Bristol Sound and Vision 2017 HiFi Show Report & Comments

Any indication from Chord as to whether they'd be updating their products to include MQA ala Audioquest?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Red once you've updated it!
 
Chord has not commented either way on MQA support. I'll try and keep up to date with it.
 
I thought the Russel K speakers and the wilson benesch? Set ups were very impressive.

The arcam and kef combo in the big demo room was superb, and showed off how a big system with plenty of power can sound.
 
I have been on a Saturday and from stereo point of view the best impression did PMC twenty5 23, first time I was hearing them and loved them.
 
Really enjoyed yesterday at the show. The B&W 'presentation' stole the show for me. Not only my favourite sonically, the content from B&W was excellent. Really taking time to go through the technologies used in their high end gear. It was much more than a demonstration.

Sounded incredbile too, and I'm a Monitor Audio guy!
 
I joined the Audioquest room halfway through a demo playing the intro to 'Hello' by Adele over and over again, using black and red cables connecting to a laptop. The red was clearly much better than the black cable and the difference between non MQA and MQA was hardly noticeable. I didn't think the noise cancelling USB dongle type things improved the sound. I did however enjoy the sound from the Spendor and Rega speakers playing through the Rega Brio.
 
I thought the Russel K speakers and the wilson benesch? Set ups were very impressive.

The arcam and kef combo in the big demo room was superb, and showed off how a big system with plenty of power can sound.

For sure wilson benesch have to be seen and heard, even if you have no chance of affording them.
 
Went again down from London and same as last year, I thought the Canton room had the best "Real World" setup and ably demoed by "That German Guy". Good selection of music and interesting introductions to what to listen for. But at around £6000 for the setup being played......I'll be out doing some serious overtime or listening with out a kidney!!
 
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Show has gotten boring for me, I'm an AV fan and it's still called "Sound and vision" but is lacking. More video and AV demos are needed. I didn't go this year for that reason (and many of my friends who are AV fans feel the same). It's the first time in about 10 years I've not gone and unless that changes, I won't bother next year either. Don't know how others feel?
 
I was here all Saturday and for me, Musical Fidelity M6 with the Kef Reference 1's blew me away.

I was in their demo room for some time with the ipad pro in hand playing all sorts of different genres and it dealt with whatever was thrown at it effortlessly.

For an all in one solution, albeit a £7000 solution, I was very impressed.
 
Show has gotten boring for me, I'm an AV fan and it's still called "Sound and vision" but is lacking. More video and AV demos are needed. I didn't go this year for that reason (and many of my friends who are AV fans feel the same). It's the first time in about 10 years I've not gone and unless that changes, I won't bother next year either. Don't know how others feel?

In a way, AV needs more room to setup and demo(talking about venue per se)and maybe could be an actual separate event due to the difference in electronics. Arcam did an impressive setup last year and that required a considerably large setup. Many of the systems displayed had to be set about in smaller, overcrowded rooms and I just don't think they'd get a decent putting there.
 
In a way, AV needs more room to setup and demo(talking about venue per se)and maybe could be an actual separate event due to the difference in electronics. Arcam did an impressive setup last year and that required a considerably large setup. Many of the systems displayed had to be set about in smaller, overcrowded rooms and I just don't think they'd get a decent putting there.
The Arcam review was impressive I remember it. Video doesn't need to take up so much though. Where are all the TV manufacturers showing their wares?
 
The Arcam review was impressive I remember it. Video doesn't need to take up so much though. Where are all the TV manufacturers showing their wares?

They used to do a show at Earls Court, but I think the acoustic setups were poor in such a large hall. Maybe you're expected to read reviews and find a willing demo room yourself.
 
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The Arcam review was impressive I remember it. Video doesn't need to take up so much though. Where are all the TV manufacturers showing their wares?
They did used to have more AV though, I don't think the room needs to be large to accommodate. I've seen nice smaller set ups.
 
They used to do a show at Earls Court, but I think the acoustic setups were poor in such a large hall. Maybe you're expected to read reviews and find a willing demo room yourself.
You could do that for all the displays though to a point. I appreciate that's how its evolving, but its put off a lot of previous visitors..
 
I really enjoyed the show, there was much more to see than I expected. My highlights were the Sony and Pioneer Hi-Res Walkmans. I have the older NW-ZX1 but the NW-WM1z/a sounded gorgeous and the copper one was rather heavy! For me most of the Hi-Fi demos were rather underwhelming with a rather harsh sound - perhaps due to the small Marriott rooms? The exception was Quad and Spendor. Spendor speakers sounded fantastic! The Loewe OLED Tv's looked great with Dolby Vision content on the 55 inch and the UHD Disc of Revenant on the 65 inch.

The Planet Earth 2 pre-production disc at the What Hi-fi demo was great, very clear. The Star Trek Beyond demo as has been said didn't show the full potential of 4K unfortunately. It was interesting that the Oppo UDP-203 player wasn't being used, rather the Panasonic 900. Apparently it was due to the Oppo having handshaking issues with the JVC projector! I really want to get the Oppo, but hearing all these bugs puts me off.

The Sony and What HIFI 4K demos of ATMOS failed to wow me, perhaps I was in the wrong seat to appreciate it.

On the whole thoroughly enjoyed the day!
 
Went again down from London and same as last year, I thought the Canton room had the best "Real World" setup and ably demoed by "That German Guy". Good selection of music and interesting introductions to what to listen for. But at around £6000 for the setup being played......I'll be out doing some serious overtime or listening with out a kidney!!
He was even happier when I told him London Grammar have a new album coming out.
 
Did anyone listen to the demos from Bluesound?
 
Show has gotten boring for me, I'm an AV fan and it's still called "Sound and vision" but is lacking. More video and AV demos are needed. I didn't go this year for that reason (and many of my friends who are AV fans feel the same). It's the first time in about 10 years I've not gone and unless that changes, I won't bother next year either. Don't know how others feel?

I agree, firstly I work for PMC, so I can't talk about that, I have been going for 17 years firstly as a AV guy and now with my company and I have been talking about doing a Arcam type room for a long time, it's difficult as it is very costly not only to exhibit but the logistics and man power involved in doing it properly.
I 100% agree and I'm sure the fact that the market has changed so much for what people buy now has also made it less attractive for manufacturers.

I'm a AV guy at heart and I also want to encourage this from inside our industry.

Let's hope more people start buying real AV kit again and maybe it can happen
 
I agree, firstly I work for PMC, so I can't talk about that, I have been going for 17 years firstly as a AV guy and now with my company and I have been talking about doing a Arcam type room for a long time, it's difficult as it is very costly not only to exhibit but the logistics and man power involved in doing it properly.
I 100% agree and I'm sure the fact that the market has changed so much for what people buy now has also made it less attractive for manufacturers.

I'm a AV guy at heart and I also want to encourage this from inside our industry.

Let's hope more people start buying real AV kit again and maybe it can happen
Good know I'm not the only one! :) I don't think you have to have a demo the size of the Arcam one.. The Yamaha room used to demo AV and that's not that big a room. It'd be pretty easy to demo a couple of amps and a decent screen I would think. There are some small rooms set up with surround there. Hopefully they will address this as a lot of potential buyers are staying away I feel.
 
I think a lot of kit at this level is a race to the bottom by mail order businesses and this squeezes manufacturers also, that would appear to be what might have happened, AV receivers don't sell like they used to, soundbars etc have been marketed as "home cinema" to be fair the show has been rammed all weekend where I was, generally it was very busy, more quality AV, I won't argue
 
Did anyone listen to the demos from Bluesound?
I thought it was somewhat underwhelming. They played the same track at 320, CD (1411) and then Bluesound. It could have been the listening environment, however the difference was not earth shattering.
 
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True, we see trends and the one box "higher end £4K up) are becoming more Prevalent at shows, I also use actives across the front with a processor but amps and passive for surround duties. Some of this stuff is classed and sold as pro so less likely to be at Bristol, although you never know. I see lots of solutions at CEDIA US/CES/ISE and Munich so I guess we will see
 

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