Welcome back to StereoNET's coverage of the 26th UK Audio Show held at the Staverton Park Hotel over the weekend of October 7th and 8th, 2023…

MC2 Audio

MC2 is a well-respected maker of pro audio amps based in Honiton, East Devon. The company demonstrated its domestic products under the banner of Ultrafide, using gorgeously-finished monitor speakers by pro-audio buddies Quested.

The Ultrafide U4PRE (audiophile quad output preamplification system) preamplifier (£4,500) uses Class A circuits and boasts quad outputs for bi-amplified systems. The U4PRE offers an MM/MC phono stage with variable loading and gain alongside a good quality Class AB headphone amp. Meanwhile, the Ultrafide U500DC power amplifier (£4,500) uses an Ultra Sigma design topology and sports in-house Class D power modules, a massive toroidal transformer, is fully DC-coupled input to output and uses a Class A driver stage. Ex-Klark Teknik engineer Alex Cooper designed it, and the amp offers 250W into 8 ohms. You even get a pure/vintage timbre switch.

Roger Quested is a studio engineer from the glory days of analogue recording, cutting his teeth at the renowned Olympic Studios, where he eventually assisted Glyn Johns, who was producing Led Zeppelin's debut album. Now a mix engineer in his own right, he has worked with artists such as Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, The Kinks, Rick Springfield, Camel, John Denver, and many more.

It is Olympic Studios that lends its name to Quested's residential hi-fi range in the Olympian series OLY-108 and the OLY-208 (£14,400) loudspeakers. The smaller 108 is a 2-way passive design, and the 208 is a 3-way. Both models go up to 20kHz, with the 208 claiming to plumb the depths down to a claimed 37Hz, whereas the smaller standmounters manage a respectable 46Hz. Sensitivity is listed as 91dB into 8 ohms for the 108 and 92dB into 4 ohms for the 208. If there is any justice, both brands should do well in the domestic market, but we know it's a hugely competitive space.

MCRU x Vinyl Adventure

There were many LPs here to scare your credit card into submission at Vinyl Adventure’s bustling stand.

Whereas sibling company MCRU is a hi-fi tweaker's delight with offerings from Tellurium Q, Melco, Supra Cables, MS HD Power, Collaro and Purita on display.

Mellow Acoustics

We reviewed Tim Mellow's innovative FrontRo loudspeaker last year, which features a 6.6-inch bass unit as a foundation to the circular 12-inch electrostatic driver.

A Tisbury passive preamp received streamed audio via Fidelity Mx DAC and out to the exquisitely finished, Leak-inspired English Acoustics Stereo 41Cs with Lorde's Royals perhaps sounding the most natural and unforced I have heard through streaming.

Moor Amps

A pre-production pair of Moor Amps speakers was revealed at this year's Bristol show, but the UK Audio Show 2023 saw the unveiling of the production-ready Ascalon-8 (£11,500) floorstander. This three-way design employs an 8-inch bass driver, which lends the speaker its name.

The woofer and mid drivers are from near-neighbours Volt and are housed in 24mm birch ply cabinets. The rear-ported cabs can be placed closer to a wall if required, as the port has been tuned down for a gentle roll-off, so I was told. In-house electronics used in the demonstration were the Angel preamp and Angel 6 power amplifier, and the overall effect was superb.

Music First Audio

MFA products are understated but give fantastic sonic results, and Jonathan Billington's demonstration setup was basically his home system laid out on a table.

The sources were a Nagra 4.2 tape recorder and an inexpensive Pro-Ject RPM turntable that utilised a Music First Audio Baby Reference V2 passive pre (£6,810) and a Phono Amp 632 (£3,600). This was fed to Graham LS 5/9 speakers via a pair of Longdog Audio monoblock amps under the table.

I wouldn't class myself an Elvis Presley fan, but the 1960 recording of His Hand In Mine was captivating. The modest Pro-Ject deck was also used to spin the Malcolm McLaren and the Bootzilla Orchestra LP, very effectively. If you are looking for components that genuinely let the recordings present themselves in their most accurate form, you could do much worse than auditioning some MFA gear.

NVA

There was a welcome splash of colour this year from NVA, thanks to its new limited edition AP20 integrated amplifier which is available in white, green, or our favourite, orange.

These undoubtedly attracted much attention in the room, as I think many people can get a bit 'black box blind' at hi-fi shows. Featuring four line inputs and a tape output, the colourful integrated produces a claimed 35W per channel.

As expected from NVA, it has an entirely passive preamplifier section and a lack of protection circuitry or filtering on the output – “that's one of the reasons why they sound so good”, we were told. It proved a perfect match for NVA's Cube 3 sealed box speakers, which it was paired with.

The Cube 3 has a front-firing silk dome tweeter partnered with an up-firing 5.25-inch mid-bass driver through a 1st order crossover. A clean, compact system that was punching way above its price in the modest-sized room.

OB Audio

OB Audio is not a hi-fi-loving Jedi, but rather a team of “woodworkers with a passion for audio”. Proudly “cutting out the headache of DIY”, they will accurately CNC panels from your cabinet plans in your chosen substrate, as well as working on a range of flat-pack kits for people to choose from.

The bookshelf kit in the room will be around £85 plus shipping. However, the star of the room was the lovely looking and sounding Lii Audio Liionidas Extreme open-baffle speakers, built and finished with OB Audio's evident craftsmanship. They were apparently completed just eight days before the show but sounded excellent, with plenty of punch and definition coming from the Lii Audio drivers pushed along by a Cayin EL34 amp for the upper and a Crown XLS 1002 for the lower.

Phonia

Based in Wronki, in western-central Poland, Phonia brought along three of its loudspeaker models to the UK Audio Show 2023 – the Pacto 200 standmounters, Gravis 400 floorstanders and the attention-grabbing Apertus 600 large floorstanders.

The latter is an open baffle design that offered an encompassing and practically live instrumentation level. As well as power and punch, there was plenty of detail alongside clarity and space. A 200W per channel Krell KSA-200S power amp was doing the heavy lifting, with streamed sounds coming by way of a Soekris R2R DAC 2541 (€1,250).

Pure Audio Project

Pure Audio Project has become known for regularly putting on an impressive Munich High End Show demonstration, since its first appearance at the Newcomers Booth in 2013.

The makers of widely popular self-assembled high-end open baffle loudspeaker systems brought along their UK home-friendly 2-way Duet 15 Prelude. Here, the system ($6,500 + shipping) featured a proprietary Eminence 15-inch bass driver partnered with a Voxativ full-range unit – plenty of bang for your buck! The Duet 15 Prelude was at the end of a Pass INT-25 amplifier, fed by a Pro-Ject Classic TT and LAB 12 non-OS DAC1.

Super Natural Audio x Etude Loudspeakers x Clip Audio

A trio of talents hosted this room with Super Natural Audio's valve amps and DACs, Clipaudio's analogue front end and isolation, and Etude Speakers from Christopher Liauw – the man who gave us Curvi.

Danny Baty's Super Natural Audio demonstrated its SNA 2.3SE single-ended triode power amp, SNA line level preamp, and SNA NOS valve DAC being supplied tunes via a LucasAudioLabs LMDS MiniMax music server. A Clipaudio Dolomite TT with 9inewave helix tonearm delivered vinyl vibes via an EAR 834p phonostage while everything was presented through the Etude/SNA High Sensitivity Bipoles (EHSB) line array speakers on my visits. Also in the room were the new Etude 5 loudspeakers in a gloriously deep and luxurious piano black finish, courtesy of professional restorers Shackleford Pianos of Macclesfield.

The EHSB line array speakers comprise a compression driver tweeter and sixteen BMR drivers in parallel series array, resulting in a quoted sensitivity of over 100dB – making them a fine match the 2.3W valve power amp.

At first glance, Clip Audio's 9inewave arm (£1,500) looks similar to the S-shaped Alphason H100S. However, upon closer inspection – and it being pointed out to me – it also curves on the horizontal plane and the lateral. I am informed that this is so the pivot point is at the same height as the stylus tip. It was all making a fine job of Kate Bush's Babooshka.

Symphony Distribution x Cultured Audio

This had to be the best-looking room of the show, with hats duly doffed to the Cultured Audio team – who obviously made a substantial effort to make the Worcester Suite look like a proper demo room.

Visitors enjoyed classic-looking speakers hooked up to the latest Zelier separates, including the PR-01 preamplifier and PA-01 power amplifier (£30,000 each). Streaming smarts were by way of Naim components. The PA-01 may only have 10 watts of power on paper, but the KT150 tubes, ample power supply and the Kensington's stated 93dB sensitivity conspired to deliver a generous output through the 10-inch pepperpot coaxial drivers. David Lynch x Lykke Li's ethereal I'm Waiting Here created a lush, dreamy soundscape inside this excellently presented room.

Zinamp

We've met Zinamp's Nick before – how could I forget someone who named his electronics brand after Californian Zinfandel?

There was much to see here, without even getting into chatting about his Zinspeakers. The first is the Z-ACT Active Cartridge System (£449). This entails a small phantom-powered buffer amplifier on a cartridge headshell. I am told Z-ACT eliminates any of the common capacitance issues oft created by the interconnect between turntable and phonostage. It has been designed for use with moving magnet cartridges, and is said to lower crosstalk to levels commonly associated with moving coils.

Additionally, there was the SCA (Simultaneous Class A) power amplifier, which boasts three inputs and sports a circuit based on Quad’s classic current dumping design. It also has a volume control, which is not standard issue for a power amp. The SCA starts at £1,899, or £919 if you fancy building it yourself.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The UK Audio Show 2023 succeeded in bringing all manner of hi-fi goodness to West Northamptonshire. One key aspect of this show to bear in mind is the number of products that you get the chance to hear, and also ask questions about directly to the person who built and/or designed it. Often, if it is not totally suited to your requirements, they can tweak one so it is. You are unlikely to get that from a high street store demo – not that many of these offerings are in stores yet.

Another high point of the show was the number of families and young adults attending over the weekend. This is the very lifeblood of our industry and our hobby. We have to engage with and excite those just discovering music, so that they know how good it can sound – be it two-channel stereo or multichannel surround, at home, in a portable system or on the road.

It is through the support of events such as the UK Audio Show, its organisers Roy and Justin Bird and the entire team behind it, that people can spend a day or two of discovery – and perhaps even create that all-important spark. That is why StereoNET is proud to be the exclusive media partner of the UK Audio Show, and we’re already looking forward to the next one.

Special thanks to Steve Crowe for the additional images.

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