The UK HiFi Show Live 2023 at Royal Ascot Report

It has been a long 5 years since I last attended a HiFi Show Live event and also at the new venue Royal Ascot compared to when the show used to be hosted at the Hotel in Windsor, this really is a step up and when you first arrive it is quite overwhelming as this place is huge with the main entrance and subsequent levels spanning across six floors and in such a beautiful setting of the race course and it's grounds.





As you enter the main entrance you are welcomed by an array of speakers and various amplifiers from the brands on show and their associated distributors just to give you a taster of what is on show it's only when you start to explore the main building do you get to see the massive rooms and stunning systems that these distributors have put together.

I really thought that I had put a good plan into action by starting on the top level and working my way down but that kind of went sideways due to so many great rooms on offer and spending far too long drooling over the incredible systems and sound that captivated us, so I have put together what I feel was the best of the show and also what they were showing.

Karma AV had so many great speakers and partnering equipment to show and I have listed them below with the highlight being the incredible new Perlisten Audio S7t Limited Edition speakers which I got to hear at length and actually met Dan Roamer although it was brief.


Perlisten Audio S7t Limited Edition


With the Carbon Fibre over HDF side panels and hand-picked crossover and driver components, each Limited-Edition speaker pair has been matched to 0.5dB, and numbered, signed and personalised for a truly exclusive owner experience.

We listened to quite a few different tracks on the S7t speakers and it was noticeable that the beryllium tweeter’s extended frequency response was more revealing in the top end compared to the R7t that I just reviewed, they also had copious amounts of bass on offer and easily filled the room with a deep but tuneful response in the lower frequencies, the finish on these carbon fibre cabinets is simply stunning and if you have deep enough pockets these would be a fantastic choice of speaker and easily compete with much higher priced high end speakers, these are the ultimate Perlisten Audio speakers in both looks and sound.








 

MoFi MasterDeck, MasterPhono, SourcePoint 8 & 10 speakers


UK show debut for MoFi’s new Master Deck turntable and Master Phono phono stage and the revelatory qualities of point source design through MoFi’s EISA award-winning SourcePoint 8 and SourcePoint 10 speakers.

Allen Perkins has created a unique 10-inch hybrid gimbal tonearm for MasterDeck that delivers extraordinary precision, control and tracking. Outfitted with a carbon-fibre wand as well as the patented Spiral Groove counterweight and removable headshell, it allows for effortless adjustments to azimuth, overhang, VTA, and more. Housed in an isolated mount, MasterDeck’s virtually noiseless three-phase BLDC Sinusoidal motor is driven with extreme accuracy (33.3333rpm) and consistency. Equipped with rare features such as passive RIAA equalization and two input topologies – one voltage type and one current-source type – MasterPhono benefits from a discrete, balanced, wide-bandwidth, all-FET input and output stage; fully regulated and shielded internal power supply with dedicated left and right channels; and programmable relay-controlled loading and gain settings. A thick aluminium front panel frames a pair of meters that provide VU information as well as calibration points for cartridge setup.

SourcePoint 8 is created by MoFi’s Chief Speaker Designer Andrew Jones and offers the same exceptional sound character as its larger sibling (the SourcePoint 10), but in a more compact package that can fit into most rooms. Its custom-made eight-inch concentric driver features MoFi’s innovative Twin-Drive high-flux magnet structure. The paper pulp mix cone shape with its new corrugated surround is optimised for resonant behaviour and tweeter waveguide requirements. The 1.25-inch soft dome tweeter with large-diameter voice coil and wide surround extends both the low and high frequency response of the tweeter. Combined with the loading of the waveguide, its low-end efficiency allows the tweeter to work optimally down to the low 1.6kHz crossover frequency. The SourcePoint 8’s cabinet is made of 1.9cm-thick MDF panels for the sides, top, bottom, and back, and boasts a sculpted, multi-faceted 3.8cm thick baffle that reduces diffraction.


 







System Audio Silverback 1


Winning EISA awards 4 years running, System Audio has a new wireless champion in the compact Silverback 1.

With enormous flair and energy, Denmark’s System Audio has embraced the wireless speaker category with its innovative Silverback active speakers, made for easy wireless operation with partnering WiSA-enabled stereo and surround control hubs. And to great acclaim, with four prestigious EISA awards in as many years. The latest for EISA’s best wireless on-wall speakers goes to the compact Silverback 1 models. About the size of an A4 page, they’re designed to blend with any room environment but pack an impressive sonic punch.


 






SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase

Effortless power, dynamics and vast connectivity from the EISA award winning SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase smart amp.

300 watt stereo amplifier (150 watts x 2), Stream High-Resolution audio via WiFi, Airplay 2 for iPhones and iOS, Chromecast for Android phones and other devices, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth with aptX/AAC for optimal sound quality, HDMI ARC/eARC Input for Connecting Directly to TV, Line Level (RCA), Optical, 3.5mm AUX, Ethernet Inputs, Control via smartphone/desktop app, front panel, IR remote and voice, 24-bit/192kHz DAC for High-Resolution wireless streaming, 6 front panel presets for one-touch access to music services and playlists.






Cadence Distribution 


Cadence had one of the best sounding and looking rooms at the show, situated on level 2 and featured an array of high end delights with the stars being the beautiful Nagra Audio electronics partnered with the stunning Rockport Technologies Orion Speakers and SME turntable, they also had all the SME turntables on static demo to see, other systems featured ATC with Nagra and also Spendor. For the main demo with Rockport speakers Kerry St. James of Nagra Audio was spinning the vinyl and some rare recordings from the Montreux Jazz Festival which Nagra hold special access to the vaults and have some of the finest master copies for playback via their digital recorders. The Rockport’s and Nagra’s synergy was just effortless with every track played with stunning music, the top end on the Orion’s sounded very special indeed with so much detail retrieval in the vocals and instruments from the Beryllium tweeter and with the 7” midrange and 13” bass driver delivering the mids and low end there was certainly plenty on offer, this is my first listening of Rockport Technologies speakers and hopefully not my last as they really are unique in their design but they also sounded sublime and effortless in their delivery of music.













Monitor Audio and Vitus Audio


Monitor Audio were showcasing their latest technological tour de force speakers the new Hyphn, they look super futuristic and nothing like you have seen before but when you sit down and listen you suddenly understand how good they actually are and how well these speakers perform and deliver music, and boy do they deliver, bass was incredible and so was the mid-range and imaging and top end which was of the highest order and what you would expect for a speaker at this price level, the R&D into these speakers has certainly paid off and every time we returned the demo room was continually packed out proving how popular these speakers were, this technology is trickling down into the rest of the Monitor Audio range of speakers. Vitus Audio were powering the new Hyphn’s and sonically this was a perfect match and certainly made them sing.

















Stratton Acoustics 


Now this is a total newcomer to me and until now I had only seen a couple of articles but as soon as I saw them an image of the JBL 4350 monitors flashed in front of me and I have been a huge fan of these speakers but the Stratton Elypsis 1512s are an all British built highly polished version of this classic monitor, speaking with Dave Fowler who owns Stratton Acoustics it was clear how passionate he is as an audiophile and music lover and how he has managed with his business partner Phil Ward to build the ultimate speaker which other people can now enjoy courtesy of the Elypsis 1512s. I can most certainly confirm that the Elypsis demos were the most enjoyable of the whole show with stunning sound and musical pleasure, playing all types of music they showed how well these speakers can handle all different types of material but when a more demanding track was played with lots of percussion they came into their own with huge dynamics and power from the dual 15” bass drivers giving plenty of slam you could literally feel the bass hitting you, these are up there with the best that I have heard at any price! 














Chord Electronics


This year Chord Electronics had a room showing their Ultima range of preamps and amplifiers with DAC duties handled by the iconic DAVE DAC, speakers were the brilliant Magico A3s which sounded superb and having heard Magico speakers on many occasions this was a first for me to hear them with Chord Electronics and it was a great pairing with a superb soundstage projected, I managed to get a seat in the front row and the imaging was first class from this pairing.













B&W and Classe


Bowers & Wilkins were demonstrating their latest 805D Signature speakers partnered with Classe Audio electronics and they looked absolutely gorgeous in the blue finish but I will always prefer the Tiger Eye finish which is an iconic look and finish on their speakers from previous generations, luckily they had a pair on show of the 805D Signature and also the big guns 801D Signatures which looked incredible and would of loved to hear those in action. Classe Audio electronics is B&Ws choice for powering the 805D’s and it was a delightful listen and considering the size of the 805D speakers they managed to give a great performance with plenty of bass, having owned a pair of 805S speakers previously and I am a huge fan of their speakers and love the way they portray music and would love a pair in the Tiger Eye finish !













This UK HiFi Show Live was just superb and I think the new venue at Royal Ascot is just perfect for a HiFi Show of this size and scale allowing massive rooms to be used for demonstrating their beautiful speakers, amplifiers, turntables and so much more, with the acoustics of the rooms being so much better than the hotel rooms that used to be used in Windsor as it is always challenging for the distributors to get the systems sounding good in those type of situations but from what I heard at this show and from the selection above they managed to get the sound just right.


The Rockport Technologies Orion speakers, Perlisten Audio S7t Limited Edition speakers, Stratton Acoustics Elypsis 1512s and the new Monitor Audio Hyphn Speakers were the best of the show for me and had big crowds and for good reason they sounded stunning and cannot wait to hear them all again.


Please make sure that you check out all my social media for lots more content that I have been posting of the UK HiFi Show Live 2023.


Hope you enjoyed my roundup of this years show and cannot wait till the next years now, thanks to the HiFi News team and Paul Miller for putting on a great show.

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