Yesterday was an excellent Press Day at Ascot Racecourse. The HiFi Show Live Ascot 2024 is on NOW. It is a relaxed affair with plenty of space compared to other shows and tons of easy parking. This is my preferred HiFi Show. There were many highlights, including the usual mixture of the esoteric and the everyday. Good news this year: There was a nice cup of coffee, which was very welcome.
The foyer had a really lovely display of some of the flagship loudspeakers from KEF, Node Audio, and Vivid.
Focal Bathys
My first stop-off was to hear the Focal Bathys (pronounced Batty, I learn) finally! They are luxurious and beautiful and immediately paired with my Pixel smartphone immediately. My Qobuz App flipped up Ryan Adams, which was a delight. I’m still wearing my mid-life crisis Ryan Adams tour T-Shirt!
Arcam
My first appointment was with ARCAM, which was launching its new range of products in the ARCAM Radia line: the ST25 streamer and the SA35 and SA45 all-in-one systems. ARCAM has a proper makeover, and its products look very attractive; this new line carries an eye-catching lemondrop trim that is very effective and attractive. James Todd, ARCAM, noted that their CD players are flying at the moment, which is no surprise, as many of us have hundreds of CDs on the shelves and the new look CD5 (£699) was lovely indeed, though I can’t help thinking it might be a bit more desirable as a straight transport.
The ARCAM ST25 streaming DAC has a ton of technology in the unit; the streamer has an 8-channel DAC, and the SA45 streaming amplifier has the same as well as the amplifier having Class G technology; though the first power rail delivers Class A/B, the second power rail is powered on for reserve response. This promises to be a dynamic amplifier and a very exciting proposition. Hopefully, these units will be coming soon, at the end of the year, so look out for those in the news here at HF&MS. The demo used ARCAM stable mate JBL 4349 loudspeakers, supported by JBL 1200P subwoofers.
Piega at Henley Audio
The next rather well-presented room was with Henley Audio, which now has Swiss loudspeaker company Piega on its books. These loudspeakers are epic in design, with an aluminium chassis and internal bracing contributing to a 45kg per cabinet weight. The Coax Gen 2 range is absolutely beautiful, with a Coaxial ribbon driver delivering the
treble and mid-range, and the woofers deliver the remaining range below 450Hz. The five woofers in the 611s comprise two active 160mm woofers and three passive drivers delivering a low-frequency response down to a claimed 32Hz.
E.A.T. at Henley Audio
The showstopping E.A.T C-DUR turntable, with a concrete plinth, bespoke tonearm, and cartridge, was in the Henley Room. The C-DUR weighs 15.6kg in total. It is an absolute work of art, as is the rest of the range. The E.A.T. E-Glo 2 phono stage supported the Forte S.
HiFi Rose DAC Debut
Also in the Henley room was a DAC debut from HiFi Rose. Promising even more from the excellent streaming platforms from HiFi Rose, the RD 160 DAC looked delicious but with a £4,299 price tag.
Node Audio
The excellent Node Audio was again at HiFi Show Live Ascot 2024 with the stunning Best of 2023-winning Hylixa loudspeakers. This year, they were joined by the new SS-1 support system, which is on sale at the show. These brilliant ‘pucks’ delivered excellent results in our recent review, particularly with the turntable and the Chord Hugo 2.
You can get 20% off these SS-1s using the promo code HIFIANDMS in the online shop.
VIVID Audio
The Vivid Room was the showstopper this year with Laurence Dickie’s (ex B&W) 350 kilo Moya M1 loudspeakers. What a room. I neglected to ask what price a pair of Moya M1s would cost, delivered (£400,000 in a quick Google)!
Harmony HiFi
Andy Clark enthusiastically welcomed me to the Harmony HiFi Room, which featured the Bergmann Audio turntable. This turntable uses air flow, like an air hockey table, to support the linear tonearm (yes!) and the 36kg platter (yes!). These air bearings obviously completely eliminate mechanical noise in the turntable. In the HiFi rack, a silent air compressor did the heavy lifting, literally! I did not ask the price of this turntable either, but it was a very engaging room. Harmony also distributes Solid Tech, Soundsmith, Marten loudspeakers and the awesome Gryphon electronics, star of Ascot 2023 (see the Gryphon in our video from last year at 1’33”).
Audeze
The Audeze Room was a really lovely headphone room that overlooked the racecourse, as did most of the rooms. In this room, they had the best headphone amplifiers you can buy, including the Chord Dave, iFi Phantom, and the epic £30,000 dCS Lina stack. I was able to listen to the planar magnetic Audeze LCD-5 and LCD-X and the electrostatic CRBN. My preferred choice was the electrostatic CRBN, which took me back to my father’s STAX days all those years ago! The CRBN were very comfortable, light and forward in the headstage, with astonishing resolution.
Marantz
The Marantz room was next to the What HiFi Vintage room, which featured a delightful old-school Marantz CD player—it reminded me of my first HiFi purchase in 1987, a Marantz CD67!
The Marantz Room featured the new MODEL 10 series with B&W loudspeakers. Look out for the Marantz MODEL 50 review soon at HF&MS.
You can also watch our latest AV Video on YouTube, which features Marantz MODEL 50.
RA Acoustics
Finally, look out in the coming years for the German loudspeaker brand RA Acoustics. They had a great room with hand-made speakers and are looking for distribution in the UK.
