Kudos Audio - Exclusive Factory Visit, August 2023

Now a very visible and significant player on the international high quality audio scene, Kudos Audio has taken a different approach to producing music for its enthusiastic customers and are actively pursuing new ideas, as I type.

Favourable reviews are now the norm for the company's Titan range, including a number on Audiophile Musings.  Step this way to get a flavour of what the reviewers are saying about the company's products and some of the numerous awards and accolades bestowed upon them:

HiFi Critic Titan 505 

The Ear Titan 606

HiFi+ Titan 707

HiFi+ Titan 808

Hifi Critic Super 20A

What Hifi? Super 10A 

Hifi Choice C10 

Audiophile Musings "Sound of the Show" (Titan 808) and "Highly Commended" (Titan 505) at Chester Show, 2019

Audiophile Musings "Sound of the Show" at Bristol 2020 with Titan 707

Audiophile Musings went to find out what makes the company tick, being invited for an exclusive factory tour in the North East of England, UK - it turned into a 5 hour history lesson, factory tour, Titan 808 listening session, and zero nonsense...

Most of you will be familiar with the old joke:

Tourist: "how do I get to Town X"

Local: "well, I wouldn't start from here if I was you..."

I came away with the impression that the Kudos story has a similar origin.  Derek Gilligan, founder and head honcho at Kudos has a solid background to work from with a family in the music and live music PA business, but the route from there to today took an interesting path. Today's Kudos is a testimony to thinking differently, building a team that incudes family & those you can trust, being obsessive about quality and ensuring the basics are right.

As a fellow Darlingtonian, it was easy to chat with Derek about the pros and cons of "Darlo" and the area in which we grew up.  Different schools though, so not totally parallel experiences. I very much remember my early forays into hifi in the 1980s and they were supported by some canny purchases from used audio specialists in High Northgate, Darlington "North East Audio Traders". Derek became part of the team there and may even have served me in the shop, but thankfully neither of us remember! North East Audio Traders was a novel idea in the region at the time and was reasonably successful. Going to hifi shows to demonstrate their equipment was part of the game, but speaker consistency proved a challenge. Hence the guys at N.E.A.T. put together a small standmount of their own to enable easy comparison between equipment that's just not possible when a stock of used speakers is constantly changing from day to day. Soon reviewers were asking to review the speaker in its very rudimentary form, but were very complementary about the way it performed. Derek was involved in the speaker using a renowed driver from earlier speaker products that needed to be sourced from wherever they were still available from stock. Eventually this driver had to be re-manufactured once the speaker took off in the market. It was partnered with a modern dome tweeter. The NEAT Petite is now a very well known speaker and continues in a revised form to this day, as the Petite Classic.

Original NEAT Petite Loudspeakers

The design process of Petite, based on listening for musicality and a try and re-try approach set the tone for the future. What Hifi? were impressed with the result "as tuneful as they come".  When demonstrating the speakers, N.E.A.T. used the exceptionally substantial Kudos speaker stands...

Derek parted ways with NEAT for a few years, pursuing other activities until he returned for a second stint with the company to work on speaker designs such as the Ultimatum, where we can see techniques such as isobaric bass loading being deployed, as it is in today's Titan range (also used elsewhere such as Linn's Akubarik). NEAT bought the Kudos brand as part of buying up the stock of speaker stands as Kudos' then owner moved on to different products and markets. During this time Derek had developed some design ideas he wanted to try but the opportunity wasn't presented to go in that direction.  Time for a new direction...

So we come to the inception of Kudos Audio as a speaker manufacturer in its own right - a "do or die", "all or nothing" decision for Derek and his wife.  With a good network of contacts in the industry and dealerships, understanding what was wanted in the market and what was possible from a design perspective, the initial Cardea products, although fairly conventional in construction, were very well received and the business was underway.  The basic tenets behind those early designs hold true today - listen, listen, listen, use high quality components, gentle slope crossovers to minimise component count and phase distortion, build in the UK using UK producers and components wherever possible. But the scale has moved on, as has the size and breadth of the product range.

Based in the North East of England (close to Derek's roots) isn't the UK hifi heartland, but everything is within easy reach and, of course, electronic communications mean distance isn't the blocker it used to be.  The company is split across 3 sites on the same compact business park - storage, manufacturing and design / demo buildings. This is the second location for the company and it has grown into the current arrangements organically - annexing a next door unit here, installing a mezzanine floor there, plus the major investment in the design / listening / demo suite. Its a compact, cleanly presented, logically laid out facility. This appears to work very well for the core workforce, consisting of Derek, production manager Mark with Derek's son Louis looking after quality control and his daughter Kay joining the team on the week of my visit to take on office management, accounting etc. after several years experience in similar roles in other companies. The extended team includes another 7 colleagues across sales, marketing and export colleagues based locally or where the dealer network needs them to be.

We talked through the design and manufacture of the higher, and very successful, Titan range of products to understand the Kudos approach.  Essentially Derek uses the experience of existing designs and applies new ideas to those products or completely new concepts to push the boundaries of what's possible and what's effective - sometimes it shows promise, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it takes very little refinement to be just what he's hoping for.  The exact percentage of those outcomes wasn't shared with me :)  An example is using isobaric loading for the mid-bass drivers in Titan 505, 606 and 707. Basically isobaric means 2x drivers - one internal, the other on the front baffle - linked by a sealed air chamber between those drivers, giving the impression of a much larger single drive unit in a larger cabinet. Its unusual in the industry to use isobaric so high in the frequency range, but Kudos found that allowing a minimal air gap around the voicecoil of the driver, coupled with "back to back" driver mounting reduced the effect of differences between drive units (even very expensive drive units are never identical) to give a better performance over a wider frequency range.

Another example of experienced based innovation is the cabinet construction of Titan.  Its core is a relatively thin MDF structure, the panels of which flex (the deflection is not visible to the eye) because the outer panels of the cabinet, in heavier gauge veneered MDF, are compliantly coupled to damp the flex of the inner cabinet wall. A mix of 2 existing, usually mutually exclusive, philosophies in the industry, but applied in a different way. The composition of the damping disks connecting inner cabinet to outer cabinet and the exact location of the mounting points were subject to the iterative try, listen, change, listen, change, listen approach until the best sounding materials and mounting locations were established. A further example of the design approach is that each panel in the internal cabinet has one of a number of thickness options - to vary the natural resonance of each panel rather than having all the panels contributing one resonance.

Titan 606 Inner Cabinets and Connector / Crossover Panels

Kudos work very closely with Norwegian driver manufacturer SEAS who have been found to be exceptionally co-operative and collaborative on driver design changes - be that cone materials, coil winding, cone shape, doping etc. etc. Only the basic driver basket remains unchanged for mid-bass drivers, everything else is available to change and Kudos exploits that opportunity with drivers going through several iterations before being custom manufactured to their final spec.  The Krescendo tweeter used in Titan is another example of the collaboration with SEAS, being based on a existing metal dome driver but with the magnet from a different SEAS model and the dome using a fabric and shape of Kudos' choice. As a component, compared to those in many other loudspeakers, the Titan tweeter is "reassuringly expensive".

SEAS Mid-Bass Drivers to Kudos Custom Spec

 

We step through the build process.  Cabinets are, of course, Kudos designs, but built by specialist suppliers.  A subject of intense discussion in the UK speaker manufacturing industry right now as one of the major suppliers of cabinets to the vast majority of UK loudspeaker brands has abruptly ceased supply.  For a small company this means a great deal of disruption to source a new supplier, but this looks to be resolved for Kudos and supply will continue to be delivered to customers as there are good stocks of parts in place right now. Every cabinet (internal and external damping panels, stand components etc) are inspected for any imperfections before being accepted and placed into stock. With Titan the internal cabinet remains consistent and the external damping panels bring the differences in colours and veneers. A number of veneers are available as are piano black and white gloss.

Drive units come in from SEAS in batches, passive crossovers are constructed on the production benches. Crossovers for Titan are hand built on the connector panel with components being direct wired (no circuit board) and use very gentle crossover slopes and the natural roll-offs of the drivers in the cabinets as Kudos believe this reduces "stuff getting in the way of the music".  Its a relatively expensive way of making crossovers, but demonstrates the passion for getting the right end result.  All the components for a complete speaker pair - drivers, internal cabinet, external damping panels, crossover, stands, packaging, connector panels, etc, - are gathered together onto a single pallet.  This pallet is then transferred to the build area for assembly by one member of the team. Seeing the details of the drivers, and the layered construction of what look like relatively simple stands opens my eyes to how much effort has gone into the design of Titans, something not at all obvious to the customer. Every pair is then put through listening tests before being packaged ready for despatch. 

Alongside the build area is a newly constructed office unit and the basics needed to keep the team fed and watered through the day.

Titan 808 Crossovers - Bass on the Left, Mid and Treble on the Right

 

We move over to the design / listening / demo suite where, in typical Kudos fashion, we enjoy a straightforward sandwich and cuppa whilst listening to the system currently set up.  At this point we also discuss the "active" option for Super 10A, Super 20A and the Titan range, and why Kudos chose to go in that direction, another distinctive differentiator in the market. It is, unsurprisingly, a fairly simple answer - to get a better musical result.  As an independent manufacturer, with no ties to existing electronics partners, Kudos can work with multiple different active electronics partners with ease.  Linn, Naim, Exposure and Devialet options have been made available and the speakers can be converted to active operation with a simple change to links on the connection panel.  

Listening Room with Titan 808

Kudos have long been a favoured brand of speaker amongst Naim electronics customers and that manufacturer's kit has featured extensively during the development of Kudos products and demonstrations at hifi shows (in passive and active form), along with Linn's Exakt active option. But today we have a system fronted by an Innuos server / streamer, Chord DAVE DAC, Chord Ultima Pre and Ultima Power amps. This was a surprise choice for me, given my past experience with Chord amplification hasn't been so enjoyable.  But this new Ultima range changes that completely, being musical, with coherent timing.  This system was feeding Titan 808s passively through, of course, Kudos KS-1 speaker cables. We range through some church choral recordings (great representation of the space), electronic dance music (great pace, controlled impactful bass lines) and Leonard Cohen (expressive grumbling vocals) and the time passes very quickly enjoying the music (note, the music, not the treble nor bass nor mids!).

Chord Stack on the Left In Use for Our Demo - alongside Naim including the active SNAXO crossover option. Another rack in the room contained other manufacturer electronics including Linn, currently being refreshed to Selekt spec.

What of the future?  Well Kudos have lots more ideas to take through their iterative, listening based process of product innovation and improvement. Some interesting ideas on drive units and active options could be on the way if they meet that essential criteria - is it musically more enjoyable than what went before? If today's products are anything to go by, the results will be interesting indeed.

Thanks very much to Derek and the Kudos team for your time, openess, straightforward discussion and hospitality.

System Synergy and Expectation Bias

A couple of phrases you might hear or read from time to time when researching or in dicussion about music playing hardware.  What are they about, and why would I be writing about them right now?

Sometimes how to phrase an audio experience is very elusive.  Some readers might say that continues to be the case, even for published posts!  This particular case has been more elusive than usual - its been a year since I made my notes on this project. How to frame those notes have been through about 6 iterations and I'm not sure I'm there yet. But a lot of time and effort went into this, and its time to just put it out there, good or bad, as the products involved might be old hat before I'm content with the wording.  I wanted to not just list the reviews, but to try and put them into some kind of relationship - finally settling on the synergy and expectation bias frame to hang it all from. So here it is, some kind of a review from circa Christmas 2019:

A 6 week or so period of frenzied (at least by my standards) box swapping, mostly for research purposes, but also to inform some purchasing options, mainly not for me, but for a good friend of mine, who's system features here. And it's all given the opportunity for another few blog posts too.  Elsewhere on the blog you'll soon find some impressions of some of the products involved so I won't go into huge amounts of detail here, but will cover a "flavour" of the systems involved. Long form, no photos and no apologies for that.

Coming to Terms

What do these words mean, in an audio system context?  Well, let me have a go at describing how I would use them, so these aren't definitions as such, but more setting the context of this post.

System Synergy - when putting together a whole series of components into a system - CD player, turntable, amp, speakers, cables, the room - do they work together in the way you would like them to?  Or do they lead to some kind of imbalance in a system?  Do you hear a coherent musical message, or is there something that grates like a bloated bass when you wanted tight tunefulness or a laziness to the sound where you wanted pace and energy?  Well, when it all comes together to meet your hopes, that, to you, would be a system that displays good synergy - the components complement each other to give an overall positive result.  If it doesn't work, the synergy's not there, then there needs to be a further search to find what's causing the imbalance, to work out what needs changing or improving.  Note that there is no mention of cost in this description - it has nothing to do with cost, it has to do with balancing characteristics of components to get a good result.

Expectation Bias - we'd probably all like to think we're impartial and can evaluate what we're hearing without regard to what we think we're going to hear or prefer.  Are we going to prefer one brand over another because its been a favourite for years? Are we going to like the sound of the component that has the nicest finish or a preferred species of wood on the front? Will we expect the more expensive bit of cable to sound better than the cheaper one?  Of course we all have these biases - its part of what makes us human.  I think its possible to try and minimise them by being concious of the issue, but probably not to eliminate it.  Blind testing (where you don't know which component is playing) is often advocated, but it just introduces different problems (such as an unnatural focus on the listening process), so I don't consider it to be the answer.  Just accept that a level of bias is inevitable and that it influences your opinion, but try to minimise this as much as possible.  That's one of the reasons why this blog is just opinion - there's nothing scientific about most of it, and that's just the way I prefer to keep it - the disclaimers make this clear.

So How?

If we're susceptible to expectation bias, how do we know if a system really has good synergy or if we're just expecting it to have good synergy?  Well I don't think there's a way to be totally objective (objectivity is restricted by the measures used anyway, as there's no way of knowing if a set of measures is comprehensive or relevant enough, that's why science keeps evolving) so just embrace the subjective and try to deal with it.  Its also worth noting that listening to music is meant to be an emotional experience and therefore, to me, it seems that choosing a system on some level of emotional evaluation is entirely reasonable.

Rooms

Mustn't leave the room out of the equation either.  Lots of impact on the way a system sounds comes from the room and the interaction of the speakers with the room, so I've included that in these musings to try and cover a little of the less obvious.  Where possible (ie with the Linn front end) SPACE optimisation was set up for each system.  What is often referred to as "Tune Dem" or "Tune Method" was used to position speakers and adjust SPACE.

Expectations

I'll go straight into listing the systems that I listened to over those few weeks a year back and that have fed this post, along with my expectation bias - as without that the rest of the post will be a bit meaningless.  The premise of the post being that my expectation bias wasn't met and I'll describe where and in what way.  Perhaps this is part of trying to be aware of my own bias and trying to rationalise how I have, at least partially, probably, tried to put it to one side and listen to what's actually going on. Still a big "if" though.

Systems

I won't go fully into every detail of the systems here, such as precise cables etc., but the main components that differentiate the systems.  I suppose its fair to say that my expectations are in comparison to my everyday system.  They're based on a mix of hearing 2 of these systems frequently and hearing the other components in other systems. It is fair to say that every single one of the components in these systems is highly respected, so there are no "duds" at all, and that's where the synergy element becomes so intriguing.

System 1: 

Melco N1ZH server, Linn Akurate DSM / Exaktbox Katalyst streamer, 3x Lejonklou Tundra Stereo 2.5 power amps, PMC Twenty.26 converted for active use, medium size pretty much rectangular room. This Exakt system uses filters for the PMCs available from SpeakerFilters.com, not the standard versions.
Expectation Bias 1: this is my everyday listen - its taken a long time to get to this system - it has a great deal of  detail but also a very musical flow to it.  Its not the last word in dynamics and slam but I can listen to it for hours (and do so, most evenings), following the tunes, enjoying the emotional impact of the music.  Its not perfect, no system ever is, but its what works very well for me.  What's my expectation?  Well, its more a reference point for comparison than an expectation really, but I would say that I expect it to be very difficult to beat in this evaluation with other systems having some benefits but not the overall balance of this system.

System 2: 

Melco N1ZH server, Linn Akurate DSM / Exaktbox streamer, 2x Lejonklou Tundra Stereo 2.5 power amps, Kudos Titan 505 on their dedicated stands and configured for active use, medium size pretty much rectangular room
Expectation Bias (comparative to System 1): more detail, a more dynamic presentation, a touch of brightness. Perhaps a little looseness in the bass.

System 3:  

Melco N1ZH server, Linn Akurate DSM / Exaktbox streamer, 2x Naim 250DR power amps, Kudos Titan 505 on their dedicated stands and configured for active use, medium size pretty much rectangular room
Expectation Bias (comparative to System 1): more detail, a more dynamic presentation, a touch of brightness, possibly assertiveness approaching aggression, more impact in the lower frequencies.

System 4:  

Melco N1ZH server, Linn Akurate DSM / Exaktbox streamer, 3x Naim 250DR power amps, PMC Twenty.26 converted for active use, medium size pretty much rectangular room
Expectation Bias (comparative to System 1): a more dynamic presentation, a touch of brightness, probably assertiveness approaching aggression, a loss of musical flow.

System 5:  

Naim NS01 server, Naim NDS streamer with 555DR PSU, Naim 252 pre with PSU, SNAXO crossover, 2x Naim 250DR power amps, Kudos Super 20 configured for active use, a medium sized room but L shaped, using the larger part of the L, which is smaller than the other listening room.
Expectation Bias (comparative to System 1): a system I'm already very familar with - a more dynamic presentation, too bright for my taste, assertiveness approaching aggression, a loss of musical flow somewhat compensated for by the enthusiasm.

System 6: 

Naim NS01 server, Naim NDS streamer with 555DR PSU, Naim 252 pre with PSU, SNAXO crossover, 2x Naim 250DR power amps, Kudos Titan 505 on their dedicated stands configured for active use, a medium sized room but L shaped, using the larger part of the L, which is smaller than the other listening room.
Expectation Bias (comparative to System 1): a more dynamic presentation, slight brightness, assertiveness approaching aggression, perhaps retaining the music flow, extra weight (because of the smaller room mainly), more information delivered.

So there we are, cards on the table. Something else worth mentioning - those who say "all competently designed solid state amps that measure within a gnats whisker of measurement-of-the-week all sound the same".  I have an expectation bias about that too - its just not true - I've heard far too many amplifier changes in systems to know that this is not true.  Unless I've only ever heard incompetently designed amps with bad measurements, which is also not true.

LISTENING WITH BIAS, OR NOT. MAYBE.

So here we go, here are the descriptions of systems 2 to 5 and a conclusion, that's not what I thought it was going to be:

System 2: the biggest suprise for me really.  The Titans give a far more detailed presentation than the PMCs, its suprising how much more they reveal in the recording. The extra brightness is certainly there, as per expectation, but is this just brightness or is it more detail too?  I'm going with the latter as there's more expression too in the vocals.  In fact the greatest strength of the Titans in this and the other systems is their vocal expression - its quite outstanding by any standards of the many systems I've heard.  Another element that was as expected is that, compared to the Titans driven by the Naim amps, there is a softness in the bass with the Tundras.  And here I think we see the first of the synergy issues - perhaps the Tundras and the 505s don't sit all that comfortably together as there was another element here that I wasn't expecting as the Tundras have never sounded like this in any other system I've heard - a sense of relentlessness.  Not shouty aggression, just a bit too much going on and losing some of that lovely flow that the Tundras present in partnership with speakers such as the PMCs and Graham Audio LS5/9. That, juxtapositioned with the lack of pace in the bass lines, meant that this wasn't the best of the combinations compared here.  There was a fair bit of experimentation with toe-in with the Titans in this room as there's definitely not the width or precision of soundstage compared to the PMCs. Don't get me wrong, we're talking about a decent sounding system, but in absolute terms, it lacked the right synergy.

Expectation bias 0: Systems 1

System 3: its long been a thing, a Linn front end with Naim amplification into a pair of speakers of choice.  Traditionally, of course, that was an LP12 and a passive Naim pre-power combination. Here we bring the tradition up to date with Linn streamer/pre and Naim power. Yep, more impact in the lower frequencies, no doubt about that - nearly reaching as low frequencies as the PMCs too - impressive. Mind you, the 505 standmounts on their dedicated and structurally massive stands are actually much more intrusive in the room than the much more constrained PMCs (which I always use the the grilles on). Definitely more detail from that (very) expensive tweeter - is it too bright? Its touch and go and track dependent, sometimes just tipping over the edge. But here's the thing - music, because listening to the music on this combination was very engaging - but its different to the regular system 1. There's an immediacy without shoutiness and that detail mentioned earlier but there's not the same musical flow that a Tundra delivers (in partnership with speakers they work happily with!). Whilst the Titans have very impressive bass power and immediacy, they still didn't quite fill the room like the PMCs do. Vocals are excellent again and there's plenty of engagement into the meaning of the music. This is good, but is very much along the lines of the expected.

Expectation bias 1: Systems 1 

System 4: before I go any further, just consider this: moving from Tundra to Naim power amps is a 50% price hike in amplification prices. And they do have a very different mix of abilities. I can also say that the Naim NAP250DR is a heavy beast.  Not too easy to lift onto a shelf and keep the shelf edges in pristine condition.  Those massive toroidal transformers are very heavy indeed. And noisy, good grief they're noisy. Not through the speakers, no issues there at all. But my goodness do they hum. I know my incoming mains typically carries about 2.5% distortion (the PS Audio regenerator displays this information) - I'm not sure if that's high, typical or low, but its certainly enough to get the NAPs a buzzin'. Just to be clear - neither of the power amps in this sequence of tests were plugged into the PS Audio, only the low current source electronics are fed from the regenerator. So there is no doubt that the 250 boxes have a tighter grip on the PMCs. There is more slam, there is more immediacy. There is a little more enthusiasm in the upper frequencies but it never becomes wearing in this system. All of this as expected.  What I didn't anticipate at all was the way everything hung together as a piece of music in very much the same manner of the Tundras into these speakers. Even that very taughtly controlled bass didn't disrupt the ability to follow the tune. Very good indeed. Except for gaps between tracks when the boxes from Salisbury irritated me significantly. Expection or surprise - calling this one a score draw.

Expectation bias 2: Systems 2

System 5: nearly all change.  Change of front end, speakers and room. As I'm very familiar with this system as it as grown and developed over the last 5 years with the Super 20s, then my "expectation bias" notes above are really all you need to know - they're more about experience than expectation. So let's call this one a no score draw!

Expectation bias 2: Systems 2

System 6: Would we expect (or have a bias!) that the 70% more expensive 505 with their stands would have a family feel when contrasted with the Super 20 floorstanders? Would there be a family resemblance from the North East parentage? Yes. And No. The Titans have that same family immediacy but the way they feel more "grown up" was far greater than my expectations.  Especially in the treble - where the Super 20 appears to major on detail, I find it gets too much after a while. What seems to be the case with the 505 is that the detail is real and it knows that it doesn't have to try too hard. I was a little worried about the size of the bass that comes with the upgrade to Titan (yes, the standmount has far more bass output than the floorstanders, in part due to their isobaric loading) in this smaller room, but it worked very well indeed - and there's an important reminder that system synergy includes the room.  Here, of course, there is no SPACE optimisation to make the best of the room so its all down to component choice and speaker positioning. What was just a touch underwhelming from these speakers in the bigger room is just right here. I don't get the same sense of ease of musical delivery compared to the Linn front end with Naim amps and these speakers, but I can see how their immediacy could appeal. No stridency, no experience of fatigue.

Expectation bias 2: Systems 3

OUTCOME

So you can now decide if any of this tells you anything about expectation bias or system synergy (which needs to include the room).  I certainly was surprised that the weight of the 505 could work in the smaller room, that the Tundras and Titans just didn't get on together at all and that I'd enjoy the Naim power amps in my regular system anywhere near as much as I did.

I wish the Naims amps didn't have 2 faults: that hum I can't just dismiss nor excuse, and their price. So I shall continue to be extremely happy with the Tundras as they work very well indeed with the PMCs.  As for my friend with the largely Naim system - he bought the 505s and has them working even better now the speaker cables are Super Lumina.

Hegel At The Heart of 2 System Awards At Chester Show 2019

Hegel DAC equipped integrated amps were at the heart of 2 systems receiving audiophilemusings awards at the 2019 Chester Show:

Hegel, Auralic, Dynaudio

 

A relative newcomer to the hifi scene in the UK, Hegel have very quickly forged a good reputation for their integrated amplifiers.  I've heard the all-in-one doing a great job with Amphion speakers in the past, but today was the first chance to properly listen to their main integrated amplifier products.  And it proved be something worth waiting for.

Here an Auralic streamer was being used purely as a streamer, passing a digital signal to the DAC onboard the £9.5k Hegel 590 integrated amplifier.  Chord Epic Twin cables fed a pair of Dynaudio Contour 20 standmounts.

We listened to a good few tracks in this room too.  At around £15k this is not pocket money kit, but compared to the £400k in the barn, its an absolute bargain.  I'd much rather spend my time enjoying this system which delivered musicality in spades. The medium sized standmounts made the best of the source they were being fed - flowing and smooth whilst delivering strong dynamics and a suprisingly deep sound.  Vocals were perhaps a little recessed in the mix, but this is a very minor point and I'd much rather this than the upfront and brash presentations that some systems have, masquerading as "exciting".  We would've gone back for more but there wasn't time today.  Great stuff and another case of Auralic appearing in an award winning system, but I suspect the Hegel to be the star turn here.

Hegel, Kudos, Innuos

A thank you to the Innuos room host here as we turned up a couple of minutes after official closing time but he happily powered the system up again to give us a 10 minute listen.  Very helpful. 

I understand earlier in the day that Zen Mk3 vs Zenith Mk3 server comparisons had been demoed.  We just listened to some tracks using the Zenith as the source.  Having just enjoyed the slam and scale of the Naim / ATC SCM50 system, I was a little afraid that the smallest of the Kudos Titans, the 505, might seem a little undernourished, especially driven by Hegel's more modest £3.2k integrated amp with DAC, the 190.  But there was no need to be concerned.  Perched forward on the edge of the sofa moved us out of the worst of the room mode and directly into the music.  Insightful, tuneful, detailed, driving, emotional vocals all present and correct.  But the weight behind these chunky standmounts were the surprise here, a more substantial sound then when last heard with the Linn Selekt at Bristol.  If only we'd got to this room a little sooner, we could've enjoyed a lot more music in here.

Kudos and Exposure Collaborate on Active Crossovers

Its a long saga...

Kudos have been enthusiastic about active electronics to drive their "Super" and "Titan" range speakers for around 3 years.  There are Linn Exakt digital crossover configurations for their speakers and a Devialet option too.

In parallel, a project was underway to develop a Naim SNAXO active crossover too.  It rumbled on for a couple of years, with previews at a number of shows that proved the solution to be a good idea.  it would, of course, have encouraged existing Naim amplifier owners to not only buy a SNAXO, but also to buy extra amplifiers.  You'd think that Naim would be keen on that.  But, for whatever reason, Naim have chosen to shelve the project for the foreseeable future.  There are some Naim dealers that will modify existing SNAXOs for Kudos use, but that's not exactly mainstream.

But now the news, for non-Linn and non-Devialet users, is much better.  Kudos and Exposure have announced a collaboration to produce an active crossover for Kudos speakers.  This will be a stand-alone unit that will allow the customer to choose any pre-amp and any power amp combination.  Excellent. I look forward to hearing the prototype at the 2019 Bristol Hifi Show.

https://www.stereonet.co.uk/news/exposure-launch-xm-cd-player-and-preview-vxn-crossover

Acoustica Chester Show, 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

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.

SOUND AND VISION - THE BRISTOL SHOW - REPORT 2018

Sound and Vision - The Bristol Show.  I think probably the biggest and busiest annual commercial show in the UK.  Organised by retail chain Audio T and heavily supported by What HiFi? magazine, it aims at a wide range of customers from the Sonos user through to the lower end of the high end, if that makes sense.  The observant will have noticed that it takes place in Bristol, in the South West of the UK.  Not a bad place to get to with good motorway and rail links.  The Marriott hotel hosts the event and it's the usual "efficient" concrete hotel that gets the job done, with little flair or imagination.  But most of the bedrooms are not too small and there are some decent larger rooms too.

So, what to expect of this show?  Well, in the main, people, and lots of them.  This is not like a Friday at Indulgence where you can wander the halls and get the best seat in every room, nor does it have the relaxed atmosphere of Cranage Hall. This is full-on busy - busy rooms, busy corridors, busy bars etc.  And that's on the Friday - the day I attended this and previous years - but I understand Saturday and Sunday are busier still. Arranged over 8 floors (although the rather lonely 3 rooms on the 10th floor don't really count a floor in itsself), I find its best to list out the room numbers you want to visit based on the floorplans on the website then get a lift to the top floor then walk down the stairs making your way eventually to the basement, picking off your chosen rooms as you go.  In this way, you can avoid too much use of the lift which is slow and time wasting.  With this approach you can probably cover every room you're really interested in, then, if there's time left over, go back to pick up on any rooms that may still be of interest.  Who's there?  Well most of the main magazines (and their reporters) are there, as are major manufacturers such as Naim, Cyrus, KEF, Mission, Arcam etc., many smaller manufacturers such as Kudos, Harbeth, Audio Note etc, cable providers such as Chord & Audioquest then a number of accessory providers or dealers and a few stalls selling vinyl.

Bear in mind that these notes are about the rooms I visited - probably between 70 and 80% of the rooms were covered, so I might've missed some gems, but equally, I might've missed some howlers too. As usual, these are my own opinions and are based on what I've heard, nothing more, nothing less.  Allowance should be given for the constraints of large floorstanders in small rooms - sometimes boom is very difficult to avoid, although some exhibitors do seem to manage.

You can click on each image to see a larger version.

Leema and ATC (main system)
- Leema Sirius ripper / NAS / DAC
- Leema Tuscan II
- Leema Hydra II
- ATC SCM100 passive speakers

A decent start to the day, up in the wilds of the 10th floor.  Here we have a system that's playing music in a very fluid way, great vocals in particular.  Controlled, deep bass lines and very little of any effect from the room.  Just a couple of minor points - the imaging was very narrow - crowded into the space between the speakers, and I thought there'd be a bit more slam from the big ATCs. But overall, very enjoyable.

Leema and ATC (Elements system)
- Leema Elements CD Player
- Leema Pulse IV amp
- ATC SCM11 speakers

Just along the corridor from the bigger Leema system, this little set up was making a reasonable fist of things, but just felt a bit underwhelming, warm and lacking in detail in comparison with the bigger system. I really enjoyed the Elements stuff with Leema's own little Xen speakers a couple of years ago at the National Audio Show, so perhaps the ATCs were letting the side down here.


FALCON ACOUSTICS AND SUGDEN

In this room there were 2 pairs of speakers - Falcon's little LS3/5a standmounts and their much larger 3-way RAM Stuido 30 floorstanders.  Electronics from Sugden.  When we went in the room it seemed that the LS3/5a speakers were playing - lightweight, flat, a little unclear. But no, it was the large floorstanders and the big Sugden boxes. Disappointing.

TOTEM
- Rega RP3 TT
- BlueSound Node and Rega DAC
- Rega Integrated Amp
- TOTEM Sky floorstanding speakers

The last time I heard the tiny Totem Sky floorstanders was on a side wall in a largish room at the Munich High End Show back in May 2017 (reports here and here). There they sounded fun, musical, lively, refined - mighty impressive for such a slender, diminutive speaker.  But here was a great example of why its worth spending more than just a couple of minutes in a room.  Because on entering, the album "Avalon" was playing.  The sound was thin, dull, almost muffled and in colour terms - very grey, lacking colour, insight and detail.  A major disappointment.  A second track on the album was just as dull.  But then we asked for the BlueSound / Rega digital source to be fired up, and what a revelation.  Now we had a system that was full of detail, depth, emotion, light and shade, great imaging and musical engagement.  Superb.  Two tracks later and we were convinced of the little Sky's capabilities.  But then on came the P3 again and it all fell flat and dull again.  A suprising result as the P3 is such a well respected turntable, but here, if you'd only heard the Totems with the turntable, you'd be looking elsewhere for something far better.  With the better source, they were fantastic.

XTZ SPEAKERS

Here we had a cinema system blasting out crashes, bangs and other effects stuff to great effect at high decibels.  Dynamically impressive.

VON GAYLORD
- ART CD Player
- Von Gaylord Nirvana Valve Amps
- Von Gaylord Legend Standmount Speakers

Substantial looking valve amps stood on the floor. Substantial looking cabling, neatly laid out across the floor, but very conspicuous as it reached behind the stands to bi-wire the Legend boxes - themselves a chunky looking slope sided pair of substantial standmounts.  All the kit looked very well made.  I enjoyed this system - it avoided that bloomy warmth that seems to afflict many valve amps - it was incisive, detailed, dynamic and very very clear.  Great vocal quality with subtelty and expression coming through well.  On top of that, the imaging was expansive but stable and the taut, suprisingly deep bass lead to a very engaging system.

MISSION
- Audiolab CD Player
- Audiolab Integrated Amplifier
- Mission QX2

I first heard this combination at the Indulgence Show at the end of 2017 (report here) - a "soft launch" of the new QX range with the Bristol Show being the full official launch of the range. It sits above the LX in the Mission hierarchy and the chunky looking QX2 standmount comes in at a very reasonable £399.  Looks are, of course, a personal thing.  For me the proportions - short, squat, square in profile - look a little odd.  The rounded edges and brushed metal top and bottom plates add a touch of class, but give me the impression of something lacking in substance.  The trim around the mid-bass driver is, I suspect, a devisive styling piece - I'm not keen - it looks "technical" for the sake of it - our room host didn't have a reason for its existence. There are grilles which clip in place but only cover the drivers giving a "double circle" look.  As for the sound of this system - well, at Indulgence I thought they were out of their depth - too many other high end systems to be sat alongside.  Here, probably in a better room, they sounded OK at moderate volume.  They move along OK without ever really being outstanding, nor offensive.  So, not the giant killers of old like to original 700 or the 760s or the 751s but nice enough.  It would be interesting to compare them against other similar speakers from competitors such as MA, Tannoy etc., I suspect in that company they might fair quite well.

AUDIO NOTE
- CDT One/II CD Transport
- DAC 2.1x DAC
- P2-SE Amp
- Type E Speakers

Now I know Audio Note have a very loyal following, and some who enjoy their systems are very vocal about their preference, and that's fair enough.  Yet every time I've heard them at shows, they do so many things so well, but there's always been something that makes me not enjoy the music - most frequently its been a tendancy to become hard or strident or both as the volume ramps up.  But here, today at Bristol, it all came together very well indeed.  There was superb treble detail without harshness, subtle vocals and excellent imaging. Trumpet occasionally pushed towards the strident but it never became too much.  The sheer scale and depth of the bass pedals and the acoustics of the building on a church organ recording was truly excellent.
Much better than usual.

FYNE AUDIO
- Rega Isis CD Player and Amp
- Fyne Audio Floorstanding Speakers

I apologise for this, as it will probably never get out of your mind when you see these speakers again, but a friend at the show described them as Minions, and once that was in his head it was difficult to shake off. But get past that and these Scottish speakers have some fine attributes.  They use a large concentric driver, rather like a Tannoy Westminster, but in a slimmer, substantial cabinet that is kind of teardrop shaped in plan view.  Lovely veneer and very well built.  A couple of controls on the front make "presence" and "level" adjustable.  So they're very good at vocals, there's an open spacious quality to their finely etched treble detail and they're fast to respond to the incoming signal. But, where is the bass?  What happened to the driving beat, the kick of the kick-drum?  Perhaps they'd been tuned via their controls or through positioning to avoid a boomy room mode, perhaps that's just the way they are.  A mixed bag then.

ASTINtrew
- TEAC Reel to Reel tape deck
- ASTINtrew Integrated Amp
- Chartwell LS6 Standmount Speakers

Playing an STS Jazz Masters tape (on beautiful metal tape reels - how geeky is that comment?) this simple but very well recorded jazz was presented exceptionally well on this system, which was probably designed with this kind of material in mind.  I felt engaged with the musicians, even though this isn't my kind of music (and being engaged by music I don't normally enjoy is usually a very good sign of a good system) and the breathy raspy qualities of the sax was beguiling.  As they'd say on The Fast Show - "Niiiice"

AMPHION
- Amphion Argon0 Speakers
- Hegel Integrated Streamer / DAC / Amp
- Ikea Furniture

Do you have one of those cool all-white designer apartments / flat / bedsit / whatever else estate agents call these things of limited space and close proximity to your neighbours?  Are you limited for space but want a decent sounding system?  Give this one a try.  For such tiny, £700 speakers, this was playing some great sounding music - particularly good with Jackson Browne.  Of course, these speakers don't go deep, but they go deeper than you'd expect and they don't try and do stuff they can't so, they just do what they can do very well.  Very enjoyable.

HEGEL
- Hegel Ripper / NAS
- Hegel 360 DAC / Integrated Amp
- Amphion Floorstanding Speakers

This Scandanavian brand is relatively new to these shores, having had no UK dealers at all when they first rocked up at Bristol 4 years back.  But it hasn't taken them long to start to build up a decent following, with the 360 amp getting lots of favourable comments on one of the UK's main HiFi forums of late. And this praise would seem to be reasonably well deserved.  I enjoyed my time in this room with a good, lucid and flowing sound.  That kind of detail that comes without it being shoved down your throat. Nice.


REL
- Arcam Disc Player
- Rotel Amplifiers
- B&W 805D3 Floorstanding Speakers
- 2x REL Subwoofers

Well, what a mess. Amazingly overbright sound, splashy treble that was hard to listen to. Then there was the bass - massively, out of control and booming into, across, up and down and wallowing around in the room.  A good approximation of the effects of sea sickness.  "Electrified" completely trashed.  All of these manufacturers are capable of far better than this, so not sure what was going on today.  'nuff said.


BLUESOUND
- BlueSound Node with built-in amplification
- B&W 700 Series Floorstanding Speakers

We had a convincing demo of a Tidal streamed track played on "the World's best selling streaming system" (I'm guessing Sonos, but the player wasn't visible) and the same track on the BlueSound - with the BlueSound giving a far more convincing rendition.  Then we had the "CD quality" vs MQA version of the same track - both again streamed from Tidal (rather intermittently in the case of the MQA track - it would seem that using a 4G signal to stream your demonstration isn't the most reliable approach).  We were asked if we preferred the CD quality version or the MQA version.  Trouble is, the MQA version of the track was at least 6dB louder than the CD version.  Not good. But most in the room thought the MQA sounded better - I found it better to reserve judgement due to the volume disparity which essentially rendered the comparison invalid.  We tried again with some tracks streamed from local storage - Stevie Wonder's "Superstition".  Here there was possibly no volume difference or at least if there was it wasn't detectable.  The CD sounded quite natural and of decent quality - the MQA version sounded more detailed and punchy, but a bit "false".  Moving on to a Fleetwood Mac track from Rumours and again the CD vs MQA comparison - this time the MQA sounded more detailed in the top end, but the mid and bass were muddled and a bit sluggish compared to the CD.  So a mixed result.  But then the best thing to do would be to compare an MQA track against the un-"folded" 24 bit track.  But this wasn't available.  Across about 8 or 10 sample tracks, not one was available with an MQA vs full fat 24bit version.  Not very convincing. Comparing a CD quality track against an MQA track is mildly interesting, but as soon as the challenge of a real and meaningful comparison between a folded 24 bit track and a non-folded 24 bit track is requested then the comparison wasn't possible. This felt very much like an MQA selling exercise rather than a demonstration to prove the worth of MQA (which isn't necessary for streaming, as proven by Qobuz).  Hmmm.  Time to move on, but not before observing that the BlueSound / B&W pairing sounded OK, if not outstanding, considering the price of the speakers.

AUDIOQUEST / LINN / KUDOS
- Linn Akurate Exakt DSM Streamer / Pre-Amp
- Linn Akurate Exaktbox 10 DAC/DSP
- Linn Akurate 4200/1 4 Channel Power Amp
- Audioquest Cables
- Kudos Titan 606 Floorstanding Speakers

Well at last, a chance to hear the T-606 Kudos with Linn Exakt technology.  Not yet launched publically, the Exakt filters for T-606 are on their way. The main purpose of this room was to demonstrate Audioquest power cables.  The demo went from all stock power leads from a typcial high street Belkin distribution block and then gradually replace bits with Audioquest products.  First the standard Linn mains leads were replaced with AQ's starter product, the £160 NRG2 (soon to be replaced by Monsoon) - one for each of the 3 Linn components, but still plugged into the Belkin power strip.  A nice improvement in dynamics and clarity.  Then these were connected into the AQ Niagara 1000 power distribution block. This has a number of lightly filtered sockets and one unfiltered socket into which the power amplificer was connected.  Most of the design of this block is around care and attention to earthing and making sure that the earth has a lower impedence at the wall socket than it does at the component end - said to ensure that high frequency noise flows down the earth away from the system.  Another improvement here with similar quality and magnitude to the first change.  Then everything was swapped back to the standard leads and power strip and the sound became less clear and the imaging shrank significantly.  A clear change, but not as big a change as some other cable demos.  Worthwhile though, but as ever, VFM is a personal perspective.  What about the system itsself?  Well, those T-606s continue to shine - but with Linn Exakt are a step above what I've heard from them so far with standard Naim amps and their internal passive crossovers.  What Exakt brings to them is a real sense of purpose - a purpose to deliver the music in the cleanest and most convincing way.  There's lots of good technical attributes to talk about - the outstandingly deep bass from a reasonably compact enclosure, stunningly pin-point and ultra stable imaging being good examples - but its the way you just get wrapped up in the music and the message from the artist.  I go back a couple more times to this room, spending about 45 minutes in there later in the day, enjoying each visit. I later learn that the team hadn't had the time to set up SPACE optimisation for this room, so there's potentially more to come from this system.  Deeply impressive.

KUDOS
- Naim Uniti Nova Integrated Streamer/DAC/Amplifier
- Kudos Titan 505 Standmount Speakers

A launch event for the latest in the Titan range from Kudos.  This time its the 505 - a reasonably substantial standmount speaker, but also the baby of the Titan range.  The speakers playing today are the first (and only ones at the moment) to be built.  Probably they won't change much for production - Kudos seem to have got the "knack" of the Titan forumla now.  And they're a chip off the old block in terms of performance. The tweeter is now familiar from the 606, 707 and 808 but this time it's paired with another isobarically loaded mid-bass driver - something quite unusual in a standmount speaker.  Does it work?  Well on the basis of this first listen, its a qualified "yes".  The room was rather stark, and the sound notably improved when the room filled up with absorbent humans, suggesting that the speakers would benefit from a more substantially filled room - sofas, curtains etc.  But a good showing - the family characteristics of engaging music, drive without forcefulness and a decently deep bass (as long as you were sat in the right place in the room - there was a substantial suck-out of bass in the middle of the room). So there's probably more to come (they were stood on Kudos's out of production 50 stands and its unclear which stands Kudos will offer for the T-505 at the moment).  Looking forward to another listen, possibly at the Acoustica Show in April.

ISOACOUSTICS
- Gaia Speaker Supports

Another simple and clear demo from IsoAcoustics.  One pair of Focal Aria floorstanders on their standard spikes compared against an identical pair, identically spaced in the room, fitted with the IsoAcoustic feet.  The change is very clear, with the Arias fitted with feet benefitting in terms of tautness of the sound and expanse and precision of the imaging.  Going to have to try a set on the PMCs.

ATC
- ATC CD Player
- ATC Integrated Amp
- ATC SCM40 Passive Floorstanding Speakers

Great top end and mid-range from this system, but rather overshadowed by a curiously out of control bass.  Not typical of ATC systems, but that's how it was today - probably a room interaction issue.

AURALIC & SPENDOR
- Auralic Streamer
- Spendor D9 Floorstanding Speakers

The last couple of times I've heard the latest from Spendor, they've underwhelmed - coming across as a little too safe and therefore not too engaging.  But today they were more open, there were some dynamics and there was much to admire. Perhaps its this part of the building, but they suffered very much from the same bass boominess noted in the ATC room above - they were at the same end of the same corridor, so perhaps there's something about those rooms.

WILSON BENESCH
- WB Circle Turntable fitted with Laser Cartridge
- CH Electronics Amplification
- Latest top of the range WB Resolution Floorstanding Speakers

I'm going to reserve judgement on this system - I suspect its very good. But after the 3rd different vinyl disk of twinky-twonky meandering jazz music, we gave up.  What we heard was good, but there just wasn't enough variety in the music.  Interesting pick-up on the turntable though - it reads the movement of the stylus using a laser in the cart - which seems to need a very complex and expensive looking phono stage - its the one with the clear lid and massive capacitors shown below. Not sure I would give these speakers house space. Even with the elastic band 'grilles' you have to look and the back of 2 bass drivers per channel, and their associated wiring.

NAIM/FOCAL KANTA
- Naim Unit Nova Streamer/DAC/Integrated Amp
- Focal Kanta No 2 Floorstanding Speakers

First chance to hear the new speakers from Focal - a range that sits (price wise) between Aria at the lower end and Sopra in the mid-range.  At first these were pretty enjoyable with a decently smooth treble, particularly by Focal standards.  The music was flowing OK and was very listenable.  Until the bass came along, and it didn't matter which row of seats you're in, it was massively boomy in this room - despite what looked like some big bass-trap type boxes along the wall/floor interface.  Tricky shaped room, to be fair, but it needs to be better than this.  Bizarrely, Focal's lower priced Aria range are still the most musical I've heard from the brand.

NAIM/FOCAL UTOPIA
- Naim NDS Streamer
- Naim Classic / 500 Series Pre-Amps, Power Amps and PSUs
- Focal Utopia Floorstanders

Still a major turn-off for me, the Utopias are unfriendly, sharp and curiously unmusical. They're seriously masking some very capable electronics.

Here today there was a number of major updates to the Naim streamer range - on display, but not being played. A new version of the 5XS streamer, a new NDX2 mid-range streamer and the very interesting new addition to the top of the range (above the NDS), the ND555.  The NDS has been discontined with some saying the NDX 2 will outperform the NDS.  These new boxes all adopt the Uniti style streaming platform with a nice (larger) colour screen on the front panel, along with the proximity sensor to wake up the controls as you approach the box.  The electronics are revised too, although based on discussion elsewhere (the Naim Forum) it would seem that the DAC chips themselves are not changed, but the SHARC DSPs may be different.  Of course a DAC can be implemented in different ways so there may be more to come from this older chip.  Digital inputs on the back panel allow external digital sources to feed through the 555's DAC.  The ND555 is a replacement for the CD555 at the top of Naim's range of digital sources, the CD555 going out of production a few months back.  The ND555 uses some of the CD555's ideas such as floaty circuit boards (there are transit screws to clamp these down for transporting) and copper plated parts etc.  New DAC architecture too - I was told this uses SHARC DACs, but I'm not sure that's the full story.  A single PS555DR external power supply is required.  A second such supply is optional.  Looking forward to hearing this new streamer, but I suspect it'll be hampered by the use of Focal speakers, so it will be better heard in a dealer or a friend's system with some more familiar / enjoyable speakers of choice.

ND5 XS 2 Front

ND5 XS 2 Rear

NDX 2 Rear

NDX 2 Front

ND555 Streamer Above PS555DR power supply

ND555 Streamer Above PS555DR power supply

TECHNICS
- SL-1000R Turntable with Audio Technica AT-ART1000 Cart
- Technics SU-R1 Pre-Amp
- Technics SE-R1 Power Amp
- Technics Floorstanding Speakers

SL-1000R

The UK launch of the new SP1000R turntable and arm.  A further refinement of the SP-10 / SL-1000 of the past but with new materials, motors and electronics.  The SP will spin its 7kg platter up to speed in under a quarter of a second - that's some torquey motor.
A Luxman phono stage was in use today along with a Quadraspire X-Rack and Audioquest cables.  We only heard one track on this system, but its a long one at around 15 minutes and has lots of variety of music, including electronic, orchestral sounding sweeps and is very well produced.  Have a listen to Nils Frahm's 'Sunson' on the album "All Melody" - its something I've been listening to at home recently and is quite some piece of music, building gradually but demonstrating the artist's imagination and maturity.
What of the turntable?  Well, as a digital source user, this is probably the least turntable sounding turntable I can recall hearing.  Its timing stability is absolutely stunning.  Perhaps this is something that puts me off vinyl but I've never really identified it as an issue, perhaps timing problems associated with a mechanical device attempting to produce stable timing is something I'm sensitive too, but in a subconcious way.  Anyway, this was a very enjoyable and accomplished performance from this turntable.  Impressively musical, something I must admit to not really expecting from Technics.

SP-10

DYNAUDIO
- Naim NDS Streamer
- Naim Classic Pre-Amp and Amp
- Dynaudio Anniversary Special Forty Standmount Speakers

I've rather grown to like the red stained deep lackered wood veneer on these speakers - I prefer it to the light grey.  Having first seen these medium sized standmounts at the Munich High End Show in May 2017 (where they were on display but not being played), it was good to finally hear them.  And for Dynaudio fans they'll be familiary territory - smooth, dynamic without being shouty, great mid-range and taut but not really that deep bass. But just a bit "more so" in all of those areas.  Nice sounding speakers without being stunning.  I would personally question their VFM compared to others at that kind of price point.

REVEL
- Mark Levinson Streamer
- Mark Levinson DAC/Integrated Amp
- Revel Floorstanding Speakers

Potentially a good sounding system.  Played too quietly next to a curtained off section of the room full of multiple loud conversations.  Not a good demo.

CYRUS
- Cyrus Signature Streaming System
- KEF Blade Speakers

Cyrus were launching Qobuz integration and had a speaker from Qobuz presenting the service.  A Q&A session about Qobuz.  2/3 of a high-res Qobuz stream of a Coldplay track which was too loud and played on the KEFs which were curiously toed-in at about 45 degrees.  Another inconclusive and poorly thought through demo really. (edit:  I understand from other reports that there were longer periods of music being played in the room, so shame I missed this).

NEAT
- Rega TT
- Melco, Rega and Heel Electronics
- NEAT IOTA EXPLORER

I really enjoyed this system. It was simple enough but the new, bigger, Iotas with their downward facing isobaric loaded bass driver worked extremely well today.  There was no issue with room boominess (it is possible!), everything was clear without being aggressive and the sound filled the room (at the expense of imaging, which is distinctly blurry, but that's just a different balance of compromises).  Music on this system was easy going (and I mean that positively, not that it lacked any dynamics at all), but pretty crisp and precise at the same time.  I really enjoyed my time in this room.

DALI AUDIO
- Dali Sound Hub with BlueSound Module
- Dali Callisto Wireless Active Floorstanding Speakers

This system was streaming via the BlueSound module in the control hub.  This sends the signal wirelessly to the Callisto active speakers.  Strangely, the room host didn't know if the DAC was in the hub with an analogue signal sent to the Callistos or if it is sent in digital format with DACs in the speakers.  Either way, this system was OK, but didn't deliver the clarity, dynamics nor musical enjoyment that is provided by Dynaudio's equivalent

ELAC
- ELAC Streamer
- Audio Alchemy Electronics
- ELAC Adante Standmount Speakers

I liked the sound of this system.  Nicely balanced and another good speaker design from Andrew Jones, using a concentric treble and mid-range driver (which is unconventional in that the mid-bass driver is in an internally ported enclosure which then vents to the front mounted passive radiator).  There was no exceptional performance here, but, equally, no exceptional mistakes either.  Enjoyable.

MITCHELL & JOHNSON
- Leema CD Player
- M&J Pre-Amp and Power Amp
- Leema Floorstanding Speakers

M&J are a new British based amplifier brand.  They have used a Leema designer and the electronics are built in the same Welsh factory as Leema products.  In terms of market positioning they sit below the Leema full size range.  Playing through the Leema floorstanders these amps gave a good account of themselves, being tuneful and enjoyable to listen to.  Another system that didn't "wow" but didn't disappoint either.

NORDOST
- Lots of Moon Electronics
- Lots of Sort Kone supports
- QKore Virtual Grounding
- ProAc Response D30R Floorstanding Speakers

Like the demo of QKore at Indulgence last year, the QKore virtual grounding box was connected to the mains distribution block, then to the source/control components and finally to the power amps.  In between each change a track was played before and after for comparison.  The difference wasn't so stark as it was at Indulgence (where I thought the music was more musical without the QKore) - here, it seemed different with small changes rather than something definitive, with the balance just about tipping to preferring the system without.  Nice sounding system though.


PMC and AVM
- AVM Streamer / DAC / Pre
- AVM Monoblock Power Amps
- PMC Twenty5.26

Good sounding system with engagement into the music.  The AVM and Twenty5 seem to work very well together.  I would've given this system a HIGHLY COMMENDED award but I hadn't realised how much more expensive the Twenty5.26 is compared to Twenty.26. They're not an easy choice at that kind of price where as in Twenty form they pretty much had that lower price point sewn up.

Q ACOUSTICS
- Linn Akurate Sondek LP12 (not heard)
- Marantz Electronics
- Q Acoustics Concept 500 Floorstanding Speakers

I've been waiting a while to hear these speakers, having seen them as only static exhibits at Munich last year.  Since then they've received lots of high praise in the HiFi press.  Today they sounded very good and I enjoyed spending 15 minutes with them. Not the miracle that I'd read about, but certainly should be on the shortlist of anyone looking in that part of the market.

MUSIC AT THE SHOW

I enjoyed the following:

Lots of Boris Blank / Yello (with and without Malia), Jackson Browne's 'Casino Nation' on the album 'The Naked Ride Home'; 

'Thanks To You' by Boz Scaggs

And favourite by far was Nils Frahm's 'Sunson' on the album 'All Melody' which helped the Technics turntable shine