What impressed you??

What disapointed me was Cyrus new streaming product. The screen to select music is the size of a postage stamp, even my mobile phone screen is bigger. Worse still it can not be controlled by any other means e.g. an IPAD.

Compare this to the Bryston, which does let you use an IPAD to browse your music in comfort, there is no comparison. Except it costs £2400

 I'm not saying all products should be controlled by an IPAD, but Cyrus could have designed a large touch screen remote, that lets people sit on the sofa, and casually browse their music collection in comfort, not having a screen where you can bearly fit any legible information.

sometimesuk:

but Cyrus could have designed a large touch screen remote, that lets people sit on the sofa, and casually browse their music collection in comfort, not having a screen where you can bearly fit any legible information.

siggy_7:

as is often the case with shows with so many wi-fi networks the demo I was watching struggled with maintaining a connection.

Agree. For streaming to be worthwhile, the connection has to be faultless - you wouldn't buy a CD player that jumped and stalled. Nothing worse than music being interrupted - it's torture as you start anticipating when it will stall next.

I have a 10mb Virgin connection, but the wifi through Airport often takes it down to 2-4Mb. And it stalls, so CDs still for me. 

Therefore, perhaps the WHFSV demo was an excellent, as in "realistic and warty", experience of what streaming is really like?

the_lhc:

sometimesuk:

but Cyrus could have designed a large touch screen remote, that lets people sit on the sofa, and casually browse their music collection in comfort, not having a screen where you can bearly fit any legible information.

They did, the n-remote.

No mate, I'm on about the N-remote, Its a complete shower! Have you seen it? As I've said, my mobile phone has a large size screen.

They have totally missed a golden opportunity there. All other manufactures have recognised that Iphone Ipad compatability, for controlling is vital, yet Cyrus seem to have totally ignored this. You've got Naim, Bryston, Musical Fildelity, Yamaha (?) byt Cyrus has gone off on one.

Having already invested in Sonos and Cyrus kit, I do feel that it's a missed opportunity. All of these systems seem so much more basic to the Sonos in execution. Although the sound quality from the systems mentioned including the Cyrus system may be better than my current kit, I'm not sold on the lack of multi-room that these systems offer and the user interface. You basically need a "full" hifi setup for each room where you want sound. 

I saw the way Peachtree had cleverly bolted on a ZP90 into their kit, but surely someone out there should be considering licensing the technology from Sonos. Although there would be no hi-res quality with the current system, a higher end brand Sonos hybrid could mop up.

Really did not like this the room was far too reactive, made the system sound awful, have heard it again at Frank Harvey and it sounded so much better, shows what a big difference the room can make.

Favourite room was The Rock active speakers, he had sorted to room which helped bur they were lovely neutral speakers and a nice guy demoing them too.

Bryston also sounded good but it should for that sort of money

Well I've got to say that the highlight of the show for me was a demo of the IsoTek power conditioners. I've always been a bit unsure of the value of improving the mains, and it doesn't have the wow factor of a new CD player, and amp or speakers. But boy I came away a true believer!

The demo was well put together as it progressed from using a standard B&Q power strip thru to the top-of-the-line Titan. Every step change along the way was unquestionably an improvement on the preceding setup.

After pondering a purchase on the way back home after the show I ended up buying an Aquarius. I have yet to plug it in as I want to do some decent comparisons, but to be honest, with what I heard I can't see how spending £800 on any other component in my system will give me the improvement that I heard and soon hope to enjoy. Stay tuned!

(Krell KAV-400xi Integrated, Resolution Audio Opus 21 CD, Refurbed Yamaha NS1000 loudspeakers)

And that's on the open top floor, which is about 50m squared (filled with God knows how many speakers!), which opens out into the roof space above and over the two demo rooms, which is an area of about 90m squared! I make that close to 250 cubic metres volumetrically speaking, which is quite quite a big space to fill, but the Onkyo system did it quite easily with the Reference 205/2's and 207/2's, and just for fun I popped on the ProAc K6's, which weren't as efficient, but the Onkyo still did a great job - I think the M5000R power amp is the perfect proof that not all specs are important....

Re those of you who heard the DALI Zensor 1's - am I right in thinking that they are replacing the Lektors? And if so how do they compare?

I have been trying to track down a pair of Lektor1's to audition (downsizing my 50x30x30 Creek CLS's and need something proper small that can sit on a shelf) and can't seem to for love nor money - my local RS had one solitary pair of Lektor2's - with no packaging and missing one grill - but no info on whether they would be getting more or not.

I had got to the point where I was going to just get some off ebay (I've seen a couple of auctions for around £100), but if the Zensor's are worth it, maybe I should wait until they're out?

Thanks for any further info any can give...

Also forgot to say that the THX talk was brilliant and really worth going to. Good to see a company like that really passionate about what cinema, whether at home or otherwise, should look and sound like, and not pushing a particular brand. Not to say that we're all not really interested in that anyhow, else we and the manufacturers wouldn't have been at the show!