Best system and speakers at the Manchester show?
Ok went to the Manchester show today was awsome spent a good 6 hours i heard some impressive stuff and not so. Some of the stuff that stood out to me were one, the Castle Knight speakers especially the Knight 2's they sounded amazing and at half the price what a bargain... Didn't like the Rega room though thought it sounded bright and harsh. Another thing was the music in the rooms all classical and for me a rock fan not very impressed, although the guy in the Rel room was fantastic i put Rage Against The Machine - killing in the name of on and it sounded fantastic, thanks a million for that!!!
I'm not a mind reader and I am not going to search the archives for everything you think about cables and nor can I remember anything you wrote on the subject.
What did the demo confirm?
I wandered in the Neat room and couldn't believe that such a "big" sound came from such small speakers. I was looking around for the non-existant sub.
If I remember rightly it was a Rega RP3 TT/Naim Superuniti combo (not sure of the phono stage) but the tiny speakers sounded great.
I was very interested in the news item on the Iotas. Love the colours, good price and tiny too. Thanks for confirming that they 'do' bass.
Were they on suitably small stands or wall/shelf mounted?
I can't see the point if they have to go on massive Partingtons (or similar) stands to perform at their best.
The Neats sounded superb for there size on some nice neat stands, bass was good. we couldnt believe all that sound was coming from those (neat) speakers
I'm not a mind reader and I am not going to search the archives for everything you think about cables and nor can I remember anything you wrote on the subject.
What did the demo confirm?
Personally, I could not tell much difference between the £5.50 p/mt Silverscreen and the Sarum at 100 times the cost.
They did the test in stages. Starting with Silverscreen, then Odyssey 2, Epic, Signature then finally Sarum. As well as changing the speaker cable they were going up the I/C pecking order as well.
The system was a Sony CD transport, Naim preamp, a power amp I can't recall, and switching between an Arcam rDac and Naim DAC dependent on whether it was digital or usb cable etc. Speakers were Kudos Cardea's standmounts.
There were plenty of people in the room agreeing with the Chord salesman, lot's of nodding heads when he said that each sucessive upgrade was an improvement on the last. Maybe it's just my dodgy 55 year old ears, and I just can't appreciate the subtle differences. The sound was great each time, there just wasn't the jump in SQ that I thought there might be. I did say to the sales guy at the end that it would have been nice right at the end after working up to the Sarum range to then go straight back to the Silverscreen to hear the difference.
Everyone to their own of course.
.
I wandered in the Neat room and couldn't believe that such a "big" sound came from such small speakers. I was looking around for the non-existant sub.
If I remember rightly it was a Rega RP3 TT/Naim Superuniti combo (not sure of the phono stage) but the tiny speakers sounded great.
I was very interested in the news item on the Iotas. Love the colours, good price and tiny too. Thanks for confirming that they 'do' bass.
Were they on suitably small stands or wall/shelf mounted?
I can't see the point if they have to go on massive Partingtons (or similar) stands to perform at their best.
The Iota's were on appropriately sized small stands, I'm sorry but I can't tell you which.
If anyone is on the look out for very small, discrete speakers then they should definitely consider these. I was genuinely taken aback by the preformance of speakers so small.
.
We were impressed by the Neats, too - we've done a video report here:
http://www.whathifi.com/video/neat-acoustics-iota-–-manchester-show-2011
I thought the audio note stuff sounded fantastic also the b&w speakers. Rel had the best cinema room
I thought the audio note stuff sounded fantastic also the b&w speakers. Rel had the best cinema room
Audio Note is always a favourite room for me. Glad they are then again. Can't wait to hear their set-up tomorrow. Very natural sounding and musically involving gear.
I was most impressed with the room demo-ing the Bryston music server, Bryston DAC, Bryston power amp and PMC speakers. Not my taste in music (avant-garde) but a good demo. Particularly impressed with the iPhone app operating the whole system.
Neat mini-speakers also impressed. In previous years I have always been impressed with Naim/Neat combos
Did you manage to listen to the Neat Iota speakers?
I wandered in the Neat room and couldn't believe that such a "big" sound came from such small speakers. I was looking around for the non-existant sub.
If I remember rightly it was a Rega RP3 TT/Naim Superuniti combo (not sure of the phono stage) but the tiny speakers sounded great.
Also, sat through an hour long demonstration by Chord where they were showing off all their different cables such as Carnival Silverscreen right up to the £500 p/m Sarum. Very illuminating it was indeed. Confirmed everything I think about highly priced cables.
.
Amplification: Creek Evolution 5350 with Creek Sequel 40 plug in phono stage
Speakers: Epos Elan 30
Sources: Arcam CD17 - Squeezebox Touch - PC via optical into FiiO D3 DAC
Turntable: Rega Planar P3 with Ortofon 2M Blue cart on RB300 tonearm
Various bits of wire supplied by Mark Grant and Van Damme