NI Audio Show Belfast!!!!

[Ivor]

sorry for the late reply Paul but plans were only finalised today (at least I think they're finalised!)
There's only one car going now and it's full of large men who will spend nothin'!
Sorry.

[paulb]

thats ok Ivor.....take loads of pics and post....

[Modest]

Some photos from my camera today. It was something different ,top quality gear and good sound atmosphere
Thanks for such show Kronos
Looking forward to next one










More pictures later :)

[fergus]

Lovely photos....well done!!

[DaveF]

some fine looking equipment there. Thanks for the photos Modest.

[halvis]

Good man for taking the pics.

Just got back from the show and I thought it was pretty good, with a good turn out, some rooms were even too busy I thought.

Stand out room for me were the Puresound room, the room with the big Focals sounded good as well, although didn't stay long as well out of my budget in this lifetime. Some rooms were a bit plinky plonky sounding but the guys in the room with the ATC and Naim gear gave great dems - explaining what was playing and just handed you the iPad and you chose the track you wanted from the streamer. Heard bass out of the ATCs that I only thought existed in concert halls. Vinyl was from an SME 10 which tbh left me a bit cold.

The Audionote room was interesting, really musical and dragged you in to the musical message, but not sure I could justify the £45k asking price. The Puresound room offered a similar sound for better VFM IMO.

There were a few other good rooms, one with a couple of Techincs in, one specced exactly as I had mine with a Jelco arm and another the other side with a Rega. Would have loved to compared the two, but was a little busy in there too.

The new high end Rega kit looked really impressive bit didn't get to hear it, that was in the Lyric Hifi room and heard good reports about their little Linn streaming setup but didn't hear that either.

But a good day and nice to meet a few people from here and some other mates.

[cybot]

Great stuff lads :-)

[Ivor]

Great day out alright. I had no phone coverage up there and so it was only when I got home I say a voicemail from Ken who was there with Modest.

the pics above give a fair idea of what was on show, Fran took a few more which should be good too. Some lovely gear, some crap, some snake oil. It was nice to see and hear equipment I've only ever heard of or seen in magazines before. There seems to be a thriving HiFi scene north of the border, by "scene" I don't mean just in terms of sales but also the culture of hifi. Are there really so few hifi enthusiasts south of the border than we can't support multiple outlets? I find that very strange.

[Diapason]

Great pics! There seems to have been quite a lot of stuff there that I'd really like to hear. Anything gobsmacking?

[Ivor]

The new high end Rega kit looked really impressive bit didn't get to hear it, that was in the Lyric Hifi room and heard good reports about their little Linn streaming setup but didn't hear that either.

When I walked in there the Linn was playing and it was "nice". I'm afraid I've never found anything with a Linn badge very engaging and this was no different.
The Rega gear was very good. CD player and amp (each costing about 6k) were played through Kef Reference speakers and while they sounded a little bright it was very impressive. Detailed, dynamic and very musical. The room probably contributed to the brightness but, even if it wasn't that, I'm sure it could be softened out by using other cables.