Show Reports

It seemed as if every turntable in the comprehensive Clearaudio range was represented at the Hi-Fi Show Live except for the flagship Statement v2 that we stood in awe of, and heard, a couple of years ago [HFN Apr ’16]. On this occasion Clearaudio’s Stefan Kmuch and Marco Borovac were on hand to launch the new limited edition Reference Jubilee deck.
www.soundfowndations.co.uk
www.clearaudio.de/en

With a little help from a Mark Levinson N^o519 digital audio player/No585 amplifier, Atlas Cables’ MD Kevin Kelly used the Hi-Fi Show Live to demonstrate the company’s flagship Grun grounding system fitted to its Asimi Lux interconnect and speaker cables [HFN Dec ’18]. Even under Show conditions, the comparison was convincing as ‘Grun’ proved its worth.
www.atlascables.com

Don’t look now... this pair of Eclipse’s flagship TD712zMk2 speakers marked the entrance to Paul Burnip and Hideto Watanabe’s demo of the new TD510Z Mk2 model (the first 5 series with integral stand), heard here with partnering Class D amp-powered TD520SW subwoofer.
www.eclipse-td.com

The foyer area of the Sandringham building was buzzing with activity, no least for the first outing of Technics’ fabulous direct-drive SL-1000R turntable [HFN Jun ’18], fitted exclusively with the exquisite Glanz MH-104S tonearm, made possible by a new stainless steel armboard custom-made for the deck. Soulines’ innovative Kubrick DCX turntable [HFN Jul ’18] was also on display, fitted with distributor Timestep’s own T-609 tonearm and Miyajima pick-up.
www.time-step.com

The JBL room was a treasure trove of classic and modern with the high-end K2 S9900 floorstanders being demo’d alongside a contemporary reimagining of the L100 from 1970 – retaining the vintage Quadrex foam grille and high/mid L-pad attenuators but now with a titanium treble dome. With Mark Levinson’s N^o52 preamp [HFN May ’14], N^o536 mono blocks [HFN Sep ’15] and N^o515 turntable [HFN Oct ’17] these speakers brought back memories!
www.jblsynthesis.com
www.marklevinson.com

Once again we were delighted to invite Stereo magazine’s Matthias Böde back to the Hi-Fi Show Live where he educated and entertained in equal measure with his comprehensive series of workshops. Here he is in the Luxman suite making use of the PD-171A turntable’s detachable headshell to illustrate the sound of three very different MM/MC pick-ups from Rega, Ortofon and Grado.
www.stereo.de

Visitors discovered more musical treats in the Kensington foyer, including CDs from artisan classical label Independent Creative Sound and Music (ICSM) Records, managed by Ivo Varbanov (senior) and Fiammetta Tarli. Puritan’s guiding light Mike Lester was on hand to demonstrate the effectiveness of its PSM136 and PSM156 AC mains conditioners [above, left], with big screen spectrum analysis, while Fabienne Courteau and Kevin Jackson of KirmussAudio doned white coats to clean LPs, EPs and singles with the KA-RC-1 Ultrasonic Record Restoration System.
www.icsmrecords.com
www.kirmussaudio.com
www.puritanaudiolabs.com

Falcon Acoustics’ Jerry Bloomfield brought visitors bang-up-to-date with the story and sound of the BBC’s legendary LS3/5a bookshelf monitor, courtesy of its own version, faithful to the original. The LS3/5a was certainly not over-powered by Primare’s UFPD 2-equipped Class D I35 integrated amp, rated at 150W/8ohm, fed here by the matching CD35 Prisma CD player.
www.falconacoustics.co.uk
www.primare.net

Peter Laitt, founder of Planalogue, showed off a revised version of his well-received turntable, now the Prelude 2.1, equipped with a Sorane SA 1.2 tonearm [HFN Apr ’17] and new Hana ML pick-up. Exposure drove the music convincingly with its XM3 phono stage [HFN May ’17] and lusty 5010 pre/power [HFN Nov ’18].
www.planalogue.com
www.exposurehifi.com

Rolling demonstrations in Absolute Sounds’ third room featured the latest Sonetto speaker series from Sonus faber [HFN Nov ’18] powered by electronics including the dCS Bartók network streaming DAC, Audio Research DAC9 [HFN Sep ’17], LS28 preamp [HFN Jan ’17] and VT80 power amp [HFN Oct ’17]. On static display were favourites including [inset] the EAT E-Glo S phono stage and Copland CTA408 tube amp.
www.absolutesounds.com

Presented in person by CTO Bruno Putzeys, the full Kii Audio BXT speaker tower was unveiled to UK audiophiles (with an Innuos Statement music server in tow). The upper two pairs of woofers, front and rear, operate as a cardioid between 50-250Hz, and below 50Hz they’re fully in phase [HFN Aug ’18]. The BXT adds four woofers on the front and four near the rear, tripling the output below 250Hz.
www.kiiaudio.com; www.sounddesigndistribution.co.uk

Headphone aficionados were not left short courtesy of SCV Distribution who debuted Focal’s closed-back Elegia and Utopia/Questyle QP2R bundle. Rising stars included the CMA Twelve DAC/headphone amp with SHB2 docking station and, from Benchmark, the LA4 preamp and DAC3 B DAC.
www.scvdistribution.co.uk