News: Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2020 - What to expect

Mostly various scenes from a Dolby Atmos demo disk, Kef also had Hans Zimmer live in Prague and Arcam had a star is born / King Kong!
Thanks audiofidelity 👍🏻👍🏻
 
Unusual not to use their own AV / Astral gear, was it a Focal stand or just a stand using Focal speakers?

Focal room - this was their ‘budget range’ hense using Denon presumably

If the number of channels is right that's disappointing, it was meant to be 7.4.4, i.e. using 15 channels and Dirac. Do you know if it had Dirac or not?

Could well have been 7.4.4 in fairness, I didn’t have time to count the speakers! The room / demo was fully calibrated using Dirac though.

Last year the I'm not sure the Emotiva AV processor was being used, do you know if it was being used this year and if so, again did it have Dirac?

Not sure as it was drop in setup vs having an explanation of what was being shown.

Am glad you were impressed, last year had some good highlights, I've never found it all bad, just varying levels of good and boring each year, although I do equally enjoy Hi-Fi and AV and have been going for years, long time before they had much AV stuff there at all.

Yeah, seeing AV (and hifi) first hand is a bonus and interesting to learn / see demos etc that folk may otherwise not get to see etc makes it worthwhile!
 
Just on way home from Bristol. Pleasantly surprised by the amount of AV demos this year!

Favourite AV demo in terms of being a bit of an eye opener was Focal‘s Atmos demo on the lower ground floor using a Denon 6500 amplifier - was a 5.2.4 upward firing speaker package at £3850 from recollection, £6500 inc the Denon amp. Very impressive performance.

To put it into context, there was a very high end £15k kef atmos speaker package (£35k as a complete setup apparently) on demo in the adjoining room, and whilst it’s subjective I thought the focal/Denon demo was at a different level performance wise - was very impressed!

Arcam were running a 5/7.2.4 demo (think that the number of channels) which was also very good using their AV40 and 2xAV720’s(?), which gave a solid performance using their associated JBL speaker range.

The other AV demo was for an Emotiva/SVS demo on the 4th floor, similar to last year.

What hifi also had LG’s 77” 8k tv which was interesting to see and watch.

Very interesting and a worthwhile day out!
Funny, I wasn't that impressed by Arcam, to start with they had done problems with hdmi handshake, as then it wouldn't play, but when I went I thought the sound of Kong was a bit harsh,
 
Funny, I wasn't that impressed by Arcam, to start with they had done problems with hdmi handshake, as then it wouldn't play, but when I went I thought the sound of Kong was a bit harsh,
No such technical issues when I saw the Arcam demo...but guess each run through may be at different volumes etc that may explain why you felt it sounded a bit harsh perhaps but I thought a star is born was spine tingling!
 
Loud shouldn’t automatically be harsh surely if setup right
 
Loud shouldn’t automatically be harsh surely if setup right
True. It’d be quite useful to have the same demo / same speakers, same room etc to allow for a more objective comparison. By fortune both kef and focal used the same demo disc and selection between rooms which allowed a side by side comparison (to a degree)!
 
True. It’d be quite useful to have the same demo / same speakers, same room etc to allow for a more objective comparison. By fortune both kef and focal used the same demo disc and selection between rooms which allowed a side by side comparison (to a degree)!
I did like the Kef demo, I thought it was very good 👍🏻
 
Loud shouldn’t automatically be harsh surely if setup right
Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on each demo on Sunday! The demo that really stood out for me was Focal’s, I’d never have thought speakers with in built atmos up-firers could sound so good!
 
Was due to be there today but have come down with a stinker of a cold. :(

Was hoping to see if Chord had the 2Go for sale and at any discounted price for the show.
If anyone that's going/gone could look out it would be much appreciated in case I can muster up enough energy to drive down tomorrow to pick one up if there is a decent saving.
 
I thought the SVS room was the most interesting for me. They had a pair of the new pro series subs. Kef to me was better than the focal Atmos set up. But then it was many times the price, albeit in a room twice the size. Arcam was ok, funny to see what looked like modern JBL Control 1s for heights. Didnt get a chance to speak to Matt about the 16 channel processing and whether it could do front wides.

JL and RBH sounded good in two channel. The Rel room with a pair of triple driver subs was very impressive. It really got very low and loud.

The LG 8K TV was interesting. They played a clip from Gemini Man 4K 60 frames instead of 24, with lots of action. One of the WHF guys said the motion looks different but you soon get used to it. Well I can’t describe it. It was strange. Fast it was but looked more like a computer game with soap opera effect. Others will disagree. I was sat at the back of the room.

Ive found Atmos to be a mixed bag at the shows. In a very small room like mine Im not convinced it adds much to 7 base level speakers. Admittedly the location is a bit of a compromise. I wasn’t near the sweet spot in the multi channel demonstrations which is a factor.

PMC launched their I-series Twenty speakers. They did this type of mid life cycle refresh with the TB/FB series. The 24 iteration sounded very good, but I question with all the developments since the FBs etc, does this really add anything apart from a probable price hike.

JBLs classic range looked like something off the cover of a 1970 HiFi news, but I liked them. Harbeth was sounding very good. Not a brand I’ve bothered with for a while.
 
Personally have been most surprised by the REL demo - shocked at the difference high level into subs makes, purely to soundstage and engagement.
 
I thought the SVS room was the most interesting for me. They had a pair of the new pro series subs. Kef to me was better than the focal Atmos set up. But then it was many times the price, albeit in a room twice the size. Arcam was ok, funny to see what looked like modern JBL Control 1s for heights. Didnt get a chance to speak to Matt about the 16 channel processing and whether it could do front wides.

JL and RBH sounded good in two channel. The Rel room with a pair of triple driver subs was very impressive. It really got very low and loud.

The LG 8K TV was interesting. They played a clip from Gemini Man 4K 60 frames instead of 24, with lots of action. One of the WHF guys said the motion looks different but you soon get used to it. Well I can’t describe it. It was strange. Fast it was but looked more like a computer game with soap opera effect. Others will disagree. I was sat at the back of the room.

Ive found Atmos to be a mixed bag at the shows. In a very small room like mine Im not convinced it adds much to 7 base level speakers. Admittedly the location is a bit of a compromise. I wasn’t near the sweet spot in the multi channel demonstrations which is a factor.

PMC launched their I-series Twenty speakers. They did this type of mid life cycle refresh with the TB/FB series. The 24 iteration sounded very good, but I question with all the developments since the FBs etc, does this really add anything apart from a probable price hike.

JBLs classic range looked like something off the cover of a 1970 HiFi news, but I liked them. Harbeth was sounding very good. Not a brand I’ve bothered with for a while.
I enjoyed Whathifi, but they didn't have Atmos
 
As usual I ended up missing some things I would have liked to have seen. I didn't bother with another 8k tv demo, but did listen to a few of the Kong demo's some of the cheaper set ups, the Canton and one other room using TV's were pretty good, delivered a more than reasonable sound for the price.

I was very disappointed by the KEF Atmos room, I thought the sound was compressed and muddled, for the the concert they played really highlighted this. I was left thinking it needed more control and a big lift in dynamic range and better equipment somewhere in the chain, it was using a denon receiver and £30k of speakers which seemed and odd mix. The sony projector looked very average with appalling black levels and contrast, that was true as well with the NX9 in the JBL Arcam room. In both cases it was clearly inadequate light control, at least I didn't go home and look disappointingly image, indeed quite the reverse.

I thought the Arcam 40, JBL set up with the NX9 was a lot better, the dynamic range was much improved and I was impressed with the overall performance for the price, the bass integration was good and it had real impact and some solidity and weight to the sound. Being critical there was a little 'brittleness' in the top end, but that's picking hairs in may ways. Overall It was very good. Having heard the Trinnov, Storm, Dataset, Lyngdorf in dedicated well set up rooms, this set up was at least as good as you would hope to achieve at a show at this price point. Indeed I do wonder how good the Arcam 40 is and equally how good the new JBL will be with it's high end DACs. Clearly the JBL-Arcam relationship is a good mix.

Speaking to one of the reps for Arcam he was saying that the engineering investment in the new platform was much greater than they would have been able to achieve without being part of HK.

As for the rest of the 2 channel, nothing remarkable and some quite poor sounding rooms, even the audio note room was dissapointing
 
Just got back and thought I'd drop down some notes from my first time at a show like this.
Some caveats first, I didn't get to see absolutely everything as some rooms were packed, and sometimes they would be playing music I just didn't like. Plus my ears are no longer perfect, and I think really we all have different preferences in sound so what I like in system may be a bit dull or too much for others, so take it all with a generous pinch of salt.

General thoughts
  • It's a tricky venue, and the rooms were too small for some systems (the Emotiva/SVS was a prime example), so not everything sounded as good as it could have. Some rooms sounded pretty bad, so much so that I walked pretty much straight out again.
  • A lot of the experience was determined by the music being played. I felt if it wasn't to my taste then I found it difficult to take interest in how the hardware sounded.
  • I'm not a fan of vinyl (there I've said it) and I felt some systems were let down by the scratchy/crackly records being played. That said there were a few demos which sounded superb with vinyl. There was a Master Re-release (or something) of Dire Straits that stood out for sure.
  • Wow there's a lot of options out there, from amps to processors to digital audio sources, I wouldn't really know where to start if I was to spec up my own system from fresh.
  • Funny to see large variety of massive power adapters that kit was connected through.
  • Fyne Audio speakers seemed to be everywhere.
  • I nearly went through the Martin Logan stand when I tripped on the small step onto it. Would've loved to have heard their elctrostatics being played.

Highlighted rooms/demos
Multichannel
What HiFi 8K OLED demo
- it was a 77" TV not the 88" advertised, so looked a little small in the room. The LG 8K demos had the colour punched way too high so it was distracting and couldn't tell how lifelike stuff could be. It did look pretty detailed. Gemini Man looked dreadful in 60fps. It was nice and detailed, but the film felt like one of the cheap demos scenes you get on a sampler disk. 60fps films is a no from me. The sound was pretty good, but only 7.1.
KEF Atmos 7.2.4 - I felt the soundstage worked really well in terms of steering stuff around the room and giving it height. It was a tricky room for sure. I did feel the sound quality overall was a bit off, the subs maybe not able to deliver for the room size. And as someone else mentioend very unimpressed with the £15K Sony 4K laser projector, poor black levels. Could've been the way it was setup of course, and the room was still fairly bright. I need to get the Kraftwerk Dolby Atmos disc they demoed, that sounded amazing. I am going to look more at these KEF speakers for a future upgrade though, they impressed me.
Focal Atmos 5.1.2 - I was pretty impressed with the elevation of the sound again. The built in up firing speakers did a superb job of putting the sound in the ceiling. The Atmos Amaze and Rainfall demos and Everest sounded great. They also showed the GoT demo (which KEF did too) and I don't know why as I don't think it's the best Atmos demo. I think KEF did the soundstage for it better anyway, but then it should for the price. Overall the sound quality was good, but it did feel a bit lost at times in the room.
Emotiva/SVS Atmos 7.2.4(?) - the room was way too small for this setup so it sounded boomy and had little steering of effects. I even heard some clipping in the concert track they played. Didn't like it much.

Stereo
Kudos Sound Engineering speakers with Naim electronics
- this sounded really nice, good bass and detail without being harsh. I liked the ominous look to the speakers.
IMG_20200222_125453.jpg
Acoustic Energy - they were playing some great electronic music, but once you got in front of the speakers the bass was too boomy so I didn't last long. Above bass was good though.
Dynaudio - they were some massive speakers in a room that seemed to have a lot of acoustic treatment (seemed to a be a special demo room). They sounded incredible on the track I heard, detailed, balanced and well sound staged. Sounded expensive.
IMG_20200222_132454.jpg
KOG Audio - T+A speakers, Taiko electronics - this was one of the first rooms I went into and I was blown away by how good the bass was on the speakers. I really enjoyed listening to these and went back for more. Mind you they should sound good as there was many thousands of £ worth of kit playing it. But hey that's why I went to see what some of this stuff was like.
IMG_20200222_152245.jpg
Monitor Audio - they had some different Bronze speakers playing and while they sounded nice they never really hooked me into the music. I've got an older set of MA Bronze's in my AV so it's kind of a brand I know. These didn't sell me on changing them to newer ones.
Mitchell Engineering - this was one setup that had a nice vinyl album playing throught some ProAc speakers. They sounded pretty nice to me.
IMG_20200222_130300.jpg
Dali - the wireless speakers they had on show sounded pretty good to me, although the music wasn't my bag.
Spendor/Auralic - there was a stunning demo of an acoustic Sugababes (I think) track that sounded lovely. They changed speakers midway through so I'm not sure what was actually producing the sound, but it was nice.
Lockwood Loudspeakers - bonkers 60s retro design that were probably too big for the room as it got uncomfortable to listen to when the volume increased. They sounded nice when there was less going on.
Bowers and Wilkins - disappointed in the room they had, it was more a showroom of there speakers rather than a dedicated demo on a stereo pair. I would've loved to hear a pair of their nice speakers in a focused demo.
Decent Audio - Magnepan LRS electrostatic speakers - oh boy these were my show highlight. I've wanted to listen to some electrostatics for years after reading about the Quad ones. They did not disappoint. A beautifully natural and balanced sound that staged nicely. I could've listened to these for a long time. Mind you it only had fairly chilled music playing so maybe they can't cope with everything but still, I loved them. Now where to find £1k (edit correction, I'd misheard the guy when he said 995. I heard too many 9s and thought they were £10k which wouldn't have been surprising after some of the telephone numbers I saw on some kit. They're now much more attainable to me at some point)
IMG_20200222_153032.jpg

Edit: I've corrected my price of the Magnepan LRS speakers, they can be had for £995
 
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PS some of the more interesting sounding rooms for 2-channel were the KOG room, I knew nothing about the products before I walked in, small speakers that looked uninspiring but making some nice sounds, I then realised they were using a very large streamer that costs £25k ! Interesting how the neat efficient space saving streaming solutions are now ermm... not that neat !

But it did sound more than okay. I also thought the PMC room held a good account for itself. But most Bryston/PMC have a very respectable sound, some might say a little too clean and perhaps unforgiving but good all the same.

I saw some lovely Klipsch Cornwall IV's in the always interesting downstairs suite, looked like they might be worth a listen if you have the room, the Heresy's were sounding okay at best upstairs, but they can sound superb, I know because my twin brother has a pair as well as another friend both driven by good valve amps
 
Overall I just enjoyed my day out. As usual, some things were interesting to see and hear, some things were a bit meh but the overriding thing for me was just being able to see and hear a lot of kit. I did like the baby Harbeth's although, for the price I would probably prefer to get something a bit bigger that gives a bigger sound with a bit more depth. But for speakers so small I thought they did a terrific job. Really interesting to hear the Audiolab 6000 in both parts of the day. In the morning with the Wharfedale Evo 4.4 floor standers it sounded really quite underwhelming. A real lack of depth to the bass end frequencies meant that the amp sounded really very ordinary. In the afternoon with the Linton speakers - different kettle of fish. Much richer sound and much more pleasing. I was fortunate enough to have booked myself in for the Linn Selekt streamer demo. Again, very nice sounding piece of kit and there was a clear difference between the standard DAC and the Katalyst. Katalyst obviously more expensive - around £1500 upgrade to the base Selekt system. Question for me though - does the overall system at probably £5000+ including Katalyst sound any better than the options available at a less than half that price? Not so sure. Wasn't especially impressed by the Series 3 wireless speaker though considering its price.
Not blown away by the Harman Kardon wireless speakers either. Based on what I heard I think the Audio Pro range offer a better quality of sound - but that's to my ears and based on a short listen in a sub optimal room.
I think one of the nicest sounding demos to me was the Hegel / Amphion room. Compared to a lot of stuff on show, relatively modest priced amp and speakers delivering a very nice sound. More engaging than most.
Was a bit bemused by the Denon room. Demoing the sound bar and sub sounded strange to me. There was a lot of low end bass but all it was doing (for me) was a rumbling and booming. Nothing distinct and the sound didn't appear to have anything to do with what was happening on the screen. Not a good experience.
Pleasantly surprised by the Naim MuSo. The 2nd generation sounded so much better than the original although still not convinced I would buy one at that price! :)
Enjoyed the Arcam demo room but not convinced by the JBL speakers. The Star is Born soundtrack demo sounded very nice but the movie clip didn't set me on fire.
As someone considering a new amp soon it was nice to see my candidates in action (Audiolab, Cyrus, Musical Fidelity) but am I any closer to making my decision - not really! :)
Still, lots of nice little highlights through the day and plenty to see. As someone else pointed out, the choice of music in a lot of the suites left a lot to be desired as it perhaps showed off some aspect of the systems capability but gave me no insight into how it sounds with "normal" music.
 

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