READ ON FOR PART 2 OF OSCAR’S UK AUDIO SHOW 2023 REPORT

The second half of Oscar’s day trip to Daventry for the UK Audio Show 2023 from Staverton Park.

After a quick spot of lunch and a lovely cold beer, I got back to the job in hand – making my way around the show. After seeing lots of lovely kit in the morning, I was looking forward to seeing what the afternoon had in store.

MCRU

I had a quick look around the MCRU stand, as always, they had some lovely cables, tweaks and accessories on show and always have good discounts too. I am looking at getting some mains cables for my system in the future, and these guys will be my first port of call.

HIFI LOUNGE

HiFi Lounge is a brilliant place to go if you’re looking for an excellent setup and they were showing off the DeVORE Orangutan 0/96 speakers with a dCS Lina Streamer / DAC + Master Clock, Western Electric 91E 300B single ended valve amplifier, Melco N1 Server, Melco Network switch and Atlas cables. This was not a budget setup, but the natural, spacious very punchy sound the DeVORE produce is more than worth the price tag, and this was one of my favourite rooms of the show.

OB AUDIO

OB Audio is likely a brand most of you have not come across, self-proclaimed woodworkers with a passion for audio they built the speakers on show about 8 days before the show started. Running a bi-amp setup of Cayin EL34 Amp into the tops, and a Crown XLS 1002 in to the bottoms – the speakers were open baffle using Lii Audio drive units. Honestly these speakers were a work of art from a woodworking perspective, and they had some kick behind them too – OB Audio also make cabinets for your DIY speaker projects, something that I feel could be quite fun.

SUPER NATURAL AUDIO

Next up was the Super Natural Audio room, you had the SNA 2.3SE single-ended triode power amp, SNA line level pre-amp, SNA NOS valve DAC, LMDS MiniMax music server, Clipaudio Dolomite TT with 9inewave tonearm and Etude/SNA EHSB bipolar line array speakers playing, the smaller black speakers were the new Etude 5. The EHSB line array speakers that were playing were quite something, they have incredibly high sensitivity of over 100dB/1w and were made to match the valve power amp, big sound from small drivers (albeit, a lot of them). I also want to say that the looks and build quality of the SNA gear looked fantastic, although I am a bit of a sucker for wood and valves…

PURE AUDIO PROJECT

Pure Audio Project are a brand familiar to HiFi PiG, the system was made up of a Pro-Ject Classic TT, Pass INT-25 amplifier, LAB 12 non-OS DAC1 and Duet 15 open baffle speakers. I could have spent a long time in this room, I hadn’t heard many open baffle speakers before today but there seem to be some really excellent ones out there. They won’t fit every space, or be to everyone’s taste, but there is a sense of naturalness, an unforced sound if you like, that is very enjoyable.

AUDIO DREAMS

Audio Dreams had the Sigma Acoustics Monitor T10 speakers playing with EAM Lab Studio LC106 AC Line conditioner (you could see the voltage fluctuating a lot in the room), EAM Element C201 Preamplifier, EAM Studio 362 power amplifier, and one of The Rock Doc custom turntables (gorgeous finish) with Zeta tonearm. Shortly after sitting down, they put on Sisters of Mercy – a great choice of music and a very engaging system, the finish of the turntable was especially lovely.

AUDIOWAVE

Audiowave had some interesting-looking amps on display, designed for the high-end car audio market these amps are hand-built here in the UK and were more than at home driving the Kerr Acoustics K320 MK3 speakers in the room. It was surprising to see a car audio amp brand at a Hifi show, but the sound quality was excellent and they also make their own op-amps to use in their amplifiers.

KESTREL AUDIO

The new KT-200 turntable was playing in the Kestrel Audio room, this turntable costs £899.95 and looks to be excellent value for money. This was playing through a KMM-1 phono pre-amp, KSPEED-1 speed controller, Edwards audi C4 pre-amp and 2x P4 power amplifiers – driving the Chario Sonnet speakers. The KT-200 didn’t sound like it was holding back the sound in the room, impressive stuff for under £1k.

There was also an array of Edwards Audio turntables around the edge of the room.

FALCON ACOUSTICS

Another company named after a bird, Falcon Acoustics are very well known and had a Mofi turntable running into a Mofi phono pre-amp, Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) VK80 pre-amplifier and VK-56SE valve power amplifier driving their own M40 speakers.

TOWNSHEND AUDIO AND KERR ACOUSTICS

Townshend Audio shared a room with Kerr Acoustics displaying a range of cables, super tweeters, isolation platforms and more. The main system comprised of the Kerr Acoustics K200 powered by a Chord power amplifier, LongDog Audio MCJ3 Hybrid phono stage and a Townshend pre-amplifier.

IAS

IAS had the Beaulieu 40R speakers setup playing some opera music, with a projector showing the video. Unfortunately, this is one room where there was not a full rundown of the kit – and whilst opera music really isn’t my thing, these speakers did sound very accurate when reproducing such music in a slightly larger room.

COPPICE AUDIO

A proper haven for those into real analogue playback, Coppice Audio explained that there was not a single PCB between the source and the speakers. All components are point-to-point wired and the sound was very organic without missing out on finer details. An Amari LP32S turntable was at the heart of the system, using a Hana Umami cartridge, this fed into an Audio Detail DHT 101D phono stage, DHT 101D pre-amplifier and lastly a PX25 push pull amplifier.

CULTURED AUDIO

Cultured Audio brought along the Tannoy Kensington GR speakers to be paired with the new Zelier separates. There was a mix of Naim feeding into the high-end Zelier PR-01 pre-amplifier and PA-01 power amplifier. The PA-01 may only have 10 watts of power on paper, but the KT150 tubes and big power supply meant the speakers were not held back in the slightest. This setup did lean towards the warm/lush side of sound and was very easy to listen to.

CONNECTING MUSIC DISTRIBUTION

Coming from the Tannoy/Zelier setup, the Art Loudspeakers in the Connecting Music Distribution room sounded almost clinical – this was quite the contrast but after a couple of minutes of aural adjustment the sound was clean, crisp, and detailed but not harsh or bright. Art Loudspeakers are using diamond dome tweeters which are incredibly resolving and the Bricasti M19 CD player, M20 pre-amplifier, M1 DAC and M25 power amp setup was driving them with ease.

ALCHRIS AUDIO

Alchris Audio had their V-200 speakers hooked up to an Aavik U-380 integrated amplifier (now this is an interesting amp, one that you should definitely read about) and Cambridge Audio CXN streamer. Giorgio seems to be quite a popular Daft Punk test track and these speakers were impeccably controlled via the Aavik U-380 amplifier, clean and precise punch with great attack and decay.

NVA

NVA are such a fun brand, their new limited edition AP20 integrated amplifier was on demo and it’s available in white, green, or orange. It’s great to see a brand step away from black boxes (although they do plenty of those too) and embrace some loud designs. Internally it may only be a 35w per channel integrated amp but it was providing ample power to their Cube 3 sealed box speakers. NVA amps don’t have output protection circuits, or filtering, which is one of the reasons they believe their amps sound so good, but system matching needs to be done with a bit of care.

The Cube 3 have a front firing tweeter, and upward firing mid-bass driver, and it’s a system that works very well in certain spaces – providing good body and clarity from a small speaker.

CONNECTING MUSIC DISTRIBUTION 2

Blumenhofer acoustic Genuin FS 3 MKII speakers were paired with Mastersound Evo 300B integrated amplifier, this was another room run by Connecting Music Distribution. The Blumenhofer speakers have a 1” compression driver with a mylar membrane and a 10” paper woofer, they’re valve friendly and easy to drive.

Mellow Acoustics have been tweaking their FrontRo speakers quite a lot to try and get them to sound as best they can – an intriguing design that uses electrostatic drivers to radiate sound omnidirectionally. One of the previous designs was praised by our own Janine, and hopefully, a pair of the latest revision will be featured in the future – these were being powered by the lovely English Acoustics Stereo 41c valve amp (their previous model the 21c was reviewed by HiFi PiGand won the Editor’s Choice award), Tisbury passive pre-amp and Musical Fidelity Mx DAC. These speakers have a unique presentation, the sound really does radiate from all around the room yet there is still a focused stereo image.

ACOUSTIC ENERGY

Acoustic Energy have models to suit all budgets, but their main showpiece was the new Corinium speakers that were first seen at High End Munich this year, being driven by a full Naim system (with the new white lighting). For a brand that’s well known for their budget offerings, these are some serious audiophile speakers that have exceptional levels of insight and resolution whilst looking stunning in a metallic dark green finish.

PHONIA

All the way from Poland, Phonia decided to showcase three new models at this show. The Pacto 200 standmount speakers, Gravis 400 floor standers and Apertus 600 mahoosive floorstanders. The Apertus 600 were playing when I walked in, and these could easily kick out gig levels of sound. You could feel the punch, you could hear every detail, these play loud, but they play clear too – very impressive however, you need a big house to fit these into your system. The Krell KSA-200S was a great amp to pair with them, they were also using a Soekris R2R DAC 2541.

AUDIO NOTE UK

The last two rooms were run by Audio Note, the first had their AN E Field Coil speakers, TT3 turntable with matching PSU 3, ArmThree/ii tonearm, IQ 1 Red MC cartridge, M5 step-up transformer and Meishu Kappelmeister 300B amplifier – quite the mouthful but together made a great system.

The second room had their TT2 Deluxe turntable, ArmOne/ii tonearm, IQ 3 MM cartridge, M2 phono stage, P2SE Sig stereo power amplifier, M2 line pre-amp and AX2 speakers – this setup was ever so slightly boomy in the room, but still had plenty to like about it.

DRVING SOUNDS

Finally, there was Driving Sounds – a company dedicated to getting the best audio possible from your car. They had a range of products on display as well as three cars fully kitted out, a Porsche 911 964 with Audison Thesis speakers, a Hyundai i20N  with a mix of Audison Prime and Hertz Mille Pro and finally a Tesla Model 3 with Audison Prima/Forza system installed (with the ability to switch between the 3-way and 2-way system to hear the difference). Car audio is such a different market to HiFi, but for those of us who drive long distances, having a great sound system in your car is something worth investing in.

That’s the end of my UK Audio Show 2023 report, many thanks to the organisers and most importantly the brands, dealers and distributors who put together a whole load of interesting systems with components that some of you may not have heard of before. This show had a few “boutique” companies showcasing their products, and there was a clear love of vinyl and valves – something I will not complain about.

Until next time!

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We have asked for attendance figures for this event from the organisers and are currently awaiting data from them..we will add this once we have it.

If you missed Part 1 of Oscar’s UK Audio Show 2023 report, click here to read now!

Oscar Stewart