London Hi-Fi show

Well I'm glad to say that the return to the Renaissance and Le Meridian Hotels near Heathrow was a massive improvement over last years debacle at Hammersmith - hotel rooms aren't great by a long chalk but some of them are far less great than others

I had a chat with Tim De Paravacini in the E.A.R room and asked him about the longevity of the 12AX7/ECC83 valves (tubes) in the V20 Amp - he believes that they are good for 5,000+ hours because of the unique way he has used them. If he did go into the details of the special way then my haven't got a clue what your talking about filter was working 100%. The massive E.A.R M100A monoblocks were driving Quad ESL-989 loudspeakers with a dose of Echoes from Pink Floyd - Tim was rightly proud of getting a mention in the credits on the album. The overall sound was very relaxed at low to medium volumes - one of a handfull of fine sounding systems at the show - but when the volume rose in loud passages the sound became muffled and it became harsh - so close but no cigar.

The usual scrum for the Krell demonstration didn't materialize this time round - in some ways this was a shame as this (as it was last year) was for me the most disappointing demonstration of the day. I now know what to do if I want to spend £100,000 ($150,000) on a mid-fi system - it was a full 7.1 setup with Krell DVD Standard , Showcase Processor, Showcase Amplifier (for rear and center speakers), FPB-750CX Monoblock front Amplifiers driving LAT 1 Loudspeakers at the front and a couple of pairs of LAT 2's at the rear helped along with a Master Reference Sub and LAT-C Center First music up was a Santana DVD - now I have a fair idea what a Snare drum sounds like although I don't have a Tama in my collection (as was being played) - I think the designers and distributors would do well to spend a few £100 on a drum so they know when something just sounds wrong. A Diana Krall DVD was also cued - now the piano had some of the associated characteristics but why does it come out of the rear right channel crazy. The venue was a wide open concert hall - massive amounts of space around Diana - but if it wasn't for the visual cues I would have sworn she was singing in my bathroom - very processed and unnatural levels of reverb - maybe this is the sources fault but it didn't make for my idea of high fidelity. A Bruce Springsteen CD seemed to be overpowered by the by bass line - a case of the subwoofer not being properly integrated. I don't know why but about a fifth of the people left the demonstration before the end.

In comparison to the kit above a system made up of Copland CD and Integrated amp and the new Sonus Faber Cremona stand mounted speakers was relatively inexpensive (circa £6K) but we went back there 4 times as it was an oasis of musical pleasure - it just did it right.

Sony put on a very impressive SACD demonstration with the new SCD-999 player into a 333 Processor and Amp and using Sony speakers all round. When I get my remembering and thinking heads together I will post more about this

All the best - Andrew

 

As much as I like Dan Dagostino as a person, I have never like Krell sound. The never seem to get the midrange right to my ears despite the great expense. Better off sticking to C-J and Audio Research.

The Krell speakers are a particular disaster. I have listened extensively to the LAT 1 and LAT 2 and I have to say they may be the worst deal in high end audio. Expensive, horrible sounding (even with $70K of front end) and way too much bass for their own good.

I hate to rail against one manufacturer like this, but I just have too much experience to feel differently.