2020 Bristol HiFi Show Report

These replies are super helpful, thanks for the songs. Will add them to the play list
 
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Hi,
I travelled down from London on Sunday to the show and as Crownshi stated it was very quiet. Fantastic for me and my brother but a little disconcerting by the lack of crowds.

A great show with lot's of interesting products (the majority far too expensive for most Forum Members I would guess). Every time I entered a room I asked the staff what price the speakers were and most were in excess of £3,500 a pair. That said, the demos were all enjoyable to watch and the representatives were super friendly and helpful with queries.
One demo I really enjoyed was on the top floor where a guest playing files from his mobile phone into a system that included a pair of KEF LS50 active speakers (grey with red cones). They had the volume high and the sound was stunning (despite some files being MP3's). I have a passive pair of LS50's myself and are sitting boxed in my loft so they'll be coming out this week for a re-audition !!
The KEF demo on the ground floor was very good and I enjoyed listening to the latest Dynaudio offerings.
Being in our mid sixties it was nostalgic seeing the JBL L100 Classic's (with the orange chocolate bar covers) and also the Rogers LS3/5a classic speakers.
A very enjoyable day out, but I'm so glad I left my credit card at home !!
 
Hi,
I travelled down from London on Sunday to the show and as Crownshi stated it was very quiet. Fantastic for me and my brother but a little disconcerting by the lack of crowds.

A great show with lot's of interesting products (the majority far too expensive for most Forum Members I would guess). Every time I entered a room I asked the staff what price the speakers were and most were in excess of £3,500 a pair. That said, the demos were all enjoyable to watch and the representatives were super friendly and helpful with queries.
One demo I really enjoyed was on the top floor where a guest playing files from his mobile phone into a system that included a pair of KEF LS50 active speakers (grey with red cones). They had the volume high and the sound was stunning (despite some files being MP3's). I have a passive pair of LS50's myself and are sitting boxed in my loft so they'll be coming out this week for a re-audition !!
The KEF demo on the ground floor was very good and I enjoyed listening to the latest Dynaudio offerings.
Being in our mid sixties it was nostalgic seeing the JBL L100 Classic's (with the orange chocolate bar covers) and also the Rogers LS3/5a classic speakers.
A very enjoyable day out, but I'm so glad I left my credit card at home !!

That' worth knowing for next time. I went on Saturday and it was busy - tough getting in some of the rooms at times. I think we queued for 20mins for the Kef demo.

I agree regarding the price of things but I did enjoy going from one pricey room to another and then being completely surprised by a cheaper set-up. The Rega complete set-up was £900 and sounded great for the money. From memory Totem were £800 for the speakers and sounded just as good as some of the much much pricier rooms.

I was very tempted to by the Iso-Acoustic speaker spikes too. They had a demo switching between standard (£6k speakers) and ones with the Iso spikes and tth

Now wheres my Rega turntable I ordered at the show...
 
Talking value for money ...... The new Monitor Audio Bronze speakers were pretty dang good.

Personally though I was previously split between the Kef R11 and Focal Aria 948's. Post show , I'm thinking about saving extra and going for the PMC Twenty5i 23's. They sounded sublime and had scale more akin to much larger floor standers. So much clarity . The new ATL technology definitely does a good job.
 
I went Friday and Saturday , very busy but very enjoyable . Doing the whole weekend next year . Went in 2019 and being the first time I went , it was all a bit of a rush.

This year I was able to navigate around and pick my demos in way that suited. Still didn't make the fourth floor though.
 
I went on Saturday and left after 20 minutes lol. Never been to a show before and it isn't something I need to go again. It is a bit like a car show lots on view but no way to find out what it is to drive the vehicles.

Its not a criticism of the event just not what I thought it was going to be. Ideally it would be only me in each room :)
 
For us, best sound of the show was in the NEAT Acoustics room (heard different models on each visit), whilst the worst was the Emotiva room which was ruined by the sub's being turned up far too loud, overwhelming the entire dem and intruding on neighbouring rooms as well. When will the kids allowed to run these dem's realise that a properly set up sub should be noticeable only by its absence and should make its presence felt only now and again?

The Bryston/PMC dem was striking, particularly its bass, though something about the upper registers just wasn't right (and I write that as someone whose home system is Bryston/PMC, albeit older models of both).
 
A couple of them were playing Yello. One, can't remember who, was using a live blu ray of them and it sounded great.
 
IMHO, Yello's best three albums are The Eye, Touch (essential to get the limited edition extended version with no less than six remixes of earlier tracks) and Toy.
 
For us, best sound of the show was in the NEAT Acoustics room (heard different models on each visit), whilst the worst was the Emotiva room which was ruined by the sub's being turned up far too loud, overwhelming the entire dem and intruding on neighbouring rooms as well. When will the kids allowed to run these dem's realise that a properly set up sub should be noticeable only by its absence and should make its presence felt only now and again?

The Bryston/PMC dem was striking, particularly its bass, though something about the upper registers just wasn't right (and I write that as someone whose home system is Bryston/PMC, albeit older models of both).
Definitely agree regarding the SVS subs , very poorly setup. The PMC demo though ........ I've fallen for the Twenty5i 23's. Definitely on my upgrade list . Honestly thought their sound was staggering.
 
Did anyone else assign up for "Hi-fi World" at the show ? I did, got the Quadral Breeze Bluetooth speaker as part of the offer . Well the wife has claimed it but have to say , it's quite an impressive little thing for what it is . Actually fills the room with a pretty reasonable sound .
 
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Did anyone else assign up for "Hi-fi World" at the show ? I did, got the Quadral Breeze Bluetooth speaker as part of the offer . Well the wife has claimed it but have to say , it's quite an impressive little thing for what it is . Actually folks the room with a pretty reasonable sound .

Nice!

Didn't Cyrus also have a discounted system for sale for around the £1,200 - £1,300 mark to take away on the day? What did people think of it?
 
Unfortunately didn't make the Cyrus room , sounds like a tasty deal though at that price . Seriously suffering the upgrade bug though 😁
 
It is frustrating how bad Arcam have been for years with their firmware and how highly sites and mags rate their products without any mention of issues. If I'd known I wouldn't have bought my AVR600. I spent months talking to my dealer and Arcam and testing out firmware fixes for them, to be left with a slightly less buggy receiver. Its sad to hear the two generations after the 600 have had firmware problems too. They're not cheap!
I didn't review the AVR600, but I know it was notoriously buggy. However the AVR850 that I used for 18 months was very stable and I never had any problems with it. I thought Arcam had learnt its lesson, but based on what I've heard about the AVR30 it would seem it's back to having firmware issues. It would also explain why review samples have yet to materialise.
 
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Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Hoping for some monstrous and ridiculous speakers next year to have a listen to!
 
I didn't review the AVR600, but I know it was notoriously buggy. However the AVR850 that I used for 18 months was very stable and I never had any problems with it. I thought Arcam had learnt its lesson, but based on what I've heard about the AVR30 it would seem they're back to having firmware issues. It would also explain why review samples have yet to materialise.
This must have been one of the most poorly thought through new product launches since the Sinclair C5 :)
 
Bit of a long-shot, but can anyone recall a room (my memory is telling me the speakers were white) where they were playing a solo piano piece as a demo?
I wish I could remember the brand/model because the sound was so natural; as we walked in I would've bet good money that it was someone playing a piano in the room.
 
Sounds like it was possibly the DS Audio room. They were using white Kerr Acoustic , standpoints. Sounded very good indeed.
 

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