UK AUDIO SHOW 2022 DAVENTRY

Ian Ringstead attends the UK Audio Show 2022 in Daventry for a look around.

One of the first rooms  I went in was American Audio Company Ltd. Last year they were showing the new KLH 5 speakers which have had a lot of positive press in the last year. They were showing them again along with their smaller sibling the KLH3.

Diverse Vinyl were busy as always with lots of tempting goodies and had I had time later I would have made a purchase, but I ran out of time. Vinyl is doing well and long may it continue.

G Point had a large room with loads of different makes about 30 in total and time was against me dwelling for long. It shows how many companies there are out there and prospering in these hard times. Brands I recognised included Grandinote, Lampizator, Riviera Labs, AudioNec and Thoress.

Chord Cables was demonstrating their new mains blocks which I heard at Cranage to such good effect.

Limin Audio had several brands including the Lumley Stratosphere turntable I heard at Munich and Lyravox speakers which sound excellent but aren’t cheap.

Music First Audio had two rooms this year for static displays and enquiries and then a larger listening room which sounded impressive. On dem was the new Reference V2 preamp and some nice-looking speakers from Eastern Europe I gather.

Time Audio was at the show last year and had Diapason speakers, Audio Exclusiv, and Time Audio products.

Air Audio had a large range of the now very popular Hana cartridges which I reviewed a few years ago. Japan is a rich source for quality cartridges. Michael was also showing off the Sorane tonearms from Japan, a brand again I hadn’t heard of. There were three models all beautifully engineered and very reasonably priced. I thought the TA-1L with detachable headshell reminded of arms from the 80’s. Michael also distributes Connected Audio products which he produces himself and he had a new range of isolation products on show that he’ll be selling soon.

Kog Audio and Ultimate Stream were displaying the Epos and Fink loudspeaker range. The system electronics were T+A driving Epos ES14N and FinkTeam KIM. Cables in this room were supplied by Tellurium Q.

Alchris Audio were busy all day as they were also hosting lectures by Dave Sheyyn of GIK Acoustics on understanding basic room acoustics and testing your room. The room was packed all day but in between the lectures Alan was happily demoing his AR-2 speakers driven by SMSL SL98E Class D amp and a Pioneer PD-S901 CD player. They sounded superb in the room no doubt aided by the GIK panels. Alan also had his new Slabzorba isolation platforms in use which I’m sure will sell well.

Auden Distribution were showing the range of Hegel electronics from Norway and the Finnish Amphion loudspeakers, which I really like. Recently US company Eggelston works has also been added to the portfolio. The main system was made up of Hegel H590 (£9500), Amphion Argon 7LS (£4500), Audiomica Celes Excellence Loudspeaker cable (£1600), Audiomica Pebble consequence USB cable (£1200), and an Auralic Aries G1.1 (£2499). MusicWorks Power cables and block were also in use with a total retail of around £2000.

Audio Note UK had three rooms this year and they were all busy. Mixed in with the dems were lectures from Peter Qvortrup and his son Daniel.

Ultimate Resolution were using Tellurium Q Silver Diamond speaker cable and Ultra Silver XLR interconnects with the new Epos ES14N speakers.

Falcon Acoustics had some new models to show off including the Falcon M series M50 at £12,795 and the smaller M10 at £2,395. I only got to hear the M50 but they looked and sounded great.  The 3-way vented M50 design features the proprietary Falcon B139 bass unit, twin Falcon B110 midrange units and the 25mm ‘M’ range custom soft dome tweeter. The 2-way vented M10 model features a 5” Falcon B110 bass unit, which exclusively replicates the original KEF B110 used by the classic LS3/5a monitor, and a 25mm ‘M’ range custom soft dome tweeter made to Falcon specification by SEAS. Both are available in natural Walnut veneer or Rosewood as a special option.

Falcon Acoustics supplies and makes fabulous drive units and kits or ready-built models to excellent standards.

Henley Distribution had a large suite to show off its huge range of wares. Pro-Ject’s range keeps getting bigger and the new 8X B turntable with balanced output sockets excites me. At last, a sensibly priced turntable with balanced connections for purists. Box Design has many units to tempt one and Jamo has a new range of speakers with the S-7 series. A brand I remember well from a few years ago. Klipsch have a big presence here in the UK now and continues to increase its ranges. I like the copper drive units. Musical Fidelity continues a tradition of quality electronics loved by many. 40 years on the brand is still strong and impressively represented. Ortofon still pioneers new cartridge technologies and models to suit all pockets. Rose Audio has taken the market by storm and its ground-breaking designs impress.

Kerr Acoustics has made a big name for itself over the last 10 years or so.

Midland Audio Xchange were playing loudly when I passed and represent amongst other brands Dr Fieckert turntables, DeVore Fidelity, Lavardin, dCS, Leben, amongst others. John is a bit of a legend in the audio world in the UK and according to at least one of the HiFi Pig reviewers knows better than almost anyone how to put a great system together. At Daventry John’s main system was: Dr Feickert Firebird, Reed P3, fuuga MC triplanar VII carbon, Kiseki Blue, Dr Feickert Vero phono stage, Leben CS600X, DeVore O Baby and 096 Orangutan. Also in this system were the dCS Rossini and Lavardin ITX. Tables were by NEO and cables were by French brand Esprit in the form of their Gaia Eterna. Western Electric’s new W91E 300b integrated was also in the Midland Audio Xchange room and it’s a cracker of an amplifier. It has MC phono stage, DAC, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and full remote control with a RRP of £14k.

Curvi and Etude loudspeakers were exhibiting with fellow British HiFi brands Super Natural Audio and Clipaudio, following on from their impressive showing at the North West Audio Show at Cranage. The system playing was as follows:

Digital playback used the Super Natural Audio TDA 1543 based non-oversampling DAC with valve digital input stage and output stage.  The HT supply for the valves is valve rectified and the output triode uses active anode loading. It costs from £5000 depending on the type of veneer finish and valves. The DAC was fed by Lucas Audio Lab server CD reply utilised a high-quality generic CDM4 top-loading transport.

Vinyl replay was handled by  Clipaudio Obsidian turntable £5000, excluding arm and cartridge. The cartridge fitted was an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze on an Alphason HR100 arm. The cartridge output was fed into an Audio Detail NV08 phonostage.

Preamp – Super Natural Audio valve preamplifier, costing from £2500.

Power amplification – Audio Detail modified MingDa Dynasty Potente MD150 with KT150 output valves.

Loudspeakers were the Curvi BMR Mk.2 (£6500 a pair) using a single 130 mm balanced mode radiator drive (BMR) unit loaded by a curved transmission line to give an in-room response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and the Etude 5 (£13000 a pair) based on a linear array of four 85 mm BMR units. The Etude 5 loudspeakers were sitting on Clipaudio Mute-Point isolation platforms.

NVA were showing their Cube speakers I heard at Cranage and the new integrated amplifier INT 250 rated at 70W per channel. This uses quality components throughout and features an all-new ‘easy care’ satin-matt acrylic case. Good sound, I hope I can hear one soon in my home system.

Origin Live had a large room and were playing some new speakers under development hidden inside large black-clothed cubes. All the company’s arms and turntables were on show and as a company they have gone from strength to strength.

Proac had a room showing all their models and celebrating Stuart Tyler’s life achievements. Sadly, Stuart died recently but his legacy continues through his family. My first good speakers were a pair of Mini Pro SM speakers from Celef which is the company Stuart first started in the 1970’s. Later he changed the name to Proac and the rest is history as they say. The Proac Tablettes are a personal favourite of mine and are now in Mk 10 form.

Wire on wire and 3 Square Audio were sharing a room to good effect and I talked to the designer Chris Bell for some time about his designs. Uniquely you can tweak his cables by playing around with the spacing of the conductors so changing the sound. Now some critics will say it’s all hogwash but believe me it does work. 3 Square had their Ayals playing that I recently reviewed and liked so much.

Lastly, ZinAmps were demoing a range of amplifiers new to me. They can be bought ready-made or you can buy in kit form at various levels dependent on how confident your electronics and soldering capabilities are. A range of valve units with phono stages, preamps, power, and integrated. One of the power amps is based on the old Quad 405 current dumping theory Peter Walker developed in the 80s. A new company to keep an eye on especially as I like to build kit. They sounded good and apparently feedback was positive.

Ian Ringstead

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