Audiophile Musings: April 2018

Its come around again - Chester dealer Acoustica's nice little show at the DoubleTree hotel on the outskirts of the city.

A sample of previous reports here:
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chester-hifi-show-2017-naim-kudos-t-707.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chester-hifi-show-2017-naim-uniti.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chester-hifi-show-2017-naim-snaxo-and.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/chester-acoustica-show-march-2015-kudos.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/chester-acoustica-show-march-2015-naim.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/chester-show-2014-chord.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/chester-show-2014-rega.html
http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/chester-hifi-show-march-2013-review.html

Acoustica is well known as one of the leading Naim dealers in the UK. It should come as no surprise then that many of the rooms at the show feature Naim sources and amplification - often only the speakers are the differentiating factor. There's a decent smattering of other manufacturers too. The hotel features a number of decent rooms in the original building, with other systems in hotel bedrooms - some of which are a reasonable size, some very small indeed. Let's get stuck in.

You can click on the images to see a larger version.

Naim ND/555/252/500 and some more power supplies plus the Focal Utopias (I think they are the Maestro Evos) on Fraim and connected by SuperLumina

Positioned in the large function room, this year the system was set up firing across the room, aiming towards the section that has the low ceiling. The main part of the room has a very high, vaulted ceiling which really is a major challenge for any system. I can't recall this room being used in recent years, but 5 years ago, with active Ovator 800s firing down the length of the room, it wasn't a great result.

Behind the main listening area here 3 podiums with kit on the top of each - the new "classic" range of streamers. Unfortunately they weren't in use, but it was nice to see them with the lids off. They have a mix of surface mount, microchip and tradition pin-through components - as the range progresses from ND5 XS 2 to NDX 2 to ND555, the more traditional components you see. The ND555 has 2 "floating" brass boards, supporting the main circuit boards - with the digital stuff in its own physically separated and boxed area. The NDX 2 had a loose yellow wire taped up at each end, so these are clearly late prototypes. A quick word with the Naim team reveals that a production ready small batch has been built and these are going through final comparative testing and tweaking. June possibly? Taking them out of the batch testing process for a show delays the testing process too much, so they weren't there on demo.

ND555

NDX 2

ND5 XS 2

So how was the system? Well NDS/252 and 500 with the usual array of power supplies were feeding Focal Maestros in a rather natty metallic mid-blue, all hooked up with SuperLumina cables. We listened to 5 tracks in the room, all of them fairly simple acoustic or jazz music. The 3rd row of seats were suffering from some room boom so moving forward a row helped. This system delivers quite a lot of detail but its all very disjointed and "bitty", with no real imaging - both speakers were very clearly the source of the sound. We didn't hear any complex music, which is usually a challenge with these speakers. Anyway, in this combination, in this room, there's no real evidence of the benefit of £100k of hifi.

NAIM and Dynaudio 40th Anniversary Specials

A nice big pile of Naim electronics. I think the streamer was an NDS/555 with 252/PS and the amp was a 300DR with its PS. All Fraimed of course. This system was in the largest of the dem rooms upstairs in the original building - normally we've heard top end electronics with various Focal Utopias in this room, but this year, we didn't need to walk out in relief like those previous years.

Here the little standmounts were doing a decent job in such a large room. I think they did the electronics justice from a detail resolution perspective - pretty musical too. They do a decent job on the bass too. But there was something odd about the imaging - sometimes it was there, sometimes it was lost. Curious. Having heard them sounding pretty good at Bristol, they're probably worth further investigation if that's they type of speaker and price you're considering.

NAIM Electronics with B&W 803D3

Normally, I'd expect to be writing "detailed if a little clinical top end and mids, with warm slightly over-blown bass". Not this time. Apologies, I never found out what the electronics were in this system, but we weren't in the room long enough to find out. This system was hard, harsh, piercing and just intolerable. We had to leave the room. Surely there was something wrong here???

NAIM 272/555, 300DR, Kudos Titan 505

Well, another Acoustica show and another no-show for the SNAXO active crossover. Very frustrating for Kudos I would expect. But no matter, because there was good news in this room anyway. The "baby" of the Titan range, which debuted at Bristol in February 2018, was making its first showing at the Chester show. All the electronics were brand new on Friday night and those who know Naim know that there will be more to come from this system once the electronics have some hours on them.
Its really that not easy to describe what the Titan family does so well, but its still present here in the little standmounts. They kick well above their size with a good, solid, tight sound, making the best of what seems to be the best room at the show. As I've only heard the other Titans with higher end Naim and Linn electronics, its difficult to tell what's down to the speakers and what's down to the electronics, but these Titans were a little less detailed than previous listens. But the musicality, the sheer joy of listening is still there. Good result.

LEEMA SIRIUS II, TUCANA AND ATC SCM 50 PASSIVE

Pretty much the same system as Leema played at Bristol this year, and pretty much the same result - nice enough, rather polite, no glaring problems. This version of the speaker has a cabinet that doesn't require a stand - apparently the lowest part of the cabinet is not included in part of the cabinet that contains the drivers, so its essentially the same as the cabinet that benefits from the short stands.

NAIM ELECTRONICS AND RUSSELL K

Russell K were demonstrating some prototype floorstanding speakers, due for lauch in September or so this year. I hope there's a lot more development work to come. Despite finding previous Russell K speakers lively and reasonably enjoyable, these have a long way to go to be even remotely interesting. Top end percussion sounded like someone randomly dropping teaspoons onto a splash cymbal and there was no real bass to note - even when moving around the room to make sure it wasn't the effect of a null. At this point, they're not worth anywhere near their projected £6k.

PROJECT CLASSIC TURNTABLE, PROJECT BOX ELECTRONICS, PROJECT BOX 10 SPEAKERS

I rather enjoyed this diminutive little system. I think it was the only turntable in use, at least, it was the only one I heard in action this weekend. This system was nicely engaging with no real issues of note and the extremely slim little £900 speakers were doing a decent job. Good to see a manufacturer demonstrating something suitable for the room size available...

HEGEL ALL-IN-ONE AND DYNAUDIO CONTOURS

Having heard this little all-in-one at Bristol with tiny Amphion speakers, it was interesting to see how it fared today with a more substantial standmount speaker. And it was reasonably engaging, reasonably detailed and had a good grip on the music. It didn't have the same "wow" factor that these electronics delivered through the tiny Amphions, its still a decent sounding system. Both boxes look very modern and well finished.

AURALIC ALL-IN-ONE AND SPENDOR A3 SPEAKERS

Another nicely made little box of tricks here - the Auralic combining storage, streaming, pre-amp and power-amp in a very small space. Here they were feeding the new A3 speakers from Spendor. I've been critical of recent encounters with the more expensive D series speakers from this manufacturer - too safe, too smooth, a little dull. But the A3s are differently voiced and are quite a bit of fun to listen to, having more life and dynamics. Nicely done in this system. Curiously though, no seats provided in this room, so crouching was required to get a decent idea of what was going on. Odd.

MARK LEVINSON ELECTRONICS AND REVEL SPEAKERS

Here we had £30k of electronics into £3k standmounts, in a small room. So the standmounts were probably a good idea as there was little to no boom in here. Lots of detail, very good imaging, but no real musical or emotional involvement in the music. Odd choice of components. Note the new Arcam electronics on the rack at the top - unfortunately they weren't being demonstrated when we were in the room, but apparently were in action later. Shame to miss them and they might have been a better mix with the little Revels.

INNUOS SERVER, LEEMA ELECTRONICS, KUDOS TITAN 606 SPEAKERS

Audiophile Musings awarded the "Sound of The Show" to these speakers at the Bristol Show 2018. Here, the Leema electronics weren't quite up to the standard of the Linn Exakt electronics at Bristol, the combination here sounding a little thinner and brighter. Not a bad system though.

ATC CDP/PRE-AMP/STREAMER AND ACTIVE SCM100A SPEAKERS

Large, that's what they are, and the styling's not so subtle either. I think this system was playing too quietly. It was OK, but I suppose I was expecting a more, given the imposing visuals. Again, a system with large bass drivers that don't move very much is a little disappointing - it seems, from experience, that smaller drivers that move more a more "friendly" sounding, and better suited to a domestic environment.

NAIM ELECTRONICS AND ATC SCM50 PASSIVE

This combination made for a much more lively, engaging kind of musical presentation compared to the active floorstanding versions of these speakers. Worth further investigation

AURALIC VEGA WITH ATC SCM40A ACTIVE SPEAKERS

Diminutive little Auralic streamer and DAC/pre-amp feeding into ATC's smallest floorstander, the active SCM40A (thankfully, without their hideous chicken wire grilles). Well this was a great sounding system - lively without being harsh, detailed without being shouty, warm but articulate in the bass. Tunes were easily followed and musically engaging. There was a bit of boom added by the room, but it was possible to ignore this, and it was a pretty small room for this size of speaker.

Whilst the Kudos T-505 room was probably the better sounding system, once price is factored in, this system delivered the sound of the show for me.

NAIM UNITI NOVA ALL-IN-ONE AND FOCAL KANTA

The new Uniti stuff seems to be consistently good, when used with the right speaker - and room. Heard with Kudos Titan or Focal Aria the examples I've heard have been very enjoyable. However, the room at Bristol meant that the Nova / Kanta combination was impossible to evaluate - just a boomy mess. At Chester though, the combination was working much better. Kantas are at Focal's kind of lower mid-range, being more expensive than Aria whilst less expensive than Sopra. It shares the same mid-bass driver materials of the Aria. Yet again, the lower priced Focals comprehensively out-played their vastly more expensive breatheren at the same show. The Kanta / Nova combination being rather enjoyable, although we didn't hear any tracks that might've exposed any aggressiveness from that tweeter.

As usual, the Acoustica Chester show delivered in 2018, in terms of organisation and a relaxed atmosphere in a decent quality venue. Dominated by Naim, as expected, there were some other gems to enjoy too. Thanks Acoustica.