"What a refreshingly honest blog about listening to music through hi-fi. So happy to see views based upon the enjoyment of music rather than so-called sound 'quality'." - Peter Comeau, Director of Acoustic Design at Mission / Wharfedale
OK, lets the get the first thing out of the way. This is not a visually domestically acceptable system, at least not in our house. I have a very understanding partner - she likes to hear good sounding music, but without a dedicated music listening room, this wouldn't be given house room by either of us. The LampizatOr obsession with putting the power button / indicator into the "O" in every word is distinctive but just makes for messy looking equipment - they need to work harder on shaking off the home made origins of the products.
So that's out of the way.
Here we listened to the LampizatOr TranspOrt (which is essentially a tweaked Squeezebox - I'm sure the extent of tweaking is revealed on their www site), the LampizatOr Level 7 DAC, Van de Leur 002 stereo pre-amp and Sicillian made Tektron Italia Reference mono valve power amps and a KBL Sounds mains conditioner. These played into the industrial strength hORNS.pl speakers you see in the picture, along with their battleship stands. These were in a gloss black finish which was OK, but not as smooth as some others. A range of glossy colours are available.
Lots of detail coming through on this system. Deep well controlled bass. Plenty of heft and control. I did wonder what it would be like after several hours of listening though - could get wearing.
At the side of the room they also played some music via bluetooth from a phone into these funky looking little boxes. There's a valve amp and a pair of single cone speakers. Very well finished in a variety of bright colours they're a bit of fun for a bedroom, kitchen, study etc. Sounded OK, but not really very fair to judge, given their tabletop position, speakers close together etc. Might be worth further investigation if that's the sort of thing that you're considering for non-main system requirements.
Ah, the legend that is Audio Note (at least in some circles, and tents). Being a bit better organised than previous rooms I've seen with AN, we at least knew what was playing in here, what it was called and how much it cost. Thanks for dealing with the courtesy of housekeeping Audiocounsel.
So how did this digital / valve system sound? Well, very reasonable, with some music. With the right recording / production values it plays music well - its very coherent and flowing, instruments well separated and the bass very tuneful. However, bass isn't particularly deep and that's OK with some recordings, but play something that's lightweight and it all gets a bit too thin across the board, and less than comfortable to listen to. Generally I think its a good sound, but its not magical and for me its not to get over excited about. It is often the case that systems that impress immediately become wearing over time. Others that don't impress immediately can become your friend when listening to an hour or more of music. Here, along with previous exposure to Audio Note, that lack of excitement and immediacy feels like it would be rather dull in the long term for me. And really, at this price the look and finish of the kit should be somewhat more impressive. A jumble of mis-matched boxes and what look like MDF kit build speakers doesn't cut it for me.
Compulsory vigorous dealer foot-tapping in evidence :-)
Great to get a chance to listen to magnaplanar speakers - a new experience for me. These were being fed by a Primare disc spinner and some very large and substantial looking Exposure amps - stereo pre and 2 mono power amps. Exposure is something I've heard many times before, but these boxes are much more substantial than the slimmer boxes I'm more used to from them. They're a bit more professional looking and Exposure of old, but the red illuminated logo was patchy - like they hadn't put enough bulbs in there or something.
We heard 2 pieces of classical music in here - one rather baroque in nature, the other more traditional orchestral stuff. Harpsichord sound crisp and lilted along nicely. Large scale orchestra was rather lacking in the scale department - not much heft to it. Imaging OK horizontally, but not very clear in the vertical.
I suppose what we heard here kind of fits into the planar / electrostatic expectations - from previous experience of Exposure, I don't think the gentle character would be down to the amps. Would like to have heard somthing more rhythmic and dynamic - got the impression the music was carefully chosen. Kids bored very quickly in this room, like me. They were playing the music reasonably quietly, which is fine, but the door really needs to be closed at this kind of show, and particularly with this type of music.
I liked what I heard in the ELAC room at the Bristol Sound and Vision show back in February. There they were playing a very accomplished sounding standmount.
At Cranage they were playing their very slim, beautifully constructed floorstander, the AIR-X 407, finished in piano gloss black. This is a fully active (active crossovers, 3 amps per speaker), wired or wireless version of the FS 407. Today they were connected via balanced interconnects. In the simplest of systems, this was being fed by files stored on HDD inside an Electrocompaniet ECM2 media player. Capable of collating all media files found on a network into a single "virtual" library of files, including most audio and video formats, this will take music from an optional internal HDD, via UPnP compatible NAS / PC media library or from USB drives. It contains a stereo DAC and can output multi-channel signals via HDMI for processing by an external multi-channel processor. Nice interface too and apparently can be controlled by smartphone apps, but was on the standard remote control today.
Today, in stereo mode with the internal HDD this single box, connected by balanced cables to the pair of active speakers made for a very simple and domestically very acceptable combination. At approximately Euro 9k it looked like quality and it sounded like quality too.
There's something about active systems when they're done right. You can hear that the amps have real control over the drivers. Drivers drive - they start and stop with conviction. For such narrow cabinets and smallish drivers these things go deep and they do it in a very controlled manner with plenty of slam. Voices are clear, have substance and nuance. Treble is very clear, sparkly yet smooth - no nasty edges here. This system also goes loud without sounding harsh or strained. Very very musical and great to listen to.
Guess what? No problems with playing any type of music in this room. In fact, our host here was very astute with my 13 and 10 year old kids - selecting tracks by Lorde and a band that slips my mind but is very much in the charts at the moment - saying that he'd chosen these for the "future audiophiles" in the room. What a refreshing change - recognising the needs of the attendees and playing to that. This made them feel very welcome, a bit special and encouraged them to select some music, with K again choosing Ane Brun as this was her benchmark we'd listen to at home. This system was giving my home system a run for its money - would be great to get them side by side in the same room!
Going on sound quality and VFM alone this was my top room for the day. Add in the way that the kids were treated as welcome human beings was the icing on the cake. Thanks HiFi Network
Yet
another good sounding room here and one that makes it into my top 5 for
the day. A very reasonably priced Project turntable playing through
Puresound amplification (pre centre middle shelf and valve power either
side of the turntable) and into Acoustic Energy floorstanders. Sensible
looking cables and a nice looking rack. I'm sure RJC Audio's HUSH...
isolation platform was helping the turntable too.
The sound was detailed, musically flowing, not brash, not dull.
A feature that's always welcome at the Hifi Wigwam show is labels on the kit - this is what it is, this is what it costs. Not exactly radical, but something that's bizarrely missing in most rooms at most commercial shows. Purite North added "Now Playing" labels too. So simple, so informative.
I understand that the big Brodmann loudspeakers that were playing when we were in the room (in the picture above) retail at around £36k. Gulp. I don't know much about the Belles electronics as this is my first encounter, but there are favourable comments on other blogs and forums. Last time I encountered these speakers was at the Manchester Show in 2013 where I found them to be a mixed bag.
So how did it sound? Well, proving that musical choice can be very important to some systems, this was a perfect case in point. In my Bristol Sound and Vision Show report back in February, I noted that the rooms with the best sounding systems tended to be those where they would allow you to select or play your own music - a real sign of confidence. In this room, even the vendor selected music tripped up this system. We went in and heard some very gentle female vocals and piano and it sounded inviting, reasonably detailed, expressive and very much inoffensive without being bland, if that makes sense. Second track was more female vocals but more folk oriented. Same effect from a sound point of view.
We were just about to leave the room when on came Blues Company's "Dark Day", a perennial system testing track of mine and others. This track is very much based (no pun intended) on a tuneful and deep bass line which determines both the mood and the pace of the song. Its very well recorded and with the right system has a massively spacious openness and excellent imaging. Couple this with the blues vibe and brilliantly clear, sparkly but not harsh, complex cymbals and you have a great track as both a piece of emotional music and a system test.
Well we didn't get very far into this track, maybe 30 seconds or so, to discover just how badly this system was handling the bass. Muffled in the extreme, notes blurred and slurred into each other, the tune was lost, there was no impact. The cymbals were there but muted and soft, and when the deep reverberating electronic bass drum came in it was lacking in depth and somewhat apologetic about its presence. This all in a very spacious room with the speakers well away from any boundaries. Deeply disappointing I'm afraid.
Its easy to say that most audio shows don't feature more sensibly priced kit. Compared to Curry's then this room didn't either, but it was much more modestly priced than most and thanks to Henley Designs for bringing along something more down to earth.
Unfortunately this system didn't sing when we were in the room. It was a touch bright and light weight - "thin" according to my daughter. I would add that it lacked depth and substance which I suppose amounts to the same thing. Lots of detail though, just not very engaging for me.
I've been using HomePlugs to feed my Squeezeboxes, TVs, DS etc. for approximately 3 years and they've been completely reliable to date. I use a mix of TP-Link single plugs and Zyxel multi-port units.
Just in the last week I've started to have reliability issues with my network - weird stuff was happening like the wifi recycling every 2 to 3 minutes and having trouble logging into my EE router from my PC. Re-setting the router to factory default seem to resolve the problem for up to half a day or so then everything started going wobbly again.
Then, just yesterday, I did a factory default reset of the router and as I was trying to log into it, the router suddenly flipped from an EE log in page to a Huawei log in page. Weird as I don't have an Huawei router in the house, never mind plugged in. Access to the internet continued OK, but the devices plugged into the HomePlugs were not connecting properly with the network and the DS started doing that fading then coming back thing every couple of minutes which happens only when there's a network problem.
Removing all the HomePlugs and running only on wifi made the whole thing stable, but the hifi very quiet of course. I decided on a process of elimination by plugging in one HomePlug at a time to see which one was causing the problem. But this wasn't consistent - sometimes the problem arose with one device, then with another.
Then, the weirdest thing happened - McAfee on my PC popped up with a warning that I had about 10 devices on my network that "are not protected by McAfee". One of these was a laptop named "CHRIS". A Chris lives over the road from me! This only happened when a HomePlug was connected up - any of them - but not when only running wifi.
A bit of Googling later and I find that the general concensus on "leakage" of HomePlug signals beyond the house circuit breaker box / consumption meter has changed significantly compared to 3 years ago. When I first started with these things, leakage beyond the consumer unit was "extremely unlikely". Now, its reckoned to be virtually certain in an apartment block, and "fairly likely" in houses.
In order to make these devices "plug and play" they all present themselves to a default network grouping of HomePlug devices called "HomePlugAV". So any of these devices that stick with this default name will talk to each other. I think one of my near neighbours must've recently decided to use HomePlugs when they haven't before, and our 2 networks are talking to each other. And because many routers default to the same network IP address, I was getting access to my neighbour's Huawei router. For some reason, that was "over powering" the IP address of my own router.
So not surprising that my HomePlug devices and the rest of the network was getting confused - the DHCP server and default gateway were probably flipping between my own router and that of my neighbour.
So the resolution was to install the HomePlug management software on my PC and rename the network name on all the devices away from HomePlugAV and to something unique to my own house.
Now all seems to be well and stable - across HomePlug and wifi. Will keep an eye on how it goes and I have a list of the MAC addresses of the outsider HomePlugs so I can go and advise whichever neighbour they belong to to secure his/her own network.
So there you go. Take note and make the changes to your own HomePlugs before things start to go a bit wobbly in your network too.TP
WHF magazine encourage people to post up system pictures on Twitter every so often, so I gave it a whirl and they're featuring the system prominently on their Record Store Day page for 2014:
Update, 25 September 2014: The link above has been amended by What HiF- and no longer takes you to the relevant part of their pages. Seems to be here at the moment:
Boris Blank and Dieter Meier - the heart of electronic / electronica / pop music creators and production team who call themselves Yello. Or have done for many decades. You can enjoy lots of their material here on Spotify.
They're frequently playing on my system, from the earlier stuff like "The Race" on the album "Flag", through complexities such as "Nervous" on "The Eye" to the latest (2009!) sophisticated and equally complex but far more subtle tracks with Heidi Happy and Till Bronner on the "Touch" album, I enjoy their quirkiness, sense of humour and unique blend of electronic music with real tunes rather than just beats. With "Touch" a 10 year trend became very well resolved - a move to a more sophisticated, jazz inspired kind of direction. Bland even sings in a more traditional sense when dueting with Happy on the "Touch" track "Kiss In Blue". And pretty much every one of their albums has been a sound quality benchmark of its time.
At the Scalford Hifi Wigwam show this year I showcased the "Touch Yello" virtual concert DVD throughout the day on a modest Rotel / Mission fronted system with a Dell projector and it seems to have gone down reasonably well with a good number of visitors. That's reported here, but is an aside to this review really. Today I'm going to review Yello's respective solo releases - they've come about 4 or 5 months apart - an interesting departure, but hopefully not the end of future releases for them together as Yello.
You can read about Yello in the usual places, wikipedia for example, where you'll get the history, discography etc. I don't have their very earliest stuff as I don't like it so much, but have all the major releases from 1987's "One Second" through to the VW Golf promotion of 2012 "The Key To Perfection". My first real experience of their stuff was when "The Race" was used as a backing track to a 5 minute or so summary video of Patrick Snijers' incredible driving skill as he took his BMW M3 to a stunning victory on his first visit to the Isle of Man in 1988. Playing on a big screen as the prelude to the rally's awards ceremony, it certainly made an impression when matched to those images. Still one of the best pieces of driving I've had the pleasure to witness first hand.
Imagine this:
With this as the soundtrack:
So that was worth further investigation. Hence began my interest in Yello and their music that's never really gone away in the intervening 26 years (gulp!). They're pretty experimental in their approach. The music tends to have a few constant features - a very clear beat, melodic & very deep bass lines, multiple layers of complexity, mixing electronics & orchestral arrangements and a very quirky sense of humour. How many bands can include Shirley Bassey and "Tweaky" from the Buck Rogers TV programme as guest vocalists for example? There's diversity, sophistication and a unique approach across their work, and whilst it doesn't always hit the mark, most of the time it works well, as long as you like that kind of stuff. Give it a try if you don't know them yet.
Now, after so many years working together, they've released solo projects. The first to market was Boris Blank in partnership with Malia with "Convergence". This week the pre-ordered signed copy of Dieter Meier's "Out Of Chaos" landed on my doorstep. These albums aren't on general release in the UK, but they are available through the likes of Amazon.de using an Amazon.co.uk account id. "Out of Chaos" can be legally downloaded in full CD quality on junodownload.co.uk "Convergence" is available as a CD quality download at qobuz, if you're lucky enough to be in the right territory. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate at 24 bit / 96kHz or similar quality versions as yet.
If you were hoping that Yello would continue the direction they were taking with 2009's "Touch" album, particularly those tracks with Heidi Happy on vocals, then this would probably have been a great follow up album.
What's there? All those lush Boris Blank hallmarks are there: deep, tune-laden bass lines, somewhat mysterious and layered percussion, shadowy underpinnings (you might not spot some of the subtleties until the third or fourth listen), strong structure, changes in direction and masses of layered synthesized orchestral stuff. Malia's jazz / african vocals are superb throughout, as are the strengths of the song and tune writing. With only one cover on the album ("Fever") the quality of the songs from this pairing are impressive - varied, fresh, sophisticated and well suited to the blend of electronica with jazz. Yet again, production values and sound quality are sky high.
What's not there? The quirky humour is distinctly absent - this is almost Boris Blank saying that this is his "grown up" approach to music. And that's great. It would be a mistake for a Yello album to move away from the humour, but here, with Malia, its the right approach. It doesn't mean that there is no humour in this album, its just much more subtle rather than up front. I often think that Yello's humour is probably what prevents them from reaching a wider audience - it's likely to drive some listeners to not take them seriously as musicians. This is a shame, as they are very serious about their humour! There are no really "edgy" tracks here, some might take it as a bit too smooth.
Celestial Echo: We kick off with some deep, echoing, haunting electronic bass drums and some subtle effects as Malia advises us that she's the mad storyteller. She seems to be out to save the soul of a lover and to offer comfort. There's some doubt about how this ends - there's no clue about if the offer is taken up. Underneath the story the bass drums continue their tune and there are instrumental interludes which are impressively subtle but don't add much to the storyline. I get the feeling it went well, but I don't really care too much as its not really very involving.
Embrassable Moon: The pace picks up a touch here and Malia's voice is more expressive - there's a raspy edge now, which is more engaging. This is another positively spun tune on a familiar theme ("I live to breath the air that you breathe") with some lilting percussion under a keyboard and sax led melody. It drifts along and then fades out without you really noticing.
I Feel It Like You: Perhaps a touch of Yello quirkiness here? Its a contrast to the first 2 tracks with a rhythm that bounces along a little playfully and some of that synthesised flicks and tricks in the percussion that will be familiar to fans. The guitar riff and hand claps / finger clicks drive the track along well, along with splashes of horn section. Again this is a positive track, but there's a playful mystical twist to the way its structured and sung - its a love rekindled rather than a given.
Touching Ghosts: Oooh, now we're getting going. This tracks opens with a swimming, swooning melodic line and Malia sounding a little melancholy. The voice and sad lyrics are contrasting with the more playful melody of the instruments. Pauses in the tune give you time to reflect - there's mystery in here (and a reference to a later track with "I put a spell on you" used as a backing line), deep bass melody is inter-played with brass interjections and the snowflakes keep falling. This track leaves me wanting to hear a longer version - it could develop into something very delicious indeed.
Claire Cadillac: I can't quite get my head around what this one's about. But there's no doubt that Malia's showing off here vocal versatility in this one - one moment its a bit girlish and playful, the next its multi-tracked lushness. I think it could be about jealously of another woman who "has it all". There's synthesised dulcimer and other unexpected elements in here. This track is both playful and sinuous at the same time. With the prevous track and this one, I'm hooked into this album now.
Raising Venus: Sadness and ruthlessness are the themes here. She'll burn you. But its also very sinister and that comes through in both Malia's vocals, the tension in the music and the interjections from synths and other squarks and squeeks in true Yello style. But the way Malia sings "Little Red Riding Hood drives through, she does not cry, boo hoo" is like a really unpleasant story teller trying to scare the life out of a bunch of primary school kids. And me. This is a slightly disturbing track and rather good for it.
Fever: I refreshing take on this classic track. Constructing the backing track very sparsely from drums and a single synth with trademark (but very difficult to describe) noises and punctuation, swinging along at a very gentle pace transposes this track from exciting and celebratory to something a bit more predatorial.
Smouldering Ashes: Smoldering voice. Malia talks us through this track, and you could probably say this is the one track that Dieter Meier could deliver equally well. The percussion bounces along in the background with long trumpet cords tying the drums to the melody. Very sparse again here. Its one of those tracks that sounds very simple, but probably took many hours of experimentation to ensure that the right balance of tension and emphasis is delivered. Its another song that's about something that's not happy. There's something in there about being together but as part of possession rather than partnership and then there's something about that going wrong too. These unhappy topics really do work well in this collaboration between Malia and Blank.
Magnetic Lies: This and the next 2 tracks drive this album towards a real songwriting crescendo. Deep staccatto bass lines with swooping instrumental fills blend superbly with Malia's seductive sweeping multi-tracked vocals. Its about cheating in relationships. There are some elements where it the chord changes are very much carrying an air of that cheating, but enjoying it too. There's one particular chord change that needs a system to go deep to work fully - on my main system it goes deep enough to mean that the lower notes in the chord change are reproduced and its distinctly melancholy. On the dining room system that can't get that low the chord change sounds somewhat happier. Interesting to hear how the system's ability to resolve the recording can change the emotional content.
Tears Run Dry: Oh, how the sadness continues in Malia's world, but that's good for us because it produces another stonking track. The timing of the musical phrasing in this track is superb. A walking bass line dominates, but various muted trumpets (probably not real ones of course!) build the feel, along with the occasional echoing percussion exclamation points. "Tears run dry, what's left to try? Tears run dry, you lost all your balls". Says it all really, except that this is another track that deserves another couple of minutes of development but ends too soon and leaves you wanting for more.
Turner's Ship: More mystery. More echoing deep drums, but this time they're slower paced, spaced out and take a long time to fade away. Then there's the surprise of a very African tribal chant which is positive sounding and tuneful. Then Malia cuts in, supported by hand claps and percussion that will be familiar to those who know "The Key To Perfection", along with multiple complex arrangements of cow bells, cymbals, bongos and other percussion, to deliver another heart-wrenching set of lyrics. Not love this time, but it would seem to be the tragedy of hunger and the imbalance of poverty to wealth. Sobering. Another really engaging track.
Conclusion: After the first couple of tracks that are more positive and light in outlook but which are a little bland, this album really gets going. Once Malia gets into the meat of the serious, melancholic and in some cases downright twisted/tragic topics the musical quality of the album transcends the slick and sophisticated presentation and becomes a more engaging listen. Not to be missed by any Yello enthusiast, but also deserves to be embraces by a much wider audience as a great mix of electronic with jazz.
Dieter Meier - Out of Chaos
If you're familiar with Meier's contribution to the Yello albums, that gruff, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes playful, sometimes downright weird deep baritone voice will be very familar. Is it singing? Not really. Is it rap? Nope. I guess it's more of an in-tune talk really. You'll not mistake it, that much is sure.
What's there? This is a step back in time for a Yello listener. If you consider the direction of "The Eye", "Touch" and "The Key To Perfection" as the way Yello has developed over the last 10 years, then Meier's solo project doesn't really pursue that path further, but steps back to the more individualistic work and is better aligned to the left field of electronic music. The "singing" is more of that deep tuneful talking too. Sound quality is decent, but doesn't feel outstanding.
What's not there? Well, you don't get that super sophisticated jazz-infused lushness of "Convergence", nor even of Yello's own work with the likes of Heidi Happy. Curiously, the humour's not there either - this must come from the guys working together rather than them as individuals.
Conclusion: I was going to write notes about each of the tracks. But, to date, I just don't feel there's enough differentiation between the tracks to merit writing about them individually. On a Yello album, Deiter Meier's vocal contributions are well placed and welcome - they're usually on the more sinister / quirky songs and are great when other tracks are pure instrumentals or feature guest vocalists. But track after track, they become rather wearing and lose there mysterious edge - they just become a bit monotonous. There are various musical stylings under the lyrics but they're hard to associate with - its a more electronic kind of sound - it doesn't sound as mature as Yello's and Blank's offerings. Some tracks I've still to get all the way through, and there's a doubt that I'll bother. So overall, rather a disappointment.
So there we have it. I'm still looking forward to the next Yello album (hopefully there will be one) and would welcome more from Boris Blank and whoever he cares to collaborate with. On the flip side, I won't worry too much if Meier produces another solo effort - you might like it, but its not for me.
Well done Acoustica. This was a really impressive step up from last year's show - both in format, layout, manufacturer representation and the quality of sound being produced.
Rooms as follows:
High end Naim / Focal
Mid-range Naim / Focal (didn't get to this room, unfortunately the Aria 936s were on show and I enjoyed them at Bristol)
Rega
Audiovector (another one we didn't get to, so not sure on the electronics)
Arcam (yet another one we missed - possibly AV?)
STAX headphones
B&W D802 with Classe electronics
Chord cables
2 x vinyl sellers
Cabasse streamer with Naim and Kudos
Kudos with Bauer / Linn / Naim
In one room (with mid-range Naim electronics and Ovator 400s), there was a demo of Daft Punk's latest album with one track played 3 times - the audience were asked to say which of the three tracks was the 16/44.1 version and which was the 24/88.2 version. One format was played once and the other twice, but the audience didn't know which was which and the streamer display was covered up to hide the information. There was a wide variety of opinions of which track was which, but no one in the room got it right on the occasion we were in there. Fascinating. The point being made by the demonstrator was that this is a well recorded and produced album and as such, will sound great in either format. Alan Sircom from HiFi+ magazine was in the room, so it'll be interesting to see if he reports on this.
There were plenty of signs to help with locating the rooms, the rooms were mostly reasonable in size and shape (the high-end Naim / Focal room was the exception) and it all felt a bit more considered and set out than in 2013.
2 small downsides - we didn't leave enough time to get round all the rooms, and £2.95 for a cup of tea and a biscuit is a bit steep - didn't see anyone buying any of that. Last year's show had some highlights, but there were more this year. Definitely a decent afternoon's entertainment and some interesting kit to listen to.
Great news from Linn. They've extended their Exakt processing system down the range into the Exakt Akurate DSM (the streamer, ADC and pre-amp) and the Exakt Akubarik speakers which have the per-channel DAC and per-channel power amp built into the aluminium housing down the back of the speaker.
Whilst it's clear from the Linn Forum discussions that the analogue to digital converter in the Akurate Exakt DSM is simpler and slightly lower quality than that in the Klimax Exakt DSM, there's no word yet on the DAC engineering in the Exakt engines. The ones in the Klimax Exakt Tunebox and Exakt engines are based on the ones in the Klimax DS/1, so I'm assuming the DACs in the Exakt Akubarik engines are based on those in the Akurate DS/0. In which case they will perform at a distinctly lower level of quality (although still very high quality of course).
Nice sounding Excite floorstanders here - fed by a SuperUnity from Naim. In the same league as the Kudos X3 I think, somewhat different presentation with a good attempt at lower bass frequencies and a touch of top-end stridency from time to time. But given the much lower cost front end of this system compared to the Kudos system, and impressive sound from the Dynaudios.
In the next room was a pair of the Xeo standmount wireless speakers. They're active so all you need is a laptop to which you connect a USB transmitter and a mains supply to each of the speakers. Very simple. Would be great as a way of extending and existing system across multiple rooms. Speakers sounding pretty good for their size and price, a touch boomy, but perhaps this was a room issue, perhaps not. Enjoyable and very convenient - certainly the best sounding wireless system I've heard to date.
Here we heard some cable comparisons, at prices in the stratosphere. And yes, the upgrade from 3rd from best to 2nd best to the Sarum arrays was there to be heard. But I still can't get my head around a pair of speaker cables that cost £2500. Its difficult to justify and the changes weren't of the magnitude that a good Naim power supply can bring, or an upgrade from a mid-range DAC to a top-end DAC.
And now for the controversial bit. Chord are now making Ethernet cables. Except they're not. They claim they make streaming system cables - by focussing on the "downstream" flow of bits of data with the "upstream" being untouched as its just about control instructions, not the music. How you can differentiate is beyond me, but I'm not a network engineer, nor am I a cable engineer, just passing along the explanation from the man from Chord.
Anyway, using a Naim NDX into what I think was SuperNait and then along to Kudos Super 10 speakers, the only thing to be changed in the comparison was the Ethernet cable. The volume control was not touched, the track was the same track, the NAS and network components (router and switch) were not changed. The NAS was connected to the switch by a Chord Sarum Tuned Array streaming cable, then the 3m or so length between the switch and the NDX was swapped from £ patch cable to ££ Chord C-Stream and then to ££££££ Chord Sarum Tuned Array streaming cable.
Here I am, probably one of the most likely people to say that this will make no difference to the music at all. And pretty determined to be very very sceptical about any demo. But there it was, all looking above board and also very distinctly audible (going both ways by the way - up and down the cost spectrum). I treated reports of differences being heard with a great deal of caution and I expect you to be doing exactly that. Most impressive of the demos was a Jake Bugg track that sounds like its recorded using some really cheap equipment in a bathroom (it might be that they intended for it to sound like that?) but it really was virtually impossible to listen to, so harsh and gritty it is. With the Chord Sarum, it became easier to listen to for a little longer, with Jake's voice easier to hear and the instrumentation being more distinct too. Its still an awful recording, but we managed to listen to about a minute of it rather than 10 seconds! It was still very rough.
The cable was then swapped back and the track became horrible again. I often find going back in a change is more telling because there's always the risk that familiarity with the music means you're more likely to start hearing subtleties missed in first hearings. Of course, if the apparent improvement in sound was purely down to familiarity then it would seem to get better again when listening one more time on putting the system back as it was.
As for the so called 'expectation bias', well, if it exists then my expectations that there would be ababsolutely no change at all would've been borne out. But weren't.
There were about 6 others I
in the room, all of whom thought they could hear a difference.
I'm stumped to explain it, and the man from Chord was very apologetic for the ridiculous pricing, but there it is. Very surprising. I don't think the differences remotely reflect the price of the cable (£1,600 for 1m!) but it is very interesting that an effect can be heard. It'll be great to find someone who can work out what's going on here and can reproduce the same cable effect for a tenner or so. Will need to give the C-stream a try at home, to see if the effect can be replicated in a more independent context with different networking components, and to compare direct cabling to just the last bit of cable from mains over Ethernet.
I didn't think I'd ever be typing a report like this, but there it is. Bizarre.
Saturn-R CD player, Elicit-R amp and what looked like RS5 speakers (but they could be RS3s - however, I remember them looking tiny and the ones today looked small but not tiny, so I think they were RS5). I'd really like the manufacturers to put signs up telling us what's playing - but I've decided that they do this to try and drive us punters to strike up a conversation. Which then interrupts the music...
A nice sounding system this one, nothing outstanding but nothing really of note to complain about either. I do like Rega's understated approach to their products and their realistic systems and prices.
Well, yet again, Kudos provided an excellent sounding system. Whilst not in the league of the Classe / B&W system in terms of scale and detail retrieval, it was equally musical and very much a room you'd want to sit and spend some time in.
Sources were Bauer DPS turntable / Naim Aro arm / Dynvector XV1 or a Linn KDS/1 into a SuperNait amp and the not yet released Kudos X3 floorstanders.
We listened to Blues Company's Dark Day on the streamer and London Grammar's Hey Now on the turntable. Both tracks were utterly compelling to listen to and fully enjoyable in all the usual hifi terms, but also on the basis of a musical performance worth paying attention to. You may know that my local Naimist has the Kudos Super 20 speakers and they're a decent listen, and these X3s are clearly from the same stable and are effectively a baby Super 20 in the way they sound and perform.
Available from July 2014 they're just under £2200 a pair. Note that the speaker cables feeding them (Chord Sarum Array) were about twice the price of the speakers themselves...
Thankfully, Naim's top end system (on display today) did 2 good things. It avoided the Ovator loudspeakers and it wasn't in the massive vaulted roof barn building that the hotel uses for events such as weddings and parties.
Here we had a formidable pile of boxes from Naim. Streaming provided by NDS / 555PS DR, control by NAC252 / SuperCap, power from the NAP300 and NACA5 speaker cables. This lot was piled up on the (well to me anyway) attractive Naim Fraim rack. Fed by about £2000 worth powerline mains cables and some fancy Perspex transparent distribution blocks the signal went off to drive a pair of Focal Scala Utopias. Not as big and imposing as the Grand Utopias, but pretty substantial all the same. They were in piano gloss black and exhibited a bit of orange peel effect in the paintwork, which would've been a reason to reject them back to the manufacturers if it'd been my money buying them.
I think this was easily the most expensive of a range of reasonably expensive systems on offer this weekend. So it should've been the best, you'd be right to expect.
I'm going to make this clear again - I've yet to hear a Focal speaker system from their upper ranges (so the Diablo and above then) that I've got to grips with. They just sound so technical and hifi to me, not really flowing with music that I'd want to listen to. And we have the same story here too. This system was massively better than the big Naim / Ovator rig from the 2013 show, but they did have a much much better room to work in. Even then, there was a high frequency ringing in the room - its a fairly large room and apart from the carpet and the small number of lightweight curtains, there wasn't any soft furnishings in there at all. So bearing that in mind it wasn't a bad sounding system, it just wasn't to my taste. A touch boomy as it was, perhaps the speakers were too close to the rear walls, but they weren't that close. The system also sounded better from the 3rd and 4th row of seats.
Here we have a Classe pre-amp / DAC, power amp and B&W 802 speakers being fed from the USB output on an Apple MacBook. This was joint best of the systems we heard today (but we didn't get to every room). I've not heard B&Ws sound this good before - they've always seemed to be part of a system that delivered syrupy warmth and a rather rosy outlook. Note I said system here, not that all B&Ws always sound this way.
Anyway, today, on the end of this Classe digital system I heard real depth, tightly controlled bass and dynamics, sweetness without being dull, stunning female vocals presented rock solid in the centre of the room, clearly defined instruments and a truly musical flow. I haven't heard Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side on every system I've listened to, but today was the best I've heard that track played to date.
Marvellous, very enjoyable. Didn't hear anything particularly rock or bass driven, so there's more to hear with this combo, but it really did impress today.
Last year at the Acoustica Chester show, the upstairs landing area was occupied by a small system with dinky speakers, but it really wasn't a fair place to demonstrated a system - odd space and too much background noise.
This year, the space was occupied by a specialist vinyl / CD seller and a good range of STAX headphones with their matching amps. A much better use of the space - well done Acoustica.
As for the STAX, well this was something I was really looking forward to, as I've never had the chance to try a set of electrostatic headphones before. Having listened to some rather enjoyable Grados at the Bristol show just over a month ago, I was expecting to be really impressed with these cans, but it just didn't happen. They got better across the range as the price went up, but not in the way the Grados did - they were small step changes and even when I got to the top of the ones of offer here, I wasn't stunned or amazed. They're nice, but I was expecting extraordinary detail and imaging. I don't think they were held back by the source - with Ayre Acoustics providing the front end and playing Marc Cohn's eponymous CD. A bit plasticky in build too. Sadly, underwhelming for me.
If you remember back to early March 2014, I posted an article on the Linn Klimax DS/1 vs the Naim NDS / 555PS DR streamers, in a mainly Naim system with Kudos speakers. Here's the link to that story.
Most electronics (and pretty much every pair of speakers) seem to benefit from something referred to as "burn-in". This is the idea that the components are not working at their ideal when brand new, and some usage allows them to settle down and reach their optimum operating parameters. Some say that's rubbish (probably based on some theory or skepticism rather than actual experience, or maybe their experience has been with components that don't benefit), some say its essential. Cyrus electronics have a large print message on the inside of the box lid saying that users should expect the components to burn-in and change their sound quality over the first few weeks of use. I've heard this with Naim electronics too - certainly Richard's NDX improved over time.
The first NDS listen was a comparison against the Linn on a busy evening on the night before the Scalford show and we were listening to the NDS that had been used as the demo unit for the Naim Statement amplifier at the Bristol Sound & Vision show - so it had about 3 days solid use under its belt. The 555PS DR was at least 6 months old and has been powering the NDX during that time.
And so, to pick up where the story left off, we had a Linn DS sounding very controlled and considered against an NDS that just wanted to get on with the job, leaving me less than involved because things were too pushy and edgy - I couldn't relax into the emotion or flow of the music. Great with female vocals though - more texture and colour (not colouration) than the Linn. And Richard (who has the Naim / Kudos system and the NDS on demo) wondering if it was going to be right for him.
Now we're three weeks on and the NDS is a permanent fixture in Richard's system. So he's either forgotten the Porsche or the NDS has settled in somewhat.
Using the usual mix of artists such as Eagle Eye Cherry, Blues Company, Ana Brun etc., we had a bottle of Budvar in hand and listening commenced (there was red wine last time, so the alcohol relaxation factor was pretty much balanced across the 2 listening sessions...). Richard had warned me that things would not be all they seemed last time. And this was proven to be true. At first I was very quiet, listening intently, making sure I could take in what was going on. Subtle this ain't. And this time I don't mean the way the Naim attacks the music, I mean the change in that 3 week period. This box has really matured in that time, and maybe there is more to come. That Naim enthusiasm is still there in spades but the stridency has all but disappeared - the edginess does still happen, but it seems much more related to the quality of the recording being played - its not there as part of the standard mix of attributes. Imaging has a touch more depth too - not just width now, although from memory I still think the Linn is better in this area. Another thing that's changed is the clarity of vocals in the mix - male or female singers are now more distinct - less swamped - although, to be fair I hadn't really noted this in the earlier listen, perhaps the other more significant challenges in the sound were overpowering more subtle observations. There seems to be more subtle details across all the range of music and instruments - there's definitely more layers of detail under detail to be heard. The system even seems to get some deeper notes than on my own system, which was a suprise given the compact dimensions of those Kudos Super 20 floorstanders.
We come to a concensus - the NDS is a very different beast to 3 weeks previous. It seems a bit bizarre that the "burn-in" should be so significant. A replay of the Linn vs Naim bake-off is something we should go back to now, perferrably in my system to try and give us some balance.
There's also concensus on how we should describe the differences between the Linn and Naim streamers. There's probably little, if anything, to choose between them in terms of detail retreival, but their characters are very different. We're listening to some studio recordings and the Naim is delivering them much more as though the artists were performing live. And that's a key part of its character - a live sound, an enthusiastic sound. By contrast, on those same studio recordings the Linn doesn't add a "live" character to the music, rather it presents a studio session where the musicians seem to have put in that extra couple of rehearsals, as though they are striving for that extra bit of accuracy, more craftsmanship in the way they are playing. I love that "attention to detail" kind of presentation - as though the musicians care about what they're doing and how it will emotionally impact on the listener. The Naim, well that's keen to let you know there are human beings involved in producing the music, and it should sound live!
Makes you wonder why Naim would use a brand new out of the box NDS to demo their Statement amp, it could've sounded so much better. As I said at the time in the Bristol Show report, the Naim Statement room would impress you if you liked to listen to hifi. If they'd burnt in their streamer, I might've been reporting that it would impress you if you liked listening to live music!
For copyright materials that don't have any copy protection, it will become legal to copy those materials for personal use on other formats (e.g. ripping a CD to MP3 to allow play on a different device). However, copying for someone else's use will remain illegal. In effect from 1st June 2014
This, at last, makes some sense, except it would still be useful to be able to legally make a back up copy of DRM protected content of course.
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