One heck of a good show.
One suggestion to What Hi Fi folks, please keep stereo on one side and HT on the other. If there was one thing that killed the stereo listening experience, it was the loud bangs from the neighbor HT rooms.
I started my journey with DNI with all their Focal gear. Heard those Focal monstrosities for a short while and left. I guess DNI had the entire Focal range on display. Very nice.
Next was Pro Fx. As I walked in, the LS50's were playing and it is a sound I liked. Looked like they were being driven by Electrocompaniet electronics.
I was lucky to see the side firing low frequency drivers move on the Kef blades and that was about it. Was not particularly keen on listening to electronic music on it, which is what they played when I was there.
Beautiful finish on the KEF R series.
I did not spend too much time with any HT gear except for the Sonodyne SRT set up which was superb. Not pretty looking equipment but a sound that nails it. 6lacs for all that HT gear, provided you have the space, is a steal. They took care of the display side too with a huge LG Tv playing quality high res video. It was an experience to see the Gravity trailer on that big screen.
What impressed me even more was their Avant T1 floor stander. I've never heard a Sonodyne home stereo speaker sound this good.
Stepped in to Cinebels which was all about their Klipsch Atmos speaker system. It was poorly set up and the end result was a normal 5 channel experience. That monster sub was hopeless too. Tried to listen to the Jamo C103 stand mounts but the racket in the room was ruining it. The folks from Cinebels were welcoming.
Went over to Lakozy. The PSB Imagine T3 was really kicking it, paired with NAD electronics. Very helpful gentlemen who was also more than willing to crank up the gain as much as I liked. Heard Deep Purple in full blast. One heck of a good speaker, if you are into rock.
Moved over to the Dynaudio room. I think they were playing the Contour stand mounts. I did not feel very welcome here so decided to move on.
Next up was Absolute Phase. Esoteric source, Conrad Johnson Pre and Tube Power driving a pair of Harbeth HL5 mid tower speakers on stand mounts. Very run off the mill looking speaker stands. I don't believe I have the hearing ability to judge a set up like this, besides, they were playing music that was not a genre of particular interest to me. More so, the rig was being demonstrated to a prospective customer who was already seated at the sweet spot. Hung around for a couple of tracks and left. It was also the first time I saw and heard a Harbeth speaker
Next up was the Q Acoustics HT set up paired with Marantz amplification. I did see Exposure stereo gear sitting on the floor. For all the praises I have read for Q Acoustics, the sound was rubbish.
The room where I spent the most time was the Elac+Hegel set up. I spent the most of my time in this room cause I loved the sound and because the gentleman running it was in no hurry to kick me out. Heck, he even gave me the remote and told me to shred it if I wanted. This room had the sound I liked the most though it may not necessarily fit the bill for audiophile grade sound.
Next was Philips. I thought these guys were dead. They had their Fidelio sound bar on demonstration. It had two speakers you could take off from the ends of the sound bar and place them as surrounds. The surrounds were also true wireless with their inbuilt battery packs. Very impressive for the size of the product. If you have a serious space constraint or want good quality bedroom surround set up minus the wires, the Fidelio is one of the best solutions out there.
Next up was a room that had very little interest. Probably because it was the corner room. The equipment in there was Mcintosh and Sonus Faber. Listened to Rebecca Pidgeon. It was nice.
Next up was Invention Audio. They really need a better name. Stand mounts perched on top of crude looking stands. The result was very limited bottom end. The owner was super confident and demonstrated the finer attributes of the speaker and I have no doubts on what the speaker can do. I will admit it is an excellent speaker as a first attempt. A little more work and a better stand mount should take it to another level.
Stepped in to Onkyo and was pleasantly surprised to find the CP-1050 on display. Really well made and finished turntable. I was expecting only HT but they had a good selection of stereo gear paired with very nice sounding Energy speakers. The HT room had the Cerwin Vega beasts. Did not listen to them.
Rega is back courtesy Audio Planet. Sadly their pricing is stupid. Not a well set up room so did not spend much time here.
I skipped some rooms in between and headed to a room that had PMC speakers. It was the DB1 stand mount paired with Bel Canto electronics. My jaw dropped the moment they hit the play button. These little fells have a huge sound stage. God knows how they managed it.
This ends my trip to the What Hi Fi show. While all was not perfect, to me, this was a show that will get more and more interesting. The concept of listening rooms are very much in line with Hi Fi shows in the western world. Adoption of quality stereo remains low when compared to HT. The good thing is, we have access to some excellent gear and are no longer really starved from top notch equipment.
bad memory 
