The Hi-Fi Show 2014

[GuillaumeB]

Sounds like a good day - a shame I couldn't visit.

Those Arabesque Minissimos look very pretty. Didn't they also make a monster version in glass?

They were showing some small glass Arabesques at the show last year, powered by a Dev. I'm sure they're very good in the right context, but last year they were playing opera through them at high volume in a large room, and I found it painful.

Did they use the Dev with any other speakers this weekend? Last year they did, but seemingly only on request -- at least while I was there. I got them to try the SF Olympica IIs. I found this odd: a Dev is easily capable of driving much bigger speakers that would be more suited to the space, so why choose the Arabesques?

I'm guessing it's because they have only just come out and they are very attractive so fit in well with the Devialet minimalist/lifestyle form factor. To my ears they sounded excellent in this room which was quite large and busy with people talking. In fact I was really surprised by quite how good they did sound. There was not a hint of harshness and they projected really well into the room. In fact Rufus thought they were so good he's thinking of trading in his Raidhos... joke!

As to the larger speakers Absolute Sounds were showing these off with Constellation Audio/Audio Research rigs and various sources including the excellent Metronome CD player. In one room they had the fantastic Magico S3 and in the other the Wilson Sasha 2s. Both rooms were very good indeed. I enjoyed the Constellation Audio + Magico S3 room so much I went in twice!

Guillaume