North West Audio Show Cranage Hall pictures

[sk3lph]

First Hi-fi show I've been to since the pandemic, the last one was the Bristol Show just before everything kicked off.

Went on the Sunday and it was really good to be back - I think it was bigger than the last one, probably due to the time gap and the fact that lots of new products were on the market since before. Interesting that a great looking system didn't necessarily translate to a great sounding system to my ears anyway. Lots of amazing looking turntables and where else would you get the chance to see and listen to systems worth well north of 100 grand. We also had a demo of the Chord Powerhaus distribution blocks which is supposed to remove hi frequency noise from audio equipment to therefore improve the sound quality.

A good day was had, some pictures I took as I went round are as follows -

 

[sk3lph]

Is there an issue with sound leaking between rooms with a place like this?

Absolutely, there were a few instances where you could hear systems in other rooms as well as the one you're trying to listen to.

 

[sk3lph]

Interesting comments and agree that some of the systems just didn't sound as good as they should have. The Brian and Trevor system was an example that didn't look particularly interesting but sounded fantastic and the system with the big red horn speakers looked amazing but the sound wasn't anything to write home about. The Accoustica system looked and sounded the part, but it should as it was a seriously expensive system.

Grimley - appreciate what you're saying. My last visit to the Bristol Show make me think that I'd give it a bit of a rest for a while as it just felt I'd gone back in time to the previous years show. The Cranage show felt like the forced pandemic break had actually improved the experience compared to the last one so I'll probably give the Bristol Show another go as its a good day out for someone interested in this sort of stuff.

Also agree with -Ad- that the Chord demo just managed to convince me that spending a lot on the power distribution was not a proportional improvement - the system they had sounded great even before they started swapping the power blocks.