WHAT Hi-Fi SHOW 2019 MUMBAI 1st - 3rd March 2019 St Regis

[Gerry_the_Merry]

B&W, Focals only on Display. Nagaoka with indifferent electronics. Accuphase room crowded as it is a large hall where you cant hear anything as it is so noisy. Most audio rooms also have HT, and the number of visitors for HT is much more than audio. Mackintosh and Sonus Faber room did not have HT, but the sound was tinny and horrible, as they have not even put a carpet and the hard marble floor made the sound shrill. Waterfall was a good speaker, well set up, but with DJ grade Yamaha Amp. PMC was well set up, as was Peachtree (what a revelation their little Rs46k all-in-one is). There was no setup which could be a benchmark so that we aspire to upgrade to that level. By peachtree I mean their main room - there was another room where also peachtree electronics was paired with a different speaker, and there they were ruining it. KII - Transparent was the best setup.

 

[panditji]

I don't understand the point of displaying speakers and amps.. If we just had to see them, the internet is there.. If the distributors are going to spend so much money on static display, I would advise them not to take up a stall and waste money.. That money could be spent on giving a sample product to each of the 6 large cities at a dealer for more people to hear....

 

[spirovious]

Mcntosh Sonusfaber setup had bad source l guess.Room was large.Laptop> Jriver>dsp was making 16bit to 64bit inside mcntosh which was making sound tinny.One this was good that speakers got disappeared.But overall not hifi sound.

 

[keith_correa]

I don't understand the point of displaying speakers and amps.. If we just had to see them, the internet is there.. If the distributors are going to spend so much money on static display, I would advise them not to take up a stall and waste money.. That money could be spent on giving a sample product to each of the 6 large cities at a dealer for more people to hear....

Agreed! Maybe they think people will buy it because of the way they look. They probably think most people are cretins.

 

[rpmahale]

Have spent almost 3 hours today in the exhibition and auditioned few products.
1. PTC room was full of different components but no one can seriously auditioned any product as it was a complete mess. Still manage to auditioned Monitor Audio Bronze 6 with Roksan K3. Disappointed with the performance as a combo. Earlier I had auditioned both in different set-up and sounded great. May be the display room was too large and interference from other sets specifically Denon x6500 HT set not allowed me to concentrate on stereo listening.
Denon AVC x6500 in HT mode have a very good performance. But no one was available to give information on speakers. The gentleman who gave me demo was not very well aware of the product. I left the room as no exibitor was able to give me proper audition or information about displayed product.

1. KEI display room was also flooded with AV products like Elac, Fyne, Bluesound, PSB etc. The surprise package in this room for audition was PSB T20 speaker with Bluesound powernode2 . Stunning combo reasonably priced with all in one stereo solution. Great for small listening place . Specifically like to mention than PSB T20 is way ahead to its competitors like Dali Zenser 5, MA Bronze 5 or KEF Q500 considering open and wide sound stage with good center image and low end extension. Considering the size of the speakers you will feel that a small subwoofer is integrated in system to get that low end extension. They also have full Pioneer AV receiver line up just for display purpose.
2. KLH speakers with Peachtree Nova amplifier was one of the good combination available for audition. Really like to mention that KLH Kendell 3 is a great match to Peachtree for stereo system. KLH have tight and agile bass with Chrisp and clear high frequencies. Real wood veneer finish and build quality was excellent. Still are in distribution phase and not yet appointed dealers. Any one looking for speakers with 100K budget must audition this. Great competitor for MA Bronze 6, KEF Q700/900 , SVS Prime tower or Paradigm Monitor 11.
3. MZ audio display one of the great stereo setup with Q Acoustics concept 500 and Marantz PM-10 amplifier. Quite expensive to own but great stereo setup who has price as no bar. Marantz SR-5013 with Q Acoustics Q concept 5.1 was showing his ability in HT set-up .

Yamaha, Onkyo, KEF, Polk audio, Dali, Paradigm, Cambridge audio, wharfdale etc some of the popular brands available in India were unavailable in expro which was a great disappointment.
Exhibitors were more interested in entertaining dealers and high profile customers.
Difficult to play self demo material as at most places CD player were not available and exhibitors were not interested to play songs from Pen drive.
Most of the contents played through streaming or laptop.
Most of the product were just for display purposes but not for demonstration purposes.
Visited few more demo room but not worth to mention here.
Overall it's good to spend few hours in such expro as it is difficult to get so many products under one roof. Some of the high end products can be displayed in such expro only and can be audition. Not fruitful for average AV customer in India who have a budget of 100 -150K....

 

[Surrealistix]

Kii setup was sounding fab and the PMC and Totem actives sounded very good.

 

[spirovious]

@rpmahale Denon x6500 was not driving speakers directly.It was used as pre and some poweramps were connected.

 

[rpmahale]

Sorry, I have not noticed that because there was a mess in that demo room. The person who gave me demo was not very well aware of the products, their specifications. He don't know which brand speakers were connected . At one time he increased the volume to the highest level that speakers reach to their highest excursion limit and started distortion. I was looking to demo Dynaudio with Denon amplifier but no was present at the stall . Instead of wasteing my time , I went to next KEI demo room.

 

[audiocrazy]

Dynaudio are available for demo in expo
Any member here can update.

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

nothing great this time ...personally i liked Macintosh , peach tree , PMC and Eight Audio .......also they were willing to attend to you and give you a proper demo ..... same for Lyravox .....explained everything in detail ...

As usual B&W was on display ...makes no sense ...they can stop coming to this exhibition and give that room to somebody else ..

Some dealers keep talking to people known to them for hours together ....dont know if they are friends , prospective customers ?

ex - Accuphase is one such dealer ....I was looking for an amp to replace my marantz pm11s2 ......requested him to show me the features ....wanted to see how it plays at lower volumes ...with the compensator button etc .....he responded by saying ---this is hifi stuff and it does not have those features .....i told him it does and showed him where it is ......he responded by saying ...this is hifi stuff and we play it on flat frequency and nobody uses these features.... I requested him to show it to me since I wanted to see the difference ....he said he will do it after some time and then went away ....the time he spent in saying no ....he could have simply done it .....

I could figure out what was going on his mind ........and decided to strike off accuphase from my list of options .....if this is the attitude now ....what can one expect from such dealers if you end up buying from them ....

Macintosh was good ...he kept playing songs based on request ....showed all the features ......the combo with sonus faber had a warm sound .

 

[panditji]

nothing great this time ...personally i liked Macintosh , peach tree , PMC and Eight Audio .......also they were willing to attend to you and give you a proper demo ..... same for Lyravox .....explained everything in detail ...

As usual B&W was on display ...makes no sense ...they can stop coming to this exhibition and give that room to somebody else ..

Some dealers keep talking to people known to them for hours together ....dont know if they are friends , prospective customers ?

ex - Accuphase is one such dealer ....I was looking for an amp to replace my marantz pm11s2 ......requested him to show me the features ....wanted to see how it plays at lower volumes ...with the compensator button etc .....he responded by saying ---this is hifi stuff and it does not have those features .....i told him it does and showed him where it is ......he responded by saying ...this is hifi stuff and we play it on flat frequency and nobody uses these features.... I requested him to show it to me since I wanted to see the difference ....he said he will do it after some time and then went away ....the time he spent in saying no ....he could have simply done it .....

I could figure out what was going on his mind ........and decided to strike off accuphase from my list of options .....if this is the attitude now ....what can one expect from such dealers if you end up buying from them ....

Macintosh was good ...he kept playing songs based on request ....showed all the features ......the combo with sonus faber had a warm sound .

Sir, you have to change your attitude if you want to attract a dealer's attention at such events... You have to pretend you don't know anything about the equipment but have a budget of 10- 12 lakhs for a high end system. Also please don't show that you are aware of the international prices of the products.. As and when the dealer gets a whiff, he/she will give their full time and attention since that it the exact customer profile they are looking for and you will be the one they speak to for hours explaining how good their entire product line is...

 

[rpmahale]

I am also willing to upgrade my speakers and AV receiver within next four to six months. So that I have already prepared my self for audition of listed components like MA Bronze 6, Denon AVR x4500h, Marantz SR 6013 and few other speakers. From my list only above mentioned components were available. I was more interested and looking for good audition and information. Denon AVR x4500 and Marantz SR 6013 were only for display purpose and exhibiters ware not interested to connect them with speakers. I requested to connect MA Bronze 6 to Roksan K3 and next MA Sliver 300. But the guy was so busy attaining his friends that after 10-15 minutes, I left the room. Same happened in Peachtree and KLH Kendell 3 demo room. I need to wait for 15 minutes as I have decided to audition them. One gentleman representing KLH speakers take note of my waiting and paired them ( earlier paired with KLH bookshelf) but again audition limited to one song only. But wait was fruitful as a like the speakers and are in my list of consideration. This kind of expro better to collect address and phone numbers of dealers and later on audition components at their respective shops or showrooms. Also came to know that Preeti Trading Company is in the process of opening new 5000 sqft showroom in Santcruz- kalina containing all their brand for audition in next few months.
What hi-fi must invite local AV dealers along with distributer as they have low profile business so can concentrate more on customers.

 

[jls001]

I visited the show on Saturday, 02nd March and heard good sound in a number of 2-ch rooms.

The Nexus Audio room had PMC Result6 studio monitor paired with the AVM CS 2.2 amp/preamp/phono preamp/DAC/CDP playing sublime music. The quantity and quality of bass belied the small size of the speakers. There was a deep, deep sound stage and the setup did a very good job of dehomogenising the music - one could hear every instrument separately on even busy orchestral numbers. This room was by far the most resolving room. However, it couldn't mask its studio monitor character of being flat and neutral (and polite, to my ears), to the point of being on the drier and leaner side of the audio spectrum, but this is just what the studio engineers needs.

The Absolute Sound room had the Kii active/DSP/powered speakers. This room sounded the most balanced to my ears. Crazily deep sound stage, resolution in the ballpark of the PMC-AVM combo (perhaps just a notch lower), midrange to kill for, leaning to slightly warm tonality, very tuneful bass. Sound of the Show for me.

The Lyravox Stereomaster SM3 in the second Nexus Audio room is an amazing piece of gear. Its form factor is like a sound bar but at 1.5m width it is larger than any sound bar I've seen. It has a CD drive and can play audio CDs, or one could use the numerous connectivity options (Ethernet, USB, wireless). Control was from a tablet app. There was literally no sweet spot when the SM3 is played in a room. Though it looks more like a lifestyler, its audio quality is very good and will rival many good 2 channel setups in sheer audio quality.

The surprise of the day was the Eight Audio room. They played Rinjani floor stander and Ara book shelf speakers from Sinar Baja Acoustics of Indonesia, the same company that makes the much-feted Satori drivers used in many high-end speakers. Also on display was Satori 6½ inch midbass driver and a 26 mm ceramic tweeter. This room held promises. Apparently they also make beryllium tweetersb in the same size. If only it was set up better and the partnering electronics and cables were better…. lots of potential there.

Distributor KEI had a number of rooms. A couple of rooms I visited had music playing while a couple more rooms (including one huge State/banquet room) were static displays. One room had a KINPlay active/powered stand mount monitor from Totem (Canada) driven by a Bluesound node 2i. The sources of music were either a pen drive or a hard drive plugged into the Bluesound, which was in turn connected to the KINPlay by a long optical cable. The other speaker is passive and driven by the active speaker. This room was among the better, more listenable rooms in this Show. Many visitors were fooled into believing that there was a sub somewhere. Of course the KINPlay has sub out for those who need reinforcement. It also actually has a phono preamp built into the speaker, beside wireless connectivity and one 3.5 mm EP socket for connecting a portable player. It also has a pair of RCAs to connect a preamp or source like CDP. A very well-thought out speaker and it sounded very good.

The second KEI room had a number of Thorens turntables as static displays.

Their third room played the new Fyne Audio FS502 midsized floor standing speakers. The upper driver is a coax and has the tweeter with the midrange. The lower driver is the bass unit. It was driven by a tiny NAD M10 all-in-one box. The sound from this combo was very good. I think it needed a large room to breathe free. The speakers were placed close to the wall behind and the bass sometimes got in the way, especially when the knob is turned up. But it also played very well at lower volumes. The last KEI room displayed lots and lots of their brands (Fyne Audio speakers, PSB speakers, Bluesounds).

I also briefly visited the room playing KLH speakers driven by Peachtree electronics. The sound was strictly okay.

The next room displayed a number of big Klipsch speakers. The midsized Forte shared space with the smaller Heresy and one other model smaller than the Heresy. Pre and power was from Balanced Audio Technology. Source was a turntable badged both Klipsch and ProJect. Okay sound. Could have been better in my opinion.

The Macintosh Group's State Room was full of static displays of Macintosh electronics and Sonus Faber speakers. Luckily there was a pairing of a Sonus Faber Olympica II floor standing speaker and Macintosh MA8900 Integrated amp. The setup was clearly less than optimal but it still managed to sound good.

There last room I visited was Preeti Trading Corp's state room. It had on display lots and lots of gears but it was impossible to audition them properly because there were too many things playing at the same time in the same room.

All in all, a good show.

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Also, it seems fashionable to keep the speakers far apart. This does create a big soundstage, but the density suffers. If you read Jim Smith's blog or listen to his podcasts, he advocates bringing speakers closer together, and claims that makes a positive difference to tonality. I experimented and found every bit of what he says to be true.

 

[sandyjhyderabad]

I have been for 2 days Friday and Saturday

1. Absolute sound: KII was the best room. You need to choose the right guy to do proper stereo setup. Its not everyone cup of tea. To be frank please dont get me wrong there are very very few installers in the whole country capable of doing right stereo setup and one such person is Jignesh who comes in top of list. I dont see a guy who can do better than that when it comes to the right placement and proper tuning of the setup. Its seriously not easy to get good sounding room especially at the hotel room given where you cant make modifications. Despite of the fact of that its hotel room the sound which he is able to extract is just beyond your imagination. Quiet whispers to percussion everything sound natural. Best sound of the show. So choose the right person not the right speakers. You need the chef first who will get the right ingredients for the dish. The one such master chef is Jignesh. Anything else to say.

2. Nexus audio video: PMC active speakers was really not having that what Kii active speakers had. It was infact would have been better in studio monitor than at home speakers. Since the setup was active setup there is nothing that one could do. It was very clear that the installer was trying to do a budget setup with PMC which would have been better with separates.

3. Lyravox: What I felt was i was hearing good bass and where are the mids and highs presence is something which was badly lacking. Playing through just Ipod? No playback software or so. I think the whole concept was more beauty, ease of use and selling factor for all in one package than the sound.

4. Devialet phantom: This was actually an absolute crap setup don`t take me wrong you cant even hear it for few minutes. Instead of Marshall room was much better.

5. Fyne Audio: Had a better sound rather having mediocre electronics powering it.

6. Dynaudio, Monitor audio and etc none of the setups were properly setup in such a massively large room theres no point.

7. Legacy speakers were more on HT application with storm audio which was decent enough for the budget but the AMT didint had the attack what is required in the action sequences.

Rest of the show was basically not upto the mark. I felt its mix and mash. I felt that stereo is fading away.

 

[andis]

I visited st Regis it was disappointment Focal, B&W and few more brands were kept in display only.

 

[X man]

Agree with the forum. Fairly pointless. Half products only on static display and products like Silver / Gold MA in a large hall which made it hard to do a sensible demo.

Have been visiting the show for now 10 years. This year was the worst.

 

[efernand1]

In my opinion, I feel the last few years the show seems to be tailored for 70 to 80% display like a museum!

The way announcements were made over Radio FM was as if any newbee could come hear and decide to buy a HT or Stereo system which would be definitely a notch up and better than what you would see at regular places like Croma or Vijay Sales or Reliance Digital.

Years back I recall affordable systems on display starting from 50k onwards running into lacs......now over the last few years it seems the show wants to tap a certain market of buyers......I mean rather that wasting so much time just seeing the speakers or amps on display.....besides internet surfing, once can view Youtube videos and see them in some action.....

What Hi Fi became a What A Disappointment....for me

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

It is the "Where Hi Fi?" Show.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Imo, if you have plenty of time then this show was more of a time pass event. More aimed at dealers and less for Audiophiles. To my ears what ever I listened none of the setups could live with my expectations. Another year of disappointment.