North West Audio Show - Cranage Hall Pics

[sk3lph]

I was at the North West hi-fi show yesterday and as I took some pictures on my way round I thought I'd share them here for your interest.

Lots of good stuff there that ordinarily you wouldn't be able to experience unless you were a serious purchasing contender. Lasting impressions for me were that vinyl absolutely dominated the event with turntables in most rooms, some of which looked like engineering marvels with eye watering price tags to match (40k for one of them). There were also weird and wonderful speaker designs including the horn type ones that I've featured in a couple of the pics here.

I was also amazed at the return of reel to reel tape decks which also featured in a couple of the rooms so it'll be interesting to see if this develops at all.

Anyway, it was a good day and enjoy the pics in no particular order.

 

[signs]

cheers for those

 

[killem]

Thanks for posting. Some of the stuff are works of Art aswell as Hi Fi. Way out of my price range so dont know if I would want to hear what they are capable of sounding like as I think my current set up sounds really good.

 

[sk3lph]

The law of diminishing returns definately applies - frankly, the money some of the companies were asking for their stuff just wasn't worth it.

A 20 grand turntable sounds good, but not 20 times better than one costing a grand.

 

[darreny]

The law of diminishing returns definately applies - frankly, the money some of the companies were asking for their stuff just wasn't worth it.

A 20 grand turntable sounds good, but not 20 times better than one costing a grand.

It never will, you're paying for excellence in craftsmanship and design and those employees don't come cheap. There's some stunning looking kit in those pics.

 

[nst68]

How does this turntable support the disc?

 

[nst68]

Is this the turntable equivilant of bi-wiring speakers?!!

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Thanks for the shots. Which systems really stood out?

Ref the turntable with 2 arms, chances are that one was mounting a mono cartridge, with the other a dedicated stereo one. I went digital only years ago, but I get the logic.

 

[FurryLemon]

How does this turntable support the disc?

I imagine those arms rise up to support the disc? Some very fancy turntables! They make my Rega RP8 look positively peasant like.

 

[sk3lph]

A closer look at that turntable is here. Its the Iota Jot S-P turntable that one - I only know as I grabbed some bumf on it as it caught my eye.

Looks like the arms support the record and it's held in place with a clamp.

Thanks for the shots. Which systems really stood out?

Ref the turntable with 2 arms, chances are that one was mounting a mono cartridge, with the other a dedicated stereo one. I went digital only years ago, but I get the logic.

Stand out systems were the horn speakers and the reel to reel decks as well as the superbly engineered turntables.

I believe you're right about the two tone arms, one for stereo and the other for mono - never heard of that before.

 

[marl]

Some amazing kit... Thanks for the photos...