| On Sunday the 19th of February, I went to the Holiday Inn in
Bristol for the Annual HiFi Show. Whilst there, I met up
with Steve Bright, and we both checked out the latest
products, as well as the old favourites.
Its interesting to see how the manufacturers coped with the
acoustically unfriendly environment of a hotel bed-room. The
equipment generally looked out of place in a small room with
padded wall area (for bed head rest), and wall mounted
hairdryer and trouser press! The actual hotel isn't too
nice, with nasty concrete stairs being the main way of
getting from one demo room to another. I stayed in it the
following Tuesday night for the DECwindows roadshow, and the
room was really horrible.
Probably the most impressive new equipment was the Acoustic
Energy range of speakers. These speakers look very tough,
and range from about �800 for a 2-driver, 1-port (Linn Kans
size) speaker, to �1500 for a 4-driver, 2-port medium size
speaker, and finally to about �2000 for a 8-driver, 4-port
medium-large speaker. The demonstrator then went on to show
that all the speakers sounded the same, by moving from one
to the other. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to
listen to music on them, just some jarring, really loud
percussive music, with keys jangling etc. Very very
impressive, but I would like to have heard some real music
on them! I think that perceived value would probably be best
on the medium priced speaker. According to some reviews in
HiFi Review, they were built by a studio engineer who was
tired of the poor quality given by most monitor speakers. He
designed his own. These speakers are therefore very robust,
able to take high volumes, and give a very impressive sound
quality. The source used was exclusively CD, with I think
the Accuphase (wonder what the phase response is like?) CD
player.
Other stands of interest were Ruark speakers, Monitor Audio,
Revolver, Phillips (re-launching CD-video !!), Hunt EDA
(who have finally convinced me to clean my records),
Exposure, and some others. I shall try to include more
details in replies to this note.
The Japanese manufacturers made a stand (If you'll pardon
the pun), and generally showed most of their equipment in a
big hall. Most of their equipment boomed and thumped with a
general accompaniment of a large screen TV. These
manufacturers then showed their audiophile equipment in
hotel rooms. Sony showed a really expensive CD-player whose
only virtue (according to the signs proclaiming its
presence) were the price (�5500), and that it was "amazing".
By far and away, the most impressive stand was the ... wait
for it ... Linn Stand (surprise surprise). In their main
demonstration area, they had cross-sections of their
speakers and turntables. as well as the obligatory Linn
LP12, playing through Linn amps to either Isobarik's or
Helix's. Very nice it sounded too. They also did closed
demo's which I managed to attend. There, they had Linn's
equivalent to Kenneth Williams, explaining the Linn
philosophy, and demonstrating it very effectively to the
small audience of about 40. The speakers used were Linn
Kanns, and the turntables ranged from a Dual CS-505, Linn
Axis, and Linn LP-12. A �1300 Denon CD-player was also used
in comparison with the Linn Axis. On the whole, the Linn
equipment displayed a greater degree of control over the
rhythmic flow of the music, and it's (I hesitate to use the
term) dynamic range. A very impressive, and quite
enlightening demonstration.
Overall then, an enjoyable, but quite tiring and hot
experience. It got more and more difficult to appraise HiFi
as the day wore on, and the fact that Linn did well at 4pm
in a hot crowded room, says a lot for the quality. Watch out
for the Acoustic Energy speakers. I'd certainly like the
opportunity to hear REAL music on them.
See you at PENTA next October.
Happy listening....
Mark.
|