[Sly]

just wanted to know what peoples highlights of the show were (the good).
what they were disappointed by (the bad).
and what they thought would be there but wasnt (the ugly).

ill start:
the good-liked the new pmc speakers as soon as i buy a castle ill get me a set,lol.the dali speakers also went up to crazy volumes without distortion which was good.am tempted by the offer on sapphire screens too.

the bad-too much jazz demos,too much hifi for me,the AE speakers sounded poor (was a bit disappointed as a AE fan).

the ugly-thought it would be hd crazy but there was a lot less than i thought.

what u guys think?

[j0hn]

what a load of expensive crap!

most of them couldn't turn it up and the volumes they had it at it sounded crap and we were laughing how much!?!? way too funny, how they could stand there trying to sell it was pretty amusing.

the highlight was the pretty girls and i'd rather than spend a few grand per component I'd prefer to take a few of them out. No lie!

that stuff for the most part was a joke , why was it a joke? cause it cost how much for what amounts to a crap sound

and before anyone says oh its the rooms, those rooms were very mirror of alot of peoples front rooms and if it sounds hit in there it'll sound bad at home and......how much LMFAO

and that is all I care to say


this message has been edited by a mod and it nows reads like ****! thanks mr adult!

[wawr]

Hi,
Just thought id add my opinion...
the GOOD for me this year was...
.the new park & ride, i thought it worked great as i was coming from south wales i had the directions from this site & everything was really easy, it only cost £2 all day aswel !! well done to who ever thought of that !!!

The BAD was...
No AV forums mug's for sale !! Ive bort 1 the last 2 years at the show, but this year i couldnt buy 1, the annoying thing is ... they were there aswel.!! oh well never mind cant have everything ...

The ugly... mmmm now then .. got to think about this 1 ... oh yes, the price of the entry fee !! £8 & another £1 to leave your coat,& £2 for a horrible hotdog Yuk !!! its not that bad really, but i cant think of anything else.... i did see a few strange people there this year tho

[coachdriver]

The Bad - The high volume levels ? Why or why ? The high prices and way too much audio. Sound & Vision Show - It think not.

The Good - £2 for the park and ride. Finding out that what I already have at home sounds and looks pretty good. So the £'s will be staying in my pocket for now.

The Ugly - £8 for entry. A lot for what was there.

Last went about 6 years ago and to be honest not much has chnaged. Little video then and little video now.

[megson]

Hi

The good - A What Hi-Fi demo that was actually very good. The panasonic PT AE1000E was the business and is the first LCD that I would actually consider buying. Park and ride. Sim2 were great as they always are. Dynaudio's brand new sub sat speakers were fantastic IMHO. The scented handwash in the gents.

The bad - Too much hi-fi, the M&K demo (I know the Xenon speakers are good so exactly what Audyssey had done to the room they were in god only knows. It lacked impact and my K17's set up in my garage with a more modest sub is much better! No recent good films to demo (the film industries fault I think) everybody seemed to be doing MI3, ice age or Jazz.

The ugly - hotdogs with no onions. The rain that soaked us right through and made the journey back to Birmingham a damp one.

Its still one of my favourite days of the year.

Megson

[Mr Grumpy]

The Good: The Fujitsu plasmas, The Sim2 demos.

The Bad: Seeing Pioneer's dirty tricks that were being employed to persuade people just how great their plasmas were. It's a pity Sony weren't there with an equally poorly tweaked Pioneer screen alongside their Bravia to return the 'compliment'. Oh and as others have said there was too much bias towards the audio side of things for my liking.

The Ugly: Simply put there was a disappointing lack of HD material to view and obviously an awful lot of manufacturers were not present. I would have loved to see the likes of the new 1080P Sony and JVC pjs.

[sarge123]

All I have to say is the history of the show is it is a HIFI Show... Hense lack of HD! .... and People like Sony and JVC are not known for there Hifi products.

[u8myufo]

Well I just got back from the show Saturday. Bad point ham roll £3
good point hotdog £2. And now for the bit you dont want to hear,
what! the !!! do you people want when you go these events? I reckon you just go there to complain. What did you expect to see? the floorplan of all the stands was there for you to download before even leaving your front door, so if you didnt like what was on offer why bother going? It was well organised no pushing or shoving to see or hear things. We visited nearly every stand and was never blanked out by any of the staff, from cables right up to the Wilson Benesch speakers (Awesome ), all were quite happy to give you there time and opinions even though they knew you didnt plan on parting with serious cash. I was impressed with the themescene demo and I think that has swayed me to go for one now.As far as the sim2 was concerned keep it, unless they had it set up wrong no amount of sales talk would have convinced me to purchase one even if I had the dosh. As already said the what Hi Fi was a good demo.
And if it wasnt loud enough then Hey!! do what I did and ask them to turn the thing up, nobody refused me this. So there you have it. Mmmmmmmmm me thinks I might go back Sunday and take the wife.
Oh and it was good to meet the AV crew, thanks for the hospitality guys.

[danny daniell]

Did anyone hear the new Kef Reference series?

[Legendary]

IT disappoint me on lack of new HD stuff.

But on bright side

I enjoyed watching Maria Sharapnova playing tennis on 63 inch plasma TV from Fujitsu (despite it is on 720P)

seeing PS3 in action for first time and Ridge Racer 8 replay is amazing. Me think I will check out XBOX 360 version to see how it compared.

Seeing universal remote.

I like to see HD films and Sims and What Hi fi demos and Pioneer are excellent. They show Ice Age 2, MI3, Seabiscuit, and Grand Prix. (If that is right film)

I am not interested in Audio only showing as I am deaf and not the type to sit down and listen to music a lot. I like to play games, watch movies / sports / TV and use PC.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Just got back from a 500 mile trip today, up at 4.30am.

The good: Projection design M20 projector, beat the sim 720p and the sim 1080 projector, the new 7x speed wheel with 6 colours look ace, very vibrant and loads of depth, even on the 8 foot scree, the sim was good, but not as vibrant and the sim is £6000 and the M20 is £3500.
The fujitsu 68 series are the dogs.
The breakfast at BHS.

The bad: Didn't get a good score on Burnout, £5,000,000 damage. Wasn't impressed with 1080p over 720p, the difference isn't that great, only twice as many pixels but not worth the extra at the mo. The projection design M20 720p easily beat the Panasonic 1080p.

The ugly: £7.80 for the car park. Me after getting up at 4.30.

[UrbanT]

Jazz, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the Sims were not up to scratch today, disappointed after the What HiFi show. They didn't have much room to work in though.

I liked the D35 previously, but today it looked very dim, and there was some terrible combing in the Hot Fuzz trailer.

The Projection Design M20 was good, and they made a decent effort to black out their room as well. If space is a premium, this could be a good unit, but for similar money it doesn't get close to competing with the HD1.

Biggest disappointment? Mitsubushi. What were they doing with the HC5000? Feeding a terrible DVD of The Island when I visited, which the guy initially insisted was composite, then after some questioning confirmed it was in fact compoent (it may as well have been composite!), and the HD stream of the japanese girl is so old....get a £300 HD-DVd player in there to show what it can do.

Wilson Benesch were their usual superb self, and the finish on the Square range was excellent.

Back tomorrow to try and get a score on Burnout

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

Back tomorrow to try and get a score on Burnout

I'll be there tomorrow so i'll keep an eye open for you.

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by Ian J

I'll be there tomorrow so i'll keep an eye open for you.

Great

[tuttonp]

Quick there'll be no mods about tomorrow, post what you like!!!!

I'll be down there tomorrow, so Urban T you may tell me off in person for all my previous infractions!!!!

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by tuttonp

Quick there'll be no mods about tomorrow, post what you like!!!!

I'll be down there tomorrow, so Urban T you may tell me off in person for all my previous infractions!!!!

I'll bring a big stick

[tuttonp]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

I'll bring a big stick

It'll go nicely with your bestest arse kicking boots

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

Jazz, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the Sims were not up to scratch today, disappointed after the What HiFi show. They didn't have much room to work in though.

I liked the D35 previously, but today it looked very dim, and there was some terrible combing in the Hot Fuzz trailer.

The Projection Design M20 was good, and they made a decent effort to black out their room as well. If space is a premium, this could be a good unit, but for similar money it doesn't get close to competing with the HD1.

My friend who also saw the sim2 at manchester show said he wasn't as impressed with the sim today.
The Sunfire speakers were pretty impressive today, although sounded much worse without the room calibration thing on.
How does the M20 compare with the HD1 then, not on sharpness but colours, contrast, vividness etc?

[Alan_W]

The Sunfire speakers with the 2 corner woofers were my best bit today. Surprised that Gecko had set up the Xenon's in the next room so poorly.

The Park and Ride was great. This year I was able to easily drive straight to the hotel and park next door

[rdevarajan]

I asked the Yamaha People on the cost difference between here and states....
rxv2700 is $900 in US and £1200 here.. The reply was ... different power supply..... components may be different!!....

this did not convince me as this meant the units in US are inferior?

sorry state

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

I liked the D35 previously, but today it looked very dim, and there was some terrible combing in the Hot Fuzz trailer.

I also notice combing on the sim PJ.

[Adrenochrome]

Originally Posted by tuttonp

Quick there'll be no mods about tomorrow, post what you like!!!!

Ahem I'll still be here watching and waiting

[Sirez]

Do you think it's worth going to this show if you went to the show in Manchester?

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by Sirez

Do you think it's worth going to this show if you went to the show in Manchester?

My friend went to the manchester show and this one with me, he said there wasn't many plasma/LCD's at Manchester and this one was much better. It depends what you want to see though.

[Richard Torble]

Originally Posted by Jazz Monkey Jr

I also notice combing on the sim PJ.

That was inherent on the clip. It showed on both pj's and Sim did mention it before the dem. I think the clip came from a PC and the file was slightly corrupt.

[Noodleman]

my first show this one, just got back

I was fairly disappointed. There was LOTS of audio, however the visual was lacking. My Main reason for going, was to make contacts, and to review new technology, however this was very hard to do.

There was lots on display, however i found it very hard to get any information for people. I wanted to have a good chat with the harmony people, as im looking at using their remote with my products, yet, again i got a cold sholder.

The thing that reallllllllllllllllly suprised me, was the number of stalls offering cables.... you see one cable store, you seen em all! and i couldnt find a single store that offered any lighting products etc. With this in mind, i aim to have a stand at next years show and offer SOMETHING NEW!!!!!!!

I was very impressed with the sim2 1080p projector on display on the 10th floor. If only i had a spare £5500 in the wallet, i would have walked out of there with one.

With regards to the audio systems, its very hard to tell what the good systems are, mainly because everybody is using something different. Some people are using laptops to play mp3's into their amps etc, where as others are using cd/media players. Without knowing how each of the input devices performs, its hard to rate the other kit on display, especially when there is a general lack of information.

As somebody else stated, it was very cramped today, i got very peed off with people pushing me out the way to get places. you couldnt walk into a room easily etc.

I feel a little let down by the whole thing, but im sure for the true hardcore AV people, it was a very good event.

[fluffrick]

Mrs Fluffrick and I went on Friday and really enjoyed the show for the most part.

Highlights for me were the Sim 2 demo - I thought that the "Grand Prix" and "Seabiscuit" HD-DVD clips were excellent, but I'm not technically-minded enough to be able to pick out flaws in the presentation.

The Yamaha Soavo speakers were nice enough, but only really impressed the heck out of me with the climactic Peter Gabriel HD audio/video demo.

Wilson Benesch had a great room - the Sarah McLachlan track I heard was lovely to listen to. And you've got to support a local company.

The only real downer of the show for me was the Panasonic projector falling over at the What Hi-Fi room, but that couldn't be helped and I suppose that I could have queued up again to see it, had I wanted to. The SD clips of "King Kong" were pretty good in their own right, actually.

I'll not mention my heroically pathetic turn on "Burnout Revenge" in the Forums room. In my defence, I did them that I was useless at video games...

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by Richard T

That was inherent on the clip. It showed on both pj's and Sim did mention it before the dem. I think the clip came from a PC and the file was slightly corrupt.

I will still be demoing them as part of my research as I was sat at the front during the King kong on 1080p and did look very good, but £5500 is too much to pay at the mo.

[cloudcity]

Cloudy's views.


The ugly:

Why the frack was the Park N' Ride on the A4 closed???? Nearly had a massive road accident pulling into the gate only to find them shut. Didn't enjoy viewing the rooms upstairs too much, some of the salespersons were a bit too pushy (mentioning no names)

The bad:

I agree with the above comment, lots of pushy impolite idiots who couldn't be bothered to say "excuse me" or sorry. There's always some at these events who leave their manners in the car.

The good:

But . . . we drove into the centre of Bristol and parked 100 yards away, all day for only £1.50 - massive bonus.

Plus being undercharged at the food stand. We got 2 cans of pop and two hot dogs for £2.00 so no arguements there.

Pioneer - informative, patient and very helpful - loved visiting their stand and did so three times.

The quality of the Fulitsu screens was amazing, not seen them before.

The sound coming from those Denon 2.1's was great.

Logitech and Senheiser (sp?) were also helpful and entertaining.

Did I mention Pioneer? Well they deserve more praise for a job well done. It's just a shame there were shoved downstairs away in the corner, they could have done with a lot more space and accessibility.

All in all I am very glad I went, well done to everyone who has worked hard fopr this event.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Noodleman

I was fairly disappointed. There was LOTS of audio, however the visual was lacking. My Main reason for going, was to make contacts, and to review new technology, however this was very hard to do.

I thought that there was loads of new technology on show with many exhibitors using music servers rather than traditional sources and several wireless surround systems.

Originally Posted by Noodleman

There was lots on display, however i found it very hard to get any information for people. I wanted to have a good chat with the harmony people, as im looking at using their remote with my products, yet, again i got a cold sholder.

No trouble with us as we had a quick look at the Harmony stuff and got pounced on by a salesman. He was quite a good salesman too as my Pronto will now be retired in favour of the Harmony remote that he persuaded me to buy.