For 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.
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