Innuous
With one of the big basement rooms to play in Innuos had hoped to demonstrate the difference between their Pulse and Pulsar streamers but sadly noise leakage made this difficult, so instead they explained the latest InnuOS 2.6 control software and made some good sounds with the aid of Lyngdorf amplification and Sonus faber Amati G5 speakers.
CAD, Trilogy & Wilson Benesch
Wilson Benesch teamed up with Computer Audio Design (CAD) and Trilogy in the fabulously quiet conservatory room. CAD took the opportunity to show what can be done with a modest Innuos Mini streamer when you give it an optimal environment to work in, this they did with the USB Control and new Ethernet Control (£1,250) noise reduction devices. Trilogy brought along the new 914 balanced valve line stage (£12,500) and the 994 Monaural hybrid power amps (£10,000 each) and Wilson Benesch used the Discovery 3Zero standmounts with isobaric bass loading, Tactic midrange and Fibonacci tweeter. The result was possibly the best sound I have heard in that room: don’t underestimate affordable streamers.
Dali
Dali pulled off a similar trick by using the smallest speakers in the show and producing one of the biggest sounds. The Menuet SE is only 25cm high and costs £1,499 but looks and sounds very impressive when driven with Lyngdorf amplification.
Origin Live
Origin Live had a selection of turntables but their latest creation is the Strata multi-layer platter mat (£295). This three layer mat was developed by Mark Baker through painstaking research with hundreds of materials and adhesives combined in a quest for the perfect interface between vinyl and turntable platter. The resulting Strata mat is 5mm thick and can be used on any turntable that has adjustable arm height. Baker found that most mats are good for mid and treble and a few can deliver good bass but none absorb the full frequency range as well as the Strata.
Leema
Leema’s Lee Taylor made a rare appearance at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show to demonstrate his Particle range of entry level electronics, the system consisted of an Electron CD player (£1,400), Neutron DAC/preamp and Graviton power amp (the latter pairing on offer for £2,800). These were combined with a Melco N1 server/streamer and Serhan Swift Mu2 MkII speakers to rather entertaining effect.
Telegrapher
When a company that specialises in interior panelling for luxury cars turns its attention to loudspeakers you know that the finish should be a bit different. Telegrapher from Turkey makes two active monitors for home or studio use that have analogue rather than DSP crossovers and birch ply cabinets. The Fox two-way combines 125W of Class D amplification with a 150mm main driver and soft dome tweeter for £4,500 while the Gorilla is a 600W three-way with a 220mm bass driver, 120mm mid and the same tweeter for £9,000. There are five standard colours alongside some rather more interesting options including a collaboration with producer/DJ Deadmau5.
ATC
One of the best sounding rooms at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024 was that inhabited by ATC who had brought along their rather fancy SCM50SE active floorstanders. There is more to these than a fabulous piano black finish with nickel inlay, the 350W amplifiers have a discreet rather than the usual IC input stage and are placed within the cabinet rather than sticking out of the back. This results in a reassuring £38,760 price that clearly hasn’t been chosen to hit a specific point. The system was driven by an Auralic Altair G2.1 streaming DAC and ATC’s SCA2 preamplifier.
Michell
Fresh from their distribution deal with PMC Michell have released the Levis magnetic levitation feet. These thread onto Michell turntables and use magnets to isolate them from vibration in the supporting surface. Priced at £460 for a set of three these may well work with other three legged turntables of a similar weight.
Dual
Decent Audio were showing the Dual CS 529 BT, an app controllable turntable, that you can literally stop and start with your mobile phone. You still have to place the record on the platter but this degree of remote control has not been seen since format’s heyday and then in very expensive, wired remote form. The CS 529 BT costs £899 in black or £999 in walnut.
Rogers
What look like solid stands under Rogers’ LS3/5A speakers are AB3A powered subwoofers (£3,500). These are infinite baffle active bass speakers with a pair of mass loaded five inch woofers and a 50W Class AB amplifier per channel. They certainly go some way to extending the bandwidth of that classic speaker.
Hegel
Hegel demonstrated their new entry level streaming amplifier the H190v (£3,250), the suffix stands for vinyl as this amp has a phono stage so that record players with MM cartridges can be connected. It is an evolution of the popular H190 with 150W of Class AB amplification, headphone output and a versatile streamer and DAC.
Connected Fidelity, Audio Detail & Coppice
Connected joined forces with Audio Detail and Coppice loudspeakers to create a system with the TT Hub turntable (£3,900), Sorane arm and Hana Umami Red MC cartridge front end, 101D valve phono stage (£6,000), PX25 push-pull integrated amplifier (£15 – 16,000 with separate power supply) and X3 loudspeakers (£7,250). Power was supplied by Connected’s AC-2K balanced conditioner and the results were impressively lively. Coppice also showed a laser engraved X1 that stands out from the crowd.
Kerr Acoustics
Jes Kerr was making some engaging sounds with his K300 Mk3 speakers (£6,395) driven by a Music First Baby Reference preamp and Chord Electronics Ultima 5 power amp, the speakers were isolated with Townshend Seismic Podiums and connected with Townshend Fractal F1 speaker cable.
Auralic, Sugden & Proac
Auralic joined forces with Sugden and used Proac Response D2 speakers (£3,035). The front end consisted of Auralic’s Aries G2.2 (£5,299) and Vega G2.2 (£6,899) streamer and DAC while power was provided by a Sugden Masterclass IA4 integrated amp (£6,364). All of which produced some very fine results in the challenging confines of a hotel bedroom.
Supatrac
Unipivot tonearm disruptors Supatrac decided to demonstrate with two top flight Rega turntables. They put their Blackbird arm on a Planar 10 and contrasted it with a stock Naia, both had the same MM cartridge.
Puritan Audio Labs
Proper grounding or earthing of the components in a hi-fi system is known to be beneficial in reducing the noise floor and while there are several systems on the market Puritan Audio Labs’ Routemaster (£395) looks to be one of the most affordable. It has nine connection points and Puritan supply OFC cables for most types of connection priced at £29 and £37 each.
Jason Kennedy