A little unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to take Friday off and visit the Bristol show. Not a great experience to be honest, I had thought that the Friday would be a little quieter than I experienced on a Saturday in 2016, the last time I went, but no, the place was rammed. I guess you could take this as a positive, as it at least shows that there is still some interest in hifi.
Anyway, there was indeed no sign of Devialet there. In recent years, Devialet has been shown with Spendor speakers in a Room that is organised by a Spendor dealer. This year they were running the new(ish) Spendor D9's with an Auralic G series based front end, and you know what, I reckon this was one of the best sounding rooms of the show, a very listenable system.
I also spent some time listening to Guillaume's new favorite, the Wilson Benesh Resolution's. A candidate for best sound in the show? Maybe, but yet again this was a disappointing room for all the wrong reasons. When I first got there they were playing some fairly obscure jazz on vinyl. OK, some folk will like this kind of stuff but it is not for everyone. The thing is, they played the whole side of the album, and when it was playing the room staff stood in the corner talking to each other. When I first arrived in the room I managed to grab a spare seat in the corner, and the staff chatting was significantly louder than the music. The jazz was the kind of stuff where the pianist and trombonist fall asleep for a while, the bass player improvises a little, whilst you get the occasional drum tap, so during the quiet bits all I could hear was chatting. What a waste of time!
Later some guys at sitting at the front left the room, so I managed to blag one of the prime seats, the album was switched to another, and again the whole side played. During this period I did get a better impression of the system, and I think picked up on some of the Resolutions magic that Guillaume had mentioned previously. Contrast this to demo's from some of the other manufacturers, Cyrus and PMC get an honorable mention, who played very contrasting music, track after track.
One thing that dragged me to Bristol was seeing that Cyrus were demonstrating their new Signature streaming system, DAC and amps wth the KEF Blade. When I arrived at the room I found that it was in fact the Blade 2. This was in itself interesting as I have never even seen the Blade 2, let alone listen to a pair. The Blade 2 is more or less a 2/3 size version of the Blade, and they are generally reckoned to be better than the original Blade when used in smaller rooms. In the flesh, I was surprised at just how much smaller they look, more like half size than two thirds. Would I swap Devialet amplification for the Cyrus rig? I don't think so no, it was a good system, but mids and highs had a bit if a digital edge that the Devialet lacks. Sometimes the best things about these shows is getting home and finding your own rig was actually the best of the day.
Some nice pictures:
Anyway, there was indeed no sign of Devialet there. In recent years, Devialet has been shown with Spendor speakers in a Room that is organised by a Spendor dealer. This year they were running the new(ish) Spendor D9's with an Auralic G series based front end, and you know what, I reckon this was one of the best sounding rooms of the show, a very listenable system.
I also spent some time listening to Guillaume's new favorite, the Wilson Benesh Resolution's. A candidate for best sound in the show? Maybe, but yet again this was a disappointing room for all the wrong reasons. When I first got there they were playing some fairly obscure jazz on vinyl. OK, some folk will like this kind of stuff but it is not for everyone. The thing is, they played the whole side of the album, and when it was playing the room staff stood in the corner talking to each other. When I first arrived in the room I managed to grab a spare seat in the corner, and the staff chatting was significantly louder than the music. The jazz was the kind of stuff where the pianist and trombonist fall asleep for a while, the bass player improvises a little, whilst you get the occasional drum tap, so during the quiet bits all I could hear was chatting. What a waste of time!
Later some guys at sitting at the front left the room, so I managed to blag one of the prime seats, the album was switched to another, and again the whole side played. During this period I did get a better impression of the system, and I think picked up on some of the Resolutions magic that Guillaume had mentioned previously. Contrast this to demo's from some of the other manufacturers, Cyrus and PMC get an honorable mention, who played very contrasting music, track after track.
One thing that dragged me to Bristol was seeing that Cyrus were demonstrating their new Signature streaming system, DAC and amps wth the KEF Blade. When I arrived at the room I found that it was in fact the Blade 2. This was in itself interesting as I have never even seen the Blade 2, let alone listen to a pair. The Blade 2 is more or less a 2/3 size version of the Blade, and they are generally reckoned to be better than the original Blade when used in smaller rooms. In the flesh, I was surprised at just how much smaller they look, more like half size than two thirds. Would I swap Devialet amplification for the Cyrus rig? I don't think so no, it was a good system, but mids and highs had a bit if a digital edge that the Devialet lacks. Sometimes the best things about these shows is getting home and finding your own rig was actually the best of the day.
Some nice pictures:
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
