Cloney Audiofest June 7/8

[Sloop John B]

Went this morning to the show, really cool event.
I was really impressed by the Focal Aria 926 speakers (the ones in the Chord room).

I might get shot by saying this but I even preferred them over the B&W 800s setup

The 23k ones?

More or less the same Naim system as I have and didn't like the sound at all, very dry and clinical. Of course he may have set them up better on Sunday I was there Saturday.

Always feel a bit of the hifi equivalent of Joan,

Brand new Dandy
First class scene stealer
Walks through the crowd and takes your man
Sends you rushing to the mirror
Brush your eyebrows and say
There's more beauty in you than anyone

I came home tried 2 of the more impressive tracks I heard on the B&Ws and Focal and thankfully still am happy with what I've got.



SJB

[Fran]

The Naim room (the one with the Naim speakers) sounded good I thought. More gentle music perhaps, but I thought a more enjoyable sound. It didn't show the fireworks ability of the Devialet/B&W setup, but a nice sound. Speaking of which, that devialet imrpessed me again. I thought the vinyl sounded great off it.

Aleg - not sure what the ethernet cable was called. The guy was swapping from an "ordinary" cat7 to a chord coax based ethernet cable. I heard someone else saying retail on it was 1600...



Fran

[Claus]

Great to see everyone again. Got to hear some great tracks in a couple of rooms. I liked the Dev/B&W best followed by the big Focals. I found the Naim speakers much too lean and bright with a whole octave missing in the bass!

I could not hear the difference in the Ethernet cables but heard a small improvement with the interconnects. Not 1600 worth though... But then again there was no Lars C telling me how bad my sound is....:)

I suspect the marriage of Naim and Focal is a bit of a mismatch. I heard the bigger Focals with class A amps sounding amazing, so I know what they can do... I am very tempted to get a loan of a Dev to see what it can do with my 1028be's..... Dave ? ;)

All together a pleasant afternoon, which could improve hugely by all Irish/ Northern Irish dealers getting together for a weekend instead of this one-man-show from Naim/Focal.

[Aleg]

The Naim room (the one with the Naim speakers) sounded good I thought. More gentle music perhaps, but I thought a more enjoyable sound. It didn't show the fireworks ability of the Devialet/B&W setup, but a nice sound. Speaking of which, that devialet imrpessed me again. I thought the vinyl sounded great off it.

Aleg - not sure what the ethernet cable was called. The guy was swapping from an "ordinary" cat7 to a chord coax based ethernet cable. I heard someone else saying retail on it was 1600...



Fran

Hi Fran

Yes, I expected they would use that one. The GBP1600 is the "Chord Sarum Tuned ARAY streaming cable".
There has been a lot of hefty discussion on the Naim forum about that one.
Those that did listen to it do say there is a definite improvement. It is only the people with big Naim 500 systems (usually >100k GBP) that will find it vfm and fork out the GBP1600 for a meter.

[k99_64]

B+W 14k 800series room was the best! :)

Tbh, nothing from NAIM impressed me, and the closed room with the crazy looking french speakers were terrible.

I did like the sub room when used with the larger 600series B+W's though, very nice.

[DaveF]

The REL room was the one I spent the longest in by far as the guy there played
some good music that most music fans could identify with. Convincing demo too of the
system with and without the sub. With the sub on, it gave the music a nice lift, weight
and some added warmth yet the sub was never overpowering. Good demo.

As for the ethernet demo, I sat in that room on my own hoping to listen to the Focals. Then
the door closed behind me and the chap walked in and asked me 'have you ever heard a cable demo before?'
Ah jaysus I said to myself. I politely said yes I did. He then asked 'well have you ever heard an ethernet cable demo?'
Ah for f*ck sake I said to myself. I was then subjected to the most rubbishy plinky plonk synth type music ever.
Couldnt hear any difference and he almost cried when I said so. He then decided to repeat it and I had enough then
so I just said ah yeah there might be something there alright.
Show me some speakers/amps/cartridges etc not this type of bollox please.

The NAIM speakers were horrid altogether. An attempt at playing some large scale choral orchestral work but it didnt
sound choral or orchestral at all. Very bright and forward and almost no separation between instruments.

A little disappointed with the Dev/B&W room. For some reason there was a boxy sound to those speakers but I was
sitting slightly off centre a bit and the recording I wasnt familiar with. Nothing conclusive really but I do love the
look of those speakers. A room I wanted to come back to.

The coherence of the big Focal speakers impressed and that was the only thing I could get a hook on as the music
being played was something shocking.

One thing I noticed yesterday compared to previous shows like this was that nearly every demo was with music
streamed of an ipad/HDD or something like that. Definitely the way it has moved on alright.

[Aleg]

The speakers on the Naim photo appear to be Focal speakers as well, at least not the recent Ovators or classic DBL/NBl/IBL.

I find it a shame Naim 'has' to use Focal speakers since they were merged together with Focal.
I don't think that will show the Naim gear at its best.
Though I must say that the Ovators get a very mixed respons as well.

Personally I would not consider Naim/Focal speakers very soon.

[Diapason]

Interesting reports, everyone. I love that different people can have a different reaction to the same equipment in the same room. Food for thought for the CA developers, perhaps? In any case, I'm sorry I missed the annual coffee.

[Fran]

Aleg - they had ovators run by naim gear in another room but another two rooms had the naim /focal pairing.

[Terry]

Great to meet the few of you at the 'cloneyfest' - Derek's son in particular who had a refreshingly simple take on loudspeaker appraisal. We were sitting together in the REL room and enjoying the various comparisons. At one point I came out with a load of hifi 'guff' but this chap's version..."it's just GOOD", said it all.

Ps: Would be great if k99_64 could resize those images.