The Bristol Hifi Show is  the start of the Hifi Show year for many in the industry, with Hifi industry people and Hifi fans and fanatics alike, making their way to the show each year.  Spring was most definitely in the air this year, with the warm sunshine bringing out the crowds, a welcome relief after the wintry weather of previous years. 

The Show was buzzing with crowds queuing out down the street well before opening time. Chatting to the exhibitors on all floors we found them all to be very happy with the turnout.

We were very pleased to meet many Hifi Pig readers and handed out loads of our merchandise, we were also chuffed to be partners with our friends at Diverse Vinyl, who were bagging their excellent selection of records into Hifi Pig special edition bags, we also gave Hifi Pig T-shirts and many of the visitors entered our competition to win a Nord amplifier that was on show on the Diverse stand.

So, onward and upwards to floor one of the show.  I visited this floor first thing on Sunday morning when I knew that it would be a little quieter, Friday and Saturday had been so busy and of course, we had lots of press events and meetings. Luckily, Bristol is a show that is well laid out so it is very easy to break it down into manageable chunks and get round to see and hear everything. Even the fact that there was just one lift this year didn’t hamper proceedings, and anyway, a Hifi show is great exercise when you use the stairs!

Dali

Dali were my first port of call on this floor.  They were showing their Oberon range of loudspeakers with the Oberon 5 floorstanders sounding and looking rather nice when I popped in. Like a lot of rooms they were using Innuos with the Zen Mini making an appearance.

The Oberon 5 retail at £699 and are classy as well as affordable.

Neat Acoustics

Off next door to British loudspeaker brand Neat Acoustics.  Their new Ekstra speakers were very neat indeed.. We were promised elegance and the Ekstras delivered. The Ekstras will be available from April at £2999, they are have a sensitivity of 86db, weigh 18kg and feature an isobaric bass reflex and subwoofer. They also have very elegant feet which give them a rocket-like appearance. Had a good chat to Doug and then Bob popped in for his close-up.

Quadraspire

Quadraspire are a brand that we use at Hifi Pig Towers, they make very good racks indeed.They were demonstrating the difference that the QPlus feet and their X Reference racks make. Quadraspire also had their racks featuring in a lot of the other rooms too.

Auralic & Spendor

Next was a room that I was looking forward to greatly, the Auralic and Spendor pairing has been an excellent one at many shows recently and several people had said to me ‘have you been in Spendor and Auralic? they are playing banging tunes!’ and indeed they were. They were using the Classic 100 loudspeakers which were well suited to the fast and bassy techno beats and paired wonderfully with the Auralic G2 range of components. I liked their flagrant disregard for what can be the standard Hifi Show fare of plinky plonky jazz and ‘nice’ music, could have spent a lot longer in there enjoying myself!.

Cyrus

Cyrus were next door and were featuring their new Cyrus One HD integrated amp and their PneLinear loudspeakers along with the benefits of their recent QXR upgrade card.

Linn

Linn were back at Bristol with their latest, all-in-one upgradeable Selekt DSM, and of course ‘Scottish delicacies’ (Irn Bru and Tunnocks wafers). We have already been treated to an in depth listen to the Selekt up at Linn HQ in Glasgow (read all about it here) and the crowds were also really enjoying the demos.

ATC

ATC were launching their CD2 CD player and SIA2-100 integrated DAC/Amp, speakers were their ATC SCM40 floorstanders, an impressive sounding room.

The Chord Company

We actually visited Chord Co on the Friday for their annual press lunch, they always look after us! The room looked really cool, using the windows to work with their translucent panels, and we were given a great dem of their new ChordOhmic Transmission Fluid, which is a two stage liquid process that you use on your plugs and contacts. We were teased with this last year and now have a sample to try at home.  In the dem the difference between treated and untreated was very obvious, I am fully aware that there will be cries of ‘snake oil’ but our ears told us different, watch this space. Chord Co were also focusing on their new XLPE cable insulation.

Linette Smith

Much, much more to follow soon from Hifi Pig at The Bristol Hifi Show 2019!