Bristol Show 23 24 25 Feb 2007 - World Designs and Slatedeck!!

[Darren D]

We used quite a bit of CD Richard,

Dr John brought along his SCAD player, not sure of the details. Portrayed a wonderful sound I have to admit.

For a CD player.......

[Richard]

Thanks, details of the player would be interesting, I've not heard many SACD units.

[Greg.]

Hi Richard,

It was an off the shelf £200 Sony that produced a remarkable sound for the price. Hopefully John will post the model number. Obviously we played music designed to impress but you'll be pleased to know we used Rebecca Pidgeon, Spanish Harlem Obviously I prefered the vinyl but the difference between the two mediums was much closer from what you heard at last years show. This year no-one passed any comment about the difference in CD and vinyl sound which was interesting.

Best wishes,

Greg

[John Caswell]

Hi all,
Well the important news is the fingernail is doing well and full recovery is imminent:-)
The CD player is a Sony DVPNS700V DVD/SACD/CD player multi region which I use as a source in the workshop it having been superceded by a Pioneer DV-656A DVD/DVDA/SACD/CD bought from Richer Sounds. The Sony cost about £200.00 from a shop in Tottenham Court Road around 2001. I was astounded at how good it sounded through the system. Sounded very good at home let me add but you never know at shows
Very impressed with Greg's 401/Slatedeck/Technoarm/MC30 combination, very smooth. Greg and I did some experiments with cork and rubber mats on the 401. Greg preferred the rubber alone, I preferred both together c'est la vie. Darren was going great guns with Slatedeck and I think the 301/Slatedeck just looks the business, very elegant, the 401 not as elegant BUT that is purely a colour thing and nothing else. When I get the rest of the bits for the new "Vinyl dubbing suite" ie 401/M2-12/Rohmann, that is the way I will go also.
Didn't get out and about much but did see/hear the Living Voice room, a frighteningly expensive system but mediocre sound in my opinion.
Nothing much else to add to Greg's or Darren's comments or Andy's and Nick's. Just thanks to all

John aka Dr John

[Steve Grimshaw]

Hi all

Really enjoyed the show this year, as always the WD room sounded excellent and it was good to meet up with some of you for lunch. Thanks Greg :-)

Talking about the Living Voice room with all that megabuck equipment in there, did anyone else notice the price of the kondo loudspeaker cable they were using? I thought I was seeing things when I first read it. £4.99 per millimetre !!! Lets see now, I would need @ 5 metres each side, so that's a touch under £50000 for me! Good Grief.

Steve Grimshaw

[Dave Senior]

I also went in the LV room a couple of times. It sounded pretty good but not as good as the megabucks would suggest. One of my main reasons for going to this years show was to audition the LV Avator speakers. I spoke to the gentleman about them but he seemed totally disinterested.

Disappointed
Dave

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by Dave Senior

I also went in the LV room a couple of times. It sounded pretty good but not as good as the megabucks would suggest. One of my main reasons for going to this years show was to audition the LV Avator speakers. I spoke to the gentleman about them but he seemed totally disinterested.

Disappointed
Dave

Kevin was maybe in his own little musical place again......

It's a shame you didn't get to hear the Auditoriums, living with the basic Auditoriums I can say they're superb, to my mind they are some of the best speakers out there.

Perhaps LV made better sounds in previous years with Border Patrol amplification.
I remember feeling that the World Audio Design room sounded better with the Avatars than Definitive Audio managed a couple of years back.

Hotels are not great places to really judge hifi properly, just get a flavour.

[Greg.]

Hi Cobblers,

Obviously as a LV speaker owner you are inclined to be understandably defensive and I also acknowledge the LV speakers used in the WAD room a few years ago sounded very good. Certainly I showed an interest in the mark after I heard them then. Superficially at this years show the sound was very good. Stay a while and you could pick out some of the imperfections in the sound. The system certainly majored on transparency and I would consider it more transparent than we had in the WD display, but when you make a price comparison, the LV system drifts distinkly into the distance. Unreachable for the most of anyone let alone a DIY punter. £50,000 for speaker cables! What's all that about? The cables used in the WD room cost about £25 together with a little bit of DIY effort.

The horns being demo'ed were declared to be prototypes. That was clear because they were visually not properly finished, but as LV decided to demo them, I'd expect that the R&D part had been completed and they were happy with the sound. Certainly Kevin (assumming he was the demonstrator) seemed to be away with the sound. Eyes closed, arm rocking in time with the music with hand inflections at significant points in the recording. If you didn't understand, the average punter would regard his presentation as daft. If you are a down to earth listener, this kind of presentation doesn't cut very well.

Considering how often I visited, why was the only music played simplistic classical majoring on voices? Yes this did expose the transparency, but it didn't expose anything else in the sound spectrum that needed to be considered. I'm very uncertain of displays that only use undynamic music in their presentations. In contrast, although more mellow sounds were available, we majored on fast dynamic stuff to show off the capability of the kit. If a system can deliver this well, it'll waltz slower sounds. I remain with my view that they had classic horn honk which is understandable, but the sibilant treble could be easily corrected. I'm not a fan of horns. For me, most of them honk but I make an exception with Steve Shiels' Angel Horns. They really do sound remarkably good when connected to a good amp and source.

I don't know what the LV system might have costed the punter. Certainly it was out of my price range. In contrast, for less than a couple of grand you could have a totally satisfying system using WD and Slatedeck products, and the sound available would be up with the mega priced system league. That really needs to be thought about carefully.

Best wishes,

Greg

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by Greg.

Hi Cobblers,

Obviously as a LV speaker owner you are inclined to be understandably defensive and I also acknowledge the LV speakers used in the WAD room a few years ago sounded very good. Certainly I showed an interest in the mark after I heard them then. Superficially at this years show the sound was very good. Stay a while and you could pick out some of the imperfections in the sound. The system certainly majored on transparency and I would consider it more transparent than we had in the WD display, but when you make a price comparison, the LV system drifts distinkly into the distance. Unreachable for the most of anyone let alone a DIY punter. £50,000 for speaker cables! What's all that about? The cables used in the WD room cost about £25 together with a little bit of DIY effort.

The horns being demo'ed were declared to be prototypes. That was clear because they were visually not properly finished, but as LV decided to demo them, I'd expect that the R&D part had been completed and they were happy with the sound. Certainly Kevin (assumming he was the demonstrator) seemed to be away with the sound. Eyes closed, arm rocking in time with the music with hand inflections at significant points in the recording. If you didn't understand, the average punter would regard his presentation as daft. If you are a down to earth listener, this kind of presentation doesn't cut very well.

Considering how often I visited, why was the only music played simplistic classical majoring on voices? Yes this did expose the transparency, but it didn't expose anything else in the sound spectrum that needed to be considered. I'm very uncertain of displays that only use undynamic music in their presentations. In contrast, although more mellow sounds were available, we majored on fast dynamic stuff to show off the capability of the kit. If a system can deliver this well, it'll waltz slower sounds. I remain with my view that they had classic horn honk which is understandable, but the sibilant treble could be easily corrected. I'm not a fan of horns. For me, most of them honk but I make an exception with Steve Shiels' Angel Horns. They really do sound remarkably good when connected to a good amp and source.

I don't know what the LV system might have costed the punter. Certainly it was out of my price range. In contrast, for less than a couple of grand you could have a totally satisfying system using WD and Slatedeck products, and the sound available would be up with the mega priced system league. That really needs to be thought about carefully.

Best wishes,

Greg

I thoroughly agree with your assessment Greg.
We have s/hand Auditoriums (£1.5k floorstanders) hardly the high end of Kev's product, or indeed a typical Definitive Audio customer I would think!

Kev is the designer and also runs the business, demonstrating his own product.

I have not spent much time with horns, and cannot stand their obvious colorations, but Kev's are a little different, if as you point out you have very serious moolah. Which is not what this site is about, or what I could ever even begin to imagine owning for that matter.
In fact if I did have that much to play with dare I admit it wouldn't be what I would spend my money on. With a big house and infinite cash I would consider all the options and quite possibly go 3 way active!
I think for more modest systems push pull class A tube amp's plus sensibly proportioned speakers (not flippin' mini monitors-which I used to love) are very hard to beat for musicality and ease of listening in the long term.

How ironic if they didn't play dynamic material they missed a trick as this is of course where horns shine through.

Disgustingly expensive cables are poor voodoo and it is this kind of thing that has driven many logically minded people away from hifi, along with green pens, silly wooden feet which point towards Mecca etc etc.

Kevins loves the music and really gets absorbed, I don't think this is a sales trick and if you spent some time with the kit you might hear why.

Personally I have erred on the side of BBC style studio monitors, favouring tonal reproduction and lack of coloration over dynamic expression. I love the WD25a's because they are superbly integrated and lack the cuppy, nasal, pinched, loose, boomy, woolly, glaring, glassy, one note punch etc colourations which afflict so much stuff out there, and still give more than a decent stab at realistic dynamics for very little outlay.

[steve s]

I keep looking at Gregs posts.. and feeling a mixture of suprised and delighted

Thanks for the comments about the lowthers... much apprecated Greg

I had a short visit to the whole show,
i was in the lv room for about 20 mins
i heard no music with vocals, just alot of deep bass classical stuff
i thought the system was very good.. very prominent bass as you would expect from 15'' hornloaded 'subs'
lots of space in the music.. and a clearly, very expensive set up..

fine detail and 'height' in the music was not at the level of my set up..
but it was still a very good sound...

but value for money.. well you needed to be in the WD room for that...
the sound quality was really good..

to get any better than wad you need learn how to make good amps and speakers... unless your spending house money I don't think there's anything available off the shelf ....

its a shame i don't have the plans for my speakers.. but i hope by the summer to have a corner speaker for the lowthers .. if that works out ok we will have some plans.. maybe on this site.. with peters approval.. that any one interested will be able to construct from...
if they do work out... you never know.. we may be able to get peter to make a 'kit'.. for the masses.. if there is a demand of course...
but with Gregs positive comments there could be a following brewing.....

thanks again Greg

steve