The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024, Part 1

The thirty fifth Bristol Hi-Fi Show was held from February 23 to 25 at its standard venue—the Delta Hotels by Marriott Bristol City Centre—and the vibe was simply as I’ve all the time remembered it. I’ve been coming right here for over 30 years and there’s a way of vitality that’s extremely infectious, and fairly distinctive. People are sometimes packed into the rooms and spilling out into the corridors attempting to take heed to the most recent and best from the world’s most interesting audio producers. The bar was buzzing all weekend, the business was out in drive, and there have been some significantly spectacular programs on present.

Opening on Friday—historically a quieter day, however not this 12 months!

I’ve banged on earlier than concerning the lack of selling savvy from a big swath of the audio business. How is it potential that in 2024 companies are nonetheless paying £10,000–£50,000 to exhibit at a present like this, placing a number of employees up in accommodations, and lugging gear all the best way to Bristol, but fail to show clearly the mannequin numbers and costs of the elements being proven? Surely, that is Marketing 101! Can you think about strolling right into a Jaguar dealership and discovering there are not any costs or mannequin numbers on the automobiles on show, so that you don’t know whether or not the automobile you’re looking is an electrical, diesel, or petrol mannequin—and even what it prices?

This is completed with the total information that the worldwide audio press is overlaying the present. You’re promoting fabulous, aspirational merchandise. This is your likelihood to get your merchandise in entrance of the world’s audio press and hundreds of potential prospects—so why give them so little data? All it takes is a printed web page itemizing the fashions and costs of the merchandise being proven. Laminate or body it after which the general public know what they’re listening to. Journalists can take an image of the sheet and use it for his or her present stories. Simple!

PMC

PMC showcased their new lively Twenty5i loudspeaker vary, comprising the Twenty5.21i Active and Twenty5.22i Active standmounts and Twenty5.23i Active and Twenty5.24i Active floorstanders. All have onboard amplification delivering 100W for every drive unit. Besides providing new lively variations of its standard Twenty5i-series audio system at a premium of £1400/pair over the usual passive fashions (all costs GBP), PMC can be enabling homeowners of passive fashions to improve their audio system to lively standing for £1795/pair. The conversion from passive to lively may be accomplished by both the tip consumer or a seller, and takes little greater than 5 minutes. The lively system options each unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR inputs. A excessive/low acquire swap is offered to supply compatibility with preamplifiers with differing output ranges. The lively crossover module options 24dB/octave filter slopes and high-tolerance elements. PMC claims that the lively variations have decrease coloration and higher transient response, due to the direct coupling between the amplifiers and drive items.

PMC showcasing new lively audio system

This capability to improve from a passive to an lively design at a later date is one thing I haven’t seen earlier than and is warmly welcomed. My solely expertise of one thing related was with a particular evaluate pair of ATC’s venerable SCM50. These featured removable crossover/amplifier packs, however this was purely aimed toward reviewers. Now PMC has taken the idea into prospects’ houses. Brilliant!

PMC’s revolutionary amplifier-pack modules

Michell Engineering

Michell’s legendary GyroDec—nonetheless probably the most stunning turntables on earth

Now that PMC has now taken over UK distribution for Michell Engineering merchandise, these stunning and inexpensive high-end vinyl spinners will hopefully obtain the market penetration they’ve all the time deserved. The TecnoDec, GyroDec, and Orbe stay in manufacturing, however now profit from the event of the optionally available Michell LEVIS magnetic levitation ft (£460/set of three), which made their present debut at Bristol. These superbly crafted ft float your complete turntable on a magnetic cushion and are claimed to supply superior isolation from exterior vibration, thus enabling higher precision in studying the report microgroove. After becoming them to my very own GyroDec, I observed blacker backgrounds, higher capability to retrieve delicate particulars, and higher solidity to devices. And they appear means cooler than the outdated ft!

Michell’s new LEVIS footers—magnetic levitation involves Bristol

Linn Products

Here is one in all my high three programs on the present. Linn debuted their new Jony Ive Fiftieth-anniversary Linn Sondek LP12-50 (£50,000). The turntable doesn’t simply swap sharp edges for curves however includes a utterly new plinth. The Bedrok plinth is produced from layers of beech which were compressed with a particular resin to type what Linn loosely describes as an natural carbon fiber. Linn says this new materials blocks vibration higher than any of their earlier supplies, offering a safer basis for the motor, platter, and sub-chassis to work their “magik,” as they are saying in Waterfoot. The deck additionally options a completely new steel hinge design for the acrylic lid (cue loud hurrahs from present LP12 homeowners who’ve moaned concerning the plastic hinge association for years). Finally, the facility swap has been redesigned and is now an all-metal round design. Mated to the deck was the top-of-the-line Linn Ekos SE tonearm and Ekstatik flagship cartridge.

Still turning vinyl at 50, Linn’s legendary Sondek LP12-50

At Bristol, Linn launched their new Klimax Solo 800 monoblock energy amplifier, priced at £37,500 every. This all-new design options adaptive bias management to dynamically set the best bias present for the amp’s 16 output transistors in realtime by measuring, sampling, and digitizing the present equipped to them. A digital management loop then implements and persistently adjusts bias present for every particular person transistor particularly, negating crossover distortion at any temperature. Output is rated at 400W into 8 ohms, doubling to 800W into 4 ohms.

A Klimax Solo 800 monoblock—how rather more black can it’s?

A pair of 800 monoblocks had been driving Linn’s flagship 360 Passive with Activ Bass (PWAB) loudspeakers. The demo pair had been completed in a fully beautiful metallic-brown automotive paint end referred to as Single Malt, as a tribute to Scotland’s most well-known export. It’s laborious to place into phrases how stunning this speaker seemed and sounded. It incorporates completely new electronics, drive items, and cupboard development, and is priced from £55,000/pair relying on end and variant (customized colours can be found). It’s the end result of Linn’s 50 years of Klyde engineering knowhow, and it’s fairly merely the best loudspeaker the agency can construct. The driver complement features a 19mm (0.75″) dome tweeter, 64mm (2.5″) woven-carbon dome midrange, and 190mm (7.5″) woofer with an aluminum-magnesium cone. These had been pushed on this model of the loudspeaker by the 800-series monoblocks and are referred to by Linn because the 360 Array. Two 220mm (8.7″) long-throw aluminium-coned bass drivers are actively pushed by the speaker’s onboard amplification to additional prolong bandwidth. A totally lively variant can be accessible.

Linn’s 360 flagship loudspeaker in merely beautiful Single Malt end

The last component of this extraordinary system was the Linn Klimax DSM streaming preamp (£35,000), which contains an enormously spectacular room-correction system Linn calls Space Optimisation.

Linn Klimax DSM uber-cool seems with sonics to match

Just like final 12 months, within the Linn room, I felt like I used to be stepping right into a room stuffed with pals taking turns enjoying their newest music purchases. Linn has completely nailed this expertise with their humorous and self-depreciating presentation type. I returned to this room so typically that I feel the workforce from Linn started to marvel if Tiefenbrun had put me on the payroll! The sound was chic—full-bandwidth, wealthy and detailed, but additionally massively enjoyable and pure to take heed to. This is an audio system totally relaxed with itself. I can think about coming dwelling to a system like this after a day spent at flight stage three 5 zero battling wind, water, earth, and sky. I’d pour a glass of golden Laphroaig, cue the LP12, and sink into a favourite armchair to chill out into the music I like, savoring the heady style of woodsmoke, peat, and sea salt from these moody Islay Isles. Magnificent, no different phrases . . .

Like listening to records with pals

Naim Audio / Focal

Focal Naim ran ticketed demos for the primary two days of the present. Bristol 2024 marked the debut of the brand new 300 sequence, comprising the NSS 333 streaming DAC (£8500), NAC 332 preamplifier (£8500), and NAP 350 monoblock energy amplifier (£13,000/pair), plus the accompanying NPX 300 energy provide (£5900). The demo took listeners from the bottom 300 system by means of the addition of optionally available NPX 300 energy provides earlier than leaping as much as the ND 555 streaming DAC (£26,999), NAC S1 Statement preamplifier (£84,999), and NAP 500 DR energy amplifier (£26,999). Naim had been at pains to level out that regardless of the introduction of the brand new 200 and 300 sequence, the five hundred sequence will stay unchanged save for the swap to white LEDs.

Weapons-grade energy: Naim 300 sequence vs. 500 sequence into Focal

The loudspeakers had been a pair of Focal Scala Utopia Evo III floorstanders, priced at £35,000 for the pair. This formidable three-way bass-reflex design incorporates an 11″ woofer, a 6.5″ midrange with Focal’s tuned mass-damping suspension and neutral-inductance circuit, and a 27mm (1.1″) beryllium inverted-dome tweeter.

Focal Scala Utopia Evo III jogged my memory of the well-known Doctor Who Daleks

Musical picks included J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington’s “Duke’s Place,” Talking Heads’ “Heaven (Live),” and a fully gorgeous “Breathless” by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Naim is one other producer that loves enjoying correct music at first rate ranges fairly than audiophile dreck at low quantity. This was one other gorgeous system and contender for being the very best of the present.

The addition of the optionally available energy provides amply demonstrated their effectiveness, particularly on the NAC 332, which exhibited higher soundstage depth, higher low-level data retrieval, and extra convincing rendering of devices with the NPX 300 powering it. Stepping as much as the five hundred sequence revealed even larger ranges of refinement, a richer presentation, and a fully gorgeous stage of element, proving that the outdated flagship nonetheless deserves its place on the head of the road.

Perhaps Naim’s finest-ever industrial designs, the brand new 300 sequence

Cosmetically, I’m in little question that the brand new 200 and 300 sequence are stunning industrial designs. The casework and heatsinks are beautifully executed. Mounted on Naim’s proprietary Fraim tables, the entire system seemed extremely engaging. Perhaps probably the most heartwarming second on the present for me was when three teenage boys walked in and I may hear them chatting and saying, “Oh look they’re utilizing the Super Lumina cables,” and many others. They had been clearly in awe of the Naim system, and I instantly noticed myself 40 years in the past: simply as excited however simply as impoverished! Whether you’re 15 or 55, these programs and these reveals are the stuff of desires—which is what makes them so particular. I fortunately watched the Naim guys taking some monitor requests from the boys and treating them as the long run prospects they are going to maybe develop into—that’s class. One factor this business badly wants is for the following technology to embrace high-quality audio replay. So in case you’re studying this lads, within the phrases of an outdated Jedi, “Welcome, you’ve taken your first steps into a bigger world.”

Two old-school pals mirror on their 40-year hi-fi journey: Messrs. Andrew Price (left) and Jonathan Gorse (the creator)

REL Acoustics

REL, Britain’s most well-known subwoofer specialist, delivered shock and awe of their demo room the place they’d assembled a formidable array of stacked S/812 subwoofers (£3000 every) in two towers, every three items excessive, one on all sides of the display. REL calls this configuration a line array and it was a sonically and visually imposing expertise! For the entrance left and proper channels, REL was utilizing a pair of KEF Blade Two Meta loudspeakers (£22,500), which by no means fail to impress with their command of music or movie. A choice of film scenes demonstrated the function of the subwoofer in creating spectacle. The use of each high- and low-level LFE inputs to the sub confirmed the advantages of high-level connection to enhance LFE. The night-time galleons and flaming arrow scene from Game of Thrones specifically confirmed the big gravitas and precision that these subwoofers are able to.

The REL S812 line array delivering shock and awe

I’ve used REL subwoofers for over 20 years and at the moment have their excellent HT/1510 Predator (£1899) in my dwelling theater. With its 15″ carbon-fiber-faced cone and 1000W of amplification, it’s able to bowel-loosening bass, which it combines with uncommon delicacy and velocity.

Ferrari crimson T/9x makes an enormous impression

At Bristol, REL was exhibiting their new T/9x Red subwoofer (£1549). This stunning-looking sub is being made in a restricted version of 200 items. The end is the very same shade as Ferrari crimson. REL was eager to level out that the cupboard required a number of extra levels of preparation earlier than the colour might be utilized because it’s an automotive paint that isn’t simple to use to MDF. Other adjustments in comparison with the usual T/9x embrace an improved 10″ drive unit, revised ft, and enhancements to the amplifier board. It struck me this subwoofer would make an outstanding point of interest in any self-respecting bachelor pad!

The class of ’98

Also making its present debut was the Classic 98 styled to resemble the subwoofers of REL’s earliest years. Priced at £1299, this mannequin includes a 10″ downfiring driver and 300W of class-D amplification.

English Acoustics

Except for dabbling with low cost headphone amps, I’ve by no means owned a valve amplifier. But if I ever get one, English Acoustics will likely be proper on the high of my listing. They’re a newcomer on the scene, however made fairly an impression at Bristol with their stunning automotive-quality paint finishes. I used to be significantly taken with the pearlescent purple choice, which seemed superb.

The merely stunning English Acoustics Stereo 41c

The vary is commendably easy: one preamp, the Downton (£5760), and two energy amplifiers:  the Stereo 21c (£4999) outputs 14Wpc into 8 ohms whereas the extra highly effective Stereo 41c (£7980) outputs 30Wpc. Both characteristic bespoke British-made output transformers; paper-in-oil and silver-mica capacitors; ceramic gold-plated output sockets; computerized thermal, vibration and tilt security cut-off; and a rear-panel LCD digital hour meter.

Downton preamplifier

Founder Peter Farrow is one other hi-fi luminary who got here by means of the BBC engineering program, which has made an enormous contribution to the richness, brilliance, and variety of the British audio business. As a lad, Peter fell in love with the Leak Stereo 20, a design that may hint its heritage again to 1958. He ultimately bought one. The 21c and 41c are primarily based on the unique Leak circuit, however enhanced for the fashionable period—a reimagining if you’ll. Sonically, these amplifiers impressed me proper from the beginning as a result of they appeared very open, clear, and responsive. There was not one of the tender woolliness of some valve amps I’ve skilled.

Red Gyro and crimson 41c make a putting proposition

Anthos Audio

Turning to the bizarre, Anthos Audio has developed an eye catching and distinctive system! Founder James Boyd is a classical musician who has spent his life enjoying in symphony orchestras all around the world. He thus is aware of what reside music appears like and has developed a totally built-in system comprising amplification and loudspeakers. His horn audio system are very uncommon. As Anthos’s web site explains, “Thirteen-leaf ‘flower horns’ are crafted from intricate picket laminations, and completed with Cremonese instrument varnish developed within the seventeenth Century by Stradivarius for its distinctive sound high quality and deep golden glow. The horns are pushed by a extremely optimised single ended valve amplifier (with [Avery 2A3] valves designed within the Nineteen Thirties). A cupboard homes amplification for every part along with extremely refined digital management utilizing leading edge filter expertise.” The drive items comprise a 3″ aluminum compression driver augmented by a high-efficiency mid-bass folded horn, whereas the bass is offered by Purifi long-throw woofers powered by class-D amps that ship 500W whole output.

Anthos Audio horn in Cremonese instrument varnish

The system incorporates linear-phase digital crossovers and digital room correction, so whereas a few of the expertise could also be rooted within the early twentieth century, some is state-of-the-art.

Thomas Dunford’s recording of an association for lute of 1 J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites sounded excellent, with glorious portrayal of timbre, whereas Claude Debussy’s “Clair de lune” displayed pretty delicacy and dynamics. This product has been a labor of affection for its designer. The £100,000 asking value consists of supply, set up, and tuning to your listening room.

An intriguing mixture of classic valves and fashionable sign processing

With a lot to see, I struggled to cowl every thing of benefit in simply three days, however watch this house for the second a part of my odyssey at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show, and much more nice music and sound.

Jonathan Gorse
Senior Contributor, SoundStage!