Welcome to the UK Audio Show 2021!
Greeted with enthusiasm by many was the return of the UK Audio Show on the 9th & 10th October 2021.
The Chester Group marketed this event well in advance and attendance was high. The De Vere Staverton Estate is easily reached from the M1 in Northamptonshire, drawing in visitors from both North and South. I spoke to a visitor who’d driven down from Yorkshire and of course, it was a straightforward journey from not only from the South-East but also across from the Midlands and East Anglia.
The De Vere Staverton Estate is a destination venue in itself with grounds and a golf course, so restaurants and facilities lend themselves to hosting the UK Audio Show.
The show layout was as expected, a well-organised reception desk, not overly busy and with a good restaurant where we initially had a chat with Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note, whose company was being prominently represented in two rooms. With the show occupying both floors, the rooms were generally occupied by exhibitors with systems demonstrating their key product and supported by other complementing products to make up the demonstration. The larger landing or hallway areas were used for various Trade Display stands including record stalls and Atacama Audio UK’s extensive range of various stands and supports, along with Townshend who are usually present at these events.
The exhibitor list included a number of smaller interesting companies offering higher-end products and who were by default also demonstrating other company’s complementary products at the same time. Music First Audio was an example of this – using battery-powered Nagra reel to reel tape players through their transformer volume control ultimately to a pair of compact Jordan Marlow dual concentric speakers. Not only did this room demonstrate the transformer volume controls at their best but also the other products and it was a reminder of just how good these Swiss Nagra machines are. The obvious downside is that you need to have tapes available as your source, but the quality is undeniable and ironically the cost of the system in this room, if not the convenience, was at the lower end of the range available at the show.
Charcroft Electronics & Clarity Caps were there flying the UK flag as a manufacturer and it was interesting to hear about their new range of Clarity capacitors – I’ve not had a chance to try them yet but I’ve certainly had success with their various capacitors and of course Charcroft resistors in numerous applications, particularly in low-level phono and line pre-amps. Having used many of their components it was interesting to meet some of those who make up this company based in Wales.
Jes Kerr from Cambridge was demonstrating the Kerr K320 Mk3 speakers to good effect – along with many other exhibitors he’d managed to set the room up to good effect given the limitations of what is actually an empty hotel bedroom and it was noticeable that some of the quieter systems in smaller rooms were actually more engaging to listen to than some of the big rooms with true high-end systems with the absence of price tags. This is as much a reflection on the room and environment – it can be hard to demonstrate products well in an environment where the ambient noise levels are high whilst hugely powerful amplifiers pollute the hotel’s ring main supply, competing with their neighbour in the process.
On the subject of room acoustics, one of the aspects that are definitely important for home audio and rarely mentioned by manufacturers is room acoustics, in the same way, that speaker manufacturers avoid writing about distortion figures.
I would encourage anyone visiting the next Audio Show to enjoy the short presentation from Dave Shevyn of GK Acoustics – he demonstrates why treating your room can bring about great improvements and even if you can’t affect that much of a change in your domestic environment at least be aware of its importance and do what you can. It will almost certainly be a significant upgrade in itself and possibly at a much lower cost than some of the new audio equipment on show! GK Acoustics were sharing a room with jukeboxes, both vintage and new which provided a colourful and welcome distraction.
The Audio Consultant’s presence in the Worcester Suite was large, filled with excellent sound and continually filled with visitors. I’d previously met their Stephen Harper at the Munich Show and it was nice to see him with such a successful room at Chester. He offered me a DS-50 Stylus Cleaner to try as I needed one for another recently acquired location and it’s working well. The size of the Audio Consultants’ system was so extensive in its subtleties with various mains cables and other accessories visible that I wouldn’t be able to list them all here, but essentially sources included CD and vinyl. These offered two listening experiences focusing on the Luxman D-10X Reference CD player into either the Luxman L-590A amplifier or the AVM A 6.2 Master Edition amplifier, both driving the Kudos Titan T707 loudspeakers with ease. Given the size of the room, it gave a very large sound stage beyond the boundaries of the speakers and very deep. A big attraction was the new DS Audio optical cartridge playing on a Nottingham Analogue Ace SpaceDeck. We did enjoy music including a rare Billie Holiday vinyl that I subsequently tried to buy at Chris’s vinyl stand in the foyer. I look forward to hearing more about the Audio Consultant’s system.
Audio Note was running two rooms – one with the smaller system demonstrated by their Micky Seaton. Their relatively new Cobra integrated amplifier with internal DAC and remote volume control is aimed as an entry-level AN product and demonstrated to good effect with other Audio Note products. The larger Audio Note room was being run by Peter Qvortrup’s son and with higher-level finished products including their three motor record deck and midrange cartridges made for an exciting listen. Audio Note has had plenty of practice in getting the best sound they can out of tricky hotel rooms and it’s interesting how they usually position the AN-E speakers in the corners with large toe-in, so effectively the sound crosses paths in front of the listener.
Bayz-Audio BT was demonstrating the Courant 2.0 model fed by extensive Chord Electronics, this speaker being new to me and an interesting concept for 360 degree sound with patented tweeter design and unusual appearance. This deserves more investigation and I’d be happy to hear more.
At the more affordable level of loudspeakers, the Amphion range was being demonstrated impressively in a well-attended room with a comfortable sofa. This actually seemed to help as it meant that listeners were at the usual height. Their smaller Helium and I think also their Argon range of speakers were definitely worth a repeat listen, coupled to their associated amplifiers too. As this room was particularly busy so I’m uncertain as to exactly which combination of their products was playing at that moment, but for a smaller home system at an affordable price tag, they’d definitely be a consideration and all fall within Auden Distribution.
Emilen Audio was running an impressively large room with a complete set of components on offer making up a matching system, all designed and made in England to their credit.
The size of the event means that it’d be easy to overlook or at least underestimate an exhibitor if their room was crowded or not available at that moment making it difficult to capture everything in the relatively short time available, so apologies for not having been able to mention all rooms or specific products on show.
A number of the larger brands were noticeably absent, enabling smaller producers with modest marketing budgets to stand more visibly in a crowded marketplace. Vinyl record and CD players were much in prominence at the show, some streamers of course but no Audio Visual systems that I could see, the absence of which was welcome. There certainly appears to be a strong interest and customer base for high-end audio – a number of exhibitors explained that they are experiencing a strong order book and Audio Note have apparently been recruiting more production staff in Sussex to keep pace with worldwide demand for their products.
Future shows are planned for 2022, I know of two so far including this one, so in light of my recent experiences at the De Vere Staverton I’d encourage you to keep a lookout for the dates.
Meanwhile, well done to all exhibitors and their hard work. Also, a thank you to Roy Bird of the Chester Group for organising it. Looking forward to 2022!
Rupert Robertson