It’s that time of the year again and the ritual trek and visit to the Bristol HiFi Show, I have been attending this show for as long as I can remember and covering it for a good few years visiting as The Speaker Shack for pictures and videos and to listen to some of the best HiFi that are on offer and available today. It is also a great chance to catch up with like-minded people I have been fortunate enough to meet through this great hobby.
Chord Company demos
This year, I caught the train to Bristol Temple Meads from Paddington station in London. It has been quite a while since I last took the train to Bristol, and I have to say it was fuss-free. It only took just over an hour to arrive, rather than the three-hour drive that I usually take to the show. Arriving at about 11am I made it just in time for the Press showing with the Chord Company which has just launched the new EE1 Plus noise isolator which is an upgraded and newer upgraded version of the award-winning EE1 from last year. They also launched a new PhonoARAY for us vinyl enthusiasts and both the PhonoARAY and EE1 Plus were demonstrated for us to hear the benefits that these new products bring, I have found that Chords' ARAY technology to be hugely beneficial in all of my systems I have reviewed lowering the noise floor with the improved sound benefiting from this tech.
Chord Electronics with Kerr Acoustic Speakers
The Chord Electronics room at this year's show was simply superb and a must for all attendees. Featuring the stunning Ultima Integrated amplifier which I have reviewed here at The Speaker Shack and it really is a reference product when it comes to HiFi offering a stunning resolution of all music whether it be vinyl/analogue or digital and in this case for the demos they were using an Innuous music server to stream all the music, partnered with the incredible Kerr Acoustic K320MK3 speakers which sounded sublime with all the music that was being played, the K320's have extremely deep cabinets which allow for some prodigious bass from these 2-way speakers and that ribbon tweeter sounds glorious with such a detailed and airy top end but with precision imaging presented in the demos, certainly one of my favourite sounding rooms of the show.
Tannoy, Esoteric, Montaudio in the Symphony Distribution Room
My next room is for the stunning new Tannoy Autograph 12 speakers that I heard in Munich last year, these are simply awesome speakers from this great brand and were one of my most memorable from Munich and made me fall in love with this brand for the sheer quality of the music that they can transfer to the listener. This year Dan from Symphony Distribution really has excelled and partnered the big Tannoy speakers with the gorgeous Esoteric brand and the mighty F-05 Integrated amplifier, this is a Class A beast that allowed the sumptuous sounds from the Autograph speakers to excel, and would love to hear these speakers in a much larger room as they are so capable of energizing a room with thunderous levels of bass. All of the equipment was wired out with the beautiful Montaudio brand of cables which are just stunning and work so well with Tannoy and the Esoteric brand, with all of the electronics sitting on the stunning Montaudio Manuka HiFi rack which is one of the most beautiful racks and I have reviewed it here at The Speaker Shack, but it not only looks goods but improves the overall isolation of your equipment benefiting and improving the sound that you hear. Symphony Distribution also had a static display of all of the brands that they distribute on the ground floor of the hotel so that all attendees could see the beautiful brands that they distribute here in the UK.
Ultrafide Audio Room
Ultrafide Audio is a completely new brand to me and I absolutely loved their room at the Bristol show this year, they were demonstrating the new DIAS Stereo power amplifier which is an absolute beast and they had the incredible Kudos Audio Titan 808 speakers that sounded sublime on the end of their electronics. For the size of the room, the bass delivery was powerful and controlled with superb dynamics and resolution from the Kudos Audio Titan speakers. Partnered with their U4PRE amplifier this room managed to give one of the best sounds of the show and thoroughly enjoyed my time in this room and a brand that I will hopefully hear a lot more of in the future. Just wish I would have had more time at the show but from what I heard I came away very impressed.
Cyrus Audio and Audio Physic Speakers
I have been a huge fan of Cyrus Audio for many years now and always love what they manage to create this year they presented the new 40 series of electronics to the public for the first time and I have to say this room sounded superb, partnered with the gorgeous Audio Physic speakers this is a great combination and has excellent synergy together. What I have always loved about the Cyrus Audio components is their small form factor and like they say good things do come in small packages and the new 40 series certainly delivers a good punch when it comes to the HiFi and sounds that I heard from this room. I love the big touch screens on the fascias of the units and is certainly refreshing to see the big OLED screen displaying all the important information that you need to control the equipment, another firm favourite from the show.
Focal DIVA Utopia Speakers and Naim Audio Room
Focal and Naim Audio always put on a great show at Bristol and this year they had the newly launched Focal DIVA Utopia speakers partnered with Naim Electronics, I have always loved the Utopia range and think that the partnership and synergy with Naim Electronics is one of the best combinations. They managed to produce some beautiful music and being active speakers there is no need for any power amplifiers. They give you the best performance that the Utopia range is renowned for with the perfect amplification in each of the speakers so you just need to add your source equipment nowadays where real estate is at a premium these new speakers really do offer such great performance in such a beautiful package.
Wilson Benesch, Trilogy and CAD Room
Wilson Benesch needs no introduction as they are such a legendary speaker designer and every year they manage to wow the audiences with their creations, primarily using carbon fibre to build their speakers they have managed to create some of the most iconic speakers over the many years and I was lucky enough to own a pair of Discovery's which I loved so will always have a great fondness of the work that they do. This year they presented for the first time their latest creation which is the new Horizon speakers, they are small compact floor-standing speakers with a big sound. They were partnered with Trilogy and CAD Electronics and gave some beautiful demos and music at the show.
Spendor Audio Speakers
Spendor released their new A-line speakers at this year's show and they sounded incredible for such small speakers which were presented in quite a large room compared to some of the other brands but they managed to fill the room with superb sounds and music, partnered with Rotel MICHI electronics I really did enjoy the demos presented by Cadence who were hosting this room and Rotel and Spendor had such excellent synergy together.
ProAc Speakers
ProAc speakers always manage to give some great demos every year I attend the Bristol show and this year was no exception with the beautiful K3 speakers partnered with Exposure Electronics this combination was exceptional and produced some beautiful demos of their speakers and their ability to portray the music so well. As an owner of ProAc speakers, I know how good they are and the K series really is the pinnacle and evolution of the ProAc brand and what Stewart Tyler had achieved in his long and distinguished career as a speaker designer. Loved their room.
Voxativ Audio Room
Last year at the MOC in Munich I heard for the first time the Voxativ Audio brand and loved the look and sound of their systems this year at Bristol they had the new Alberich Array Speaker System playing with one of their beautiful tube amplifiers. The speakers and equipment have such a beautiful look but most importantly the sound quality is superb from their systems and loved the demos from this unique but superb brand.
ATC Loudspeakers Room
On to my final pick from the show, ATC always manage to deliver the goods when it comes to the Bristol show and although they usually have a relatively small room for the shows they always leave a long-lasting impression with such beautiful sounds and music from their speakers. Celebrating their 50th Anniversary they had the simply gorgeous SCM20ASL Limited Edition speakers and subwoofer at the show in a very striking gloss blue finish. With the accompanying sub to complete the speaker package, the sound was so well balanced and even though the sub is huge it complemented the SCM20 active speakers perfectly with effortless bass and stunning resolution playing one of Chris Isaak's tracks Wicked Game which sounded sublime through the ATC's. This was most certainly my favourite room of the show and I absolutely love the active approach with their speakers which deliver incredible music and performance.
I hope you have enjoyed my coverage of this year's show and want to thank the Bristol HiFi Show and the teams that make this event happen every year which is always a great success, also a massive thanks to all the brands that attend the show for without their amazing products it simply wouldn't happen.
Make sure you check out all my social media channels as I have a lot more content of the show on those channels.
No comments