BELFAST AUDIO SHOW 2024 REVIEW - PICTURES AND LISTENING NOTES

In UK audio circles, we're used to the annual cycle of shows - Bristol, Ascot, Cranage, Staverton, Whittlebury and, of course, the show for enthusiasts by enthusiasts The Maverick Show at Barnsley. 

But Belfast? Not so well known. Local "alternative hifi retailer" Kantata Audio has dipped its toes into running a couple of shows in the past, but 2024 saw a more confident approach with the Belfast Audio Show at the Stormont Hotel. 9 rooms, multiple manufacturers, an easy to reach location, lots of visibility on social media, free to attend and launching the availability of mbl products in Ireland.

Audiophile Musings has reported a number of times on the major shows and the smaller Chester show, but this year Chester coincided with Belfast. As Belfast is new, and therefore a little more intriguing to report upon, that's where we choose to land for the weekend.  Here goes...

Venue

The Stormont Hotel is, not surprisingly, located just across the road from the Stormont parliament building and is, therefore, easy to reach by car or by local bus services. Even a hop over from the mainland is well served by budget airlines into either of Belfast's airports.  It has all the usual facilities plus a small conference centre.  I didn't take any photos, so here's an image from their website:

The show used the reception area and 9 of the suites in the conference centre.  They're all decent sized rooms, so no cramped bedrooms like so many of the larger shows. Room dividers and large areas of curved glass in some rooms brought their own challenges for exhibitors. Refreshments, lunch etc. were available in the hotel bar.  There were opportunities to win some vinyl courtesy of Vertere and pick to up a porcelain mug from Quadraspire. A local vinyl retailer occupied the downstairs lobby and looked to have a good few interested customers.

MOOR AMPS

A large room for the moor amps team - including a large alcove that was sucking bass out of the area you'd normally expect to see a row of seats. However the friendly team from moor worked out the best place to listen and positioned a row of seats located where visitors could best enjoy the music.

moor amps were showcasing their Angel Pre pre-amp, Angel 6 stereo power amp and the newest addition to the range, the floorstanding Ascalon-8 loudspeakers. An Innuos Zen provided the streamer / data into a Merason DAC1 Mk2 to provide the source. System price circa £30k.

The first track played was Chris Rea's "Texas", one I'm very familiar with. Something I've since checked on my own system as being there but not particularly explicit, was the very clear room acoustics of wherever they recorded Rea's vocals - clearly distinctly different from the instrumental tracks on the recording. The track encouraged singing along (as demonstrated by my fellow listeners in the room at the time) which is probably a good thing. Going through more tracks indicated a similar level of detail available, yet without it being disconnected from the rest of the musical experience. I would've hoped for more bass weight, but that's probably due to the room features mentioned above, and the sheer size of the room.

I've heard these amps and speakers at previous shows and enjoyed the experience. Another fine showing here.

MBL Complete System

Launching the availability of mbl in Ireland, the brand featured in many of the systems at the 2024 Belfast show. In this room it was end to end mbl, well, almost - it was fronted by an Innuos Zen Mini S with its supporting LPSU power supply acting as a Roon core and providing the music storage.

By mbl standards, the Noble line of electronics is "mid level".  Here we have the N31 CD / DAC equipped with the optional Roon Module that provides streaming, paired with the N51 integrated stereo amp. Speakers are the baby of the range the 126 which has the signature Radialstrahler tweeter / mid-range combination plus 2x 5.5" side mounted bass drivers.

Gloss black and lots of chrome is a distinctive feature of the mbl products - they're not shy nor retiring. They're also available in white and the chrome accents can be had in gold. And, coincidentally, it kind of reflects the character of the listening experience. Its not quite as ear catching as it is eye catching, but it makes you sit up and take notice.  The first thing that stands out is exactly that - everything stands out. Spades full of detail are this system's "thing". It doesn't matter so much if its the twang of a double bass string or the nuances of a shimmering cymbal - you're going to hear it. Speed too, you'd never accuse this system of being a laggard.

Is that everything that matters? Well, not the only things, as those hoping for pin-sharp imaging, something that blends more subtly into a room, a joined up musical story or a relaxing listening session might consider other options in the show.

If you're a detail aficionado and/or like a system that makes a visual statement, go for a listen.

Lots of interest in mbl and the show itself

mbl brought their own plants and their own rug...

An opportunity to get up close to an example of the Radialstrahler tweeter / mid-range unit

You can learn more about how the Radialstrahler drivers work here.

VERTERE / MBL

Vertere are the main vinyl front end product range for Kantata Audio.  Its easy to understand why - its a very well respected brand that offers a very clear (sorry, no pun was intended there) range from the mid to the very much higher end, be that turntable itself, arm, cartridge or phono stage choices.

The system supporting the Vertere demos was another showing from mbl - here the N15 mono power amplifiers, N11 pre-amplifier and very large R101 E MkII speakers provided the route for us to hear the differences Vertere wished to demonstrate. It was capable of providing that support for the demos.

The room dominating mbl 101

3x Vertere decks, 2x Vertere pre-amps and mbl electronics

Lots of engineered perspex from Vertere

When in the room we heard 2 comparisons giving 4 combinations of "front end" listening experiences. The turntables compared were the lower-mid offering MG (Magic Groove) against the upper-mid range SG (Super Groove) whilst the phono stage comparison was between the Phono-1 and the brand new CALON.

First the MG / Phono-1 combination was played as the baseline for the further changes to come. I won't comment too much on that because the rest of the system is clearly having a major influence on the way it sounds. Then we went to the CALON phono stage which is a newly launched product from the brand.  Its a "dual-mono" design. The difference was significant - everything took a leap up - timing, clarity, dynamics and musical engagement - it wasn't subtle. Neither's the price difference - £1,500 vs £15,000. Then the step to the SG table and another leap forward for everything, with no downside changes.  Similar in magnitude, but I'd say the phono stage was the greatest difference. This was clarified by taking the SG turntable back to the Phono-1.

HEGEL / AMPHION

Hegel were demonstrating their new streamer / DAC / pre-amp / power amp all-in-one H400 model, a recent £6k replacement for the highly regarded H390 model. The H400 uses the streaming and DAC elements of the £10.5k H600 version but with a less powerful power amp section.  Styling wise it will be difficult to separate H400 from H390 as Hegel continue their traditional house design language.

As is often the case, the Hegel was paired with Amphion speakers - in this case the largest of the standmount models in the Argon range, the 3S, here mounted on a very substantial pair of Custom Design FS-206 stands. Speaker cables were the entry level from Audiomica and power leads and distribution block were all domestic standard stuff. System price around £8.5k and, as such, the lowest cost on demo at this show.

I spent a long time in this room. This and the moor amps / Epos room mentioned below occupied the largest part of my listening time. Its something that's hard to describe, but both of these systems allow you to just sit back and take in the music (if I find myself sitting forward, it tends to be because I'm listening to the system, not the music - body language is an interesting topic!). First, its worth mentioning how the 3S speakers managed to convincingly fill a pretty large room, for such a relatively diminutive speaker - although they clearly don't do the very lowest and heaviest bass, this combo never felt underwhelming in that area, even with stuff like Kiasmos or Ghost Rider.  The Bill Frisell version of Heard It On The Grapevine seems a very straightforward track, but its actually not that easy for a system to convey the sense of dynamics when he attacks the instrument - no problem here. Hans Theessink's Slow Train also came across with a pleasing sense of rhythm and emotion. Its almost easier to describe what this system doesn't do - no shoutiness, no nasty edges, no dullness, just the music.

I really enjoyed this system - it was very close to taking the sound of the show award, but in terms of VFM at this show, an easy winner. One box, one pair of speakers, years of musical pleasure - simple.

GRAHAM / EXPOSURE

Here we had a full Exposure 3510 system of electronics - CD player, pre-amp and mono power amps feeding the Graham LS5/9f floorstanding speakers.  Around the room a handful of other products were on display, including Exposure's first ever turntable - the 360 - which is clearly a Rega collaboration.  Another large room to deal with.

The LS5/9f is now in its third iteration - the first 2x having a bottom exiting port that was fed forward by a machined extension of the port in a wide black plinth - the plinth going to 2x iterations and now this third version with the front firing port and no plinth you can see in the images. The 3510 electronics from Exposure are recently released and represent the middle of their ranges. System cost here around the £13k mark.

There were aspects of this system to enjoy - as usual with Graham's, vocals are very clear and believable. On simple well recorded acoustic music this was an enjoyable system, for more complex stuff it often strayed into the harsh and there was the constant sense of listening to the cabinets joining in with the drivers.  Maybe a room with more soft furnishings would be more appropriate.

Some of the "static" exhibits in the room:

AUDIOQUEST / KUDOS / MBL

Here we had possibly the the most eclectic selection of music being played at the show.  Even extending to Tom Waits' "Singapore" a brave choice to make when demonstrating hifi products. I guess that's confidence.

I haven't encountered the Kudos Titan 505 speakers in piano gloss black finish before (you can read about the 'Musings factory tour here).  It has the effect of making them visually shrink in size (they're a pretty substantial standmount) and the finish is outstandingly good. They complemented the gloss black of the accompanying mbl electronics quite nicely.

Here we have a Naim UnitiCore (not a Kantana product line) providing data to the mbl C41 network player / DAC / pre-amplifier and the C21 stereo power amplifier.  This was predominantly an Audioquest room so the power was delivered to these components by the Niagara power conditioner - its highly polished front panel complementing the looks of the main system.

If you think back to the end to end mbl system above, the sound here had some similar characteristics of speed and detail (not quite so much detail), but with a more joined up musical message. I think there's a bit more weight and "slam" here and perhaps the 505 makes a more subtle statement from the perspective of fitting in to more domestic situations.

EPOS / MOOR AMPS

Not quite the simplest system of the show (see above about Hegel / Amphion), but this system consists of modest looking components, doesn't call attention to itself and can be accommodated in a reasonably small space.  Innuos Zenith server / streamer fed the modest looking Merason frerot DAC with its optional pow1 upgraded PSU. Another appearance by moor amps with the Angel Pre and their smaller Angel 4 stereo power amplifier.  Finishing off the system is the Epos ES14N - said to be a revitalisation of the original ES14 from the 1980s, but its really a completely different design from a cabinet and driver perspective - they come with their own dedicated stand. Its distinctive in a kind of 70s vibe kind of way, but their low height probably make them acceptable in more homes than larger products. Circa £25k in value for this system.

This is the second of the 2 rooms that I spent the most time in over the weekend of the show. It was positioned directly across the corridor from the all mbl system and that really emphasised just how differently music can be presented and how there are clearly customers looking for different experiences. This was definitely a "sit back" kind of room.  Track after track I found myself starting out listening to the system's characteristics but then getting to the end of the track and realising that I'd forgotten to do that without consciously doing so - I was listening to the music itself. Oh, except some of the more "challenging" jazz that my fellow visitors chose - some of that was just too impenetrable for my more simplistic tastes!

How to describe the sound here? A tough one because there was no defining sound. Pretty much everything is there in the right (or should I say perceived right?) order, good drive without fatigue, articulation in the bass, clear and intelligible vocals, lots of information in the treble (ooh, there's a point, it was information, not data!) and a flow that didn't grab your attention, but rather allowed the music to grab your emotions.

Great stuff.

INNUOS / OPHIDIAN / MOOR AMPS / MERASON

This room featured Innuos products - the Zen server / streamer & Phoenixnet network switch.  These were partnered with moor amps - the Angel pre and Angel 6 power amp and the middle of the range Merason Reuss DAC. Together the electronics powered the Ophidian Fiion which is, despite appearances, a 3-way speaker - the bass unit mounted in the base of the cabinet and firing downwards. It is quite striking in this gloss white tapering cabinet and would visually work well in a modern setting. 

This combination exhibited a good deal of pace and detail. I could listen for a while but it was a bit too forward for my tastes.  If you like the Naim and/or Focal sound, this could be a good alternative to audition.

OPHIDIAN / EXPOSURE / INNUOS

In the second room featuring Ophidian, the altogether more modest looking Incanto speaker featured on the end of an Innuos Zen Mini S with its LPSU power supply, an Exposure 3510 pre-amp (presumably here featuring the optional plug-in DAC board) and an Exposure 3510 power amp.

This compact system was in a very large room and on the first day of the show it sounded refined, imaged nicely and did nothing particularly offensive but nothing particularly ear grabbing either.

However, on the second day the tables had moved, the speakers were about 18-24 inches closer to the back wall and things were very different indeed. Well done to the team for putting some further effort into getting the best out of these components - a very clear demonstration of how important system set up can be and that its different for every room. This was transformational - a totally different experience and one that welcomed the listener into the music. Just as refined as on day one, but now with weight, engagement and an ability to drive along the pace of the music. That weight's not overpowering, its more subtle and self-confident than that. I'd like to spend more time with these speakers as its a sign of Ophidian's growing ability to challenge the existing players.

Conclusion

Should you put the Belfast Audio Show on your list of "to do" shows? In a nutshell, yes, absolutely. Its compact but well put together and should be of interest and value to anyone on the whole island of Ireland - who wants to sample a good range of kit in one place very quickly. And for mainland audio enthusiasts, it could easily be combined with a visit to the fabulous North coast of Ireland, or the more local attractions such as the fantastic Titanic museum. The atmosphere was relaxed, the people very friendly and 5 awards across only 9 rooms is a very impressive result.

Recommended.  Thanks Kanata Audio.

A popular show

UK Audio Show 2024 - Meridian - Highly Commended and Sound of the Show Awards

 

Its over 10 years since Meridian attended a UK hifi show - a bizarre choice I never quite understood.  Perhaps they were doing OK without too much publicity, but it does seem like an odd policy.  Maybe now the MQA cash cow has (thankfully) died a death, they need to go back to their roots and make money out of hifi products again?

When we entered the room, the flagship DSP8000 XE streaming active speakers were playing - they're the piano black behemoths in the picture above.  They weigh in at 95kg each and the class D amps for the bass drivers are capable of just under 1kW. Class A-B amps drive the tweeters and the mids in the separated top cabinets.

Although this was a large demo room, Meridian had effectively split it into 2 smaller rooms with one open side by putting a pair of speakers firing across each half of the room.  So this might not have been the ideal set up for this large flagship speaker, but they certainly demonstrated huge power, scale, dynamics and detail.  Everything hit home but there was a sense of complete ease about the presentation - how they balance such impact with such a sense of musicality is very impressive - they're not shouty, they're not harsh, they don't do detail at the expense of musical engagement, they just do the lot.  The only reservation I have, and it may be that they just need more room to work in, is that the scale of things was unrealistic. Sure a big bass drum or a full orchestra should sound big, but when the vocals and the smaller instruments like violins sounded 3 or 4 times larger than the real thing, that let the side down a bit.  Would like to hear them in a better situation. £80k the pair.

Then we moved over to the other half of the room to sit in front of the second tier offering -  the DSP9, here presented in a very sophsticated mid-blue metallic.  Any RAL colour is on offer, of course. At £65k a pair they're not exactly a bargain, but they are source, amps and speakers all in one, and its not hard to spend £65k on an amp alone of course...

At first listen these appeared to be a disappointment. But our room host was playing a bit of a trick on us as he'd actually started playing the little ELlipse all-in-one unit seen at the back between the large speakers. At which point it became very clear that this is a very impressive unit indeed.  Worth a listen if you've got £1900 to spend on something for the kitchen / office / etc.

But back to the DSP9 - well, its pretty much as impressive as the bigger sibling. A touch less weight, but that really is only apparent in direct comparison - I'm pretty sure that if I'd arrived cold to these they'd still be taking breaths away.  They do all the same stuff as the larger ones - that uncanny ability to drive, punch, excite, inform but also engage, avoiding any edginess, no harshness, everything presented beautifully - but with one major difference. Here the orchestra is huge, but the violin is a  sensible size in the image. Maybe they're better suited to the room, but for me this was the better, more enjoyable speaker because that over sized effect wasn't there to distract. Truly an excellent product.

Welcome back to the shows Meridian, a great return.

UK Audio Show 2024 - Ultrafide Highly Commended Award

 

A new brand to me, Ultrafide have crossed over from professional audio into the World of home audio. They're a British brand. Here they were using an EMMLabs Meitner streamer / DAC to demonstrate their U4PRE pre-amp and U500DC power amplifier combination.  A pair of Spendor Classic 100 speakers completed the system.  An LP12 was on hand from Linn dealer Ripcaster who will be selling Ultrafide and it was good to finally meet up with Jon Nelson from Ripcaster and have a chance to catch up on all things Linn in the corridor.

We listened to some Deadmau5 and Chris Jones to get an idea of what's on offer here.  And, whilst this isn't the last word in detail nor slam, its a very easy going, relaxed sounding system.  No fripperies or extremes of anything good nor bad. A solid, engaging listen that you could probably sit in front of for hours on end.

UK Audio Show 2024 - Alchris Audio Highly Commended Award

 

Its always refreshing to go into an unpretentious, uncluttered demo room.  At NWAS this year Alchris brought along multiple speaker models that packed out their room as they strived to touch all bases.  But at UK Audio Show for 2024 they brought their most compact models. Alchris design and build all their products in the UK, selling direct to customers.

Booki is a tiny 2-way with a rear passive radiator. But its punches way above its weight and size.  Its fast, fun and drives music along with enthusiasm. It produces bass, but of course its not extremely deep, but what it doesn't do is try to compensate for this with an over eager top end - its a well balanced solution and worked well in this room. At £779 its a great solution for smaller spaces.

Stepping up to the transmission line loaded and ribbon tweeter equipped TX1 standmount gave a fuller sound that provided more warmth and detail, but retained that sense of fun and pace of the tiny Booki.  At £1250 it offers very good value.

Back to that uncluttered comment.  Both of these speakers were demonstrated with the Cambridge Audio EVO 75 which is a £1500 all-in-one streamer and amplifier.  It did a couple of things here today - it provided a real life solution at a sensible price that would work in many homes and it provided a quality and enjoyable signal to show off the performance of the Alchris products.

UK Audio Show 2024 - GoldenEar Highly Commended Award

 

Just across the corridor from a £100k system that was difficult to listen to, Goldenear brought a system based around Heed electronics, Audioquest cables and their BRX standmounts that feature AMT tweeters and twin sidemounted passive radiators for the bass loading. A system that comes in at under £5k was by far a more musical experience than across the corridor. Not the same level of detail, but engaging - you wanted to listen and listen to more, as opposed to wanting to leave the room.  Goldenear demonstrated the system with and without the subwoofer.  This added bass (as you might expect) and cleaned up female vocals (which you might not expected) but also made the timing of the music more sluggish.  I preferred the system without, but more experimentation or a different room (this was a small room) may have given a different result.

UK Audio Show 2024 - Leicester Hifi - Value for Money and Highly Commended Awards

 

I understand Leicester Hifi has been involved in low volume speaker production for some time.  This was my first encounter with such a product. If you've read any other of my show reports you'll know I'm absolutely not a fan of the LS3/5a speakers, their clones, their recreations or a number of speakers "inspired" by them. Beyond great vocal clarity I find them thin, pushy and get tired of listening to them very quickly.

But wait - I had a chat with the designer of the diminutive LH1 speaker shown here and, when offering my thoughts on their performance, expressed my surprise at how an LS3/5a derivative sounded so different.  I was firmly advised that the only similarity with that classic design is in size and looks.  The drivers, crossovers and internal damping arrangements share nothing with LS3/5a and as such are a different solution.  And boy does it show in their performance.  This is a design that challenges expectations and perceptions.  It's fast, tuneful, provides a surprising amount of weight and impresses with its smoothness (note, smoothness in this sense is not about smoothing the edges off or being laid back, it just doesn't exhibit any nasty edges). Imaging is first class.  Even playing our choice of Deadmau5's Avarita it did a great job on such a bass heavy track.

Also worthy of note here is that this enjoyable result was being fed by nothing more exotic than a Wiim Pro-plus streamer - a mere £219 (its hiding behind the yellow board on the bottom of the rack).  CS710 Pre-amp (£4k) and 620E-III stereo power amp (£2k?) are from Crimson Audio, cables by Audioquest.

Impressed - if you're limited on space or you want to hear what an LS3/5a size product can achieve (and for £1500 about half the price of the current clone products), seek out these little boxes for a listen. A worthy double award winner.