HIFICRITIC at the September 2007 Park Inn Heathrow Show

MARTIN'S HEATHROW 07 BLOG

Future Publications was the media supporter for this Roy Bird (Chesterfield Communications) organised event, after HI FI News had abdicated this year. The draw was considered quite satisfactory at 2,500 paying visitors plus 500 or so on the trade only day. Brand attendance was selective, obvious absentees including Cyrus, Linn, Kef, Quad Monitor Audio, Acoustic Energy, B&W, Arcam, Marantz, Denon and Sony. Many brands were represented by dealer exhibits while Pioneer, Naim, Krell, Wilson Audio, Meridian, DCS, Creek, and many others did attend.

HIFICRITIC enjoyed a worthwhile turnover over this weekend, meeting many subscribers and supporters, and as the title is becoming better known, the trade is also beginning to subscribe. At these shows the HIFICRITIC team has the opportunity to meet and advise visitors, and also attempt to mollify those manufacturers and distributors we might have upset with adverse review criticism. Often a frank face-to-face discussion can help resolve such difficulties.

I could not cover the show in any depth but some of my personal highlights follow. I was impressed by the big Heco Celan 500 floorstanding speakers in a handsome aluminium finish, driven by a Puresound A30 (see issue 6) integrated valve amplifier from a vinyl source. Given the subtle but large scale sound, it hardly seemed possible that the whole package was almost budget priced at £3,000, with those impressive loudspeakers just one third of the total.

I touched base at Anatek Acoustics (see issue 6 for their latest MC1 phono unit) and checked out the nextgen pure silver phono plugs and sockets from WBT, WBT-0110Ag at about £100 a stereo set. Not cheap but would the sound be better than copper? I hope to find out.

I wanted to see those Latvian RRR speakers Paul had been going on about, but the room was closed due to this exhibitors? sudden, hopefully temporary, illness.

There was a buzz around the show for Aurousal and their A1 standmount full range single driver design. Considered by several at the show to be under priced in view of their musical performance, Ted Jordan has specially fine tuned his 5-inch alloy cone unit for optimum bass and power headroom in their larger than usual Aurousal bass reflex enclosure. The result was impressive, with the usual single driver benefits: great timing, fine micro-dynamics and holographic focus. There was ample power for a smaller room, but the lively treble might be an acquired taste for some listeners.

Claimed to be freehand sketched by Mike Creek on the back of a large envelope while on a visit to his Chinese toolmaker, roughed out using baked bean and Coke tins for templates, Mike demonstrated his promising new turntable. It looks good despite its prototype status, and has an estimated price of £2,000 with tonearm and outboard power supply

A remarkable number of turntables were seen at the show, many new, many of the semi rigid external motor thread drive variety, avoiding the mechanics of a spring-suspended subchassis, and vinyl replay was on tap in nearly every room. Vinyl disc sellers Stamford Audio and Diverse Vinyl did a brisk trade throughout, both to the trade and retail visitors.

Amphion exhibited in one of the new fabricated listening rooms, and while the exhibitors were still experimenting with the new acoustics, the LF seemed better controlled and avoided the rattling ceiling tiles of many other demonstration locations. Their recent design award winning ION shows that it is still possible to come up with a new look compatible with modern interiors and still have good sound. Black silver and white finishes are possible for this avowedly Scandinavian Modern look.

Anssi Hyvonen of Amphion with some decorator Ions

I heard good sounds from the 111E Radiastahler mid sized MBL ?spherical? sound field radiator. A pyramidal four-way design, laterally and force-cancelled bi-directional using cone drivers for the lower sections, complemented by fully omni-directional MBL upper mid and treble sections, these using the company?s unique expanding sphere, flexing ?barrel stave? technology. I enquired about the pair of rather decent sized 9007 power amplifiers, employed in bridged mono mode, and was assured that they, or something similar, was necessary to drive these (about £18,000) speakers, since their sensitivity was only 83dB/W, and 4 ohm rated to boot. 500W/ch is the baseline power here, at £9,800 each, but the overall sound was deep, fast, clean and firmly detailed with very focussed stereo despite the rack of gear in the middle of the soundstage. Few exhibitors had the space to leave the speaker area clear despite the benefit this brings. New to me, Silent Wire cables, also from Germany, were used throughout this system and must have been doing something right!

I reconnected with turntable guru Arthur Khoubesserian at the Funk Firm after some years without communication, though he did remind me of his view concerning the negative influence on his success that my historic review comment on a Pink Triangle concerning audibility of dynamic wow in tests concerning synchronous and DC motor powered belt drives of the time (a quarter of a century ago!). For the show he was A/B/C demonstrating his Linn modifications, which were attracting significant attention at the show and where turntable A was a Keeled LP12. I participated in an initial session which was aborted due to audible cartridge imbalance on one of the three players. We were cordially invited back for a later session when all had been sorted. Even with matched cartridges comparing turntables is still fraught with difficulty, not least that these three were placed in a line close to and behind the loudspeakers, supported on a broad table. Variations in proximity to the nearby speakers does affect turntables to an audible degree, something we all put up with and remain largely unaware about until you try moving things around.

To the right was an LP12 with the new Keel milled from solid, alloy subchassis with integral arm board. I had heard this costly upgrade demonstrated with some success by Linn at the last Bristol show, comparing with the current, familiar fabricated subchassis: gains in slam, dynamics, bass clarity and focus were evident.

In the centre was the Funk modification where a substitute integral subchassis / arm board (Charm, £545) was fitted, this a fabricated low mass composite, using super high tensile carbon fibre skins on a balsa core. I heard quite a different sound, lighter in texture, more delicately revealing in the mid and treble, with some gains in image focus and stage depth, though perhaps with a mite less slam and drive, and a less pounding rhythm. However, I am pretty confident that the comparison would have been more in Funk?s favour for a standard chassis Linn, and this is the point.

Turntable three sounded rather different to the other two, and while ostensibly founded on a Linn LP12 was in my opinion too far removed by modification for sensible comparison. While it showcased Arthur?s skills in creating a fully focused turntable performance, there were too many changes for the A/B/C comparison to have value for me. In addition to the Funk composite chassis, the Linn arm had also been rebuilt with a new polymer arm tube, while the drive was now DC motor with his ?vector? drive, involving two additional idler pulleys to help balance the dynamic belt tensioning relative to the platter. Speed and pitch did sound notably secure for this design and clearly added to the result.

Having recently experienced the Naim SL2 in active and passive form (CRITIC No 4), I wanted to see what this company could do with it in a show demo room. I found its classic qualities in evidence, but with a subtle twist, there was an unmistakable extra richness, gravitas and warmth to sound, while it remained dynamically and rhythmically satisfying. I needed to confirm that a Naim subwoofer was in action as the supporting act, and it was.

It showed that a fast sub could be successfully married to the SL2, and that the result was an important gain in tonal balance, listenabilty and scale. A further conundrum: do you add a sub to the passive SL2 or do you go active? Both have their merits, but those who feel the need for a counterbalance to the characteristic SL2 midrange in their room and setup may well find satisfaction with the subwoofer route.

Michael Gammon stands proudly by his revived Hydraulic

Transcriptors was back, exhibiting virtually all the unusual and eye-catching components they had marketed over the years since the original ?Hydraulic? turntable, which took me back to London Audio T days in the early 1970s. It included the improbable thread-counterbalanced, vertically articulated headshell tonearm.

It is always worth visiting the Quadraspire/ MusicWorks room where lively enjoyable sound is immediately on tap, backed by the infectious enthusiasm of chief demonstrator Steve Jackson, illustrating subtle changes wrought by cables supports and stands, even if this team does sometimes lead the audience.

The three-room presence of distributor Absolute Sounds could not be ignored, and as usual, delivered interesting and thought provoking demonstrations. In the Krell room, a joint operation directed by dealer Pinewood Music, fine stereo was delivered, from an advanced prototype of a new Krell two-box Modulare loudspeaker, fabricated from thick aluminium slabs, and looking unlike any other.

I found the appearance rather unfamiliar initially, but having settled down to play a few demo tracks I began to adjust to their looks, so accomplished was their sound. While the square edged enclosures are not considered ideal for low diffraction, the stereo image was really solid, stable and hung in space, with near perfect perspectives. This trick requires that many aspects of performance work in harmony, and adding in the superb dynamic range suggests that this is a design to look out for. Piano was particularly clean, and essentially free of any woody boxiness! The familiar reference grade Scan ring radiator tweeter is partnered by custom made alloy cone mid and dual bass drivers. I guessed a £50,000 price tag but Dan D?Agostino informed me that it would be about one half of that when available early next year. He also explained that while he really enjoyed building speakers, it was still quite difficult for Krell speakers to make headway in market dominated by established speaker brands. Virtually immovable as a pair, the modular construction makes the ensemble a little more practical! Weights please?

In the Dartzeel/Sonus Faber room, the new Cremona Auditors were sailing away, and as usual the smaller SF speakers seem to manage that trick of sounding larger and more accomplished than their size would suggest. For me the star was the Elipsa at under £10,000, a smaller three-driver version of the £25,000 bow fronted Stradivarius reference; we hope to review it soon.

Sound recording engineer, and Wilson Audio front man of the week, Peter McGrath had built a surprising surround sound system, more specifically four-channel, with the speakers symmetrically disposed as front and rear stereo pairs, using Wilson smallest speaker, the Duette. We aim to cover this two-way stand-mount in a joint project with Tony Faulkner, who is also trying them out as a studio monitor for location use.

On two occasions the scale and power of the resulting sound filed was first class, with such clean bass reach on cathedral organ that I was shocked to find that the new series Wilson WatchDog subwoofer was actually muted. Four of these compact Wilsons go a long way when working in concert, and the close phase match between the matched set gave clean front stage stereo, something which is often diluted in multi-channel arrangements.

Peter?s four-channel material was clean and spacious, with the rear channel ?ambience? suitably moderate as it is in reality. There were no Hollywood fireworks here, just a subtle sense of enhanced spaciousness and enhanced recovery of the recorded acoustic.

After some years warily circling each other, Mark Baker (of Origin Live) and I discussed LP replay at some length, and he convinced me that DC motors were now sufficiently torquey that it would be worth my while comparing this technology with traditional synchronous motor drive, while hoping to enjoy the benefits of an claimed reduction in motor noise and vibration (see upcoming issues for the report). Some of his tonearms looked impressive (and sounded fine in the room), and the range now encompasses luxury examples at up to £4,000 a throw. (I think that the forthcoming review of the motor upgrade is only £300 or so in full trim.)

Several of our readers expressed a wish for more analogue replay coverage, and in particular a batch of cartridge reviews. We set about commissioning product for a future publication including Clearaudio, Ortofon, van den Hul, and Koetsu etc., with some emphasis on higher output designs not requiring a head amp.

Clearaudio put on a static display with only a selection of its now huge range, requiring a 40 page densely packed catalogue, but there was more than enough here to attract attention, for me the top of the line Maestro high output moving magnet cartridge.

Newcomer Rountree Audio put on a professional display for its first product, the Omnimon, a technically innovative new pillar type loudspeaker costing under £5,000 a pair, which sounded fast and open, digging deep into the fine detail in familiar recordings. A vertically mounted omni-directional 170mm Scan bass/mid driver was combined with a fine ribbon tweeter, seismically decoupled, while the enclosure was unconventional, semi-line-loaded at low frequencies, and of such low mass that its energy decay is sufficiently rapid to be virtually within the transient zone for the ear, and thus not distinguishable from the output of the speaker as a whole. A strong internal supporting steel pillar carries magnet reaction forces directly to a massive stainless steel base. Designer Paul Burton is an experienced hand, previous work including the Sumo Aria full range and the Sequence designs.

Designer Paul Burton with his Omnimon driver array, a down firing Scan bass-mid with a decoupled forward radiating ribbon unit for higher frequencies

While I could not make it across the A4 , I sent two editorial team members to the Audiofreaks display over at the Renaissance. There was no specific presentation but rather a series of recent products on display. The Avalon Indra three-way was playing sweetly enough from cj mono block tube amplification, on occasion driven via an Art Series Three from a new cj phono equaliser called the TEA-1. This has cascaded zero loop feedback triode amplification, passive equalisation, while MC cartridges gain a boost for a 18dB gain via on-board step-up transformers. Those substantial tube power amps were the LP275M , 275 watt per channel mono blocks, essentially the long awaited successor to the Premiere 8a legend design. Frank Kuzma showed his nifty new strobe plus an turntable adapter to take 12inch arms.

Unison Research deserve mention for their new valve amplifier distinguished by a hand crafted Murano glass fascia to best show off the glowing tubes.

The Unison Research P70 push-pull design with a Murano glass fascia and 70W/CH

IES , Integrated Engineering Solutions further expanded its Renaissance electronics line with a capable top-loading two-box RT-01 and RD-01 CD player combination. Both this and their new moving-coil phono stage RP-01 played well under difficult show conditions. Meridian was a significant presence and the recently introduced on-wall series caught my attention. These improbably slim loudspeakers come in a fully finished version which may be freestanding (perhaps with a guy strap to prevent accidental tipping over), or fitted onto a solid wall, while related versions may be flush mounted in suitable stud walls. Clearly no afterthoughts, significant engineering input has been applied, and for some enthusiasts these could well solve some thorny interior design and position issues for an audio system. I hope to investigate the five-driver Model 350P version soon. Proac were creating clean detailed sounds for their new Response D-2, with founder Stewart Tyler in the chair.

Proac Response D2 with Stewart Tyler

One of the few AV attendees (despite the show?s billing as an AV event) Pioneer showed its latest classy HD plasmas with even deeper backs and still finer colour rendition, while the stereo interest was in their well priced, TAD technology derived, floorstanding S1-EX loudspeakers. Just under £5,000 a pair, these don?t even appear in their general catalogue, but deserve wider attention.

Icon Audio released its HP8 all valve headphone amp at £360, and showed that its 2+2 W output was enough to drive a pair of speakers to moderate volume! We discussed the Issue 2 HIFICRITIC review of the Stereo 300 and were pleased to learn that the low frequency stability issues we brought up had been addressed, and that the design had subsequently been trimmed with one less active stage, bringing improvements all round. It was on display for this show and appeared to have a nicely stable and detailed sound.

My apologies to all those I didn?t have time to visit.

Martin Colloms

Photos by Paul Messenger

PS: HIFICRITIC will attend the Manchester Show for late January 2008 and we plan to undertake some presentation events to the public in co-operation with the media sponsors HiFi World