TEAM HIFI PIG REPORTS FROM THE BRISTOL HIFI SHOW 2024

This HiFi PiG report of The Bristol HiFi Show 2024 is a combination of the thoughts and experiences of Oscar Stewart and Stu Smith with photographs by Lin Smith and Oscar and we hope it meets with your approval.

We would also like to extend huge thanks Tellurium Q who are the HiFi PiG coverage sponsor for The Bristol HiFi Show 2024.

A WORD FROM THE ORGANISERS OF THE BRISTOL HIFI SHOW 2024

Jerry Lewin and the rest of the Audio-T directors told us “We are pleased to report that crowds once again queued around the block which was very gratifying given the state of business generally. Everyone seemed pleased with a very busy Friday and Saturday with Sunday quieter, as it usually is. Overall visitor numbers were very slightly down on last year’s blockbuster, (when everyone was keen to get out again after the Covid lockdowns), but still better than any year since 2016!. We had 246 trade and press visitors (plus the 600 odd exhibiting!) and the non UK ones came from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, USA and Switzerland”.

THE HIFI PIG STAND

The HiFi PiG year is pretty much measured by where in the world we find ourselves and February takes us to Bristol in England and the fabulous Bristol HiFi Show. The show has around 80 rooms  of exhibitors spread over the Marriott City Centre hotel. The show was busy (as per usual) and there did seem to be a good few couples doing the rounds.

We really do love the Bristol HiFi Show and it’s a must-cover event. We love that it’s both packed with high quality exhibitors and lots of very enthusiastic visitors.

Last year we gave out a thousand or so “I’m A HiFi PiG Fan” fans but this year we decided to give away a whole load of HiFi PiG slip mats, which proved to be a huge hit with visitors to the show. If you weren’t able to make the show, don’t worry, because there will be more at the North West Audio Show.

We also gave out over a hundred HiFi PiG cupcakes on the Saturday to folk braving the cold to get in early to the show and we hope that those who got one enjoyed them. The cakes were made by local Bristol cake maker Fakery Cakery who created cake that could be enjoyed by vegans, gluten intolerant people and everyone who just loves a sweet treat, a big thanks to Sam for her creativity and baking skills!

And thanks to all the people who got a Just a Load of Groupies Tee-Shirt photoshoot and to those who got themselves a HiFi PiG Gives Me A Lardon Tee. We hope you will wear them with pride.

And as ever a massive thanks to Tony, Jerry, Brad, Mark and all the Bristol hifi Show/Audio-T team who always go the extra mile to put on a fantastic show!

You can also enjoy our video tour, with the in depth report following room by room after the video…

Now join us as we take you around the sights and sounds of The Bristol HiFi Show 2024!

LOCKWOOD

As you walk through the trade/press entrance the first stand you come across belongs to heritage brand Lockwood – established in 1930 they have provided speakers for studios and music lovers alike. In fact, many legendary albums have been recorded and mixed on Lockwood speakers including Elton John, The Beatles, AC/DC, Queen and more. This little booth was more of a showcase of their range, with a demo room located in room 226. Their demo system in room 226 consisted of the Quad Artera Solus CD player / DAC / Pre-amp into Quad Atera mono-blocs powering their Academy 2 speakers.  With a background in studio and music production these speakers deliver insight and detail, but not at the expense of musicality – they are natural and balanced and quite different to more traditional HiFi speakers.

CHORD COMPANY

Moving along you will come to a familiar sight, a huge wall of Chord Company cables with their staff handing out bags with brochures to attendees. Chord Company offers a comprehensive range of cables from budget to high-end and had their new EE1 Network noise isolator on show. This little passive device sits between two network cables and helps reduce unwanted noise within the system, converting noise into heat. They also have a new budget mains distribution block called the PowerHAUS P6 – something to check out.

CHORD COMPANY PRESS CONFERENCE

Lin and Stu also joined the Chord Co press conference. The Chord Company press conference at The Bristol HiFi Show is one of those annual events that we always look forward to and it’s always a bit of an event – it’s also always rammed with the UK’s audio press.

Alan Gibb was this years host (as usual) and if you ever get a chance to go see him present Chord Company’s products, then do as he is to presenting audio products what Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) is to sales training.

The whole Chord Company philosophy is to get the noise out of the system.

We got a listen to the BURNDY shielded (with XLPE) cable used to connect NAIM kit together compared to the standard NAIM cable that is unshielded. The difference is pretty much immediately evident.

Read more about the Chord Burndy cables here

The P6 power block launched back in November 2023 at £600 was in use which is a scale down version of the M6. Alan told us that there would be comparisons of the P6 to standard power blocks throughout the weekend.

We also got a listen to the compact English Electric EE1 filter. What I thought was interesting was that Alan didn’t try to suggest that anything was happening to the zeros and ones, rather the job their cables were doing was to deal with noise on the 5V line. Lin turned to me when the EE1 got put in the system and said “that sounds like a different record!”. £250 seems a no brainer to me based on the evidence of this presentation.

Thanks for the beer and thank you for making sure the food was excellent (and vegan) as per usual.

KEITH MONKS

Keith Monks were showing off their Prodigy record cleaner, this is always an interesting process to watch. It uses liquid along with a vacuum and is made from sustainable bamboo – this is a HiFi Pig recommended device and works a treat for cleaning vinyl easily and efficiently.

MELCO & NUPRIME

Next up you have Melco and NuPrime sharing a stand, NuPrime had their new Evolution flagship DAC with 7 digital inputs and both balanced and single ended outputs. It features the 32bit ESS9038PRO DAC chip and has a Zero Loss volume control. What also caught my eye was their new Omnia WR-2 streamer/DAC/Pre-amp with optical/coaxial/HDMI Arc/USB Pen drive and analogue line inputs, bi-directional Bluetooth and analogue and sub-out. This looks to be an extremely versatile little device, pair it with their STA-100 amplifier and you have a small and sleek setup perfect for a spare room.

Melco had a range of streamers on display along with their new C1-D20 SFP+ Direct Attach Cable – this works with a range of Melco and other products that feature SFP network ports. It aims to bypass some of the more commonly encountered limitations of network data transmission.

MIAN DISTRIBUTION

Mian Distribution had a range of Solidsteel speaker stands and HiFi racks on display, including one for vinyl enthusiasts with the right size bottom shelf to house your collection.

SCV DISTRIBUTION

Entering the ground floors main hall, SCV Distribution have taken a hold of the whole of the left side with their great range of products across different brands and categories. You have Meze and Fostex headphones along with Auris turntables which are new to the UK market and look very smart. Earmen headphone amps along with a wide range of Manley products – this includes the new Oasis phono stage – with more info to follow.

Their main system consisted of the Isotek Evo3 Genesis + Super Titan mains conditioner/sine wave generator, Manley Snapper power amps, Manley Steel Head phono stage, Bricasti DAC and two pairs of Triangle Magellan Quatuor 40th speakers – one on Isoacoutics Gaia feet and the other on standard spikes. It’s no secret that the Isoacoustics Gaia work a treat but being able to A/B the system is really helpful and gives you a great insight into the sonic differences between the two. 

They also had a separate booth with demo’s showing you the difference Isotek can make to your system, in terms of suppressing mains noise. It’s definitely a subject that causes some debate, but it’s a worthwhile demo for those who want to learn a little more about the Isotek products and how they work.

TANNOY

Tannoy have invested in a rather large stand that had a range of their new products on display, with a separate demo setup in room 302. On their main stand on the ground floor, you could see the new SGM series (short for Super Gold Monitor) – these come in a range of sizes and look beautiful. They also had the GR range on display in various sizes. In their demo room in room 302 they had the Stirling 111 LZ edition speakers hooked up to a WE 91E amplifier and Auralic ALTAIR G1.1 streamer. This room was playing Rust by Black Label Society which was a pleasure, and a change from the usual music you find playing at shows.

CHORD ELECTRONICS

Chord Electronics had a stand with their Ultima 6 power amp on its side showing off the glow of the components inside, on the next desk along they had a Rega turntable running into a Qutest, Huei and Anni stack powering the Audeze LCD-5 headphones. In their demo room they had the Ultima Integrated amplifier with the Qutest, Hugo M-Scaler driving a pair of ATC SCM40 speakers – suffice to say the Ultima integrated has plenty of grunt to it.

TONAR

Tonar had a good display of cartridges, stylus, record cleaning products, protractors, scales, and any vinyl accessory you might need!

PURITAN AUDIO

Puritan were also in the main ground floor hall with their range of mains purifying products.

QOBUZ

Qobuz had a nice stand and were one of the main sponsors of the show, as a Qobuz user myself the quality of the music on their service is excellent. They had a lovely DCS Lina stack with the Meze 109 Pro Primal headphones to show off the sound quality of their streaming service.

INNUOS

Innuos had a table with various products on display and downstairs they had a demo room in the Wallace suite. The system in their demo room consisted of the Pulsar, Pulse, PhoenixNet, Zenith, Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 and Sonus Faber Olympica V speakers – this room really did sound excellent and Innuos know how to make a streaming setup that sounds utterly natural.

GIK ACOUSTICS

GIK Acoustics had a nice display of acoustic panels and diffusers, they are top quality products and can make a huge difference in your listening room when placed correctly.

DYNAUDIO

Dynaudio had a nice display of models just outside their main demo booth, inside the booth you found the huge Confidence 60 being powered by a full Naim 500 series.

ATACAMA

Atacama had a wide range of stands on show from HiFi racks to AV stands and speaker stands, they also had some tubs of Atabites stand filler – and inert filler for speaker stands.

GOLDENEAR & AUDIOQUEST

Goldenear and Audioquest shared a room showing off the Triton One.R speakers powered by a Heed Lagrange amplifier with a full complement of Audioquest Cables and mains solutions including the Niagra 1200, NRG Z3 mains cables and Robin Hood speaker cables.

LINN

Linn had a huge suite for their 360 speakers, brand new Klimax Solo 800 mono blocs, Selekt-DSM and Selekt LP-12 turntable. The bronze finish of the 360 speakers was stunning and the new Klimax Solo 800 monoblocs are huge, they delivered tight yet full sound that easily filled the large suite.

PMC

PMC unveiled their Active modules for the Twenty5i range of speakers at this show, the demo had them fitted to the Twenty5 23i speakers with a Bryston BP-19 pre-amplifier, BDA 3.14 DAC/Streamer and Michell Orbe SE turntable. The new active modules are easily retrofitted to current models, or you can purchase the speakers as active models on their own. In the Active twenty5i series, each driver is directly coupled to an ideally matched 100W power amplifier, allowing more precise control over the drivers and free-flowing sound.

With the number of excellent streamers / pre-amps now out there, I foresee a few more active speaker models coming out from other companies, and if the PMC are anything to go by, you really are not missing out on having a separates system.

PMC PRESS CONFERENCE

Stu and Lin were straight in for the PMC press conference at the start of day one of the show and treated to an early listen to the new speakers.

So the sign on the door said “Get Actively involved” and that kind of answered the question “Wonder what PMC are going to be talking to us about?”. Or that was our assumption. The great and the good of the audio-press gathered outside the room suggested a pair of Magnepans made active, but the more conventional boxes under cover suggested otherwise.

We were treated to a bit of a history of PMC which launched in 1991 – I’d assumed they had been making their transmission line speakers for a bit longer than that, but there you go. PMC stands for the Professional Monitor Company and was you will be aware, their speakers are used studios around the world as a reference – and the whole philosophy is to use the kit at home that was used to make the music you are listening to.

Cue the unveiling and guess what, the PMC “active twenty 5 i” range of speakers is born. And so is the active upgrade for owners of 25 and 25i series of speakers – and it’s apparently an easy to fit upgrade that will take five minutes to fit for either dealers or for owners themselves.

Amps in there are Ice Power and the crossover is wholly in-house and put together at PMC. 

The whole idea of active PMCs really appeals to me both from a sonic perspective and the fact that they do away with the whole need for external amplifiers making the whole package more manageable and streamlined set up at home.

I’m not going to go into the whole sonics as it’s not really relevant in a show environment but a quick listen had them as punchy and dynamic.

Get all the info and pricing of the PMC Active twenty5i range here

ACOUSTIC ENERGY

Down on the lower ground floor you found Acoustic Energy with their Corinium playing via an SPL Director MK2 DAC/Pre amplifier and SPL Performer S1200 stereo power amplifier. The source was an Aries G1.1 and the speakers did a good job at filling the room with a smooth and detailed sound. Around the edges of the room were a selection of other Acoustic Energy models which cover various needs and budgets.

IAG – AUDIOLAB, WHARFEDALE & LEAK

IAG were in the Old Vic suite with the Audiolab 9000 series Streamer / CD player and amplifier powering the Wharfedale Aura 3 speakers which sounded like they were excellent value for money.

Around the room, you could find the newly released Leak CDT / Stereo 230 and Sandwich 25 speakers.

WHARFEDALE PRESS CONFERENCE

And the big news at the press conference with Peter Comeau of IAG, was the launch of the new Wharfedale Super Denton, a 3 way, just under £1000 a pair standmount speaker, listening to them in the press conference they had a room filling sound which bellied their diminutive stature…we are looking forward to hearing much more about them very soon.

DECENT AUDIO

Over in the Decent Audio room you found the classic Dual turntables, alongside an array of Advance audio components. The main setup had a Dual CS 529BT turntable which has an Ortofon 2M Red MM cartridge, an Advance X-P700 pre-amplifier, Advance X-D500 CD transport, Advance X-A220 Evo monoblocs and Scansonic Q3 speakers. Personally, I really liked the look of the Advance audio kit and it looks to be very good value too.

WILSON BENESCH, TRILOGY & CAD

Up to the terrace now for Wilson Benesch / Trilogy and CAD – along the side of the room was a showcase of Trilogy products and a cut-out Wilson Benesch Infrasonic Generator. The demo setup was a pair of the Discovery 3Zero speakers which use an isobaric drive system for the bass, Trilogy 994 monoblocs, 991 pre-amplifier, Innuos Zen Mini + LPSU and CAD grounding system. These might look small but they sure do pack a punch, the isobaric bass drivers doing an excellent job of delivery bass extension from what looks like a relatively compact stand mount speaker.

MCRU

David and co from MCRU were at the show with some great offers on cables and tweaks.

KIRMUSS AUDIO

Kirmuss Audio had their record cleaner / groove restoration machine on hand and were happy to explain the cavitation method of cleaning the records and removing any dust or debris left over from the manufacturing process. This ensures your records are in tip-top condition and reduces the surface noise by a large degree.

THE VINYL ADVENTURE

The Vinyl Adventure had a good selection of vinyl on hand for people to purchase.

BLACK RHODIUM

Black Rhodium had an array of cables on show along with a box of sale items with some bargains to be had.

CLARITY CAP

It was interesting to see Clarity Cap at the show, they are a well-known brand of high-quality audio grade capacitors and are used in a few brands crossovers – the DIY geek in me enjoyed seeing these capacitors at the show.

FOCAL & NAIM

Focal / Naim had their Scala Utopia speakers being driven by two different Naim setups to demonstrate the differences between them. The first being the 333 Streamer, 332 Pre-amplifier, NAP 350 monoblocs and NPX300 power supply – the second having their ND555 streamer, NAP 500 amplifier and NAC S1 Pre-amplifier.

They also had a static display of a couple of other models in the room and another 2 rooms on the 1st floor. The first had the Aria Evo X No3 speakers paired with the Naim Uniti Star and the second had their Sopra 2 with the Naim Uniti Core and Uniti Nova Power Edition. Their more affordable Aria Evo X No3 sounded tight and detailed for their price whilst the other two systems had plenty of output and huge scale – the Scala Utopia are quite something with huge amounts of punch.

Focal also had a headphone zone with their Bathys, Stellia, Celestee, Utopia and Clear MG.

DIVERSE VINYL

Diverse Vinyl had a stand in their usual spot by the bar, with Paul and the team bringing a huge range of music and there were plenty of attendees browsing the range and purchasing records.

RUARK

Ruark, known for their lifestyle range, had a good display of their range including their R810 console, they will appeal to those wanting something a little more aesthetically pleasing without making huge sonic sacrifices.

ATC

Up to the first floor now and to the ATC room, they were using their own SCA2 pre-amplifier, Auralic Vega 2.2 streamer, and Technics turntable with Ortofon Quintet MC cartridge into the SCM50 Special Edition active speakers. Once again these prove that active speakers really can, and do, belong in the HiFi world, and can easily compete with a good separate’s setup.

CYRUS AUDIO

Cyrus had their new TTP turntable on show with a full Cyrus setup made up of the Phono Signature, PSX-R2, PSU-XR, Power-XR, Pre-XR and Stream-XR. All of this was powering a pair of Audio Physic Avanti speakers.

NEAT ACOUSTICS

Neat Acoustics are one of those brands I’ve been meaning to check out more, and I was happy to listen to their Petite Classic being driven by the Atoll SDA300. I really enjoyed the natural sound from this small stand-mount speaker, they also had their new Mystique Classic and Elite Classic on show at the side of the room.

CADENCE DISTRIBUTION

Cadence Distribution have just been named the new UK distributor for Rotel and it made sense for them to have the Michi M8 monoblocks, X5 S2 pre-amp setup with an SME Model 12 turntable and Spendor D7.2 speakers. There were a few more models of Spendor speakers around the edges of the room, the D7.2 playing did a great job of filling the room with tight and controlled sound.

DALI

Danish brand Dali had their tiny Minuet SE stand mount speakers paired with an Innuos Zen streamer, Lyngdorf CD-2 and Lyngdorf TDAI3400. This setup was hugely impressive, both Kelly and I were impressed at how deep and wide the soundstage was, along with how big these tiny speakers sounded in this room.

LYNGDORF

Lyngdorf had a room next to Dali, but their amps were used by a few brands at the show. They are well known for their RoomPerfect tech that is built in to their amps, they come with a microphone and the setup takes around 20-minutes. They played samples of the sound with RoomPerfect on and off, all I can say is that it really does improve the sound and is worth checking out. They were using their own Cue-100 speakers and explained that RoomPerfect is done in the DSP and that their amps are fully digital and only convert to analogue right at the output stage. They also use a voltage controller for volume control, this means less loss and more precise volume control. Tech like this really does help those living in difficult rooms to get better sound and they help when it comes to integrating HiFi into a normal living space – there’s a reason they are becoming increasingly popular.

TELLURIUM Q & RUSSELL K

Onwards and upwards to floor 2, we found ourselves in the Tellurium Q / Russell K room with the newly announced Ultra Silver II cables hooked up to the Russell K Red 50 SE speakers, Rega Aethos amp, Rega Saturn CD player and Melco Streamer. This was another excellent sounding small speaker with heaps of clarity and width.

ASTELL & KERN

Astell and Kern had their new AK HC4 USB DAC dongle on show along with a few other dongles and a range of DAPs with assorted headphones. The Kann Ultra is also quite new and features a dedicated headphone and pre-out for both the 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs on the top along with featuring a more powerful processor to speed up the UI – it felt snappy in the brief demo I had with it.

KOG AUDIO, EPOS, TELLURIUM Q & T+A

Speaker design legend Karl-Heinz Fink could be found in the Epos / KOG / T+A / Tellurium Q room in which the newly released ES7-N speakers were playing. These were some of the best sounding speakers of the show for me, they were paired with the T&A R2500R and Tellurium Q cables. The ES7-N use ceramic coated aluminium tweeters which give a slightly smoother sound over a normal metal dome.

SILENCE AUDIO

Silence Audio are a showcase brand of OEM brand Optimum Processing – they had their new Alpha TT-1 on show which uses a plinth made from resonance optimised 24mm birch plywood / aluminium composite which is epoxy impregnated and has quartz sand filled resonance chambers along with piano lacquer finish and diamond cut edges. It uses a 3-phase slot less synchronous motor with a linear PSU housed externally. The belt is made from vacuum cast silicon and has no memory effect or stretch, meaning consistent speed and less belt slip. The platter is aluminium and it has an inverted 10mm hydrodynamic bearing with oil well.

The tonearm is 10” and uses a magnetically stabilised unpivot design, silver plated copper cable with Teflon insulation. This was a beautiful looking system packing a lot in to it, as everything is made in house, they also have full control over the quality of the components.

They had one fully setup playing though an Exposure amplifier powering a pair of KEF LS50 Meta. 

CLEARAUDIO

Clearaudio were next door with the Innovation Basic turntable, which uses optical speed control to ensure excellent stability. They were running a Gamut power amplifier, DS optical cartridge, Music First phono pre-amp, Furutech cables and Kerr Acoustics K320 MK3 speakers.

KERR ACOUSTICS & MUSIC FIRST AUDIO

Kerr Acoustics were next door and had their K300 MK3 speakers playing with a Chord Ultima 3 power amp, Chord Qutest DAC with Hugo M Scaler and Music First Baby Reference V2 pre-amplifier. The K300 MK3 were pushed quite loud and never sounded strained, they had impressive extension for a relatively compact stand mount speaker.

EXPOSURE

Exposure are a local company for me personally, their headquarters being about a 10-minute drive from where I live. It’s always good to see them as they’re always a pleasure to talk to, they had their new 360 TT, new 3510CD Anniversary edition, 5010 pre-amplifier, 3510 monoblocs, Vixen phono stage with 1 PSU and Hana MH cartridge. This setup was driving a pair of Graham LS6F speakers, Exposure show that there is still a lot of room for classic, no-nonsense, British HiFi in the market and their setup sounded the business too.

MICHELL AUDIO

Michell Audio were using their Tecnodec with a Goldring E3 cartridge running into the new Arcam A25 amplifier and PMC Prodigy 5 speakers. This is a setup that will set you back under £6k and was showing that you don’t have to spend the equivalent of a house deposit to get good sound. I do appreciate it when companies put together a more affordable system for people to listen to.

PROAC

ProAc are well regarded speakers and if their Response D20R are anything to go by, I can hear why. The combination of ribbon tweeter, quality mid-bass and down-firing bass port provided very natural and effortless sound. They were being driven by an Exposure integrated amplifier and Exposure 3510CD.

AURALIC & SUGDEN

Auralic streamers were in a lot of rooms I visited, so it was logical they had their own room which they shared with Sugden. Auralic had their Aries G2.2 and Vega G2.2 running with a Sugden IA4 into a pair of ProAc D2R speakers. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Class-A amps and the Sugden amps really do deliver effortless and smooth sound which complimented the ProAc speakers nicely, with Auralic feeding good source material to the setup.

And Stu said: “For me this was the best set up room of the show with a really nice cool vibe – low lights, sofas and The Rolling Stones playing at a good volume. Sugden amps are known for being Class A and paired with the Auralic ARIES G2.2 and PROAC standmounts were making a great sound”.

REGA

Rega are a brand most will be familiar with, just last year I purchased one of their Planar 3 Anniversary turntables for my home setup along with reviewing the Aya late last year. Bristol marked the first announcement of their upcoming Nd7 MM Cartridge – I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with James Hammond who oversaw its development. Rega believe this is the first time Neodymium magnets have been used in a Moving Magnet cartridge, this strong magnet allows for more space between the generator and coils for improved channel balance, superior linearity, and cross talk characteristics. The new coils are wound in house and have lower inductance, paired with a low impedance generator, vastly improves the high frequency response. The Nd7 uses a fine line nude diamond tip (usually found on their high-end MC cartridges such as Apheta 3 and Aphelion 2) bonded to an aluminium cantilever.

The SRP is estimated to be £450 and it should be available in 2-3 months, they had one mounted to a Planar 6, running in to a Fono MM MK5 and Elex MK4 amplifier driving the Aya – from my brief and initial listen in a demo setting it sounded very detailed and open. I am hoping to be able to write a full review when it’s officially available.

They also had a couple of prototypes on display, the Solis Power amp, Mercury Pre-amplifier, and Aura Phono Pre-amplifier.

HEGEL & AMPHION

Hegel / Amphion had two rooms, the first had the new Hegel H190V amplifier with a Rega Planar 6 with Exact cartridge as the source, this was powering the Amphion Argon 3S speakers. In the next room they had the Hegel H600 powering the Amphion Argon 3LS, both rooms were using Audiomica cables.

HARBETH

The last 4 rooms on this floor were reserved for Harbeth and a wide array of their models including the M30.2 stand mounts. The main attraction was however, the Harbeth NLE – New Listening Experience – this was a DSP setup showing how you can mix amp topology and add DSP that essentially makes the speakers all but disappear from the setup. They had 4 Quad valve monoblocs for the midrange and treble along with 2 Hypex Class-D amplifiers for the bass, and then demonstrated how you can tie these amps together using DSP (as a form of external crossover) to get a very pure listening experience. Virtual Bob was a fun experience and shows that companies are still pushing the boundaries to creating as natural a sound as possible.

HIFIMAN & FIIO

Up to the 3rd floor and HiFiMAN / Fiio shared a room, I had a great little catch up with Mark from HiFiMAN and they had a good selection of their headphones and earphones available to demo. These included the Arya Organic, Sundara, Audivina, Svanar Wireless and more, they also had their Serenade DAC/Amp to listen to. Fiio had their new FT5 headphones along with their R9 desktop streamer/amp, SP3 speakers and KB3 keyboard. A full review of the FT5 is coming soon and it was good to see some headphones represented at the show.

LYN STANLEY

Lyn Stanley had a room of her own, it was interesting to have a singer with their own room, she used it to educate people on the recording process as well as demonstrating the differences between MP3, 16/44 WAV, SACD, Vinyl and Reel-to-Reel.  We sat down as she explained the one-step vinyl process as well as listening to a clip of one of her songs in all the different formats – each one having a slightly different presentation with vinyl and reel-to-reel sounding the most natural. Lyn even had a microphone and PA speaker to be able to sing over the track, demonstrating how close to the original the reel-to-reel recording is – the tracks were played back on Harbeth speakers. It was interesting hearing about previous recordings she has done and the process involved in trying to get the best quality possible from the formats we have available.

ENGLISH ACOUSTICS

English Acoustics are well known to HiFi PiG, with a custom coloured 21C power amplifier being reviewed previously. Here however, they were showing off their new Downton pre-amplifier running in to a 41C power amplifier and powering the Bowers & Wilkins (a name sorely missing from the show this year) 803 D3. Normally the 803 D3 are recommended to be powered by beefy Class A or A/B amplifier yet the Downton pre-amplifier with 41C power amp and these speakers worked beautifully together with a clean and crisp sound with valve character. Around the room they had a few models on display showing off the different colour options along with some colour shift ones too. This is a company that are doings things right, and it shows by the amount of people who both love the aesthetics as well as the sound quality of these fantastic amplifiers.

DIORA & GRYPHON

Moving to the next room my ear caught the sound of Rammstein, this was Diora from Poland showing off their Chors 5 speakers with the Gryphon Diablo 300 system. Mein Herz Brennt (Piano version) was wonderfully portrayed through this setup with incredibly nuance vocals.  Diora is a new brand to me and their factory have been cabinet makers for some big names in the industry, so their put that knowledge along with their own ideas to create their own range of speakers. They had two rooms, the first had the Chors 5 and 7 speakers, these speakers have interchangeable front panels allowing you to change the colours to suit your décor and feature ceramic coated drivers.

In their next room they had some interesting looking models, the Lada 3 were paired with huge Gryphon Mephisto monoblocs, Gryphon Ethos CD player, Gryphon Ethos DAC and Pandora pre-amplifier. The Lada 3 are a slightly unconventional shape and they are a sealed cabinet design with a single isodynamic tweeter, single isodynamic midrange driver and a subwoofer that has a crossover frequency of 250Hz. They also had another pair of floor standers next to these but they were not playing during the show – both models also feature innovative isolation built in to the stands and have special acrylic paint that self-heals small scratches if you wipe them with warm water. I was impressed by the clarity and depth of these speakers; Diora is a brand to watch in my opinion.

ORANGE

Orange consumer had a range of their portable speakers along with a small range of Bluetooth headphones, they were also showing off their Valve Tester MK2 which now works with a lot of audio valves used in audio amplifier over ones used in pro audio kit. They did have a small compact HiFi setup in development which looks quite nice for those who want good sound from a neat and compact setup.

KUDOS

Kudos Audio previewed their Sigao Drive setup ahead of its official launch at Munich, this is an external crossover that is passive and does not require a power supply, situated in front of the power amplifier in the audio signal chain. It partners with Kudos Audio speakers and makes use of their active inputs – Kudos state “The amplifier output loading of the crossover can be adjusted to match the technical requirements of virtually any amplifier combination, meaning near-infinite compatibility with Kudos loudspeakers for the very first time.” Look out for more coverage of this soon.

ULTRAFIDE

It was a pleasure to catch up with the folks from Ultrafide, they had their U500DC power amp and matching U4PRE pre-amplifier powering some lovely Quested speakers. I covered their release last year at the UK Audio Show and these products are seriously good quality and value for money. With a background in pro-audio MC2 are bringing that knowledge to the HiFi world with an amp and pre-amp designed from the ground up with their own proprietary Class-D chip, as they were not happy with any of the off-the-shelf modules available on the market. Expect more on these soon.

SUPATRAC

Supatrac make tonearms that use quite different design techniques compared to more conventional ones. They had their Blackbird tonearm fitted to a Rega Planar 10, next to a Rega Naia, using an Audio Technica AT-VM540ML. Around the room they also had their Blackbird tonearm fitted to a Technics SL-1210G.

BLUESOUND

Bluesound had a range of their streamers on display along with a range of lifestyle wireless speakers, these looked neat and easy to use, connected home systems are quite popular in the consumer market so these should prove to be very popular.

REL

REL had two rooms, one for showing off their various models and another with a demo setup consisting of the KEF Blade speakers with three S/812 subs in a line-array setup next to each speaker. They were running a Parasound power amp, Exposure CD player and Arcam pre-amplifier. They used a mixture of music and video to show that their subwoofers can neatly compliment the speakers during music and add depth and scale rather than volume, along with showing off their heft and volume during home-theatre use.

FYNE AUDIO

Fyne are going from strength to strength and their speakers always sound excellent, this year they had two main demo rooms. The first had their Vintage Ten speakers paired with their Vintage Super Trax super-tweeter which was released at the show, powered by an Accuphase DP-770 and E-800. This setup was incredibly natural and open sounding, it was never fatiguing and just a joy to sit and listen to. In their other room they had their F1-8S speakers paired with a Rega Saturn CD player and Aethos amplifier.

FYNE AUDIO PRESS CONFERENCE

Lin also popped along to the Fyne press conference where we were able to listen to an A/B comparison with and without the new super tweeter, interestingly the biggest effect was on the bass, with a notable tightening up of the bass with the super tweeter deployed.

JBL

The final room from my part of this year’s show report is JBL – part of the Harman group they sometimes get a bit of flak for being a more “consumer” brand. The Tour One M2 headphones surprised me last year and their Authentics 500 speaker surprised me at the show – it was filling the room with rather enjoyable sound from a small speaker. On display they also had the Authentics 300, Authentics 200 and their Spinner turntable. JBL might be overlooked by some, but they seem to be moving in the right direction and making some truly great sounding products that will appeal to a wide range of users – including us so called “audiophiles”.

Then we go up to the fourth floor where Stu takes over the writing duties…

PEARL ACOUSTICS

Pearl Acoustics were launching a new amplifier at The Bristol Audio Show 2024 in the form of the PA170 a single-ended amplifier using KT 170 output tubes. The idea is that the amplifier is a sustainable product with longevity built into the design from start to finish. Its a dual mono design, with 0dB feedback of any kind and ultra short signal paths. There are no solid state devices in the signal path, nor followers or buffers. Output is 18W of pure Class A loveliness. Price is £8500 including VAT. All handmade in the UK and the black BMW finish looked very nice indeed.

This is an excellent match for Pearl Acoustics single driver loudspeakers.

ORIGIN LIVE

SENNHEISER

OPTOMA

LEEMA

Playing Elvis when we first went into the room and the Pretty Green by The Jam  (special request, don’t you know) and sounding fantastic! Shadwell the sheep was in attendance too.

You can read more about the Leema Quantum Neutron and Graviton Amps here

I like the whole concept of this new range of Leema Quantum electronics – stripped down version of their top-end kit but without losing out a great deal sonically. The full set up is less than £3K without speakers which were by Australian brand Serhan Swift, perched, of course, on Solidsteel stands. Lee Taylor from Leema was in attendance and we enjoyed a good chat with him about the new range.

AIR AUDIO, CONNECTED FIDELITY AUDIO DETAIL & COPPICE AUDIO

Audio Design valve electronics with Coppice Audio Speakers were playing tunes from a TEAC reel to reel player when we were in the room and making very nice sounds indeed.

HANA cartridges were on the new TT HUB turntable by Connected Fidelity (being launched at the show) and i’s no secret that I rate these cartridges VERY highly and the turntable looks like no slouch. The Audio Detail 101D phono stage with no transistors at all in and feeding a PX25 PP integrated amplifier that is transformer driven.

VERY nice room and very friendly folk in here!

TOVE AUDIO

These were a new one on me and looked very interesting speakers with my first takeaway being “curvy”. The brand is based in London.

ELITE AUDIO

We use Electrocompaniet amps in the main system at home and Elite were using EW300 monos in this system, the pre was the EC4.8MKII, The CD is the EMC1MK5. Speakers are the Revival Audio Alatante 4 and making their debut at the show. The DAC is the Aqua Formula XHD and the streamer is the Antipodes K22. Cables were the ZEN SATI ZORRO Range. The brands had a great synergy and Elite had put a good deal of effort into putting this room together with a nice comfy armchair and nice lighting.

ROGERS

Needless to say LS3/5s were being used in this room along with a Rogers E20 power amp and CD by Audio Note UK.

KANTO AUDIO

I use KANTO ORA desktop speakers and love them. Their ORA 4 is a bit bigger and will be available in late summer. Bigger drivers, bi amped, DSP tuned just like the ORA but in a bigger package. The Second new is the REN (cram coloured speaker) this is their first HDMI speaker with (obviously) home theatre and TVs in mind and available late summer too. REN will be £549 and will also have Bluetooth, USBC (DAC) and RCA.

I really rate these speakers and they sort of go to show that you don’t need to spend a massive amount of dosh to get great sound.

TELEGRAPHER

A wholly new name to me but their “Premium Active Analog Studio Monitors” slogan kind of caught my attention.

The company has just been launched with three speakers. The first s a two-way called The Fox, a three way called The Gorilla with an 8.5 inch woofer a 4.5 inch mid. The final product is the 12.5 inch sub called the Elephant. Great names!!!

Class D amps and analogue crossovers are used. The concept here is to give both a great sounding loudspeaker but also one that looks fantastic, and they seem to be succeeding on both counts. Five base colours are available bu then there are levels of customisation – carbon, wood etc. You can customise the back panel with your logo/name or whatever. Prices are £4500 a pair to £9000 and £4500 for the sub.

I like this company and I hope they do very well.

AUDIO NOTE (UK)

ANUK were showing off a deal of their Zero range and it seemed a rather splendid deal – a full system of Audio Note kit for less than five grand. You can go for a CD-based system or the vinyl based system, though, obviously, the turntable isn’t included in the latter.

Always great to see these guys shows and the music selection os always eclectic and excellent!

In the next Audio Note room we had a much higher end system with AN E Limited speakers using field coils. The rest of they system was the Meishu Koncert Meister amp with 300B tubes, there was the CD2.3 transport and the DAC 3.1 balanced with the TT3 and PSU4 tonearm for the analogue side of things. Psyde trance got played …which was nice!

ANTHOS AUDIO

Another new one for me. The sales bumph tells me that this is an “extraordinary sound system, meticulously designed over many years, to provide lifelike, dynamic and immersive experience for your home…” The system is £100K but for that you get thirteen leaf “flower horns” made from wooden laminations and finished in Cremonese varnish used on musical instruments and developed by Stradivarius. Not only the speakers, but you also get a single-ended 2A3 valve amp and digital filters for the crossover. All very clever stuff with a modern twist. And you even get the system tuned to your specific room.

I liked the concept and the sound in this room! And I like the concept of the old marrying with the very new! I spoke to numerous people, both journo-types and designers and lots said that this was pretty much as good as it gets. The shape of the horn, however, did raise a few eyebrows.

James Boyd is the designer and is pictured with the speakers.

THE BRISTOL HIFI SHOW 2025

The Bristol HiFi Show 2025 will take place on February 21st/22nd/23rd 2025, at the DELTA HOTELS BY MARRIOTT, BRISTOL CITY CENTRE, Lower Castle Street, Bristol, BS1 3AD. We will see you there!

Oscar Stewart, Linette Smith & Stuart Smith

Find all of the Bristol HiFi Show 2024 coverage here