Scottish High Fidelity Show 06

Anyone going to this? Details here: http://chestergroup.org/scothfshow

Tickets are 8 quid at the door, or a fiver if you print out and bring along a "privileged ticket", available here: http://chestergroup.org/scothfshow/ticketdownload.html

I'll be going one day at least, possibly both if it's any good.

Looks to be more low-key than previous shows, with fewer exhibitors and more focus on high end hifi. Hopefully should mean no more rooms full of plasma screens, cheap Japanese DVD players, and subwoofers making horrible BOOM-BOOM noises that reverberate throughout neighbouring rooms.

It's also back at the Marriott Dalmahoy hotel, near Edinburgh. I like this place better than the Glasgow Radisson, and it's nearer me, so I'm happy.

Thoughts?

Dunc

 

I'll be making the trip over myself, probably go on the Sunday. The last one in Edinburgh I went to, one of the dealers had a free bus running to and from the show - do you know if this will be the case this time?
Gary

 

if their latest show at the park inn is anything to go by i will steer well clear of this one.

 

hehe there's only 11 exhibitors

 

I don't think there's a free bus, but there should be city buses running from the city centre. Hopefully!

It definitely doesn't look as big or flashy as previous ones, but maybe that's a good thing. For a fiver you can't go too far wrong...

Dunc

 

Thought I'd post a follow-up, having visited the show both days this past weekend.

All in all, it was good fun! This is my fourth Scottish Hifi Show, and I always enjoy them, even if some aspects tend to be disappointing (e.g. crappy rooms, ill-setup systems, annoying presenters, annoying show-goers, etc.) This show I went alone on Saturday, and with a group of [relative hifi novice] friends the Sunday. Also bumped into alanbeeb and ditton on the Sunday as well.

Highlights:

• Audio Note:
  These were just gorgeous. I spent ages in this room listening to all sorts of stuff. Source alternated between their very expensive (£7K all in?) transport-DAC combo and their much less expensive (£1200 plus cart?) turntable. Tellingly, they were both about as enjoyable as the other, though the CD former had perhaps better hifi qualities (resolution, imaging, etc).
  
  Not sure what model speakers they were using (the Audio Note naming conventions confuse me very much...), but they were £3.5K (though the sign said "From £2.5K"! )
  
  I'm not quite sure about the soundstage/imaging qualities of the corner-loaded speakers (it kinda sounded like you were listening to the whole wall), it's rather different from most other speakers. But the overall effect was delicious, if a bit rolled off in the treble.
  
• Ecosse:
  They were running big £10K speakers and valve amps by a Brazilian (!) company called AudioPax, along with some very expensive Canadian electronics (dunno the name). Overall, the sound was very impressive, though very much in the "American high end" school, with a huge walk-in soundstage and everything sounding 10 feet tall.
  
  With a lot of music, the effect was fun and impressive, though I don't think I could live with them in my own system. Just a bit too artificial really. Also, the treble was a bit too strong, or the midrange too recessed. Made Vivaldi sound anemic and nigh on unlistenable (sounds gorgeous on my ATCs ).
  
• Arcam/PMC:
  I was surprised (and somewhat horrified, I'm embarrassed to say) to find this was one of my favourite rooms. Arcam FMJ CD player into FMJ integrated amp driving PMC FB1+. Probably £4K all in. It produced a very engaging, and very natural, self-effacing sound. It didn't sound like the frequency response was at all tweaked (unlike just about every other speakers there), and just got on playing music and sounding "right". Also had great scale and somewhat alarmingly deep, powerful bass.
  
  My only two reservations really were the abovementioned bass, which I felt was a bit too "big" and overblown (though not particularly slow or uncontrolled, as some of PMC's critics have claimed), trying too hard to impress; and a general sense of glassiness or brittleness in the treble/upper mids. I suspect the former could probably be fixed with a bit of tweaking of the speaker positions (and a bigger room), and the latter should be sorted by swapping the Arcam integrated for a good valve amp (or maybe even just a valve pre into the Arcam power amp equivalent).
  
• Revolver:
  I really liked all of the Revolver speakers I heard at the show. They had their own room, with their £6K flagship floorstanders (the Cygnis) driven by Densen electronics, and they also lent out some of their cheaper models to some of the other rooms, including their £1200 floorstanders and their £350 baby standmounts.
  
  The Cygnis were very, very impressive. Very "right"-sounding, with awesome dynamics, impressive sense of presence, tight, powerful bass, and a great-but-natural depth to the soundstage. Kind of reminded me of big ATCs actually (the woofer even looks rather like an ATC woofer). They did have an edge to the sound which I found unpleasant and unnatural, but I'm inclined to blame the Densen kit for that. They were also played very loud in a small room, so that won't have helped.
  
  The cheaper speakers were also very impressive, sounding natural, evenly-balanced, detailed, dynamic, and just generally very listenable. I would definitely consider the baby monitors for duty in a 2nd system.
  
• Green Mountain/McIntosh:
  This system was very intriguing - giant, glowing blue McIntosh electronics driving some very odd-looking £10K speakers from Green Mountain. They did 3D imaging and tight, snappy percussion like nothing else, but they had an ever-present glare in the upper frequencies I found disagreeable. I suspect in a better room with better positioning, this could be corrected. If so, these would be gorgeous.
  
• Quad:
  They had the big ESL 2905s driven by QC-24/II-Forty amps, and with CDP2 and Funk V sources. These again showed a great deal of promise - a lot of the same qualities of my previous demo of the 2805s that made me like them so much (wonderful soundstage, huge detail retrieval, incredible resolution, great punchy dynamcs), though the treble was somewhat too strong, and the bass overblown. Definitely didn't like the room. I also blame the sources, as the CD player isn't my favourite, and the cartridge was (I believe) a cheap Ortofon MC-1.
  

Lowlights:

• Naim/Totem:
  This didn't sound bad as such, but it just wasn't very good, which for the cost and prestige of the system - namely, CD555, NAC552, NAP500 into big Totem Winds - was highly disappointing. Very mid-forward, somewhat harsh, and kind of "uptight"... Then again, I only heard a few tracks, mostly Antonio Forcione (I love the guy, but there's only so much I can handle!), but it wasn't especially promising.
  
• Loud & Clear:
  They had a big room with three main systems set up - big Martin Logans (can't remember the electronics), JM Lab Electra Be floorstanders driven by many £10s of thousands worth of dCS digital sources (don't remember the amp), and Totem Forests driven by some big, expensive glowy blue electronics or other. None of the systems sounded particularly good to me. All pretty bland and, well, disappointing (especially for the money!)
  
• Art/Manley/Lumley:
  The huge Lumley statement turntable into big Manley valve amps driving the super-silver-upgraded £20K (!) Art Emotion speakers. Yuck. Nothing going for them at all really. The sound was kind of "squished" and closed in, sounding very much like a [mediocre] small two-way standmounter... Total flop for the money. I get the impression (heh) the basic £5K Emotions might possibly be worth the money, maybe, but the design isn't worth all of the megabuck tweaks found in the upgraded versions.
  
  Then again, some people love them, so I won't write them off completely based on this one demo (bad idea to judge equipment based solely on their performance at hifi shows!)
  

Other points of interest: lots of tasty vinyl at [for the most part] very high prices; a T+A system (including very interesting floorstanders with electrostatic tweeters!) that kinda-sorta sounded promising some of the time, but was very obviously hampered by the room; Mowgan speakers that sounded listenable, though somewhat "Linny" (kind of grey and hashy, though bouncy and rhythmic); and a couple of other reasonably interesting systems that didn't stick in the memory...

Anyway, plenty of food for thought. I look forward to next year.

Dunc

 

what hi-fi sound & vision agggh, it's here in hammersmith, mind you henley designs are there, might take a look, nice pubs round there good restaurants, but what that is got to do with the show ! ..nando

 

Much my feelings too when the show was in london......

If I had to buy a cheap set of speakers the little revolver floorstanders would be damn close to the top..and cheap too

the mac system was huge in all senses !