UK Hi-fi Show Live, Ascot 2023
For the first time since 2019 the grandstand at Royal Ascot rang with the sounds of high end systems on the last weekend of September for Hi-Fi Show Live. Spread around its six floors and Escher-esque stairways were the cream of manufacturers and distributors occupying rooms with fabulous views over a manicured race course.
The timing is such that there was not a lot of brand new product launched at the show but several brands used the event to introduce products to the UK market. The following products were the highlights of the show.
Kii Seven
Kii Audio designer Bruno Putzeys (above) launched the Kii Seven active wireless speakers. This is a scaled down version of the mighty Kii Three with all the very clever tech, cardioid dispersion pattern, multiple drivers and amplification but in a smaller, wireless cabinet with a much lower price. Kii Three can be bought singly for £3,495 or as a pair for twice that and are expected to launch in Q1 next year with as many wireless streaming features as you can think of. They demonstrated impressively with tremendous bass extension and power handling for such a compact box. For more information visit Kii Audio.
SJS Model 10
Definitive Audio showed a system that was similar to the one they had at the Munich High End but with a couple of distinctions. These included the first production pair of the Living Voice R80 loudspeakers with a fabulous finish on the santos book matched veneer (£52,000). Driving these was a pair of SJS Model 10 monoblock power amps (£88,000 per pair excluding valves) at the bottom of the rack. These have three 300B tubes with two in a parallel single ended array producing a 20 Watt output and the other used as a driver with an interstage transformer. They also had the Zero Vibe 6050P active levelling and isolation platform for the Kuzma XL Air, one of the few that can cope with the 130kg mass of that beast.
Stratton Acoustics Element12
Stratton Acoustics had hoped to unveil their new Element12 loudspeaker but were not able to finalise it in time. It will be the same height as the mighty Elypsis 1512 but less than half the width. The two-way design will have a 12 inch mid/bass allied to a waveguide loaded 29mm tweeter much like that on its bigger brother but this time the perforated stand is integrated into the cabinet, price looks like being £20,000. On the day they were driving the Elypsis 1512s with a Technics SU-R1000 amplifier and SL-1000R turntable to prove that their speakers don’t require OTT ancillaries, they just prefer them.
Hegel H600
Hegel unveiled the H600 range topping streaming amplifier. This benefits from trickle down tech from the P30A preamp launched earlier in the year including the digitally controlled analogue volume control and a new streaming platform. This replaces the H590 with 303 Watts of power and a price of £10,500. For more information visit Hegel Music Systems.
Perlisten S7T Special Edition
Perlisten teased visitors with a very limited edition version of its S7T floorstanding speaker. This shares drive units with the standard version but includes all the refinements that designer Dan Roemer has developed since that model’s launch, as well as a slightly larger carbon fibre cabinet. So it’s barely the same speaker at all, each pair is hand matched to within half a decibel by Dan and owners get a Klippel report if they are lucky enough to bag one of 50 pairs at £30,000 a pop.
Goldenberg Brilliant
Symmetry is bringing in the Swiss Goldenberg range of moving coil cartridges and were demonstrating the Brilliant (£2,595). This has a rhodium plated body, boron cantilever and micro ridge stylus and looks pretty cool on a Brinkmann turntable.
Auralic teamed up with Audioquest and Goldenear to put together a rather nice system in one of the bigger rooms, the Aries G2.2 streamer and Vega G2.2 being ably assisted by a Leo GX.1 clock. A Heed Lagrange amplifier was driving Goldenear Triton speakers with power management courtesy of an Audioquest Niagara 5000.
Moon North UK debut
We spent a lot of time in these two rooms, both of which were a delight to the ears. The company proudly showed off Sim Audio Moon’s new North Series with the main system based around the 791 network player (£16,000) and 761 power amplifiers (£14,000 each) with Audiovector R8 Arreté speakers. The 600 series North models in a second room (below) were the 681 streaming DAC (£12,000) and 641 integrated amp at £11,000. For more information visit Renaissance Audio.
Monitor Audio Hyphn
Monitor Audio officially launched the Hyphn that was unveiled as a concept back in the spring of 2022. This distinctive loudspeaker was designed to act as a point source at all frequencies for maximum imaging quality, it has six flat 50mm midrange units surrounding an AMT style tweeter alongside four underhung bass drivers in a thermoformed, mineral loaded cabinet and costs £70,000 per pair.
Node Audio SS1
Node Audio, maker of the Hylixa loudspeakers that Chris Kelly enjoyed so much, is making SS1 support systems (feet). These combine stainless steel, glass nylon polymer and ceramics and are designed to isolate electronics, we did ask about speaker supports and it sounds like this will be investigated as well. Price is £675 for three or £900 for four
Rogers E20A Mk3
Rogers brought a compact, almost portable system to Ascot which centred around the E20A Mk3 integrated amplifier that uses 350B triode tubes in a push-pull configuration. There is the option of a 15 Ohm output for LS3/5A speakers and price is going to be around £4,500 to £5,000. It sounded rather good with a pair of LS5/9 speakers and an Audio Note CD player.
Lowther PX4
Lowther had an attractive display playing some rather appealing sounds from a laptop via a Lowther DAC/preamp and a pair of prototype PX4 monoblocks into Edilia loudspeakers. The PX4 amps are expected to retail at less than £10,000 per pair and I for one would love to give them a try. The sharp eyed will spot a Music First Reference V2 passive pre under the tape recorder. For more information visit Lowther.
Magico, D’Agostino, Wilson, Reed…
The Absolute Sounds room was a true Aladdin’s Cave for audiophiles. Highlights were products from EAT, Franco Serbelin, Magico, Wilson, D’Agostino, DCS, Devore Fidelity, Dartzeel, Krell, Western Electric, Döhmann, Jadis and Copland. The distributor had commandeered an entire suite on level 5 in which, in addition to the impressive display of products, they had built two demo rooms. The rooms were extremely popular, and visitors emerged with broad smiles. We were also interested to see that Absolute Sounds have added the distinctive Reed turntables and arms (above) to the roster.
Naim 300 series
Naim was showing off their 300 series through Focal Sopra 2 speakers in a black Ostrea finish. The sound was both fulsome and dynamic, and while those large Focals would have benefited from a larger, better-damped room, hearing the system’s potential was still easy.
Soulnote & Fink Team
This system sounded fast, dynamic, clean, detailed and, above all, musical. Karl Heinz Fink was on hand to talk about his Kim speaker (£10,700), which made the best of the small room’s acoustics. He has been using the Soulnote electronics at a few shows of late and it’s not hard to hear why, the D-2 DAC (£7,700) and A-3 integrated amplifier (£19,000) are high on our list of must hear kit.
Wadax, Engström & Kroma
This impressive Boyer Distribution system was certainly a contender for best in show. They had the Wadax Atlantis Reference server and DAC (below, €219,000) for digital and a Brinkmann Taurus direct drive turntable with Engström M Phono valve phono stage (€25,000) for analogue. An Engström Monica preamplifier connected to Lars monoblocks and Kroma Stella loudspeakers (£29,000) completed a system that was fully connected with Shunyata Research cables. The server and DAC made a strong physical and sonic impression, the sound was dynamic yet sweet with an astounding soundstage. It was hard to pick an area in which they did not excel.
Supatrac Blackbird Farpoint
Tonearm pioneer Supatrac has been refining the Blackbird with a revision called Farpoint which essentially involves moving the pivot point back for a longer effective arm length. The arm base pillar is now stiffer and fits a wider range of turntables but the price remains the same at £2,300 for the nine inch version.
Chord Co Burndy X
Naim amplifier owners will be interested to hear that Chord have produced two new Burndy cables, the upgraded Burndy T (£1,760) and an entry level Burndy X (£880) with which to upgrade their amplifier links.
Garrard 301
When we spoke to Cadence who own the SME and Garrard brands a while back they said that they were planning to sell fully rebuilt examples of the classic Garrard 301 and this year that project has come to fruition. This model is finished in a Landrover green and is priced at £30,000, hopefully the 12inch SME arm is included.
Jason Kennedy, Chris Baillie