Hosted at the stunning Royal Ascot Racecourse, this year’s UK Hi-Fi Show Live was another flagship event to remember.
Packed with the most prestigious audio gear on earth, it’s where the great and the good gather for a showcase of what’s best in today’s domestic hifi market.
Our day kicked off with a demo from the folk at Arcam, proudly debuting three new products from its Radia line with the 180W Class G powered all-in-one SA45 and its SA35 smaller brother, alongside the dedicated ST25 streamer.
Driving JBL 4349 speakers with 12″ bass drivers with a pair of matching HDI 1200 P subs, London Grammar’s Hey Now’s low frequencies were delivered with full force, filling this large listenning space with ease.
More subs and speaker matching, this time from Perlisten with its class leading S7t speakers and D15s sub (the latter with a 15″ bass driver powered by a 1500W Class D amp).
Electronics were courtesy of Primare with four of the brand’s 35 Series power amps delivering the juice. This set-up sounded sublime, no wonder Primare’s Marketing supremo Terry Medalen looks so delighted to be sat in the middle of the action.
More stylish subs from Perlisten, this time from its R range featuring the R8s, R10s, R12s, R15s and R18s models with correspondingly sized bass drivers (in inches).
Look out for our exclusive interviews with Primare’s Terry Medalen and Perlisten’s Erik Wiederholtz in the coming days.
The Monitor Audio team’s attire was as slick as their audio gear. With so many new products to showcase, including our recently reviewed Studio 89 and new 300 6G speakers on rotation hooked up with Chord Cables, there was lots to see and hear.
Also on display was its gorgeous Blok Stax 2G hifi equipment stand, which we’ll be bringing to our review pages soon.
Any hifi is only as good as its partnering accessories, and the team at Russ Andrews were on hand to talk through its latest grounding ecosystem of products. With so much to choose from, the guys also offer a bespoke service to build a grounding bundle that’s right for your system.
Getting lots of attention in RA’s room was its first outing of the brand’s Network Purifier, an in-line device offering passive parallel filtering between a router and streamer, which looks great value at £649.
Small yet mighty, System Audio’s Ole Witthøft proudly holds his Signature 5 passive bookshelf loudspeaker. Sporting a 5 1/4″ bass driver and 1″ Signature DXT tweeter, its versatility also lends itself to wall mounting.
US brand MoFi’s domestic audio offering has been going from strength to strength of late. On demo was its MasterDeck turntable and MasterPhono preamp, partnered with Primare electronics and BAT amplification driving its Sourcepoint 888 floorstanders. Such were the sounds in this room, I could have easily stayed all day.
Also on display was the oh-so easy on the eye and ear Sourcepoint 10 model speakers with new dedicated Sourcepoint Low Stands.
There’s always a warm welcome to be had with the Origin Live family with their range of award winning turntables and analogue gear. This system was killer, comprising of the brand’s Sovereign-S turntable, Agile tonearm, Discovery Ultra phono stage and a stalwart Sugden A21SE amp linked up to DeVore Fidelity’s Baby/O speakers.
A closer look at OL’s Kagami CS2 MC cartridge shows the expert craftsmanship that’s gone into its £8k build – UK analogue hifi at its most refined.
Cadence distribution could host a hifi show all of its own given the range or brands and fine hardware on demo and display in its vast space. Where else could you experience Nagra electronics facilitating a turntable shoot out between leading decks from Garrard and SME via massive Siltech Symphony loudspeakers at £365k per pair? What a system!
Tucked behind Cadence’s flagship gear was this stunning Studer A80-RC recorder – we can only imagine the music and artists that’s graced its reels over the years.
And if that wasn’t enough this lucky lad walked away with a brand new SME Model 6 turntable courtesy of Sunday’s prize draw, presented by Kat Ourlian, Cadence’s Global Sales & Marketing Director for SME.
Announced just in time for the show, Rotel’s Michi Q5 CD player/transport/DAC was given its first public showing, partnered with matching Michi pre and power amps for good measure.
Big Spendor? Or small…either way Cadence and Audio Lounge had a model for every occasion. Pick a size, pick a finish and enjoy the sounds!
Bowers & Wilkins always attracts the crowds en masse at these shows and this year alongside its 702 S3 Signature loudspeakers was an all new trio of elegant electronics from Marantz that promise plenty of user flexibility.
The top unit is the Model 10 dual mono integrated amp that can also be configured as a stereo or mono power amp, allowing future system building. Under this sits a matching LINK 10n streaming/preamp bringing extra funtionality, with the flagship SACD 10 DAC and disc spinner serving as a hi-end digital source Full details of all that they offer is on Marantz’s website.
If you’d have experienced Vivid Audio’s groundbreaking Moya M1 loudspeakers in all their performance glory you’d be grinning like a Cheshire cat too. Here’s their design guru Laurence Dickie, who gave a fascinating talk on every aspect of their design from the ground up. Simply stunning.
Absolute Sounds had a dizzying aray of exclusive brands and audio exotica on display and demo. Here’s MD Ricardo Franassovici with Magico’s Peter McKay [left] flanking its S3 loudspeaker. The power amp in shot is Constellation Audio’s Revelation 2, sitting atop an Artesania Audio stand and feeding Transparent Cables.
Possibly the most refined digital front end out there? dCS’s Varèse five-piece streaming DAC system seen here being closely guarded by Technical Director Andy McHarg, who was on hard to talk through the brand’s specialist tech, including its Ring DAC architecture.
Pro-Ject Audio, presented by Henley Audio, had a wealth of affordable brands on display across a range of flexible systems. Underlining this are these four exquisite tonearm options for its Xtension 9 turntable, giving customers plenty of choice.
Henley’s Operations Director Simon Powell knows more than a thing or two about systems for every budget, seen here flanked by Pro-Ject cables and vinyl delights.
HiFi Rose is continuing to make waves in UK audio circles with its expanded lineup. Of note here is the new RD160 DAC taking up residence on the middle shelf, which looks set to make quite a statement.
Where tradition meets modern, Klipsch’s loudspeaker range taking centre stage, a company that’s so proud of its heritage it even branded the carpet!
We were really impressed by the handmade dedicated hifi furniture on display from Antrobus Audio, with a design flair to match the styling of acoustic panels that grace many a listening room.
Company Director Matt also has taste, with a vintage Systemdek IIX, Cyrus, Arcam and Rega kit taking up shelf space.
Alex Denyer demonstrates Clearaudio’s cutting edge turntables, which are always a pleasure to experience.
What also caught our eye in Sound Fowndations’ room was these cable management blocks from Furutech to boost separation while nulling floor borne vibration.
A huge thanks to Paul Miller, the UK Hi-Fi Show Live team, Ascot staff and everyone who made this weekend one to remember. So good even Batman popped in for a listen.
