So how many ways can you think of to listen to 1 million pounds?
- A Stradivarius as part of an orchestra?
- A couple of Ferrari Purosangues specced up with a few extra options, revving their engines?
- A US libel lawyer speaking for a day in court?
- A premier league footballer talking for a week?
Or perhaps spend 15 of those pounds on a ticket to the UK Audio Show Deluxe to listen to millions of pounds of equipment, with one system alone costing around 1.2 million?
Well that last option was 'musings' choice this weekend - 22nd and 23rd March 2025 - a show of around 30 rooms at Whittlebury Park near Silverstone that features the luxury end of the UK audio market. It markets itself as "all luxury isn't quiet luxury", which is fair enough, and makes noises about the cost of the most expensive system on offer, but I prefer to think of all the time listening to music, on whatever system is available to you, as the luxury - that you have the time and that you have the choice of 10s of thousands of talented musicians to listen to. The luxury is the time out, the artistry, the feelings that music can bring you.
What's this show like? Well its a show of mainly large demo rooms - I think an essential for some of the systems and speakers on offer - they'd never work well in the constraints of Bristol - and those who want to hear these systems will enjoy the far less hectic feel, the quieter corridors, the free glass of fizz on arrival, the complimentary tea and coffee all day, plus the early evening live music - more of which later. Having said that this is a more relaxed, spacious and easy to navigate show, I did note that it was significantly more busy than last year - I'm sure the organisers will appreciate the extra footfall.
One thought on music - this must be the best show I've been to for the variety of music on offer. Yes, there was plinky plonky jazz in evidence, but I didn't hear Dave Brubeck, Dire Straits nor Diana Krall. Bliss. See the end of the report for a list of some of the tracks heard along the way.
 |
| A refreshing welcome for visitors to the show |
So, let's get to the rooms, systems and music. Remember, the rooms aren't perfect for demos, but some achieve good results, so they show that its possible...
WILSON BENESCH
A big show for WB at Whittlebury this year - they made the World debut of their GMT-1 turntable system. "From" 250,000 GBP, this is a significant product launch - a product already declared by
Michael Fremer as "the best turntable for any music, at any price".
Here, Ypison electronics and Wilson Benesch's own new top of the range Eminence loudspeakers and a pair of their infrasonic generators (remember, they're not subwoofers, right?) played the supporting roles to the new vinyl spinner. The room was moodily lit in a fetching shade of mauve.
I made 3 visits to this room - one of the benefits of there being a relatively small number of rooms, more time can be spent evaluating what's on offer. The first time, what struck me was the sheer stability of this new turntable. Perhaps if you're familiar with George Michael's Older you'll know it has some slow paced tracks with long sustained notes. I think this turntable has brought to the fore one of the reasons I tend to prefer digital sources over vinyl, but perhaps I haven't been concious of it until now. Essentially, on tracks like this, even the best turntables I find less than satisfying. Today I might've understood why - on those sustained notes this turntable was more convincing than any I've heard before. Stable in a digital kind of way, if you want to understand how they've achieved this with the direct drive design, take a look at
WB's site. More stand out features were the lack of surface noise, clarity and something I'd described as easy dynamics - ie dynamically accomplished but not in a forced over-emphasised kind of way.
Second visit confirmed all of the above, but a chance to stop listening to what the table was doing, and enjoying what the music was delivering. Third visit included a presentation about the collaborative project that is GMT - including other companies and university input.
On this showing, if you have that kind of money to invest in listening to music at home and you have a significant vinyl collection, make sure you give this table a listen.
See the end of this report for a short video of the turntable in action.
CYRUS / AUDIO PHYSIC
After decades of the cast chassis and jutting chin front panel half-width boxes, Cyrus has moved on their design language for this new rounded edge case and gloss black front panel. Crisp white displays and highlighting make for a far more modern look. The new side-by-side rack format presented the kit very nicely.
Cyrus presented pairs of product on podiums showing the front and rear panels of each product. As a 40th anniversary statement, the new format seems to bring the brand fully up to date. No doubt there will be some fans who will welcome the modernity and equal numbers who will complain that the new kit doesn't match their old kit. Its a tricky balance for a manufacturer.
The
Audio Physic speakers in use here are familiar from other Cyrus demo rooms. But really, I think the kit needs something better, particularly in a larger room like this - it just sounded rather thin and not particularly engaging.
KOG AUDIO - SYSTEM ONE - TRANS ROTOR / SOUL NOTE / FINK TEAM
On 2 visits to this room, this system was playing very quietly, talking in the room totally overwhelming the sound. Strange choice to make and therefore nothing to report.
BRINKMANN / WILSON AUDIO / CHASING THE DRAGON
I like the look of the
Brinkmann kit - its simple and restrained. Plus, their narrative recognises that audio systems are chasing the best illusion, not reality. The performance with Sonus Faber speakers last time was very enjoyable. This year with
Wilson Audio speakers it felt technically accomplished but not so engaging. As Brinkmann share their room with Chasing The Dragon audiophile recordings, it restricts the choice of music to artists and musical performances known to the few rather than the many.
MUSICWORKS / ACCUPHASE / PEAK
My first experience of PEAK loudspeakers. Driven by more familiar Accuphase electronics. There was nothing outstanding about this system - in neither good or bad ways.
 |
| Newest accessory idea that I'm aware of - a disc of plastic composites that sit between a mains plug and the mains socket. Is said to dissipate vibrations. |
LUXMAN / CHORD CABLES /DALI
Normally I enjoy systems featuring
Luxman, but rarely those that feature Danish
Dali loudspeakers. I found this system rather bright and couldn't settle in for a longer listen.
Chord were making some cable and earthing product switches. I heard the difference their earthing unit made to the turntable - it wasn't subtle in the way it cleaned up the whole presentation.
ONEIROSSo here it is, that 1.2 million GBP system. Oneiros means "to dream" - I guess that will be the status for most people, but there will be some who will realise their audio dreams - is ONEIROS the answer to those dreams? Lots of tech involved in the drivers and the carbon fibre cabinets - lots of lovely language about it all on their site
here.
Well I have to say that playing an entire side of a Duo Lipa album - fairly compressed pop - shows some confidence, if not necessarily wisdom. So I went back later in the hope that something more appropriate might be on offer. As it happens, yes, some jazz and a bit of blues that told me this system is good, but at 650,000k GBP for the speakers alone, I'd hope for more. The speakers themselves are beautifully constructed, beautifully finished and the removable (why? Perhaps they are mounted on some kind of isolating / damped mounts?) metal front panels are beautifully machined.
Best chairs of the show in this room, no doubt.
ANATECH / BLUSOUND / GRYPHON / MARTIN LOGAN
In one of the few smaller rooms, BluSound were demonstrating their 900 GBP streamer / pre-amp. Normally systems featuring Martin Logan panel speakers are airy, provide top end clarity with sparkle, and clear natural vocals. But this weekend this system delivered muffled and indistinct everythings. Strange. Perhaps coming to Audio Show Deluxe and fronting a system which such a vfm product isn't quite the intent of this show?
AUDIO GROUP DENMARK
Another of the smaller rooms.
Another system in the category of "nothing outstanding, either way".
TECHNICS
The (very high quality, full colour satin show brochure) said
Technics were highlighting their latest SL-1300G turntable. I visited the room 3 times and it was not in use. Their streamer was feeding an integrated amp which passed along the signal to
YG Cairn standmount speakers (the outer pair). Consistently underwhelming - another system that is probably not giving itself a fair chance coming to a show like this.
LIVING VOICE / KUZMA / SJS ARCADIA
Vinyl, valves, wood. A very traditional combination of components, yet at the same time thoroughly modern designs and performance. Thankfully there was a good range and variety of music on offer in this room, so that was good as it gives a chance to have a proper listen. The
Living Voice R80 again performed well in this room and this system combination, despite being right on the edge of being too big for the room. It seems the
Kuzma -
SJS Arcadia synergy is delivered well in this speaker - by far the most musical and coherent speaker I've heard from LV (yes, I've heard the Vox Olympians) - airy, punchy but controlled, imaging well and pushing the emotions in vocal performances. Definitive Audio fed the system from the Audes DT-3600 power conditioner, making a break from their usual battery array, making the system far more domestically acceptable. The room was busy on each visit - visitors finding it a good place to spend some time listening to music.
ABSOLUTE SOUNDS - dCS / ROBERT KODA / MAGICO
Absolute Sounds took 3 rooms at the show. The larger 2 rooms were running 40 minute demos every hour or so. You needed to book a ticketed slot in advance - so there's a need to get over to the desk outside the rooms to book, pretty much as soon as you get to the show. I fully understand why a distributor would want to take this approach - they prefer a session uninterrupted by traffic, door banging and constant chatter. Its a legitimate choice to make. But please tell the show organisers this is happening - put it on the show website, a small poster informing visitors in the reception area. I'm sure there will be a good few visitors who missed out because they weren't informed.
Anyway, on to the first room we visited. Absolute Sounds boss Ricardo Franassovici spoke about some of his thoughts on music and the audio industry. Basically boiled down to 2 things: listen to systems for the music and the emotions the music brings and not for the quality of reproduction of the kit or the production quality of the recording. The second was never buy audiophile recordings as they feature music and artists you're not interested in. This blog has long championed the first of these, the second I disagree with - if you ONLY buy these recordings, he has a point, but if you buy these recordings in addition to normal recordings, maybe you even enjoy the artists they represent, then that's your choice. No one should tell you which music to buy and which music to enjoy, as long as its the music you enjoy and not the recording.
Anyway, he illustrated his view with about 10 tracks of differing recording quality from the 50s to the 80s. Normally I'm not a fan of Magico, but perhaps I just haven't heard them in the right system before. They're normally cold, technical, analytical and not, for me, likely to convey the musical emotion about which Ricardo was talking. The front end was
dCS digital playing files from an Antipode server, a familiar combination that I know can be musical when paired with the right kit. However, up until this point I'd only heard
Magico with Audio Research, d'Agostino or McIntosh electronics. Here the electronics came from
Robert Koda, a boutique brand from an island near Japan that produces very very small volumes of kit.
Well this was the first time for me to enjoy music presented through Magicos (in this case the S5) - so I can only imagine its down to the differences between those electronics brands. I learned afterwards that Koda worked for Kendo and wanted to recreate the Kondo sound with solid state electronics, and that pretty much defines what was on offer here. The "technical" presentation of Magico was gone - they were far more rounded, friendly and approachable. There was musical flow and no nasty edges pretending to be detail. It was easy to listen to the music rather than the kit. Even Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water at "realistic" volumes was full of punch, dynamic, powerful anger and hard hitting drums but delivered without any discomfort. Impressive.
ABSOLUTE SOUNDS - WILSON AUDIO / AUDIO RESEARCH / dCS
The second bookings only room from Absolute Sounds. This room suffered from a couple of things, although it felt better set up than previous years. The speakers were closer together this time which meant there was some imaging, but room modes were still an issue with the diffuser panels (seen behind and to the left of the Wilson Audio Anniversary Edition
Watt/Puppy speaker) vibrating along with the bass from time to time. Despite that the system did actually have some tunes to play in the bass, much better than previously, but the Wilson's still suffer from a kind of scattered mid and upper range that I find distracting - its just not joined up enough. The d'Agostini amps were planned to be used later in the day.
A new brand to Audiophile Musings and another World debut - the Verticale Speaker system. These have 4x bass drivers on the side panels, a large mid-range horn in the lower part of the cabinets, a tweeter horn in the upper section and a super tweeter mounted in its own module on the cabinet tops. Constructed from birch ply they weigh in at 115kg per speaker. They have an usual approach to system configuration - they have a dedicated valve power amp for the bass frequencies - seen on the floor in front of the system rack - that comprises an active solid state low pass filter and valves for the output stages. The mid / tweeter / super tweeter then feed from one amplifier (in this case a Viva integrated) to a passive crossover in each cabinet. Perhaps
Viva will add further dedicated active filtered power amps for the other drivers at a later stage, but I didn't think to ask the question at the time.
The rest of the system consisted of the latest Innuos Zen "Next Gen" server / streamer and a Viva DAC.
There's a lot of detail from this system, in addition to that usual horn attribute of speed and dexterity but their performance seems to be very dependent on the source material. First downside is the lack of any soundstaging - the sound fills the room, but is centred on the speakers. The second was that when Led Zep came on it was so harsh I had to leave the room ASAP as it was impossible to listen to.
KARMA AV - PERLISTEN / PRIMARE / MoFi
As far as I understand it, on both visits to this room we were listening to the left hand rack of Primare electronics - headed by the CD / network player, the pre-amp and the bridged mono power amps. When
Primare appear at shows they're rarely in systems that disappoint. Personally I like their understated looks too - very Scandanavian. Today was a tale of two speakers at different price points - see the picture below.
The first were the smaller 3-way speaker from
MoFi featuring a coaxial tweeter and mid driver and a pair of bass drivers. It looks like these are a new release as they don't yet feature on the website. At 6,500 GBP or so, I would hope for a better performance - having recently heard Linn's new 150 loudspeaker at the same price point. These MoFi speakers I felt were somewhat lacking in dynamics and sauntered a long at their own pace.
The
Perlisten R7t alongside them, at 3x the price, were a completely different proposition. Dynamic, articulate, clear, tuneful and enthusiastic. Yet without being shouty or aggressive. They have an innovative 3 dome tweeter array that you can read about
here.
LINN / KUDOS AUDIO / MELCO
Here was possibly one of the earliest show outings for the new
"Bedrock" plinth (8,500 GBP) for Linn's venerable LP12 turntable, here in full house Klimax spec. This was controlled by a Klimax Radikal 2 PSU and fed its signal to
Linn's Klimax DSM/3 that's an ADC, streamer, pre-amp and DAC. From there the signal was fed to Kudos' new unpowered active crossover - the Sigao - then to 3x Linn Klimax Twin stereo power amps and on to the
Kudos Titan 808 loudspeakers with their connection panels configured for active operation. REL subwoofers finished off the system.
Most of the weekend seemed to be dedicated to playing the Sondek LP12, but if there was streaming happening when we weren't in the room, the Klimax DSM was being fed by Melco's latest Reference music server feeding through the new
Melco S1 Reference network switch - a 12,500 GBP device that allows real-time front panel selection of network connection speeds (up to 10Gbps) per port (curious idea), neutrik connectors, the ability to attach an external clock, an internal linear power supply and other audio friendly features such as galvanic isolation.
So all our listening with done from the turntable front end. And it was a mixed bag. Normally I really like the Titan 808s when driven by Linn's Exakt digital active solution and I've heard them sounding very good with Chord amplification and the same Sigao unpowered active crossover in use today. Each visit gave a different impression - mostly on the good to very good side, but not consistent. Perhaps the quality of the vinyl was a major factor. Melody Gardot's Live in Europe album was very enjoyable - crisp, dynamic, emotional. But Yello lacked a bit of zing and excitement. Steely Dan's Two Against Nature album bounced along well. One thing that was consistent was the absence of surface noise - perhaps something that Bedrock brings to the party?
DECENT AUDIO - RAIDHO / AUDIO ANALOGUE
Normally I find
Raidho speakers detailed and good at imaging but rather hard in their presentation. Here they added a new disappointment - this system sounded like the artists just didn't want to be involved - reluctantly plucking a string or lazily tapping a snare. Strange.
HEGEL / EGGLESTONE WORKS - Small Room
Normally, in the smaller demo rooms, Auden Distribution will pair up Hegel electronics with a pair of standmount Amphion speakers - combinations that have earned a plethora of Audiophile Musings sound of the show and VFM awards. Here there was a change of approach with a Hegel Viking CD player and 600 integrated amplifier driving a pair of
EgglestoneWorks Nico standmount speakers. The main intent was to allow an
Audiomica cable demonstration, something we missed out on this weekend, unfortunately.
I'm not sure which cables were connected when listening, but apparently the range went from Amazon basics up to some Audiomica cables at 5,000 GBP per pair. So the listening here may have been as good as it gets, or perhaps a little compromised. Either way the system made an enjoyable sound, dynamic, detailed, fun to listen to. In comparison with the Hegel / Amphion combination it sounded more on the analytical side - not quite so friendly or inviting to listen to - that, of course, may make it appeal more or less, depending on your taste.
STORGAARD & VESTSKOV / MOON / NEWONTECH
What is value for money? I think its a relative term. Of course if the price stays the same and performance goes up, then that's an increase in VFM. If the performance stays the same and the price goes down, then that's also an increase in VFM. But what about something that has reduced performance and reduced price? Is that similar VFM or lower VFM or what?
The reason I raise this here is that I do like to spot VFM options at Hifi shows - usually its a case of a system that's performing above its price point in comparison to other systems at the show - hence its relative. A very good sounding system at 6,000 GBP compared to a poor performing system at 15,000 GBP is an easy call. But can a 100,000 GBP system really be considered as VFM? Well, yes and no. In terms of absolutes, probably not. But in terms of comparisons at a show that features multiple 500,000+ GBP systems and one at over 1,200,000 GBP, then yes, relative VFM is possible.
Both iterations of this set up involved mainly
Moon by Simaudio electronics. The Moon streamer fed a DAC08 from Danish company
Newontech, at around the 5,000 GBP mark it was performing very well in the context of this show. The power amps made up the bulk of the cost at 50,000 GBP the pair. A reasonably serious front end for a diminutive pair of standmounts from new to 'Musings brand
Storgaard & Vestskov. Here they used special one-off versions of their speakers, featuring a finish inspired by the current Aston Martin F1 racing car livery - beautifully done. This finish added around 6,000 - 8,000 GBP to the price of each pair of speakers, the standard standmounts are 13k GBP, the floorstanders 17k GBP. Total system prices are therefore in the 100k GBP ballpark.
The speakers are constructed from 22mm High Density Fibreboard (HDF), and an internal layer of 7mm MDF coupled by bonding that remains flexible over time, hence acting as a damper. The front baffle is a very substantial machined aluminium billet which is also bonded to the cabinet using the same damping material. These boxes are very heavy for their compact size. High quality drivers are said to come from SEAS for mid-bass and the tweeter looks like an SB Acoustics.
We start with the standmounts - and an observation that applied to both speakers - don't sit in the second row of the dem room - the room node effect in that row ruined the sound. But from the front row this system really sings. On all kinds of material - rock, deep dirty electronic, opera, americana, EDM, you name it and there was little to nothing to criticise here. Agile, crisp, flowing, coherent, well imaged, emotional content is all there. Even reasonably deep bass is available. A really engaging listen. The floorstanders are also a 2-way design and add more depth but retain all the qualities of the standmounts. Remarkably high volumes are possible too - without apparent strain from the speakers. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Would like to hear what they can do with their flagship Fenja floorstanding speaker - but wisely they chose speakers that were suited to the size of the demo room.
AUDEN DISTRIBUTION - Large RoomFor those attending on Saturday, they will have heard a different system to the one that was being demonstrated on Sunday. I only heard this room on the Sunday, but understand the Saturday demo was constrained by a technical problem that meant a less than optimum DAC / pre-amp combination was in play - not in keeping with the rest of the system.
Pushing towards the 200k GBP level, from a streaming perspective, this system was fronted by an Innuos Statement feeding the newly launched
Hegel D50 Raven DAC (which prides itself on its considered approach to power supply designs), then the Hegel P30A pre-amp and a pair of monoblock H30A power amps. The floorstanding speakers are the Viginti from
EgglestoneWorks.
Here was a system which had clearly been set up with some thought / experimentation on how it was going to interact with the room. No matter which track was played it was remarkably free of room nodes and boom, which adds enormously to the enjoyment. This is one of the most balanced / neutral systems on offer this weekend. So often at the higher end of audio manufacturers are wedded to solving what they see as the single greatest ill of sound reproduction sometimes forgetting that its a complex set of problems, all of which need to be tackled to deliver an overall balanced performance. So here we have deep powerful bass without bloat, power with out shoutiness, clear treble without edginess, vocals with texture without over emphasis...you get the picture. Its not perfect, there could be a bit more atmosphere, particularly with live recordings, and perhaps a little more subtle nuances. But that's being very picky. A very enjoyable listen.
BOYER
When you go to a show such as Audio Show Deluxe, and you know about the cost of the systems on demonstration, you might hope to be bowled over by the experience in every room. If you've been reading through the full report, you'll know that this is not a given. In fact, even at this level, it is still the exception. And here is the exception.
Here is a system that instantly grabs your attention. Not in a by-the-throat kind of way, but in a thats-so-much-more-believable kind of way. Its not that easy to describe a sound that's both outstandingly separated (each instrument or voice is distinct in its on right) whilst being a fully coherent part of the whole musical message. Clarity without being obvious or over emphasised, may be that's the way to explain it? There's something here that's different - the ability to suspend disbelief, maybe? Sit back, relax and drink it all in. As a veteran of tens of shows, its perhaps easy to become a little jaded, waiting for that room that you want to spend time in. Over the weekend I probably spent nearly 2 hours in this room. That's very disproportionate when there are 30 rooms and only 10 hours spent at the show. One track that really stands out in the memory is Dim by Syml - its recorded in St Mark's Cathedral - on the Boyer system the acoustic is immense, giving a sense of the sheer scale of the venue - I listened to this tonight on my own system and it seems the Cathedral shrank when it came down my connection to Qobuz.
What goes to make up this experience? A number of brands that many will not have heard of, never mind had the chance to listen to. Wadax provided the CD player used as a streamer, being the
Studio Player, launched this weekend. Power amplification is from Engstrom - the stunning looking LARS valve monoblocks. Cables and power were provided by Shunyata Research. Finishing off the system is a pair of Kroma Atelia Jovita speakers in a dark blue finish. At times over the weekend, the amplification duties were delivered by the Orpheus Labs integrated in the front of the pictures.
If you wonder about paying 15 pounds to attend a manufacturer showroom such as Audio Show Deluxe, just consider the value for money you'd get from spending 6 hours in this room and you're sorted...
T+A
I tend to enjoy systems that feature T+A electronics, but not so much those that feature T+A speakers. On entering the room the line array style Solitaire S speakers looked different to any T+A model I've heard before, so this was worth exploring a little further.
After 3 tracks of very competent but totally uninvolving music, it seems that the new is not so different from the more familiar.
EAT / MUSICAL FIDELITY / PIEGA / HiFi ROSE
Listening to the
Hifi Rose streamer through the big
Musical Fidelity electronics into the imposing
Piega speakers was another system that sounded fine but didn't engage. I would like to have heard the
EAT Forte turntable and phono stage, but it wasn't to be this time - there's a video of the dual motor turntable towards the end of this report for those who are interested in how that works.
A nice selection of EAT tables around the sides of the room:
LIVE MUSIC - HANS THEESSINKOne of the best features of this show is that there is always live music towards the end of each day - this time the organisers excelled themselves by bringing blues guitar legend Hans Theessink to the show. Hans played 2x 35 minute sets with complementary drinks and canapes served during the break. He belied his 76 years with fantastic playing, a voice that surely was born for the blues and some banter and introduction to the some of the tracks. Superb.
For those who enjoy some rotary action.
WILSON BENESCH
EAT
TRACK LISTING
A list of some of the tracks heard at the show, just to illustrated the variety on offer this year.
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Syml - Dim (live at St Mark's Cathedral)
Doug Mcleod - Come to Find
Infected Mushroom - Guitarmass
Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song
Janelle Monae - Make Me Feel
KT Tunstall - Poison in Your Cup
Bomb the Bass - Bug Powder Dust
Angus & Julia Stone - Draw Your Swords
Les & Larry Elgart - Bidin' My Time
Club for Five - Aitien Aidit
Malia - Four Women
Melody Gardot - The Rain (Live)
Lucinda Williams - 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Eric Clapton - Change the Word
Princezito - Lua
John Adams - Dancing in the Dark
Bjork - Hyperballad
Boris Blank - Angel Base
Marian Hill - ONe Time
Daisy Gray - Wicked Game
Geoff Castellucci - Big Bad John
Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Lee Ritenour - LA By Bike
Hans Theessink - Feel Like Going Home
Boz Scaggs - Desire
Kolonie - Genesis (Abgt356)
Carolin No - Waters
Laura Marling - Soothing
9Bach - Ffarwel
Geoff Castellucci - Sixteen Tons
Hedegaard - Inferno
Sara Bareilles - Love On the Rocks / Bennie and the Jets
The Fairfield Four - Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Willy DeVille - Assassin of Love
Japan - Ghosts
Christel Alsos - If you Knew Me Now
Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane - Two Jimmys
Guava - 365 Days of Summer
Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now
Sara K and Chris Jones - All Your Love
