The third instalment of our Bristol Hifi Show coverage, moving up to floor two of the show, read on for more Hifi delights!

Harbeth

One of the best known and longstanding British loudspeaker manufacturers, Harbeth have just finished their 40th anniversary year. Their two rooms featured the Compact 7ES-3 loudspeakers in one and then the smaller P3ESR mini monitors in the other. As always a great sound and popular rooms with the public.

Hegel

Hegel had their gear in several rooms, in their own they were featuring the new H590 integrated amplifier.

ELAC

Always a pleasant room to visit with great music choices.They were launching their new Navis floorstanders and standmount loudspeakers which have 300w of pure analogue amplification, these were partnered with the ELAC Alchemy DDP-2 pre amplifier and also the Discovery Music Server.

Creek Audio

The Creek round sounded great but was really difficult to photograph, so my apologies! They were featuring the new Voyage i20, CD10 and CLS 6 stand-mount loudspeakers.

Rega

Rega were running a full Rega system with the Planar 8 turntable, the speakers were the RX3.

Auden Distribution

Always good to see Bill and hid team from Auden, the always have a room that comes over as being very much like your lounge would be at home, great to hear the Amphion loudspeakers paired with Hegel in this setting

Sound Fowndations

Distributor Sound Fowndations had two rooms on this floor.  Great sounds from the combination of Clearaudio turntables and DS Audio optical cartridges (the DS Audio new entry level cart was on the Clearaudio Innovation Basic turntable). ‘Room friendly’ Larsen speakers were also used.

Escape Loudspeakers

The Belgian Escape P9 speaker was pretty interesting. A Bluetooth APTX streaming speaker that is built for outdoor use and comes with it’s own transport case.  I heard just the single speaker but multiples can be used, they have 4 full range drivers and a down firing sub, I was impressed with the sound and the styling and the £999 price seemed pretty reasonable too.

Proac

Proac were launching their new Response model, the D2R, a ribbon loaded version of their Response D2, I am very partial to a ribbon tweeter and really enjoyed the sound of these.

Michell Engineering

Plenty to keep the turntable fans happy in this room. The new Gyro SE standalone turntable really made a visual statement too. Proac speakers and Sugden amps were also used in this room.

Exposure

New for Exposure was their Compact XM CD player (top shelf on the main rack), which has a a PCM 1716 24-bit DAC and costs £1200. Speakers were Kudos Titan 606, featuring the new Exposure VXN crossover that is designed to work with the flagship series of Kudos loudspeakers. Great sounding room.

Atacama & Norma Audio

Atacama, who are known for their racks, have moved into cables with their new range of Spirit, Verve and Imperium power cables. Electronics were from the Italian brand Norma. Speakers were from Neat, couldn’t fault the sound in here at all.

Malvern Audio Research

A great sounding room, I do love hORNS speakers from Poland. It was packed and not great for photos but the sound was superb. They had the new Ming Da Picolo MM amp that is class A with a built in MM phonostage.

Kudos Audio

I always love the Kudos room.   They play great music and their speakers are excellent with really fast bass.  The Titan range feature drive units created exclusively for Kudos by Norwegian specialists SEAS. They had their new Titan 505 speakers (starting from $7000), which are now in full production after they were previewed at last year’s show, partnered with Innuos and Linn. Fantastic sounding and a real party vibe.

Tellurium Q, Melco & Russell K

Tellurium Q were launching the new Ultra Black II speaker cable and doing A B comparisons with the old Ultra Black cable. The main system featured (while I was in there) the Melco N10 source, Questyle DAC and the PMC cor amplifier. USB, balanced interconnects and speaker cables were all  TQ Silver Diamond, along with Silver and Silver Diamond power cables.  Speakers were the Russell K RED 150SE.  The room sounded very nice indeed and was treated with GIK Acoustics panels.

Audioquest

Audioquest were showcasing their latest power products, designed to help with noisy modern mains supplies.

Read Part One of our show report covering the first floor here

Read Part Two ‘Stu’s Views’ covering floors 3 and 4 of the Bristol Show here