Gone are the days when a new QUAD would turn up every 30 years. Perhaps they could ask Deiter Rams to do the cosmetics again?

Any chance of a mini show report for those of us less well travelled? *prays its not just very expensive speakers, mega 10 ton turntables and less good than an iPad hard disc replay front ends*

Focal. Why arent they using NAM?

TAD. A domestic onslaught is on.

The KEF LS50s look interesting

Actually it was Purist Audio Design using Focal, Vitus and Stahl-Tek

Ashley

My report is rather selective in the same way as my show listening - if a demonstrator has a room with a poor acoustic, is cluttered with too much gear, fails to have a dedicated listening area, plays at the wrong (too loud a) volume or fails to play well recorded /recognisible tracks I am out of there pretty quickly. And as I'm never going to return to valves or vinyl that usually eliminates another swathe of exhibitors!

On this basis I'd never get a job as an (even unpaid) reviewer - and my judgement of sound is simple "nothing added, nothing taken away, transparent" which I know is pretty unhelpful. If I come away from listening remembering aspects of treble, bass or rhythm then that's likely to be a negative rather than a positive!

Having said that, the exhibition puts UK events in the shade, with (according to the programme) 400 brands and 275 rooms or stands, supplemented by another 50 brands at a parallel show set up at a nearby hotel by a leading distributor.

The main show at the MOC covers a huge area - including the public areas I'd guess it covers the equivalent of four or five football pitches - with loads of "bling" turntables and valve gear, connectors and cables presumably targetted at wealthy consumers from the UAE, Russia and the Far East.

I was there two days and I'd guess I spent six hours in just four rooms:

Devialet: I use the D-Premier (wifi/dac/pre/pwr/phono if you need it) myself and they were sounding terrific using Sophia loudspeakers and either a MacBookPro for CDs or a Nagra digital recorder for hires, brought along by the sound engineer who did the recordings himself of a band playing on a beach in Mauritius (I think).

PMC: The new 20 series, four models in all, sounded great and are all pretty compact enclosures.

EAR: Yes, I know, valves and vinyl, but it sounded just great.

KEF: the new Blades - a bit big domestically and may need lots of space - but another delight.

It may be a coincidence but these rooms all had the manufacturers' designers/engineers present - questions well answered and music tracks well chosen.

Others I popped into included:
- the IAG room - disappointing but probably just for distributors really;
- Crystal with their Arabesque Mini speaker coupled with Siltech amplification;
- (at the parallel show) a brand called Bladelius with a full function digital front end (in a normal box) about to be joined by a new unit with just the same functionality in a vertical case no bigger than a pad of A4 paper and with most of the front taken up by a lovely display - almost B&O-like - but no UK distributor as yet; and
- a distributor showing brands equivalent to some of those covered by Absolute Sounds here - Audio Research, D'Agostino, Krell, Sonus Faber and so on.

The exhibition was busy on both days but never crowded - and that's despite a daily entry charge of 12 Euro.

Edited by user 07 May 2012 21:21:01(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Ian - I think 15Audio ( formerly Sounds of Music / Metropolis ) do Bladelius .

Agree the Devialet room was good, Kef Blades sounded boomy in that corner

Talked a bit to Juergen Reis , MBL's chief designer , so will be looking forward to listening to the new class D ( but linear power supply ) Corona amps

Other interesting class D was Mola Mola and the smaller TAD amp .

Also I hope Critic may be able to look into the designs from Korean firm Aurender

Are there any pictures of the new Quad loudspeakers?

I'll put them on a picture site and give you the link in the next day or two.

But as Keith says they are physically the same as the 2905/2805 - just some glossy wooden tops and bottoms.

I also have two pictures of the Platinum series electronics which were equally unimpressive.

New Quad gear used to surprise me with its looks and its novel functionality - neither can be said of the new stuff which, as a user for 30 years, is disappointing.

Perhaps Martin could persuade Peter Comeau to elaborate on the thinking behind Quad's new models in his regular column in HiFi Critic

Pity that Quad Musikwiedergabe weren't there , I would have liked to see their new custom subwoofer for the ESL 63

I largely gave up trying to assess sound at Munich, just so many variables, what is it you are actually listening to? Which part of the system/room is doing what? I suppose you might use these demos as a way of judging what sort of sound the exhibitor likes, but beyond that.....I find Munich is best as a nice little weekend break, with the chance to get an over-view of where hi fi is going.
I left the city with my strongest memory the incredible size of the cakes served in the local coffee shops. You could feed a family of four from one slice!