Upcoming show dates for your diary...

Manchester and Dublin (which has to rank as one of my all time favourites) are well established, and now they're joined by the Glasgow dates. These regional shows are going from strength to strength, following in the footsteps of their Great Grandaddy, the Bristol event, which takes place each February. Freed of the constraints imposed on a major international event, they are rather more characterful, and some enthusiasts would say, more interesting too!

LONDON HI-FIDELITYSHOW 2009 28 - 29 March (2009)

we're jam packed with some of the most exciting kit you can lay your hands on and for that matter your ears too...

28 - 29 March: 28th 10am - 5pm, 29th 10am - 4pm

Concession £8. Pre-registration via the website
On the door £10
Venue: Park Inn, Heathrow, Bath Road, London UB7 0DU (+44 (0) 20 8759 6611

Website: Chesterfield Communications www.chestergroup.org
Tel: +44 (0)5601 139 926
Email: steve at chestergroup.org (replace the "at")

THE SHOW REPORTS

SHOW REPORT: The Montreal Hi-Fi Expo 2004 by Richard S. Foster

It's hard to imagine this show has been thriving for the last seventeen years! I don't know what the attendance figures were, but I will say this was a busy three days with plenty of great exhibits from around the world. The main venue was the Delta Hotel on Kennedy Boulevard offering ten floors of exhibits while a secondary hotel as the Sheraton Four Points just across the street was offering an additional five floors. There were in excess of 325 manufacturers, distributors and retailers exhibiting their wares. The place was packed! If you'd like to take a look on-line at some of what was going on, then visit: http://www.hifiexpo.com/. My main task was to cover the Canadian manufacturing sector.

Having not been at the show for about five years - and even then, not paying as much attention to what was going on in my own country - I was totally unprepared for the sheer number and quality of these products. There are some very innovative designs offering quality sound… and in many cases, at very affordable prices. The only major disappointment I encountered was that many rooms that were supposed to be open at 9AM on Friday for the audio press and retailers (the show opened at 1PM for the public) were still closed. This was a real bummer because it would have been the ideal time to spend some additional quality time with the exhibitors. Having said that, many exhibitors were still setting up in the wee small hours of the morning, trying to get their rooms to sound right. One of the distributors/dealers I know told me they were up until 4AM working on their room, so perhaps it is understandable that some manufacturers opted not to open before the public arrived. That's got to be a hard call, because they certainly missed a great opportunity to impress the press.

Two of the Canadian distributors dealing on the software side of the business, May Audio, http://www.mayaudio.com/mayaudio/home.asp and Diamond Groove, http://diamondgroove.com/ were both enjoying healthy sales. I know that May was selling CDs, but Diamond Groove, bless their vinyl loving hearts, were just selling black gold, which was moving out of their room at lightning speed. They even got me for a long out-of-print Mosaic box set of the complete Aladdin sessions by Amos Milburn, new and unused. Thanks guys!!

Speaker manufacturers as always, were present in abundance and I must say that in several cases I was delighted to hear such excellent sound quality… especially under show conditions. But I'll come back to those. The product I was most smitten with was by a new Canadian company - and from Newfoundland no less - Aurum Acoustics, http://www.aurumacoustics.com. President and chief designer, Derrick Moss, has created and is manufacturing a fine sounding, stand-alone CD player/pre-amplifer (Integris CDP). His real wonder is the Integris Active 300B. Basically what we're talking about is an active loudspeaker system utilizing their special 300B amplifier for the midrange and tweeters while employing woofer amplification by Bryston.

Believe me when I say I was drooling over the sound I heard in this room. I spent some great time with Moss early one morning as he put the products through their paces. I really didn't find the clogging colorations so often associated with SET playback and because of the uniqueness of this design the woofers (in a sealed enclosure within the speaker system) passed my AC/DC Thunderstruck test with flying colors. Whilst they're still preproduction models, these products will be available later this year. The cost for the Integris Active 300B (amplification and speakers) is going to be approximately $30,000CDN and the CDP will be $10,000CDN. That allows you to include your favourite phono section with no digital spillage, and the flexibility of the CDP allows you to employ either single-ended or balanced connection. Cables for the speaker system are included, sourced from Cardas. This is a very innovative product and I am still trying to figure out if I can get these babies in my room for a test run when production starts. My biggest concern is going to be space… but out of my living room!

Blue Circle Audio, http://www.bluecircle.com have been around the Canadian scene since 1991. Owner/ designer Gilbert Yeung has done an excellent job of filling out his electronics catalogue since the days of his original product, the BC-3 line-stage. His product range consists of everything from hybrid amplifiers (tubes and transistors), linestages whether they are dual mono, tubed or transistor, with a pricing structure that starts at approximately $1100CDN all the way to $15,000CDN! Their amplifiers start at $1995CDN and move right to the $21,000CDN price point. A phono stage, integrated amplifiers, various power cords, interconnects, speaker cables, power line conditioners and several other accessories complete a product list that encompasses in excess of 65 items! I spent some great time with Gilbert one morning and we listened to my test CD-R which compared the same tracks using the Helikon mono and Titan mono.

Listening to the Martin Logan Fab Audio Ascent-i loudspeaker system, the electronics consisted of Gilbert's BC28 (120 watts, stereo class AB hybrid power amp with 2-6922's at $5195CDN), the BC3 Galatea Mk II tubed, dual-mono line-stage, ($6495CDN) and a Wadia 302 CD player. The sound was open, airy and very accurate to these ears. I know this CD intimately and we were both able to clearly discern the differences between the two cartridges. I really liked what I heard and will spend some time in the near future discussing these electronics once I've had a chance to take a longer listen at home.

Sim Audio, http://www.simaudio.com, is not a name unfamiliar to readers of this magazine. Based in Quebec, they've built an international reputation by offering some fine electronic components, not only for two channel aficionados but also for those inclined to move towards multi-channel music or home theatre installations. I spent a few minutes talking with Lionel Goodfield, Sim's V.P. of Marketing who basically explained to me that the new toys on the block were their Moon Limited Edition Series. This currently consists of five products in two different categories. In the MOON Limited Edition Balanced Differential Music System we have the Eclipse LE CD Player, P-5 LE Dual-Mono Pre-amplifier and W-5 LE Dual-Mono Power Amplifier. In their Limited Edition Reference Music System the two products are the Nova LE CD Player and the i-5 LE Integrated Amplifier. These are products that have many upgraded parts, tighter tolerances when matching parts and a Cardas power cord. This series will be strictly limited to 250 units each. Check their website for more information… but hurry as there's only a handful of each for the World!

There must be something in the water in this country given the number of fine speaker manufacturers. Too many to cover in real detail, so here are the web contacts for the ones I found most interesting such that you can do a little home research. These included Fab Audio (and their new "Brat" loudspeaker): http://www.fabaudio.com.

I was also very impressed with what I heard from Tondino Acoustic, http://www.tondinoacoustic.com and I'd like to thank Guy Pelletier for his kind explanations of his line. Believe me. His English is far better than my French! Also offering excellent sound, and some products I was very impressed with were what I heard from Focus Audio, http://www.focusaudio.ca and will be contacting Roger Kwong for some up close and personal Studio Lab exposure to his fine line of very affordable loudspeakers. StudioLab Reference speakers were on display and the room was always packed …too much so for me to spend any time with a one-on-one, but I will follow this up in the near future. You can have a look at their line at http://www.studiolabspeakers.com .

Israel Blume of Coincident Speaker Technology was getting some good sounds with a small speaker system in a room located across the street at the Sheraton Four Points. Coincident has seen many favourable reviews in North American magazines. They can be located at http://www.coincidentspeaker.com.

I will be contacting Israel in the future to see what we can line up since we both live in Toronto. Totem Acoustics is a well-known manufacturer with an extensive line of products for both two and multi-channel installations. They had selected a pretty surreal home theatre demonstration located on one of the pavilion levels at the Delta. Totem can be viewed at: http://www.totemacoustic.com . If you'd like to see what I mean by eclectic, then jump to: http://www.totemacoustic.com/english/photoGallery/photoGallery.htm and enjoy this for yourself.

My biggest frustration was trying to get into the Gershman Acoustics rooms. I must have gone back at least a half dozen times and the rooms were packed.I'll be getting in touch with Gershman here in Toronto and see if we can remedy that situation. In the meantime, point your browser to: http://www.gershmanacoustics.com/ and have a look at a really fine line of loudspeakers.

I had a great time at the Montreal show, and really look forward to going back next year! I just hope I can remember that wonderful Friday night restaurant location which served some insanely fresh paella and sneak-up-and-grab-youby-the-back-of-the-neck Sangria… but the best thing was that while eating, approximately ten feet away from our table, was this wonderful troupe of live Flamenco dancers and singers. What a great night! For what it's worth I think the Montreal show is, next to the CES in Las Vegas, the largest audio show in North America. It's an extremely affordable venue, not only for the manufacturers but for the attendees as well. Mark this on your calendar for next year. You'll be pleased you came.

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SHOW REPORT: HEATHROW (LONDON) 2004
            It’s Show Time!

And now for something a little different. Rather than the normal, endless list of new products on show, I thought it might be interesting to get some contrasting (and conflicting?) overviews of the event and sound as a whole. So, while AS trawled the corridors in search of new technology and new products, myself, JH and RSF took a look at the rooms that actually impressed us on sonic grounds. Oh, and we got to play some records too…
Ed.

The Heathrow Hi-Fi Show and AV Expo 2004 by Alan Sircom

OK, so this year wasn’t the one Archimedes jumped from the bath. There are no Eureka moments in hi-fi today; no ground-changing technologies, no innovations to set up the next two decades of music. Unless it’s known as the year of nailing down the coffin for multi-channel music, 2004 will not go down in history as a time of hi-fi revolution. Nevertheless, there were changes seen at the Hi-Fi Show & AV Expo, but this year owes more to Charles Darwin than Mao Zedong.

If there was a change to the hi-fi zeitgeist of 2004, it was the realisation of the digital dream, with companies playing and showing the latest in alldigital amplification. TacT began the digital amplifier concept in high-end audio with its Millennium integrated amplifier. More was on show, comprising equalisers, huge floorstanding speaker arrays and the latest in super-clean TDA 2200 digital amplification and SDAi ‘semi-digital’ electronics. In addition, Chapter Audio had a sample of its forthcoming Precis amplifier on display, using a refined version of the Class D circuit and switch-mode power supply seen in the company’s highly-respected Chapter by Alan Sircom Two+ power amplifier. Elsewhere, a number of companies such as Emotive Excellence and Overkill Audio were using digital crossovers to integrate low-frequencies.

Another take on the digital technology concept came from O’heocha, showcasing its latest concepts based on the company’s D1 series speakers. Using Wi-Fi connectivity from the world of computers, the brace of active speakers were capable of playing multi-channel SACD and DVD-Audio surround sound without long runs of speaker cable. The system is designed to be completely modular, allowing the £1,700 wireless power clients to be fitted into any active O’heocha speaker. These would receive signals up to 100m from the £2,900 dedicated server box connected to the main system. This was probably the most exciting home cinema demonstration of the show, in new technology terms at least.

One of the biggest changes at the show was a purely philosophical one. The “& AV Expo” bit of the Heathrow Show name became purely vestigial. Stereo was back with a vengeance, so there were only a handful of multichannel music and practically no home cinema sound systems. Of these, Naim Audio and Absolute Sounds put on the best spreads, with Naim showing its 5.1 channel n-SATS/n-CENT/n-SUB system and Absolute Sounds playing its new DreamVision DLP projector and Krell’s HEAT electronics through the new Resolution speakers. There were a few other exceptions to the home cinema ban – notably Harbeth demonstrating its new NRG speaker range – but most sounds were decidedly stereophonic, and the corridors were surprisingly explosion free. In fact, there were more new mains conditioners than DVD players!
Of course, with no home cinema, there was more room for innovative, weird and wonderful hi-fi systems and products on display. One of the consistently most interesting is 47 Laboratory. Best known for its striking Reference Series products like the PiTracer CD player, the company was showing its more down-to-earth products like the £3,020 Flatfish Mk II CD player and its Shigaraki range; uber-minimalist blocks of Shigaraki ceramic (a thousand years of Japanese pottery can’t be wrong; shigaraki is stoneware, as if Time Team unearthed the Denby factory) containing power supplies, DACs and phono stages and unpainted alloy, exposed CD transport mechanisms. Allied to the Konus Audio speakers, with their single Ted Jordan driver, this makes DNM seem positively mainstream and gizmopacked.

One of the more interesting developments was the sight of Marantz playing vinyl alongside SACD and CD in its stereo-only demonstration room. Marantz has specified a £1,000 custom version of the Clearaudio Champion turntable with a MM cartridge, and it sounded fine alongside the company’s flagship SACD player.

Another promising trend seen at the show was that stylish design need not mean terrible sound. Products like Hovland’s pre/power, Tube Technology’s TT Genetix valve monoblock stack, the full range of Vivid Audio speakers (looking like something intergalactic from The Day The Earth Stood Still), the conrad-johnson ACT2 preamp and the Ferguson Hill FH001 speaker designs (with the FH002 bass units) all showed that hi-fi can sound and look good (or, in the case of the FH001, sound good and be practically invisible, despite standing almost as tall as the average British bloke). Of course, there were still products that looked like they had been built out of bits of shopping trolley and wrapped in the trim from a 1975 Austin Allegro. But, for once, such untenable designs were in the minority.

On a personal note, it’s hard to pin down precisely who made the best sound of the show. Some rooms were packed and were consistently praised by people in the corridors (such as the Usher Audio room) yet seemed to produce a sound like someone throwing a sack of glass spoons down a steel staircase whenever I wandered past. Others cautioned me not to visit the TacT room because of its earshredding edginess, yet it sounded simply clean, dynamic and exciting when I heard it. I did seem to spend more time than most in the Raidho room, listening to several of the emilie loudspeaker range (junior cousins to the exacting eben designs) all played through reasonably humble Cyrus electronics and insanely expensive Nordost cables and mains conditioning. They may lack the insight and absolute definition of their big brothers (with their expensive Swedish Audio Technology bass/mid drivers) but that also makes them somewhat easier to live with. They made a sound that managed to cover all the bases; it timed like the Best of British, while that large ribbon tweeter gave it audiophile credentials, too. Any company bold enough to play everything from Mahler to the Beatles and get away with all of them is doing something very right indeed. These are definitely one to look forward to on the review roster. The inclusion of a dedicated centre speaker in combination with their well-extended treble makes them a shoe-in for multi-channel music systems – and yes Mr Editor, that is a hint.

Another welcome return was to be seen in the shape of the EERA CD player, formerly known as the Helios. One of the very few digital front-ends to ever approach the energy, presence and involvement of analogue, the original designs went through a problematic period associated with ructions within the company. That’s dead and gone with the demise of the original set-up. But the design lives on, substantially revised and updated in the externally identical EERA casework. Playing through KR amplification and Apertura loudspeakers, the sound had all the familiar immediacy and bounce that made the Helios so impressive, but with significantly improved detail and refinement, all at a target price that’s well below £2000. There’s still nothing near this price that comes close in musical terms – and hey, it looks real cool too. This looks like a winner assuming UK distribution can be sorted out. In the meantime interested parties can contact EERA at www.eera.fr.
Other returnees were Magneplanar (Walrus are bringing in the well regarded MG1.6s) and the Cadence hybrid electrostatic speakers, both of which were reminding listeners just how effective two-channel can be. No surprise then that both benefited from top-quality analogue front-ends. Of course, great big turntables do tend to hog all the attention, so it was easy to miss an odd and rather unassuming box lurking on the bottom shelf in the Walrus room. The black, facetted casework concealed Tom Evans latest, EL84 powered, hybrid power amp, based on the Soul circuit but costing an awful lot less and delivering around 20 Watts of Class A power a side. It may lack the fancy, modular casework of its big brother, but few will begrudge it that if, as Tom claims, it out-performs it.

Meanwhile, Symmetry were showing the new Mark Levinson No. 320 pre-amp, a lower priced spin-off based on the superb No. 32 reviewed back in Issue 11. The appearance of this product is significant in that it represents the first new item to appear in the Levinson range since the closure of the original factory and relocation of production to Harman’s Lexicon plant. It’s an encouraging sign for all the Levinson devotees out there who’ve been worrying about the brand’s future. What it doesn’t do is provide any real signpost as to its future direction, this being the last design completed under the auspices of the former, Madrigal management. Still, it’s a positive sign, especially considering the number of nay-sayers out there all too ready to drop the final curtain on the long-running and colourful Levinson saga. All of which is of course irrelevant to the issue of how this product actually sounds. Beautifully styled after the No. 32 control unit, I’m sure that RG can’t wait to see if its performance matches up to the appearance – because I’m sure he won’t be letting this one slip through his sticky fingers.

And finally, spare a thought for poor old Tim de Paravicini of EAR. He had spent many sleepless nights getting his prototype turntable ready for the show, only to find it beset with major wowing problems when installed at Heathrow. “It still sounds fantastic on 78s” he confided to me, slightly crestfallen. Of course, the originally name of the turntable – ‘Le Platine’ – might have caused even more problems than the wow factor; JC Verdier is known for being sanguine about copyists, but there are limits. Fortunately, Tim is considering a new name for what has the potential for being a stunning turntable.

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The Heathrow Hi-Fi Show and AV Expo 2004, Sound Scape One by Richard S. Foster

I want to start a movement with respect to the scheduling of all audio shows. My assignment for this, my first “out of North America” show, was to seek out those rooms that offered great sound. On the first day...after returning from visiting almost all the rooms in both hotels, I thought I wouldn’t have much to write about.

Why would I like to change the scheduling? It has to do with when ‘industry and press’ days are offered. This is always the first day...right after setup day. Do you know what equipment, some right out of the box, sounds like on the first day? Mostly pretty awful. When do the rooms usually sound their best? Sunday, the last day of the show...usually when they are packed with paying attendees and you have to go outside to change your mind. In other words...there are too many people in the rooms to give a reviewer a good sense of what the equipment being exhibited sounds like. And for what it’s worth, I think it extremely rude for manufacturers and reviewers to expect special privileges and have a room vacated on a regular show day just so the self-important reviewer can have a listen. So what is the solution? My solution would be to change the Friday to Sunday format to a Saturday to Monday one. Friday becomes setup day. The first two days on the weekend belong to the public and Monday becomes trade and press day. What could make more sense?

Held September 24-26 at the Renaissance and Park Inn Hotels near Heathrow, it was quite a treat for me to walk around and not know all that many people. I did a quick survey late Thursday afternoon and when I met Roy at the end of the day he asked what I liked. “Nothing”, was the response, met with laughter from RG. Well, tomorrow would be another day, the day set aside for trade, retailers and press to talk, observe and listen to their heart’s content.

I made another pass through both venues and also some brief notes regarding the rooms I felt had some promise. First stop was the Park Inn which contained a modest number of suites and rooms, approximately 26 in total. The rooms, in general, were similar in size to those of the Renaissance, and I felt they were smaller than I had been used to seeing in other North American venues. Setup was, as always, critical and many exhibitors were resorting to extreme experimentation: I would notice significant changes to the setup of some of the rooms over the next few days.

I enjoyed what I heard in the RT Services room; a complete Nagra setup, including their new 200 Watt pyramidal mono-block amplifiers, their tape machine as well as their pre-amp. Source material was played on an Orpheus CD player with Pen Audio Charisma and Charabas loudspeakers. Pretty listenable I thought...and only about £25000 for the setup, including cabling was from Siltech. I thought the sound, especially on small ensemble material sounded quite excellent – good tonal balance, nice texture, and a generally engaging experience. If I only listened to this type of music I could be very happy with this set-up. I’d be a little more concerned if I were a strong orchestral, opera or even rock fan. I’m not sure whether the goods would really arrive on time. But that’s all speculation (I didn’t unleash my AC/DC disc) and, based upon the listening I did at the show, I’d rate this room as one of the better ones.

Although I wasn’t blown away by the sound in the Opus 3 room, there was a great demo that’s well worth mentioning. It was an alternative take on the old live versus recorded demonstration, but with a twist. A tape had been made of a saxophone player. She was at the show and would play part of the first portion of what had been recorded while the mastertape was also running. Then, at a given point, she stopped playing but the tape continued to run: Very interesting and informative. Unfortunately there had not been enough time to have an LP or CD manufactured so that all the various stages in the recording process could be compared. What they did have was another master-tape of an orchestral piece while an LP was being played. The difference however, when switching back and forth from the master-tape to the LP was quite evident. A demonstration worthy of mention as it was my only “live” musical experience at the show.

Good sound could be heard in the Spitfire Room at the Renaissance where UKD offered a system comprising equipment from Audio Analogue, Pathos (the very interesting integrated Inpol2) and Triangle, in the shape of the Magellan Concertos. A room I came back to on several occasions, and which was never less than busy.

In the Trident Room, I really enjoyed the Waterfall Audio ‘glass’ speaker systems, the Krysta-line and the Hurricane satellite/sub-woofer system. The Myryad electronics did an outstanding job of running this system and it was a totally musical experience. I’ve always brought my own CDRs to these shows, almost all made from records in my collection. It’s a great point of reference for me and even though there are so many variables (like the room, the interconnects, the power, etc), I got a very nice feeling from this quite modest set-up.

I really enjoyed myself in the Eben/Pass/dCS room. Using a Pass Labs X150 amp, driving the Eben X-Centric speakers with the fine Verdi La Scala CD SACD transport, the dCS Elgar Plus digital-to-analogue converter and their Verona Master Clock with a full Nordost Valhalla setup (interconnect, digital cabling, speaker cable and power chords), I had a blast when I brought out my AC/DC Thunderstruck CDR. Made from a great UK 12” 45RPM LP, I had requests for copies of this baby. The room really rocked and a great time was had by all. Those Ebens are something else. They really are VERY sensitive to the type and quality of information that is being fed to them, and as you can imagine, with that fabulous dCS front end, they were able to pick apart every CD we played. If you want to hear a very special, regular, off the shelf CD, get your hands on a copy of the soundtrack to Blackhawk Down, long an RG (and HP) favourite. This will give your system a major workout. It certainly sounded quite excellent with this setup. A really musical and great sounding room.

What was the standout? For me, the walk away winner was the room setup by Branko Bozic of Audiofreaks. No doubt about it. Heart of the system was the conradjohnson ACT 2 line-stage, feeding the new c-j Premier 350 solid-state amplifier (yes, solid-state - and the first solid state product from c-j to be given the Premier designation). These were driving the Avalon Acoustics Eidolon loudspeakers.

The front end was the very tasty Kuzma Stabi Reference turntable with their Airline passive lineartracking arm and a Benz LP moving coil cartridge feeding the Benz Lukashek PP1 phono stage. Reimyo and McCormack players provided the digital replay options and Cardas wiring was used throughout. Everything was supported on finite-elemente’s extremely elegant Pagoda equipment stands. A great room, always packed and one fine, musical setup. I had a great time, heard some equipment I’d never come across before, and enjoyed the hospitality of so many really nice people. And if the people were more interesting than the majority of the sound then that’s no great surprise. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of you again at the CES in January in Las Vegas, and don’t be too surprised if you see me at the Manchester show too.

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Northern Exposure…
The Northern Sound And Vision Show. 29th-30th January, 2005

For the fourth year running, Hi-Fi+ has sponsored the Manchester Hi-Fi Show, held at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Manchester Airport, and we’re happy to announce that the event has continued to go from strength to strength. Exhibitor numbers were up and seemed to be matched by an increase in visitors too. What’s even more important is that the style and character of the show is firming up nicely, this being “serious twochannel” in nature, in contrast to the more “budget and home cinema” stance of the Practical Hi-Fi Show. The complementary coverage of these two events in the same locality has to be a good thing for both the industry and the public, perhaps heralding similar developments elsewhere in the country? It would certainly be nice to think so. .

In keeping with the increased profile of the show, it was especially nice to see the likes of Absolute Sounds, Symmetry, Audio Reference and RT Services joining the list of established exhibitors like Audio Craft and Metropolis Music. Amongst the fascinating products on show, one of the most intriguing was a two channel only SACD machine from Ayre Acoustic. This approach looks to finally realise the true audiophile potential of this medium by eliminating unnecessary multichannel circuitry found on a machine like Krell’s SACD Standard and, even more problematic in sound quality terms, the video circuitry found on universal players. .

Two-channel certainly seemed to be the order of the day, with AV demonstrations being few and far between. Ironically, it was our by now traditional demonstration that broke the mould. You can read about it in detail over the page, but suffice to say it used everything from three channels down to one, but in our defense I would point out that the 14” Loewe screen was only used to navigate the menus on the McCormack UDP1 disc player. However, locked in our demo for most of both days it was impossible to have a proper look around. A few things caught my eye and you can expect to see them reviewed in the near future, including TACT’s digital amplification (which really seems to have come of age) and the fascinating Dyer Audio active monitors.

All told, the great and the good of the serious two-channel scene seemed to be all present and correct, one way or another. Not just in hardware terms either, with plenty of vinyl and audiophile optical software on offer too. Which was just as well as we took the opportunity to hand out our 2004 awards on the Saturday evening. It was a relaxed and refreshingly positive event, rather like the show itself, which continues to build on its popularity and singular vision. If the London event, scheduled for the end of March and arranged by the same organizer can follow in its footsteps then perhaps the capital will finally have the dedicated high-end show it’s been crying out for. (Those interested in further details of that event should look at www.chestergroup.org)

Meanwhile, it was nice to see so many familiar faces again, along with a clutch of new ones. Our demonstration this year was somewhat daunting to organise but certainly seemed to entertain the crowds. Thanks for your time and attention and we’ll see you again next year.

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The Hi-Fi+ Demonstration: Do high-quality formats guarantee high-quality results? by Roy Gregory

Another Manchester Show and another of our by now traditional demonstrations; as always, the question was what exactly to demonstrate? Well, having been astonished by our own experiences listening to RSF’s original US pressings of the Mercury Living Presence recordings at the London Show, and having devoted so much space to that and things Mercury in general, we thought it would be nice to let the public hear what the fuss is all about - in both the positive and the negative senses. Also, with Richard actually attending the show it seemed like far too good an opportunity to miss...

However, the various versions of the Mercury catalogue don’t in and of themselves, constitute a broad enough subject for a general demonstration. So working from the basic theme of variations in mastering and pressing quality we worked up a three-stage demonstration. What we wanted to show was as follows:

• That properly executed re-mastering of even recent material can be very worthwhile.
• That the application of theoretically superior formats to older recordings still results in wildly differing standards of reproduction.
• That adopting the proper hardware, optimised to replay a given format, can have a profound effect on the results achieved.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, that was far from the case and just assembling a system capable of replaying the various formats required was something of a feat. You can see the specifics outlined in the sidebar overleaf, but suffice to say we stuck to products that we’ve reviewed favourably, in many cases that we’ve given awards to.

We also tried to select components that readers and the public might not have come across or would have trouble finding. After all, where’s the fun in always hearing the same old stuff?

The basic requirement was for a system equally at home on stereo multi-channel recordings. If things are going to remain manageable, that means a single chassis, multi-channelpower amp and a six-channel pre-amp to match. The number of hi-fi capable products that actually meet that need is extremely small. We relied on the proven experience of McCormack and Bryston and fortunately we weren’t disappointed. What’s more, as you’ll see, we only needed three speakers, which allowed us to bi-amp the main stereo pair to considerable effect. With Vertex AQ taking the integration of ancillaries to a new high we were blessed with excellent sound from what might at first glance appear to be a pretty disparate group of products and an hotel room acoustic.

The recordings were somewhat easier to select. As a modern disc given the full re-mastering treatment, we chose Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space. First released as a full price CD in 2002 and it has since received both the Hybrid SACD and the full 180g vinyl treatment from Mobile Fidelity. But what made it an interesting recording from the point of view of the demonstration was the nature of the recording. Not only was it Pro-Tooled to the nines (making it totally representative of current pop practice) but producer Michael Lockwood had spent considerable time adding noise and subtle distortion to individualise the separate instrumental tracks. The end result is full of texture and contrast, yet also murky and congested, making it hard to reproduce with clarity as well as the character that had taken so much work to create.

Using the title track, we played the opening bars and chorus of the original disc twice, just to let the listeners get a real hold on what was probably an unfamiliar track. We then played the same excerpt from the Mo-Fi Hybrid SACD, but selecting the re-mastered CD layer (an exercise that required an LCD screen connected to the system to allow navigation of the DVD operating protocol employed by the McCormack UDP-1). Sure enough the sound was crisper, more detailed, better separated, with greater dynamic range. The opening fuzz guitar riff had more texture and shape, the lead vocal more body, purpose and immediacy. The end result? A soundstage which you could see far further into, its careful construction far more apparent - and a song that communicated far more directly. This was a musically far more rewarding delivery, yet it was based on exactly the same tape and information.

Moving on to the SACD layer delivered yet more detail, separation and dynamic range, along with the grainless rhythmic fluidity that characterizes the format. Smoother, more texture and more intimacy still, again this was clearly superior to the original CD version - as you’d have every right to expect from a premium priced audiophile release. Moving over to the 180g LP brought additional weight and drive along with solidity, warmth and humanity to the vocals. This was exactly what analogue fans rave about - again, despite the digital source material.

The results of this exercise allowed a number of conclusions. First and most obvious was the superiority of all the Mo-Fi versions to the original. Whilst we could discuss the differences between the various formats ad nauseam, regardless of which you were going to play and assuming you already owned the original version, you’d be plenty pleased with your new purchase. A fair expectation in the case of the SACD layer or 180g LP, but for me, the most interesting thing was the superiority of the CD layer, making Hybrid SACDs a viable option for people without SACD replay.

Less obvious was the care that had to go into the comparisons. Levels had to be carefully matched and varied between 77 and 83 on the McCormack’s digital volume scale, the LP being the quietest, the CD the loudest. Also, all that weight on the vinyl pressing became something of a muddy embarrassment if you didn’t optimise the VTA (+32 in this case). The end result was a whole series of adjustments that needed to be made between each track, a task with which DJ RSF struggled heroically (and successfully) all weekend.

So, the Aimee Mann discs stand as a testimony to the positive benefits of careful (re-)mastering and an example of exactly what a good audiophile re-issue should offer. More so too than just sonically; Lost In Space is an interesting recording certainly, but few would have selected it on purely sonic grounds. Nice to see Mo-Fi making release decisions based on musical merit rather than audiophile reputation and sound quality - just the way it should be.

Having established the possibilities it was time to look at the Mercury recordings. This American classical catalogue has always been the subject of controversy in collectors’ circles. Whereas vinyl based audiophiles in the US have generally held these discs in the highest esteem, on this side of the Atlantic we’ve tended to wonder what the fuss was all about; hence our little get together in London and its outgrowth into this demonstration. What we were hoping to show was exactly why such different opinions could co-exist (and both be right!). Unfortunately, time pressure meant that we were confined to a single example, while the limited range of material available on recent audiophile vinyl re-pressing narrowed the field even further. Finally, we needed access to a US pressed version of the title too. The choice came down to the Dorati Firebird, appropriately one of the most highly rated Mercury recordings, even if musically the material didn’t necessarily lend itself to demonstration (not enough tune and too slow to develop).

Despite the use of a single title, we still had five different versions to get through, ranging in level from 72 to 80.5 on the volume scale and -2 to +47 on the VTA adjuster! That and three different formats to contend with meant that Richard was a nervous wreck by the end of the weekend. Oh, and did I forget to mention that the three vinyl versions were all cut by different people meaning that the precise excerpt required (not the start of a track I hasten to add) appeared at a slightly different point on each one! Frankly, his performance was heroic and we couldn’t have done it without him. Still, I suspect he’s still waking up in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat...

Highly collectable in the US, extremely rare in the UK, original Mercury pressings have always commanded a high price. So, when Universal Music announced a series of CD releases in 1990 (overseen by original producer Wilma Cozart-Fine) many an audiophile rubbed their hands together with glee. For many of us it was our first real introduction to this legendary catalogue, so that’s exactly where we decided to start. Playing our chosen excerpt in 16bit 44,1K digital sound brought back exactly the same sense of disappointment I experienced the first time I heard these discs. Whilst there was some suggestion of the power, drama and energy that I knew from the few original pressings I possessed, the sound was grainy, opaque and muddled, shut-in and lacking any real transparency. The performance was robbed of any real purpose or dramatic integrity. Pretty amazing considering that our selected passage involved a series of ramped phrases leading to an impressive crescendo. Certainly, there was nothing here to suggest that this was one of the all time great recordings or performances.

Moving swiftly on we cued up the contemporary British release, pressed by EMI back in 1960 (0 on the VTA scale). At an estimated £50 for a copy in decent condition, you’d expect this to sound pretty darn good. Boy, would you be in for a disappointment! Splashy and bright with a course and forward tonal balance, the presentation was undeniably vivid - and fast, but that was mainly down to the lack of any real deep bass. Once again, there was nothing here to justify the stellar reputation enjoyed by this recording amongst our American brethren.

What better option to try next than the current Classic Records 200g re-pressing. Again, with Wilma Cozart-Fine involved in the process, Classic released six of the Mercury titles back in 1997, originally on 180g vinyl. These were later updated to their 200g, non groove-guard profile. Now, whilst I can live without Balalaika Favorites and Hi-Fi a la Espagnole (frankly scandalously opportunistic choices given the limited number of releases) they did at least offer the Dorati Firebird. Now here was a disc that should have been worth hearing. With the arm cranked all the way up to +47 and the volume at 72 we let her rip and gazed on bemused as a turgid and listless facsimile of the music oozed from the speakers. Overblown bass resulted in a clogged and muddled mid-band while the performance was robbed of any sense of urgency or rhythmic integrity - and this is dance music, remember? The top end was smoothed off and shut in and the whole was devoid of musical interest or energy. Even forewarned by our previous experience in London, it was still shocking to hear this sludgy rendition.

Latest entry in the digital stakes is the Universal Music Hybrid SACD series. This offers the original CD layer and a choice of two- or three-channel SACD layers. The latter is a fascinating option, given the coincidence of Mercury’s three-mic tree recording approach and the early plans for Stereo to become a three speaker format. Yet, here again, the results were ultimately disappointingly muddled and lacking any real transparency or focus, drama or immediacy. Certainly, given the extra equipment necessary to achieve three channel playback (An SACD or universal player, a multi-channel pre-amp, an extra channel of power amplification and an extra speaker) this was a far from compelling argument for early adoption!

Finally, having bombarded our audience with a succession of variously disappointing versions it was time to reveal the full majesty of the piece. Richard duly unveiled a white-label, original non-vendor promo pressing of The Firebird, the most desirable of all Mercury pressings. Placing it on the platter and dialling back the VTA to -2 he reverently placed the stylus in the groove and sat back to enjoy the looks of astonishment on the faces of our listeners. Here was a huge and transparent soundstage, with air and immediacy, focus and vibrant energy. Instruments possessed their true and natural timbre, with weight and body to justify the Living Presence tag-line. Dynamics were impressively realistic but the biggest change of all was in the presentation of the performance. What had previously been lagging or disjointed suddenly became a living, breathing thing, full of purpose, tension, drive and drama. Dorati’s command was palpable, the dramatic steps and leaps that accompany the music a natural extension of the bold, rhythmic impetus. Now you had a recording with quality to match a stellar performance. Now you had a disc to covet - and now you could finally understand why American collectors get so excited by the Mercury catalogue. And the price of such a disc? The example in use cost Richard around £130 (and just remember how weak the dollar is at present). In the UK, such a pressing is probably unobtainable, and who knows what it would cost if one came up...

What conclusions are we to draw from this? Well, the obvious one is that simply sticking old tapes onto some new, high-zoot format doesn’t guarantee good results. It still matters who does the work and what exactly they do. Likewise, one bad experience doesn’t condemn an entire format. By way of example we also played one of RCA’s new 3- channel SACDs, in this case the Munch-BSO Saint-Saens Symphony No 3 (from a disc titled A Hi-Fi Spectacular). This was dramatically more successful than the Mercury, and far superior to the full-price Red Seal CD issue. What’s more, it actually used the air, space and dynamic capabilities of the three speaker set-up to positive advantage, with a really powerful and yet controlled presentation: far more convincing in every respect. Likewise, Speakers Corner are doing a superb job of transcribing the Mercury recordings onto 180g vinyl, their pressings being close in quality to an excellent example of an original, non-promo US pressing - which is impressive indeed. Unfortunately, they’re yet to tackle The Firebird, but some lucky listeners got to hear a comparison the Speakers Corner 180g and an original US pressing of the Respighi Birds - but more of that later.

Since the show I’ve heard (an unsubstantiated) rumour that the third mic in the Mercury tree was actually there solely for the mono releases. If true, and we’ll try and discover if it is, it would certainly help explain the disappointing results achieved with the three-channel Mercury SACD, when compared to the truly three (or more) channel RCA tapes. It would also underline just how important it is to match the material and format to the correct replay hard-ware and set-up in order to achieve optimum results. It’s a conclusion we’d already drawn, and for the final part of the demonstration we chose to revisit the issue in what many might consider an eclectic fashion. Whereas most people find it easy to accept that there will be hardware implications if you want to play more channels (all that extra amplification and all those extra speakers) not many appreciate that the same is true if you want to reduce the number of channels. Time then, to enter the world of mono...

Using a 1955 Buck Clayton and Woody Herman recording, the not inappropriately named How Hi the Fi?, we first played it on the TNT 6 using the same £3000 Lyra Titan stereo cartridge we’d been using through-out the demonstration. Sure enough, it sounded like pretty much every mono record you’ve ever heard: thin, scratchy, rustly, bandwidth limited, disjointed and aimless. At which point most of the audience were probably wondering why we’d bothered. However, the JMW tonearm allows you to swap the entire arm-top, which along with the VTA adjuster makes rapid cartridge swaps simplicity itself. In the time it took me to explain that we were replacing the Titan with the Helikon Mono, a cartridge with half the channels and half the price-tag, Richard had already performed the deed. Listening again the difference provided most people with their biggest shock of the day. Now instruments had body, substance and natural tonality, the noise had virtually disappeared while what I’d previously thought was also noise was resolved into audience chatter and the sound of glasses clinking. But far more important was the fact that now the band were tight and the music was really swinging. Now you could hear why these guys have the reputation they do. The effect was to transform the disc from a rarely played curio into a really involving and worthwhile musical experience.

But to do it you’ll need a mono cartridge, and unless you’ve got an arm like a JMW, you’ll need either a second tonearm (if your deck will accept one) or a second record player. Is it really worth the money and effort? Well, that depends on what music you listen to. If it’s exclusively ‘80s rock and pop that never came out in mono then the answer is clearly no. However, if you listen to classical, jazz, blues or early rock and roll then there’s a whole vista of available material just waiting for you to snap it up. And it gets better. Not only does this stuff sell for peanuts in secondhand record shops and thrift stores alike (the collectable How Hi The Fi? goes for well under a tenner - compare that to a stereo Mercury!) it sounds great, and often encompasses material that was never released in stereo. When it comes to jazz and classical in particular, there are many fantastic performers who were already well past their best by the time Stereo arrived. And if you think you’ve heard the Rolling Stones - think again, unless you’ve heard the early albums properly replayed in mono. The sheer drive, presence, energy and insistent enthusiasm are seriously infectious. You can understand why their music created quite a stir - and that’s the point of this and the rest of the demonstration.

You can have the best recording in the world but your access to it is limited by the quality of its transfer to the carrying medium and the use of the correct hardware to extract it. We are so solidly locked into a stereo norm that we tend to apply its rules and limitations to alternative approaches. Yet extracting the maximum musical return from a recording involves marrying the best mastering to a properly optimised playback chain. The options offered by mono and multi-channel are easy to forget or ignore, but doing so risks a severe narrowing of our musical enjoyment and the material available for our entertainment. Do you really want to listen to the music recorded between 1960 and the year 2000 and nothing else? That makes no sense to me.

Finally, we’ll return to the Respighi Birds and the lucky souls who got to compare the US original pressing to the Speakers Corner 180g re-issue. We started by playing the original and when we then got to the Speakers Corner pressing, I was surprised by the drop in musical quality. Quiet to be sure and with plenty of body and presence, but lacking snap, transparency, focus and purpose. That’s when I realised that we hadn’t corrected the VTA. Sure enough, playing the disc again with +5 notches on the JMW’s vernier scale restored the musical tension, drive, dynamics and direction to the piece, making it a compelling and exciting listening experience again - and surprisingly close to the US pressing in musical terms.

Let me just reiterate that this was not a small change. It was musically essential and readily audible to everybody present - none of whom were under any pressure to conform. The audience asked to hear the recording, we replayed it to the best of our ability. It wasn’t a staged demonstration but simply part of the process. The interesting thing was the scale and importance of the difference and the fact that it was heard and appreciated by everybody. Now consider that five notches on the VPI’s vernier scale equates to an armheight adjustment measured in terms of several thousandths of an inch (and this with a 12” arm) and tell me that VTA doesn’t matter and we can’t hear it anyway!

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