High-end hi-fi brands to exhibit at the Guildford Audio Show

Distributor Absolute Sounds has teamed up with Guildford Audio to bring many of its top hi-fi brands to the Best Western Plus Reading Moat Hotel in Berkshire over the weekend of April 18th-19th.

Among the exhibits will be an exclusive first UK showing of one of our Stars of CES 2015, the Dan D'Agostino MLife amplifier/streamer (shown above). We first saw this amazing piece of kit in Las Vegas back in January, delivering 200W into 8ohms, and capable of handling both AirPlay and aptX Bluetooth streams.

It can also play music from the Tidal streaming service, in CD-quality, and can handle high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/192kHz. The price is a whopping $48,000 in the US.

Other highlights will include: Request Audio's 'The Beast' audio server; a selection of components from Wadia Digital; the first UK demo of Sabrina, an 'entry-level' speaker from Wilson Audio; and the GSPre/GS150 pre/power amp combo from Audio Research.

Although the show closes at 5pm on Saturday, there'll be a special event later that evening with listening sessions in two of the rooms. One room will feature Sonus faber's 24k gold leaf, special edition Lilium floorstanding speakers, driven by a Constellation Inspiration preamp/monobloc combo with Request Audio's 'The Beast' serving up the music.

In the second room visitors will be able to hear Sonus faber's Extrema Anniversary speakers, powered by the aforementioned Dan D'Agostino MLife. Only 30 pairs of these speakers were produced in 2014.

Parking and entry to the show is free of charge, and it will be open from 10am-5pm on the Saturday, and 10am-4pm on Sunday.

Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.