Dublin HIFI Show 2023

[dubber]

Popped in for a quick visit, I thought the Cloney room with Pass Labs amps and Sonus Faber Amati was probably the best. I was a little disappointed with the Linn room (as an owner, I know they can sound a lot better), but overall well worth a visit … thanks to all those involved in setting it up.

[Diapason]

I visited for a while today as well. Some good sounds, some slightly disappointing performances, and some surprises (to me anyway). I'll probably go back tomorrow as I missed some rooms. As ever, the simpler systems had an easier time of it. That said, I was quite taken with the Naim and Focal room, as I never expected to enjoy that combo.

Word of advice: there was loads of on-street parking on Burlington Road down the side of the hotel, free on Saturday and Sunday. I was quite glad not to pay the 4 euro an hour in the hotel carpark.

[dubber]

I visited for a while today as well. Some good sounds, some slightly disappointing performances, and some surprises (to me anyway). I'll probably go back tomorrow as I missed some rooms. As ever, the simpler systems had an easier time of it. That said, I was quite taken with the Naim and Focal room, as I never expected to enjoy that combo.

Word of advice: there was loads of on-street parking on Burlington Road down the side of the hotel, free on Saturday and Sunday. I was quite glad not to pay the 4 euro an hour in the hotel carpark.

I agree, I thought the Focal’s sounded nice and open, would have liked to have heard them with a different style of material.

[Brutus1968]

I spent some time there today and will probably go again tomorrow. Hotel rooms are not the best places acoustically speaking and imho in many systems the mid frequencies were a bit behind the highs and lows (kind of loudness effect). I had a good impression of systems using small speakers and relatively cheaper electronics (good sign that you don't have to ask a mortgage to listen real hifi). I liked in particular the room with McIntosh + Sonus Faber.
Imho the organizers should join forces with used vinyl sellers (like @dublincityrecordfair) to attract more persons at the hifi show.

Best

[Rob.]

Going tomorrow around 2pm. Can't wait, really looking forward to it. Fair play to cloney & Co for keeping the interest in our hobby, yes I cannot afford 99% of what's on shown, but that's the joy of this show.

[Brutus1968]

Been there for a second visit this morning. I had a chat with the Gryphon salesperson; he agreed with me that hotel rooms acoustic is problematic and as a result midrange frequencies may lose some energy and presence. Maybe he was simply kind to me or maybe he was honest, anyway I didn't see any effort in general to treat those rooms in order to improve the systems performance.
In Italy, where I come from, hotel rooms offer the same problems, but during hifi shows they are filled with any kind of passive acoustic treatment to show the systems at their best. And everybody knows how a very good first impression ("wow!") can stick in our memories for long time driving our next purchases.
As already noted by another forumer, the room with Naim+Focal Sopra 2 was playing below its possibilities, and I will say that the other room with Naim+Focal Kanta (bookshelf model) was even worse unfortunately. I am sure they can play lovely in the right environment.
The room with Nagra+Spendor had terrific hifi stuff, but again the performance was not at the expected level for me. More interesting the room with Western Electric+DeVore with a more lively sound.
The top room with D'Agostino+Wilson Alexia V was impressive on several levels, not last the price of the components. If I can make a personal observation the image that system is able to project in the space is so huge that it becomes quite unnatural: never imagined singers and instruments that big. Also, looking at the official prices, the speaker cables (transparent Magnum Opus) cost more than the speakers (99955 euro vs 93450 euro) which is nonsense to me.
The Rega/Linn salesperson was also selling few MOFI records and he was surprised to see that he was the only on at the show; hopefully the organisers will fill this gap (a good opportunity for both sellers and visitors) in the next editions. As I have mentioned before, in Italy these kind of shows are an opportunity to sell, so there are always a number of stalls selling records, cd, magazines, vacuum tubes and a plethora of accessories. And they sell a lot! I have never left a hifi show without a new gadget in my pocket.
I enjoyed the hifi show: a good number of speakers and electronics available and the possibility to quickly chat with the representatives (all of them very kind) in a generally relaxed environment. I hope you did too.

Best

[Diapason]

Just leaving from the second day, and it was very interesting. Unfortunately the room I most wanted to hear again (Gryphon) was packing up by the time I got to it. I really fancy that stuff, I have to say, and I should have spent more time listening to it. Oh well.

I had missed the Kef and Rega room yesterday, and I thought they made a good showing today. I'm surprisingly fond of the Blades, I think they're really quite excellent at the price, but I also really like the smaller Rega speakers they were using in that room. Good to hear the new Naia TT as well, alongside the 50 yr anniversary P3. Good demo in there!

The Focal and Naim room I had enjoyed yesterday sounded very different from a different seat today. It was bizarre really, I thought I could shave with the sound today it was so sharp. Obviously you can never be sure of the recording, but the open and natural sound from yesterday seemed unavailable for poor Tracey Chapman. I still think that's a system that is capable of great things.

Best sound for me today was in the Pass/Sonus Faber/Wilson Sasha/dCS/Clearaudio room. It was consistently enjoyable every time I put my head in. None of the systems managed to persuade me I wasn't listening to hifi, but the presentation here was alive and balanced and natural. I only heard the Wilsons today, and from experience I suspect I'd find the Amatis even more compelling, but either way it was a great room for music.

To my ears, the big Absolute Sounds system didn't show at its best. I know those speakers are capable of much more than they were offering yesterday, and I suspect the room is heavily to blame. I also would have preferred hearing the Alexias with those Pass amps, but that's because I know them a little better. I always feel for the Uber high end guys at a show because they have the most difficult job. Still, the room was packed every time I passed today and I never made it back in. Hopefully it was delivering.

I quite enjoyed the Copland/Golden Ear room too, but I'm a bit biased since they were using the same amp I have at home. The Golden Ear thing appeals to me more as I move away from audiophilia nervosa. I wouldn't mind exploring those more at some stage. Very nice dude presenting in that room too, I hung around far too long just chatting.

Nagra and Spendor was fascinating, as I always wanted to hear those electronics, but unfortunately that speaker sound doesn't really float my boat. Was the Nagra a little underwhelming in person? Yeaaahhhh, maybe.

As mentioned yesterday, I thought the simpler, smaller systems had an easier time of it, and I enjoyed hearing Quadral, Sonus Faber, System Audio, etc. A reminder that lovely sounds can be had without assaulting the state of the art.

I got to listen to some Focal headphones too, they've been on my list for a while. I liked those!

Ciaran of this parish pointed out yesterday that there were hardly any valves on show, and it may be that recent events in Ukraine have made them much harder to source. Either way, it was a slight shame not to have ridiculous beasts of amps heating the rooms. Maybe climate change concerns have taken their toll too...

Finally then, I thought the atmosphere at the show was really good, it was just busy enough but never mad, and I had great chats with various people throughout the day, most of whom I'd never met before. It was a really nice event!

Thanks to Cloney for organising, for letting us hear some fantastic gear in a nice environment, and as always free to enter. I know a huge amount of effort goes onto this, and I for one really appreciated it.

[Rob.]

I thought the best sound was from the Gryphon room, the wilson room was massive in sound and so powerful.

Had a quick listen to rega with the plan to return and when I did it was all packed up around 3.30.

The build quality of the big focal were a bit iffy, the rear joints looked and felt weird, but it was the better naim focal combo.

It was hard to be impressed with the smaller systems after hearing the 100k plus systems.
Should have went the two days though.

[DaveF]

Spend a few hours there this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. Firstly it was great to meet Ivor, Fran, Tony, Fergus and Claus again. Hadn't seen most of you in years. Hopefully it wont be as long till the next one.
I was really curious going into this, especially being a Stax user for the last 5 years or so. I havent actually sat down in front of a pair of speakers in that long.
Star of the show for me was the Wilson Sasha/dCS/Pass room. It was a clear head and shoulders above anything else. Huge scale and effortless sound, not a hint of any congestion or compression. One of the best sounds I've heard at any hifi show.
The DeVore/Reed Turnable combo was next best for me. The DeVore's seemed to get a mixed response from some of the lads but I thought it sounded lovely with the Reed although there was a hint of harshness when it was paired with the digital front end, dont know what it was. The Reed TT definitely interests me but I've just checked the price. Wow. It's in reach maybe with a trade in or two but dont know if I could justify it.
The biggest surprise for was the little Sonus Fabers and McIntosh amps. I didnt want to like it as I'm not gone on the blingy style of the mac's but it did sound very engaging without being harsh. I noticed they were using a Gold Note phonostage too.
Biggest disappointment was the big Wilsons. I expected them to sound even more effortless and 'grander' in scale than the Sasha's and while they didnt sound bad, they didnt quite hit the mark for me. I pretty sure the room they were in didnt help here. The ceiling height seemed to be lower but maybe I imagined this :-)
Gryphon seemed to get a lot of praise but I found it difficult to judge this setup. I think it was more the music that was being played at the time, I wasnt familiar with it and was a bit too plink-plonk sounding for my liking. In any case, I should have come back to this room later but I ran out of time.
"Worst" or rather the sound I would not be able to live with (it's all subjective afterall), was the Spendors. Too boxy sounding. I wanted to like these as they have similar DNA to Harbeths/Rogers and I quite like those speakers anytime I've heard them.

When I came home I fired up the Stax system and Gyrodec/Hana. I hadn't listened to it in a few months so I was a little concerned that it would disappoint and i'd have the feeling that I was missing out after having listened to speakers all morning. To my relief, I need not have been concerned. My own system delivered in spades and was very engaging with oceans of details and finesse. Exactly how I remembered them. Different from speakers of course but missing out? No.

Finally a huge thank you to Cloney Audio and all those involved in organising the show. Looks like a huge effort and I think it was a great success.

[Fran]

I spent a very pleasant few hours there today, and as DaveF said, it was great to meet up with everyone.

Standout for me was the Pass/Wilsons/dCS room - a really effortless sound with oodles of power, but never sharp. Very very good sound. Gryphon was excellent as well I thought, I was impressed with that, and in retrospect should have spent some more time in there. The small system that Noel Cloney was demonstrating, Quadral speakers, Creek amp, Dual turntable was actually very good - and cost less than a few inches of one cable in some of the other rooms. Those Quadral speakers are a bargain at 400e.

Interesting comments above on Devore. I heard both models (I'm almost certain the same 2 models) in Munich, and remembered thinking the smaller ones sounded considerably better.... but DaveF, when I heard the bigger ones today, it was digital playback, so maybe with the analog setup it would have been different.

I did look at the small selection of vinyl on sale, but thought it was pretty pricey, especially when you converted back from sterling. It would be great to have more alright, but I suppose there are plenty of events for that already underway around the city and towns.

Huge kudos and thanks to all at Cloney for organising it, the amount of work that goes into something like that is massive, and can you imagine how crappy it was trying to load everything on Friday with the rain - traffic was mental around there on Friday as well. So well done to them and all the exhibitors.