers - the best were the 1.2 Loudspeakers fed from the Icon Audio valve amplifiers, the larger speakers shuld have been demo'd in a bigger room as there was a lots of boom evident - shame really - I really liked the 1.2's.

6. Wilson Benesch - overall probably the best stand - the vinyl replay was extremely good, clear, sharp, atmospheric and emotional and hey what about James Bond on the projection screen?

7. Tannoy monsters - I'm talking about the small speakers, they were bl***y good, the reference speakers were even better but only just - room acoustics again!

8. All the stall holders I spoke to were polite and friendly.

The Bad side of the show:

1. Vinyl records were too dear - look I am sorry - but many of the releases are available cheaper - way cheaper - £16 to £17 for Akarma records these should be nearer £10 to £12, special releases I accept are expensive and I am willing pay the asking price but the majority of ordinary records were over priced. Also, where was Cherished Records I missed the managers banter?

2. Too many systems sounded false and fatiguing, I left at three thirty with a splitting headache, but was still pleased I went - almost the same feeling as a good night out but suffering the worst for wear the next morning with no regrets.

Will I go next year - of course I will.

Basil