Guilford Audio Annual Hifi Event

[Confused]

Rufus - I think they must have changed the systems 'round a little between my visit in the morning and the afternoon. They were not running the Sasha 2's in the morning, in room 1 they had the new Sabrina's. I hate to be overly critical, especially at shows when hearing unfamiliar recordings in unfamiliar surroundings, but to be honest, I did not like them at all, I thought they had a slightly plastic boxy quality to the sound. I did like the Alexia's a lot though, great detail, realism, speed, accuracy. Coincidentally, I spent some time listening to the same recording you listened to the Extremas, the Nirvana unplugged live album. (Which I enjoyed so much, I bought a copy on line last night!) I too thought that maybe a touch more bass would not have gone amiss, although the depth and accuracy was clearly there. Interestingly, I listened to the Sasha 2's in the same room at the Devialet event last year with D800 amplification, this set up had far more bass impact from what I recall. However, there were aspects of the shear dynamism and realism of the set up that just kept me listening very happily. I wouldn't swap them for my Blades though, and it occurs to me that the Sabrina's are roughly Blade 2 money, but hay, what do I know, and yes, I am clearly biased here. The Blades suit my personal preferences, so I would end up with that conclusion. I did leave wondering what a D800 / Alexia set up might sound like though..... Rather good I would imagine.

I loved the look of the Sonus Faber Liliums, unfortunately they were not running during my visit. I can imagine them selling on looks alone, I would enjoy sitting on a sofa just admiring them, even without connecting to an amplifier.

The star of the show for me? The Klaudio ultrasonic record cleaning machine! Three and a half grand for a record cleaner though? Although I do have an awful lot of not that clean vinyl around the place. Temptations, temptations.