Moor Amps, Merason and Innuos Score Highly Commended Award at 2024 Belfast Audio Show

 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.

Bristol Hifi Show 2023 - Sound of the Show Award - AVM and PMC

 PMC had a good approach to letting showgoers know what's going on - a timetable posted just outside the room. Essentially, this year, they demonstrated a gradual progression up their mainstay Twenty5i series speakers - changing from the smallest Twenty5.21i upto the largest Twenty5.26i in hourly increments, then ending the day with fact.12 Signature. All day these speakers were driven by the £18k all-in-one CS8.3 Black Edition from the German brand, distributed by PMC in the UK.

Having owned predecessor Twenty.26 and currently owning fact.12 Signature speakers, I chose to join the room at the time they were playing the Twenty5.26i and then transitioning to the fact.12s. And here's the thing - if PMC hadn't brought the facts, there's a good chance that Twenty5.26i would've been in with a chance of Sound of the Show. They're good, very good - well balanced, fantastic imaging, tuneful, easy to enjoy.

But fact.12 Signature is in a different league.  Its the kind of speaker (when driven by the obviously excellent AVM and by other suitable high performance equipment) that just simply sounds right. Within a minute or two of the first track being played you could hear people in the room murmuring to each other about what they were hearing and how much they enjoyed the music. Pace, timing, musicality, stunningly stable images, clear nuanced vocals, no harshness, stunning clarity and, above all, believability. Superb.

 

 

 

AVM and Twenty5.26i

fact.12 Signature