Bristol Hi-Fi Show highlights 2025

If you’re into hifi, there’s only one place to be in February, and that’s Bristol for its annual hifi show at the Marriott Hotel.

And this year it was back with a bang, with brands new and old delivering the best show vibes we’ve experienced in recent years. Did you make it along? If so we’d love to hear about your experiences.

Here’s a few of our many highlights…

Our day began with a prophecy, or several to be precise, thanks to PMC’s latest loudspeaker line-up which was on demo, display and being closely guarded by PMC’s Elliott Whyte.

And thanks to PMC’s recent partnership distributing Michell Audio, we were also treated to this longstanding vinyl specialist’s latest twin box Apollo phono stage, presented by company MD Jonathan Nye, which is on our soon-to-review shortlist.

A quick step across the corridor and Chord Company had a range of new products to present, aimed at noise reduction. That said, there was no keeping Patrick Mitchell quiet when clutching its latest EE1 Plus noise isolator and PhonoARAY.

We were certainly down with the blues in ATC’s demo room, thanks to a pair of SCM20 ASL LE active standmounts being partnered with a matching C4 LE sub, sporting a whopping 12″ front firing bass driver and in-house internal Class AB amplification. Sublime.

And speaking of brands with feet in both home and pro audio camps, Dynaudio put on a showcase to remember with exclusive models spanning both arenas. Here’s Product Training Manage Otto Jørgensen with a multi-drivered Dyn that’s destined for studio use.

Sticking with Scandi brands, here’s Dali with its glorious 2½ + ½ + ½-way Rubikore 8 loudspeaker, which might seem like a complex equation, but sounded simply superb.

Helping the Dali’s perform at their best, where cables courtesy of Atlas sporting the brand’s new Achromatic X plugs, being expertly held by Company MD Alan Whyte (above).

They say don’t meet your heroes, but seeing Arcam Founder John Dawson wandering the halls was a real delight. Here’s yours truly, chatting about my first Arcam of some 30 year vintage which is still going strong today (just like John).

The design language of Arcam’s new Radia line is bang on, and it was great to see the 180W Class G powered all-in-one SA45 (first teased at First teased at Ascot in 2024) and its SA35 smaller brother, alongside the dedicated ST25 streamer, pushing JBL speakers.

Rotel’s Michi range is continuing to make waves in hi-end circles, with the hotly anticipated Q5 CD player and digital front end, patnered with Spendor speakers thanks to Cadence Distribution, being shown to scale thanks to Alester Kells.

More of Spendor’s revised A-Line range, this time revealing their revised bass ports for more accurate low frequency performance. Hearing these underlined the sound Spendor is so renowned for, favouring refinement over volume. Very impressive.

To France now and it was a welcome return for Devialet with its new Astra amplifier in stunning light bronze and gold leaf finishes. It’s as fully loaded and advanced as you’d expect because, hey, it’s a Devialet.

REL went large this year, in terms of kit and demo space (which was a welcome relief, as its smaller room was packed last year all weekend). Here’s owner John Hunter and UK Sales Manager Rob Hunt with a stack of triple (stereo) No.31s next to Stenheim Alumine Five loudspeakers. And if that wasn’t enough, on the floor was another UK exclusive thanks to Audio Research Reference 330M monoblocs.

And speaking of popular, here’s the closet I could get to the gear in Audio Note’s room, which was heaving from the moment the show opened.

Alongside its new Brio integrated, it was a vote for the greens in Rega’s room, thanks to its flagship Mercury/Solis pre/power amps, with the latter boasting 165W per channel. Seeing them with their transparent show top covers was a delight as their internals looked exceptionally well finished, right down to smoothing caps, resplendent in Rega livery.

And speaking of beefy power amps, Ultrafide’s new Dias-U8 is a proper whopper, built around a 1000VA toroid, weighing in at 50kg and aimed at pro and home audio fans alike. This photo doesn’t really do its exquisitely finished casework justice, being cosetted here by company gaffer Mark Bailey.

But it wasn’t just big separates that caught our ears’ attention. This little system from Ruark Audio comprised of R610 Music Console and Sabre-R loudspeakers looked stunning and has got the lot, including a phono stage and optional CD transport (right of shot)…

…and if there was an award for ‘remote of the show’ then the Ruark may have taken it, being expertly modelled here by Sales Manager Jason Onions.

Also on the accessible audio agenda was Naim’s latest Uniti Atom, partnered with Focal cans. After giving it a listen I can see and hear why this would be an excellent starter system for many.

That said, as any Naim owner will tell you, it’s a slippery slope and before you know it you’re craving a fully fledged Naim rig like this one that was in full flight all weekend, made up of NSS 333 streamer, NAC 332 preamp, NAP 250 power amp and Uniti Core server, all driving Focal Sopra No3 speakers. In a word, wow.

Any system is only as good as the stand it sits on, and thanks to Company MD Carl Sambell, Atacama always presents a range of exquisitely finished options for a varying budgets and systems at these shows, with a smile to boot.

A year ago I asked IAG’s Director of Acoustic Design Peter Comeau what product he wished he’d designed. Without hesitation, he replied “QUAD Electrostatic”. A year later and that’s exactly what he’s done, in the form of the new ESL-2912X.

Being driven by QUAD’s recently reimagined 33 preamp driving two 303 power amps (in bridged-mono mode), these speakers were hands down one of the standout sounds of the show.

Here’s a blast from Musical Fidelity’s past – alongside showcasing its revitalised B1 models, Henley Audio also revealed three new X-Can models, with the X-Power conditioner, X-Tube buffer stage and X-Power TT linear PSU.

You want quality cables at bargain prices? Then talk to the boys at Black Rhodium, headed up by Graham Nalty, who knows so much about the dark art of hifi wires he’s written a book on it!

We absolutely loved this H2 turntable from Luphonic, brought to the UK by Auden Distribution. Not only is it a cutting edge design that stands out from the pack, Auden also includes a Audiomica Labs cable worth over seven hundred quid as part of the package.

Other analogue delights came courtesy of Origin Live, who were well armed with models for a range of budgets, including its new MkV model.

Every deck needs decent discs, and the lads at Diverse Vinyl were on hand looking ever the pros in matching T-Shirts to serve up the black stuff.

And if they didn’t have what you fancied, then the family run Vinyl Adventure just might, with quality pressing befitting quality turntables.

Keeping it clean, Jonathan Monks was a busy boy all weekend, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Monks’ prodigious record cleaning machine range.

Here’s Dave Waters and Max Maud of Fyne Audio. If you’d heard its latest models and seen them in the flesh, you’d be smiling too. On offer were the affordable F500E Series, top flight F700 models and bang in the middle, the F500S series (pictured) which blend stunning looks and quality materials at great value prices.

We’d read the release and clocked the spec but seeing Pro-Ject’s new colourful all-in-one vinyl packages really did hammer home that decent, affordable hifi can look as good as it sounds.

Some serious offerings from Elite Audio in its demo room, including Revival Audio’s Atalante 5 standmounts (centre) that have been garnering quite an admired following of late, and it was easy to hear why.

The man with the loudspeaker plan – Jes Kerr of Kerr Acoustic standing proud with his K300 Mk3 models in high-gloss real wood veneer on the business end of Chord Electronics hardware.

And finally, the press, PR, promotion and professionalism of the Show was made possible this year thanks to the people at Brandlifi and Audio T, we salute you .