Frank Harvey Open Day Saturday 21st November

Dav1dF · 02-11-2009, 2:38 PM

It's that time of year again!!

Instead of our usual Open Evening which is usually held on a Wednesday, we've decided to move it to a Saturday so that more people can potentially attend, and ease the slight overcrowding we've experienced in a few of the previous events, which will allow people a longer audition in a less crowded setting.

So this year, we will be hosting an 'open day', all day Saturday on the 21st November. Details are as follows:

Our secondary AV room will be home the new Arcam AVR500 AV receiver which will be paired with a multi channel speaker package from Monitor Audio's new Silver RX series package, based on the RX8's.

Our main AV room will be showing off Arcam's flagship AV888 and P777 AV pre/power amplifier powering a KEF Reference system comprising the 207/2 for front left and right, 202/2c for the centre, the monstrous 208 subwoofer, and the baby 201/2's for rear duties. The picture will be provided by the awesome JVC HD950 D-iLA home cinema projector on a 9 foot wide fixed screen.

Our hi-fi demo room will be hosting a 2 channel system - the Cyrus CDXTse Plus with the DACxp Plus pre-amplifier, with more than likely four Mono X's which will be driving a pair of KEF Reference 205/2s'. Cabling will be provided by The Chord Company.

On the middle floor, there will be a representative from Sonos ready to demonstrate their ZP90/ZP120 multi-room systems and their new S5 Zoneplayer and answer any technical queries you may have.

The Michell TecnoDec, Gyro SE and the Orbe SE will all be on display, and one of them will be playing through a Cyrus 2 channel DACxp and X Power system with KEF XQ40 Loudspeakers.

Diverse Vinyl will also be present, with plenty of the black stuff for purchase or pre-order.

As always there will be some nibbles and drinks for attendees. Doggy bags not allowed as leftovers are for our lunches for the following couple of days

More details and updates to follow on a daily basis, and as usual, all subject to change! Hope to see you there....

Saturday 21st November 10:00-4:00pm

ben0635 · 02-11-2009, 2:54 PM

Will be interesting how the Arcam pre/power fare with the flagship 207/2.
What are the chances of the 201/2 or the xq being the rears??
Might be driving up Coventry to have a listen to this combo.
Will guests be given discounts on purchases made on that day????

Dav1dF · 02-11-2009, 3:44 PM

It all depends what we use in the 2 channel room - I'm guessing we'll have the 205's in there - maybe we'll alternate them with the PL200's, who knows! If we use the 205's in the hi-fi room, it'll either be the 203's or 201's in the AV room as rear speakers.

And yes

ben0635 · 02-11-2009, 4:26 PM

i better start looking for the Mastercard

!!!!!!

SeanT · 02-11-2009, 7:35 PM

Got to be worth a morning this, think I simply missed the thread last year.

Dav1dF · 03-11-2009, 9:47 AM

Hope to see you there

Dav1dF · 03-11-2009, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben0635

What are the chances of the 201/2 or the xq being the rears??

It looks like the 201/2's will be the rear speaker of choice at the moment

ben0635 · 03-11-2009, 1:35 PM

hmmm. sounds good to me; M45-A45-A4053.

Dav1dF · 03-11-2009, 1:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben0635

M45-A45-A4053.

KhalJimbo · 03-11-2009, 2:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dav1dF

I think its the roads he is going to be taking to get to your shop?

ben0635 · 03-11-2009, 4:12 PM

As stated by Earthworm those are the Motorway roads i need to take to get to Spon street in Coventry.

Dav1dF · 03-11-2009, 4:33 PM

I was beginning to feel old then as I thought it was some modern type of weird, techy smiley

Does it show that I'm not a driver?

ben0635 · 03-11-2009, 6:42 PM

it definately does as you should have been able to distinguish M road and an A road

SeanT · 03-11-2009, 9:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben0635

it definately does as you should have been able to distinguish M road and an A road

and a dodgy ring road

eiren · 09-11-2009, 10:14 PM

I got my letter through from FH today. Going to do my best to get down there for the Saturday for a good hour or two

namuk · 10-11-2009, 1:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eiren

I got my letter through from FH today. Going to do my best to get down there for the Saturday for a good hour or two

If you do mate Listen to the Arcam AVR500 , i had a Quick listen at the Packed manc Av show and it sounded very good , but not Paired with them speakers .

the 600 was also very good , but had better speakers connected in any case worth a Listen . Trust me you will Like

If you manage to Run off with one , I will have it off you P&P Gift fine?

Dav1dF · 10-11-2009, 9:11 AM

One little change will be that we'll now be demonstrating the more affordable 208 sub rather than the 209.

eiren · 12-11-2009, 2:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by namuk

If you do mate Listen to the Arcam AVR500 , i had a Quick listen at the Packed manc Av show and it sounded very good , but not Paired with them speakers .

the 600 was also very good , but had better speakers connected in any case worth a Listen . Trust me you will Like

If you manage to Run off with one , I will have it off you P&P Gift fine?

I'll do my best for you.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the JVC HD950 in action. Want to see if it's worth upgrading from an HD100.

namuk · 12-11-2009, 3:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eiren

I'll do my best for you.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the JVC HD950 in action. Want to see if it's worth upgrading from an HD100.

That was at Manc Av show as well , never Listen to Review off a mate who is Blind , this is what i did ..

Dav1dF · 14-11-2009, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eiren

I am very much looking forward to seeing the JVC HD950 in action. Want to see if it's worth upgrading from an HD100.

We feel that overall, the 550 looks better than the 750, so I think you'll find the 950 to be rather special......

It's my favourite projector at the moment anyway

Ian J · 16-11-2009, 2:48 PM

Is it a year already? Shame I can't make it this year as wifey is working and I'm on child minding duties and you wouldn't appreciate a 10 year old running amock

Dav1dF · 16-11-2009, 2:52 PM

Well the building's 500 years old, so I'm sure we can find some stocks somewhere for immobilisation purposes......

Shame you can't join us - maybe next year

*x86root* · 19-11-2009, 8:16 PM

bring on Saturday!

Dav1dF · 20-11-2009, 1:48 PM

Just added that Sonos will also be demonstrating their new S5 Zoneplayer product.

SeanT · 21-11-2009, 7:18 PM

Had a good afternoon, although the decision to cycle was a bad one!! Nice to see you all again, and to get some advice- oh and the new Sonos stuff was cool.

I really want to rehash and put a projector up now.

Edward P · 21-11-2009, 9:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanT

Had a good afternoon, although the decision to cycle was a bad one!! Nice to see you all again, and to get some advice- oh and the new Sonos stuff was cool.

I really want to rehash and put a projector up now.

I'll second that (though came by car, which saved a drenching). I mainly went there to check out the Sonos stuff, though a secondary motive was to meet some vinyl heads and get some advice on an AV amp upgrade. Was impressed with the Sonos bundle on display, which seemed nice and user friendly, so I bought the entry-level bundle and an S5. I'm really into the whole streaming concept and the Sonos Solution seems the best out there right now. Though, it would have been nice if Naim were also there so I could get a longer look at the Uniti.

That was the easy bit. But the kit that could make my bank manager weep sometime soon was on the second floor av dem room - the Arcam AVR500. They had it running with a Pioneer Blu Ray front end (Arcam BD not ready for market yet, apparently) and MA RX6 fronts and centre(?). Not sure of the rears - it was only 5.1, not full 7.1, which was one mild disappointment as I quite like the full fat 7.1. Anyway, the demo material was Blu Ray concert footage mainly (Foo Fighters live, eg) and it sounded, quite frankly, awesome. 2500 notes is a lot for an amp that you'll still mostly use for movies. But this thing was easily the first multi-channel amp I've heard that didn't make my head hurt in 2 channel mode. It ran pleasingly warm (not hot) to touch, which bodes well for placement; has a nice back-lit remote; and looked exemplary in terms of build quality. As some of the threads here have pointed out, it lacks quite a few features of the AVR600. And it appeared as if they were still working on some of the firmware (eg menus) but the bass, midrange, stereo separation were exemplary. IIRC, one of the things that has gone is the phono stage. That's a shame, and probably the only thing I would personally miss form the AR600, as it would be interesting to see if it could at least hold it's own in terms of vinyl. Then you would really have a one room solution.

I enjoyed the Gyrodeck demo as well - despite being a Roksan man myself - I find that particular deck hypnotic to look at while listening. I real work of art.

Just my thoughts. Thanks for an enjoyable afternoon!

eiren · 22-11-2009, 11:01 PM

I was there for a couple hours in the afternoon (DVDO t-shirt and many tattoos) and I monopolised the poor JVC guy and the awesome HD950 for a good hour or more (sorry about that!).

The JVC was stunning, I can't believe they've managed to improve so much on the HD100. Shall be getting one for Christmas now as soon as I've sold my HD100

Thanks to Frank Harvey for the great day.

SeanT · 23-11-2009, 7:14 AM

It is a cracking projector. Nice to meet you eiren (I was in the Atari t-shirt, whinging about the price!)

Dav1dF · 23-11-2009, 9:20 AM

Many thanks to those who attemded, making it our busiest musical evening/open day yet.

It was so busy in fact, I didn't get to take any photos, and the day just seemed to go so quick thatdidn't get to meet many, or probably not even any of you that I hadn't met before!

We would also like to thank the reps who sacrificed their day off lazing in bed to be present to help us out, including John Dawson, who seemed to enjoy it more than the visitors......

We hope we'll see some of you, amd maybe a few more the same time next year, and maybe soner if we decide to have a few more open days......

acid007 · 23-11-2009, 2:01 PM

Missed this

Shame as i would have liked to come, currently in the hunt for an amp so might have been productive aswell.

Shall keep an eye out for the next one.

Sid

Ps, it would have nice meeting a few fellow avforum members.