Bristol Sound and Vision 2017 AV Show Report - Post your comments

What he said!!! The only other mention is Monitor Audio, who had tucked away on the 10th floor ticket only demos of their Platinum series, 500s on the front and 100s on the rear Just 5.1 with a large screen tv, but more av that most of the other exhibitors.
 
Was about to echo the sentiments myself.
monitor audio - was it just, me or are the platinum II's utterly underwhelming. I went to see the 500's there last yr and thought something was wrong - 300's in a 5.1 this yr just as unimpressive to me and my buddy. Tiny room for 300's and plc 350ii but avr850 and Dirac should have helped? kef wiped the floor with them in the arcam room. I tell you what I liked though - the canton reference's made me sit up and listen. Rel G1 Mark II's, I think on demo x2 for stereo made a great account of themselves too.
Denon hasn't been there for yrs but Yamaha not in their usual spot is sad, same for onkyo - what gives? And no JVC grrrrrrr
 
Did Sony demo their Atmos soundbar Steve / do you have plan to review? Really interested in this one for its DTS support.
 
Arcam demo was great. Apart from a few opera track svs did not have any other music material to demonstrate on their sb 16, but for movies it was the best sub there.
 
I tell you what I liked though - the canton reference's made me sit up and listen. Rel G1 Mark II's, I think on demo x2 for stereo made a great account of themselves too.
Denon hasn't been there for yrs but Yamaha not in their usual spot is sad, same for onkyo - what gives? And no JVC grrrrrrr
Agree about the Canton Reference and they used some good demo tracks. Managed to grab a front seat which helped even further.
Used the Sound hound app on my phone at quite a few demos when I enjoyed the music but did not know what it was. Will now get the discs/downloads. Very useful app for music lovers.
 
thanks for the report Steve,

i'm assuming the Audio-Technica DSR9BT, and DSR7BT headphones were on show? the avforums original report on these said they were available February, but i believe that has now shifted to May (certainly in the UK) - when are these headphones likely to be reviewed on the forums? i'm guessing this will be @Ed Selley remit?
 
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Arcam demo was great. Apart from a few opera track svs did not have any other music material to demonstrate on their sb 16, but for movies it was the best sub there.

yep can't believe arcam built their own subs BC they contend no consumer sub was good enough for the space - pb16 not a match for arcam's own ported mdf construction pffffft
 
Agree about the Canton Reference and they used some good demo tracks. Managed to grab a front seat which helped even further.
Used the Sound hound app on my phone at quite a few demos when I enjoyed the music but did not know what it was. Will now get the discs/downloads. Very useful app for music lovers.
Downloaded shazam for same reason, then promptly left my phone at home!!! Still came home and bought 3 albums I heard at the canton demo.
 
Did the B& W 5.1 demo show that crazy Atmos is unnecessary ?

Well it was stunning stunning stunning but even if you thought it was suitably enveloping (and It was) you could still appreciate the height cues in the arcam room.
Also it's not as if it's a simple alternative - not when creating that takes 5 speakers and 2 subs that will run you to 50k.
 
thanks for the report Steve,

i'm assuming the Audio-Technica DSR9BT, and DSR7BT headphones were on show? the avforums original report on these said they were available February, but i believe that has now shifted to May (certainly in the UK) - when are these headphones likely to be reviewed on the forums? i'm guessing this will be @Ed Selley remit?

They were (are) on display on the AT booth and I hope to have a look at them when they become available.
 
It's a shame the vision part is noticeably lacking except for Sony and Loewe what gives ? Well the b&w 802 were very nice except for the hernia induced as the solid aluminum speaker parts passed around [emoji16],what hi-fi demo was a slight disappointment but the arcam demo with Dirac stood out as £100000 should surely do with homegrown 21" subs as presumably kefs speakers but subs not up to it. !! ,kefs active ls 50s worth a listen,also enjoyed TAD speakers,many rooms worth a listen if not a look so much.
 
Did the B& W 5.1 demo show that crazy Atmos is unnecessary ?
As amazing as it sounded, and it should for that price, it did lack the three dimensional positioning of effects that you get with Atmos. I'm perfectly happy with the sound I get from my Atmos system for a fraction of the cost.
 
Was about to echo the sentiments myself.
monitor audio - was it just, me or are the platinum II's utterly underwhelming. I went to see the 500's there last yr and thought something was wrong - 300's in a 5.1 this yr just as unimpressive to me and my buddy. Tiny room for 300's and plc 350ii but avr850 and Dirac should have helped? kef wiped the floor with them in the arcam room. I tell you what I liked though - the canton reference's made me sit up and listen. Rel G1 Mark II's, I think on demo x2 for stereo made a great account of themselves too.
Denon hasn't been there for yrs but Yamaha not in their usual spot is sad, same for onkyo - what gives? And no JVC grrrrrrr


I saw some monitor audio standmounts around £3100 yesterday at the show and hardly any detail to the sound at all. Maybe the platinum 2s but I asked price to compare to my speakers price and he gave the value. Comparing to my speakers and listening to pmc/AVM they were rediculously poor, but I've never really rated monitor audio. I'm sure higher spec models are good though.
 
I went last year and as much as it was an enjoyable day, I also found it a little disappointing with the amount of AV that was actually on display.
I decided not to go this year because of last year, only to read there was even less this year.
It's a fantastic show to experience Audio especially 2 channel, and I would very highly recommend it to anyone.
But sadly I feel it's now time to drop the word Vision, as there is so little.
It clearly now is an Audio event
 
The What HiFi demo room was good with a 30 grand JVC projector doing 4k & HDR.

Funnily enough they used part of a Planet Earth episode that we watched during the week (on Sky Q - so upscaled HD I guess) which meant I'd a pretty direct comparison.

Was pretty great but not 30 grande better!
 
Any new atmos upfiring speakers on show?
 
My little show report:

I went with my interest in 2 channel and was really impressed with the Wilson benesch set up of £16k stand mount speakers (discovery 2). Can anyone tell me what that this track was playing on it if you heard it. A car advert tune which has a bit in it which sounds like 'da da caaarrrhhhgg' , with a kind of disco tune. maybe a Mazda advert but it is a very dynamic track. I wanted to try on my hi fi but cannot find anywhere online.

I was impressed with the leema set up with atc scm50 speakers and Proac d20 speakers as well as the pmc room with AVM amps, although I only got to hear the pmc twenty5 21s and 22s. I thought the sound of the 21 through the 'basic' £4K AVM system was a bit bright for my liking compared to my amps, but it could have been due to a lot of things e.g. Acoustics etc.

I went to a test with Matt Peddle from chord who were plugging latest developments in using Taylon as dialetric for Sarum cables. They were using naim electronics and really good neats I think, from memory. They tried odyssey cable first, then went to epic twin and epic reference (which I have) and there were clear improvements going from one to the other, but less so from standard Sarum to Sarum tuned array I thought. The difference in quality against difference in Sarum prices was easily something my ears could get used to if I had that system. Clearly the much better value was in going to epic twin or reference from odyssey.

I checked out an isotek demo with various systems. They were using Swedish Larsen 6.2 speakers with an exposure CD player and exposure intergrated. To give an idea of value for the test, I checked out the Larsen speakers afterwards which are £2k a pair (fantastic btw for their size) and the exposure amp and CD player were no more than a few thousand each i think. He first started with an IKEA / b and q power block playing a female vocal track for a minute, then plugged in the basic isotek Polaris, £300 I think, and played the same track. It was immediately obvious there was more spaciousness to the sound and a bigger soundstage and this was the main change. Changing to the £1400 Aquarius it sounded like a better amp with more speed of attack and rhythm, more akin to adding a better power supply. Someone commented naim had recommended not using isotek with their amps (bit just adding their naim power supplies, kaching...) until a group of naim people had got together and the consensus was some isotek kit does improve sq on top of perhaps adding naim power supplies. So I'd definetly say something like a Polaris is good value and probably the Aquarius for what it did,in the right systems of course.

I was impressed too with a musical fidelity all in one combo with kef reference ones and some neat momentum sx5i speakers, as well as some spendor d7s and d9s were sounding very good. The newish cyrus one was holding its own powering some £6k speakers in the cyrus suite, not sure what they were, but they also had 25-23s there with the one amp too.

Embarrassingly (for some I guess) I saw some poor set ups too. A can't remember what whey were but some French white 'ball speakers on a stick' which were distorting under heavy bass and sounding awful. Some monitor audio £3100 stand mount speakers were poor with no detail and whilst I like the sound of harbeth speakers, I thought it very funny they were listening just to a spoken voice. It did sound amazingly natural but it gave me an impression these speakers are mainly for classical music, as I already knew, because they have very good mid range but not much low end whack needed for rock etc. The owners view is if you get the voice right everything else follows but I'm not sure about that with iron maiden! Dali epicon 6's were quite good but I couldn't help thinking there are better speakers at around this price and I'd expect pmc 25-26s to beat them. This also supported my view their are makes better than Dali like atc etc.

The various set ups again showed me how ridiculously difficult it is for any speaker to be natural with lots of bass and mesh good bass with mid range and treble etc, without reverbed bass, with systems a lot more expensive that mine , but the Wilson benesch speakers came up best. I'm glad I've chosen a speaker that has relatively small amounts of bass since these difficulties are somewhat masked, plus huge amounts of bass in a home environment can be burdensome over better qualities like detail, soundstage, mid range, dynamics etc. Is my view anyway.

I was also impressed chatting to a guy on the melco stand and I think some forms of dedicated streamers are the way to go, but again expensive for what they are. I'm hoping mass market producers can make these cheaper. Maybe there are? Plus Townshend audio demoing their speaker supports - the seismic podium. They had two pmc fact 12 not playing anything. One was on the podium and another just on the floor. On top were two tablets with a vibration meter app showing vibration modulation coming as you tapped each speaker or stamped your foot nearby. More modulations came from the speaker not on the podium. I'm sure I buy into the idea that the speaker interacts with the floor on spikes to colour its sound, and less so if suspended in mid air, but how much better than using granite plinths, I don't know as I haven't tried. For what they are ridiculously expensive at £1400. Basically a plate with 4 spring coils. Someone ought to get these made by a manufacturer just above cost as a project and circulate to everyone whose kit could benefit from it, if no current trademarks etc.

Was a bit disappointing that not many projectors and av set ups I agree, but possibly they don't have the space there using hotel demo rooms etc.

I think this show confirmed what Ive thought that good value audiophile speaker makes like pmc, Proac, spendor, neat, atc etc are better than quite a few others.
 
I also went last year to look at the AV kit and was rather disappointed with what was on offer.
I had intended to visit the show yesterday and am glad I didn't waste my money with what has been reported above, I had spoken to the show organisers last year about the lack of AV offerings but maybe they no longer want to cater for the average punter and are aiming mostly at people with deep pockets and more money than sense.
 
I also went last year to look at the AV kit and was rather disappointed with what was on offer.
I had intended to visit the show yesterday and am glad I didn't waste my money with what has been reported above, I had spoken to the show organisers last year about the lack of AV offerings but maybe they no longer want to cater for the average punter and are aiming mostly at people with deep pockets and more money than sense.


They are showcasing their products so are obviously going to put lots of their top models in their main rooms, but that said premium brands like pmc had their cheapest speakers on show as did spendor and some rooms had £200 speakers in them this year (e.g. Mission). Also rega were demoing good value amps and products, as were firms like mcru. But is never going to be a budget show for obvious reasons.
 
The What HiFi demo room was good with a 30 grand JVC projector doing 4k & HDR.

Funnily enough they used part of a Planet Earth episode that we watched during the week (on Sky Q - so upscaled HD I guess) which meant I'd a pretty direct comparison.

Was pretty great but not 30 grande better!
30000 reasons not to spend that amount based on the images I saw.
 
30000 reasons not to spend that amount based on the images I saw.

What's Hi-fi demo was a disappointment. They demoed Star Trek Beyond which 1st is 2K upscaled and 2nd is the one of the worst HDR implementation in my opinion. They could give Revenant or Deadpool which would be perfect
 
The Lowe oled tellies in the foyer looked fantastic, albeit with 'off the shelf' LG panels.
 

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