Just back from the show. An enjoyable and informative day. High quality, high cost systems on display and demonstrated. Strange. Highly impressed by sound but not convinced of appropriateness for the average domestic property. Too overwhelming! Why, oh why, was every demo playing so loud? I rarely stayed beyond a short period. I'm now back home, content with my set up, playing at a comfortable volume and reflecting on what I learnt. I'm now going to audition the Quad CDP2 and will explore the way it can be linked to a freeview box for high quality digital broadcasts which should outperform any separate DAB tuner on the market according to the Quad rep. !!??
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Bristol Show - Reviews
- Thread starter Fido
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la gran siete
Distinguished Member
I knew what to expect from the audio side of things so no major pleasant surprises. Quite liked the Rega setup and Primare. Video was a bit of a disapointment as most seem to be showing in SD with all the usual vices -ghosting ,blotchiness on lcds ,graininess on projected material, plasma fared best for the most part but none looked better than a good crt.The cat was let out of the bag for me by the Sharpe advisor when he said the P50 lcd was ALMOST as good as an lcd. That set it for me - dont buy anything until HD becomes the norm. Th e idea of a puker cinema room does appeal but the only projectors I saw in action were in the £8900 +mark and there is NO way I'm spending that kind of dough
In any case the pictures looked well grainy until they put an HD feed through.
Traffic was a bleeding nightmare - it took me over an hour to get through Bristol and into a parking lot
One good thing I was able to see the Hyundai Q321 although only with an xbox 360. Looked good!
In any case the pictures looked well grainy until they put an HD feed through.Traffic was a bleeding nightmare - it took me over an hour to get through Bristol and into a parking lot
One good thing I was able to see the Hyundai Q321 although only with an xbox 360. Looked good!
DD-DTS-SDDS
Established Member
la gran siete said:Traffic was a bleeding nightmare - it took me over an hour to get through Bristol and into a parking lot
What time did you go and which direction were you coming in from? I assume it was later than commuting time - is this because of the redevelopment that is going on?
R
recruit
Guest
Very good show and my favourite was definitly the Wilson Benesch Room which was by far the largest and loudest
la gran siete
Distinguished Member
DD-DTS-SDDS said:
yes on the m/4 m32 . I got to the development about 10.15am
Legendary
Established Member
I been to show and never been to it before.
It is nice to see the hardware and a nice lady at Sennheiser stand told me there is a special version of wireless headphone of Sennheiser for Deaf people at
http://www.bioacoustics.com/products/domestic/tvlistening/cordlessheadphones/
I am going to check it out.
There are some nice furntiure ie the one than automatically hide the LCD/plasma TV and found an amp I want but it cost 2+ grand for Denon DVD-A1XV
I like the Monitor Audo speakers.
Saw some nice projection screen on demo and enjoy KEF 3000 and B & W speakers demo. Shame the projector cost 10+grand at Sims / Hi fi stand.
Ignore every hifi stand if they don't do home cinema stuff. No useful freebies given away.
Enjoy PGR 3 lap but no warm up lap
But it is a bit confusing and overcrowded.
I tried to get more information about SKY HD but no one know anything. I asked them if there will be upscaling support on Sky HD. (For non HD stuff)
But again going to a show is a pain in the neck but fun. But at least I am doing something on my fortnight off from work.
It is nice to see the hardware and a nice lady at Sennheiser stand told me there is a special version of wireless headphone of Sennheiser for Deaf people at
http://www.bioacoustics.com/products/domestic/tvlistening/cordlessheadphones/
I am going to check it out.
There are some nice furntiure ie the one than automatically hide the LCD/plasma TV and found an amp I want but it cost 2+ grand for Denon DVD-A1XV
I like the Monitor Audo speakers.
Saw some nice projection screen on demo and enjoy KEF 3000 and B & W speakers demo. Shame the projector cost 10+grand at Sims / Hi fi stand.
Ignore every hifi stand if they don't do home cinema stuff. No useful freebies given away.
Enjoy PGR 3 lap but no warm up lap
But it is a bit confusing and overcrowded.
I tried to get more information about SKY HD but no one know anything. I asked them if there will be upscaling support on Sky HD. (For non HD stuff)
But again going to a show is a pain in the neck but fun. But at least I am doing something on my fortnight off from work.
BruceH
Established Member
I enjoyed the show today.
As I sat in each of the demo's I could obviously appreciate the quality of some of the projection and sound systems on demo, but...............
I did sit in most of them thinking, "my cinema at home is not at all bad", and right now I'm not driven to upgrade any of it.
Well maybe the DVD player !! ;-)
As I sat in each of the demo's I could obviously appreciate the quality of some of the projection and sound systems on demo, but...............
I did sit in most of them thinking, "my cinema at home is not at all bad", and right now I'm not driven to upgrade any of it.
Well maybe the DVD player !! ;-)
Chris Frost
Prominent Member
This was the first opportunity I've had in a long while to go round a show as a visitior rather than being present as an exhibitor. It was interesting to see it from the "other side of the rope" as it were.
Projected pictures
- the 1080p Projection Design Model 3 combined with the Denon DVD-A1XVA in the What Hi-Fi dem room made standard DVD look very impressive on the short Star Wars demo clip. The projector colour balance looked a little off - perhaps a touch too blue - and it will be interesting to see if Denon have resolved the scaling/noise reduction issues from the previous model.
Projection Design had a second room with another 1080p Action Model Three (again HD source material from PC) and the smaller Action Model Two, a single chip 720p DLP with a DC3 Dark Chip (again HD source from PC). This 1080p also looked very blue like the one in the What Hi-Fi room. The Model Two looked like it had a more natural colour balance.
Sim2's 1080p DLP projector was a pre-production sample. Early impressions look promising on clips from the Hi-Def media server. Time will tell if the projector can make standard def sources look good until we get BlueRay later in the year (fingers crossed).
Runco were showing the CL610 (£8K) with Naim's new n-vi all-in-one box. AFAIK they were perhaps the only serious projector company showing a display connected via Component rather than HDMI/DVI (the Naim has both). The reason given was that their projector works better with component rather than HDMI. The projector had the best colour balance of any I saw on the day.
Runco also had their new 3 chip projector, the VX-40d complete with the CineWide lens. The lens stretches a 16:9 image so that 2.35:1 format films use the full 1280x720p resolution. The total package including the motorized rail for the lens is approx £76K. The source looked like standard DVD but the clip from the Dukes of Hazard movie did them very few favours. It looked very grainy.
Finally, Meridian showed a short clip on their top-of-the-range Faroudja FDP-DiLA1080p projector. It uses 3 x LCOS chips which pack pixels in a much closer array than DLP. The image has virtually no pixel structure. The resolution of the chips in this projector are 1920x1080. There's a processor required to drive the projector. The total price tag is approx £23K.
The Faroudja projectors are heavily tweaked at the factory to overcome some of the issues of LCOS technology. The image is beatifully smooth, but on this viewing (a music DVD and a short and rather grainy HD clip from Top Gun) the black level looked poor. There is perhaps some more work for boffins to do.
Sound
- two products and one room stood out to me.
Tannoy demo'd their Autograph Mini. These 13.5" speakers look like something from a 1960's BBC control room, but 4" Dual Concentric drivers produced the biggest sound of any loudspeaker I heard at the show. The imaging and scale was absolutely astounding. For £450 they're an absolute bargain. Partner them with a decent musical sub and you'd have an aswome sound. www.tannoy.com/AutographMini
Pinsh ribbon tweeters had (to my ear at least) the best reproduction of strings that I've so far heard from a sub £5K speaker. If they could image as well as the Tannoys then I'd be sold.
The sound in the Meridian room was superb. The bass was tight and tuneful, the treble detailed without being harsh.
Vinyl in the Wilson Benesch room was the treat of the show for me. Oh Lord, just a small lottery win, please.
Overall impressions
The number of closed room demos made it difficult to get round the show in a reasonable time.
Projected pictures
- the 1080p Projection Design Model 3 combined with the Denon DVD-A1XVA in the What Hi-Fi dem room made standard DVD look very impressive on the short Star Wars demo clip. The projector colour balance looked a little off - perhaps a touch too blue - and it will be interesting to see if Denon have resolved the scaling/noise reduction issues from the previous model.
Projection Design had a second room with another 1080p Action Model Three (again HD source material from PC) and the smaller Action Model Two, a single chip 720p DLP with a DC3 Dark Chip (again HD source from PC). This 1080p also looked very blue like the one in the What Hi-Fi room. The Model Two looked like it had a more natural colour balance.
Sim2's 1080p DLP projector was a pre-production sample. Early impressions look promising on clips from the Hi-Def media server. Time will tell if the projector can make standard def sources look good until we get BlueRay later in the year (fingers crossed).
Runco were showing the CL610 (£8K) with Naim's new n-vi all-in-one box. AFAIK they were perhaps the only serious projector company showing a display connected via Component rather than HDMI/DVI (the Naim has both). The reason given was that their projector works better with component rather than HDMI. The projector had the best colour balance of any I saw on the day.
Runco also had their new 3 chip projector, the VX-40d complete with the CineWide lens. The lens stretches a 16:9 image so that 2.35:1 format films use the full 1280x720p resolution. The total package including the motorized rail for the lens is approx £76K. The source looked like standard DVD but the clip from the Dukes of Hazard movie did them very few favours. It looked very grainy.
Finally, Meridian showed a short clip on their top-of-the-range Faroudja FDP-DiLA1080p projector. It uses 3 x LCOS chips which pack pixels in a much closer array than DLP. The image has virtually no pixel structure. The resolution of the chips in this projector are 1920x1080. There's a processor required to drive the projector. The total price tag is approx £23K.
The Faroudja projectors are heavily tweaked at the factory to overcome some of the issues of LCOS technology. The image is beatifully smooth, but on this viewing (a music DVD and a short and rather grainy HD clip from Top Gun) the black level looked poor. There is perhaps some more work for boffins to do.
Sound
- two products and one room stood out to me.
Tannoy demo'd their Autograph Mini. These 13.5" speakers look like something from a 1960's BBC control room, but 4" Dual Concentric drivers produced the biggest sound of any loudspeaker I heard at the show. The imaging and scale was absolutely astounding. For £450 they're an absolute bargain. Partner them with a decent musical sub and you'd have an aswome sound. www.tannoy.com/AutographMini
Pinsh ribbon tweeters had (to my ear at least) the best reproduction of strings that I've so far heard from a sub £5K speaker. If they could image as well as the Tannoys then I'd be sold.
The sound in the Meridian room was superb. The bass was tight and tuneful, the treble detailed without being harsh.
Vinyl in the Wilson Benesch room was the treat of the show for me. Oh Lord, just a small lottery win, please.
Overall impressions
The number of closed room demos made it difficult to get round the show in a reasonable time.
I've just come back from the show today, i thought it was great . I was very impressed with the Kef demo and also the Arcam demo was quality. I will seriously thinking about getting some Arcam DVD kit because of it, maybe some home demos are in order !
The quality of most of the LCD, Plasma and projectiors really let me down however. The only one i liked was the 43" Pioneer plasma in the basement room.
Sat
. I was very impressed with the Kef demo and also the Arcam demo was quality. I will seriously thinking about getting some Arcam DVD kit because of it, maybe some home demos are in order !The quality of most of the LCD, Plasma and projectiors really let me down however. The only one i liked was the 43" Pioneer plasma in the basement room.
Sat
zero7
Prominent Member
satinder said:I've just come back from the show today, i thought it was great
The quality of most of the LCD, Plasma and projectiors really let me down however. The only one i liked was the 43" Pioneer plasma in the basement room.
Sat
Did you look a the new Fujistu range, they were running of a 'HD' source and looked very impressive.
D
danburbridge
Guest
the absolute highlight of the show by far was the tannoy prestige demo - not the 4" dual concetric (which were pretty good) - but the prestige glenairs - absolutely stunning imaging and coherence - really put everything else to shame in my opinion.
The guy doing the little REL demo was tops
SKY HD stand was as always unimpressive
sharps 65in LCD (14k) now thats one big tv!!!! and a big price
Don't know what anyone else thought of the denon demo but just how bright can they get one system to sound (painful!) and it did look like the system was struggling with the 1080
SKY HD stand was as always unimpressive
sharps 65in LCD (14k) now thats one big tv!!!! and a big price
Don't know what anyone else thought of the denon demo but just how bright can they get one system to sound (painful!) and it did look like the system was struggling with the 1080
la gran siete
Distinguished Member
For me the lack of screens properly promoted was a disappointment Fujitsu ,Pioneer and Sharpe and thats it . Too much of the gear was of the high end type which most ordinary mortals would in no way be interested in. They shoujld have been promoting the likes of Tosh Sammy Panny Philips Hyundai etc etc and the projectors should have beem more of the attainable variety. There was ONE rear projector - Sagem - which was badly set up ie the contrast was poor nad certainly wouldnt have encouraged me to buy one.All told I felt the show as well as the food and drink was mediocre, and I've been to a few.
Too much of the gear was of the high end type which most ordinary mortals would in no way be interested in. They shoujld have been promoting the likes of Tosh Sammy Panny Philips Hyundai etc etc and the projectors should have beem more of the attainable variety. There was ONE rear projector - Sagem - which was badly set up ie the contrast was poor nad certainly wouldnt have encouraged me to buy one.All told I felt the show as well as the food and drink was mediocre, and I've been to a few.
Dankeech
Prominent Member
First show of it's type I had been to.
Personally I had mixed opinions of much of the kit available.
Nad Master series was great to see and seems like a solid musical set. Difficult to hear to clearly for a proper demo given number of people who wanted to take a peek.
Thoroughly enjoyed the extended demo from Linn of their new Majik series (cd/processor/power amp) along with their enttry level speakers. Detail was fantastic and closed my eyes frequently to imagine orchestra in hall with me.
Incredibly surprised by the value of the system considering about 8k in all.
Always associated Linn with much pricier hardware.
Thanks to the extremely professional, friedly and helpful Linn staff staffing the event. Chatted at great length despite it being clear I wouldn't be purchasing one for some time if at all due to the money involved.
Linn also supplied best freebie too with a Linn-Studio's album from?Claire Winter? which had a couple of fine tracks amongst some ok ones. Will use as a reference point as the recording is of excellent quality.
Living Voice, if I remember right had an impressive setup with some neat valve-amps & great kit well-thought out and subtly impressive in playback.
Jamo had some huge new speakers playing Jean-Michelle Jarre. Nice to see some products for them. Hadn't rated them much previously and they had a very large presence
Yamaha provided a nice 10.2 demo with a very enjoyable £9 projector and all their own kit. Shame i had to leave it early to dispense with a few pints of guiness
Unimpressed with Teac's room as their micro systems seemed to be out of place amongst the beomoths around it. Guessing not much business done by them this weekend
Monitor Audio were demoing a pair of RS6's along with a pair of RS1's too. Fine detail on the mid & highs on them without sounding tinny as I noticed a few other makes did.
Hotel rooms was quite a good idea for format, but to be honest some were cramped and too hot. Corridors narrow on entry to rooms due to their normal function and not designed to take people coming and going at the same time.
Was seriously surprised that some of the higher supposedly higher end kit really didn't sound all that good. A few systems sounded quite harsh, but some of the valve-amp systems really showed off their stuff. On the whole kit was reasonably impressive with quite a few clear aces.
Nordust demo room was pretty impressive if you're looking for some nicely imaged airy feel with the setup they had, but I didn't think the bass on their setup sounded full or rounded enough.
Staff at the event were in most cases extremely helpful and looking for any excuse to talk to you on a level playing field one-to-one. Some real helpful spiele and chat about kit and options was a major bonus in going.
Prices inc discounts didn't seem inviting as local retailer's prices are cheaper I found.
Great deals on some racks near the entrance though. Some major bargains to be had there.
All in all thoroughly enjoyed the day out and top marks had to go to Linn for care and approach whilst discussing and demoing their kit. Majik system certainly was impressive and price to performance I felt was a real stunner.
The staff on the fujitsu LCD area in the basement were very keen to help and show off their new series. Unfortunately they had an apparent cabling issue with their 63" LCD so picture display virtually-50Hz flicker and also noise within areas of closely shaded colour.
Fujitsu really showed off a stunner with their ?37? / 42? lcd on the left hand side of their display area. Picture truly was crystal and highly impressive with HD picture.
All in all enjoyed the day and will be going back next year and future events.
Dan.
Personally I had mixed opinions of much of the kit available.
Nad Master series was great to see and seems like a solid musical set. Difficult to hear to clearly for a proper demo given number of people who wanted to take a peek.
Thoroughly enjoyed the extended demo from Linn of their new Majik series (cd/processor/power amp) along with their enttry level speakers. Detail was fantastic and closed my eyes frequently to imagine orchestra in hall with me.
Incredibly surprised by the value of the system considering about 8k in all.
Always associated Linn with much pricier hardware.
Thanks to the extremely professional, friedly and helpful Linn staff staffing the event. Chatted at great length despite it being clear I wouldn't be purchasing one for some time if at all due to the money involved.
Linn also supplied best freebie too with a Linn-Studio's album from?Claire Winter? which had a couple of fine tracks amongst some ok ones. Will use as a reference point as the recording is of excellent quality.
Living Voice, if I remember right had an impressive setup with some neat valve-amps & great kit well-thought out and subtly impressive in playback.
Jamo had some huge new speakers playing Jean-Michelle Jarre. Nice to see some products for them. Hadn't rated them much previously and they had a very large presence
Yamaha provided a nice 10.2 demo with a very enjoyable £9 projector and all their own kit. Shame i had to leave it early to dispense with a few pints of guiness
Unimpressed with Teac's room as their micro systems seemed to be out of place amongst the beomoths around it. Guessing not much business done by them this weekend
Monitor Audio were demoing a pair of RS6's along with a pair of RS1's too. Fine detail on the mid & highs on them without sounding tinny as I noticed a few other makes did.
Hotel rooms was quite a good idea for format, but to be honest some were cramped and too hot. Corridors narrow on entry to rooms due to their normal function and not designed to take people coming and going at the same time.
Was seriously surprised that some of the higher supposedly higher end kit really didn't sound all that good. A few systems sounded quite harsh, but some of the valve-amp systems really showed off their stuff. On the whole kit was reasonably impressive with quite a few clear aces.
Nordust demo room was pretty impressive if you're looking for some nicely imaged airy feel with the setup they had, but I didn't think the bass on their setup sounded full or rounded enough.
Staff at the event were in most cases extremely helpful and looking for any excuse to talk to you on a level playing field one-to-one. Some real helpful spiele and chat about kit and options was a major bonus in going.
Prices inc discounts didn't seem inviting as local retailer's prices are cheaper I found.
Great deals on some racks near the entrance though. Some major bargains to be had there.
All in all thoroughly enjoyed the day out and top marks had to go to Linn for care and approach whilst discussing and demoing their kit. Majik system certainly was impressive and price to performance I felt was a real stunner.
The staff on the fujitsu LCD area in the basement were very keen to help and show off their new series. Unfortunately they had an apparent cabling issue with their 63" LCD so picture display virtually-50Hz flicker and also noise within areas of closely shaded colour.
Fujitsu really showed off a stunner with their ?37? / 42? lcd on the left hand side of their display area. Picture truly was crystal and highly impressive with HD picture.
All in all enjoyed the day and will be going back next year and future events.
Dan.
la gran siete
Distinguished Member
One pleasant surprise was the return of Rogers speakers and the Ls35a's in particular I also quite liked the Monitor Audio ones as well
I also quite liked the Monitor Audio ones as well
la gran siete
Distinguished Member
Unimpressed with Teac's room as their micro systems seemed to be out of place amongst the beomoths around it. Guessing not much business done by them this weekend
Have to say i disagree as i noticed several were interested not only in their gear but also Denon,s micro gear.
Not everyone is keen on massively overpriced equipment
Have to say i disagree as i noticed several were interested not only in their gear but also Denon,s micro gear.
Not everyone is keen on massively overpriced equipment
riddler1999
Standard Member
Well impressed with the show. Haven't been before found it well worth the visit and will be going again no doubt.
Highlight of the show Wilson benesch, sounds where amazing.
Wooden spoon for the show has to go to the Sky stand if thats what it was, no info, prices, demo's not even a product they could point at and do a sell on you. I had already emailed interest in SkyHD.
Bar that great day and well impressed with HD as it the first time I have actually seen it.
Haven't been before found it well worth the visit and will be going again no doubt.Highlight of the show Wilson benesch, sounds where amazing.
Wooden spoon for the show has to go to the Sky stand if thats what it was,
no info, prices, demo's not even a product they could point at and do a sell on you. I had already emailed interest in SkyHD.Bar that great day and well impressed with HD as it the first time I have actually seen it.
nsherin
Established Member
Went to the show yesterday. Some good demos and some dissapointing ones. Was looking forward to hearing the NAD Master Series. This sounded pretty good, but I think that either the PSB speakers or the room accousttics contributed to the nasty bass boom. Also spoke to the chaps from Lenbrook about the NetCap - this looked interesting when it was annouced. Apparantly the supplier they were using for the chipsets went under before launch, hence why it was shelved. They do plan to redevelop the product though - and I offered a few suggestions such as a wider range of formats, plus a display on the device, rather than just relying on a TV.
KEF demo sounded good - amazing what can be done with a well designed sat/sub system. The Rotel/B&W room sounded pretty good too!
Totem audio/Rega sounded very nice. Funk Audio room also very good - it was great to see plenty of turntables in use. Very helpful chap from Henley Designs gave me some helpful advice about my turntable that isn't outputting sound at the moment. Rega room sounded pretty good, but not convinced by the speakers - they sounded sort of 'shut in'.
Naim multichannel demo dissapointing. Good test disc used - Jarre's Aero, which I know very well, but it still confirms that I'm not keen on Naim speakers.
Ruark/Vincent room sounded good - first time I'd heard any Chinese audio and I was impressed. Ruark speakers always sound good.
Coherent Systems put in a good showing as usual - I've been to previous demos that Tony has put on at Bristol - as Omiga Audio last year and with 7th Veil speakers in 2004 and they always seem to put on a good demo!
Qiuad/Audiolab/Mission stand - very dissapointing. No Quad amps/CD players, Quad Ls have very little bass and sounded unconvincing on the end of Audiolab gear. Pathetic showing from Mission this year - M cubes all round a plasma TV and a few token showings of some of their other speakers.
Resolution Audio - not so good - harsh, bright and destinctly lacking in bass! The Rogers room sounded good - I'd read a lot about their speakers, but didn't hear them till yesterday. Sounded very nice on the end of some valves.
HD plasmas look very nice - that 63" Fujitsu was a monster, but looked lovely. Up until HD, I was unconvinced by plasma or LCD for picture quality, but HD has definately changed my opinions. Agree with the poor Sky HD demo.
Didn't see anything that made me think 'I must upgrade', but I'm now finally happy with how my system sounds. Just need to get that turntable fixed and I'm sorted
KEF demo sounded good - amazing what can be done with a well designed sat/sub system. The Rotel/B&W room sounded pretty good too!
Totem audio/Rega sounded very nice. Funk Audio room also very good - it was great to see plenty of turntables in use. Very helpful chap from Henley Designs gave me some helpful advice about my turntable that isn't outputting sound at the moment. Rega room sounded pretty good, but not convinced by the speakers - they sounded sort of 'shut in'.
Naim multichannel demo dissapointing. Good test disc used - Jarre's Aero, which I know very well, but it still confirms that I'm not keen on Naim speakers.
Ruark/Vincent room sounded good - first time I'd heard any Chinese audio and I was impressed. Ruark speakers always sound good.
Coherent Systems put in a good showing as usual - I've been to previous demos that Tony has put on at Bristol - as Omiga Audio last year and with 7th Veil speakers in 2004 and they always seem to put on a good demo!
Qiuad/Audiolab/Mission stand - very dissapointing. No Quad amps/CD players, Quad Ls have very little bass and sounded unconvincing on the end of Audiolab gear. Pathetic showing from Mission this year - M cubes all round a plasma TV and a few token showings of some of their other speakers.
Resolution Audio - not so good - harsh, bright and destinctly lacking in bass! The Rogers room sounded good - I'd read a lot about their speakers, but didn't hear them till yesterday. Sounded very nice on the end of some valves.
HD plasmas look very nice - that 63" Fujitsu was a monster, but looked lovely. Up until HD, I was unconvinced by plasma or LCD for picture quality, but HD has definately changed my opinions. Agree with the poor Sky HD demo.
Didn't see anything that made me think 'I must upgrade', but I'm now finally happy with how my system sounds. Just need to get that turntable fixed and I'm sorted
DD-DTS-SDDS
Established Member
Traffic/parking situation was abysmal. I think someone who would have been in the know from show organisers should have given advance warning of just how bad it was going to be. I was lucky - turned up around 2.00ish on Saturday - took 20 mins from end of M32/underpass to centre of town - found a spot in the street below the ambulance car park.
Of the specific demos I went to see:
SVS PB-10 in the AV Forums room was smaller in the 'flesh'. Obviously not really given a great workout with the game but did hit low going 'under the bridge'.
Velodyne SPL1000 was pretty good. Demos I saw involved a Jean Michel Jarre concert and a clip from some fantasy wire-fu flick. Loud and fast but not hugely deep - but this could have just been down to the source material. Hardly a proper comparison but of the two the SVS went deeper. The SPL is a small sub!
M&K: when I visited, both rooms were using Revenge of the Sith. The Xenon 36s were quite impressive. Considering their size they did an excellent job of filling the room they were in. I like the monitor sound as my buying choices are geared towards film soundtrack reproduction and they sounded good to me - relatively speaking more impressive than the 150s in Gecko's '£100,000' demo room which I thought were only so-so; they sounded better at Onkyo's demo last year. Again all down to source material I guess but if they were trying to make a big deal of the 5100 sub... they failed.
Revel/Parasound. Excellent sound. The demo was Wallace and Gromit which was a bit sedate for my tastes but then I suppose a good example of something from the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't know what speaker models they were using but proc/amp wise it was a New Classic 7100 surround controller and 5250 (could have been 5125) amp. The Halos were there but not being used for the demo I saw.
The Meridian demos seem to be in a different class to everyone else. Where else do you get a team who are so proud of how much their equipment costs? But it was good. Dire Straits was amazing but was equalled by the jazz track before it - anyone know what it was? Wasn't as impressed with the visuals - I guess they were on a retro changing of the times theme with their choice of Top Gun but if you're going to use the words hi-def and 1080 at least make sure your source material is up to the task.
Major benefit to me of the show? Realising I better stick with lcd for projection (until 3 chip dlp or lcos drop drastically). The smaller M&K demo used an £8k Runco single chip 720 dlp pj. Nice cinematic picture to be sure but (and of course this is a completely personal conclusion and will not be relevant to x percentage of people) here's two words for you: rainbow city.
Of the specific demos I went to see:
SVS PB-10 in the AV Forums room was smaller in the 'flesh'. Obviously not really given a great workout with the game but did hit low going 'under the bridge'.
Velodyne SPL1000 was pretty good. Demos I saw involved a Jean Michel Jarre concert and a clip from some fantasy wire-fu flick. Loud and fast but not hugely deep - but this could have just been down to the source material. Hardly a proper comparison but of the two the SVS went deeper. The SPL is a small sub!
M&K: when I visited, both rooms were using Revenge of the Sith. The Xenon 36s were quite impressive. Considering their size they did an excellent job of filling the room they were in. I like the monitor sound as my buying choices are geared towards film soundtrack reproduction and they sounded good to me - relatively speaking more impressive than the 150s in Gecko's '£100,000' demo room which I thought were only so-so; they sounded better at Onkyo's demo last year. Again all down to source material I guess but if they were trying to make a big deal of the 5100 sub... they failed.
Revel/Parasound. Excellent sound. The demo was Wallace and Gromit which was a bit sedate for my tastes but then I suppose a good example of something from the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't know what speaker models they were using but proc/amp wise it was a New Classic 7100 surround controller and 5250 (could have been 5125) amp. The Halos were there but not being used for the demo I saw.
The Meridian demos seem to be in a different class to everyone else. Where else do you get a team who are so proud of how much their equipment costs? But it was good. Dire Straits was amazing but was equalled by the jazz track before it - anyone know what it was? Wasn't as impressed with the visuals - I guess they were on a retro changing of the times theme with their choice of Top Gun but if you're going to use the words hi-def and 1080 at least make sure your source material is up to the task.
Major benefit to me of the show? Realising I better stick with lcd for projection (until 3 chip dlp or lcos drop drastically). The smaller M&K demo used an £8k Runco single chip 720 dlp pj. Nice cinematic picture to be sure but (and of course this is a completely personal conclusion and will not be relevant to x percentage of people) here's two words for you: rainbow city.
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