My thoughts on the show (and some pictures)
The participants mix across the scale of audiophiles, from ASR style objectivists (probably the minority) to the extreme end of subjectivism. But there will be no disparaging of the latter from me. Regardless of the approach, the exhibitors are universally passionate about their hobby, and friendly and welcoming as you could want. They are after all investing at least a few hundred notes just to show the fruits of their passion to like minded people.
As a result - it was an opportunity to experience systems of all types and sizes. Valve amplification and unnecessarily large turntables - were, as you might expect, not in short supply. I also saw one reel to reel tape recorder, and one rooms sole source was a fully restored and calibrated (£900 value in the restoration alone) Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck.
At the other end of the scale was a pair of home built 4 way speakers. MiniDSP flex 8 for crossover/DSP and 4 fosi amps to power them (3xV3s, and one ZA3), and a Raspberry pi streamer running Picoreplayer. There were also some Wiim streamers around.
One mad individual was showing all homebuilt.... Tube based DAC (actual DAC was chip based, not tubes, obv, but external electronics was tube), Tube Preamp, and Tube power amp. Now that is dedication to a hobby.
Speakers ranged from a tiny home built "Soundblab" design to 4x Quad ESL (I think) 57 electrostatics. The latter were in a room run by a small uk audio company NVA Audo. There were also some B&O Beolab 5 speakers in another dealer room (I think these were the only 2 dealers present) that sounded pretty good. But then they should for £7K
What delighted me:
1 - Every room sounded different
2 - Sound quality bore no (non zero nada) correlation to size/cost/complexity/ visual impressiveness of the system. I am convinced 90% of sound quality at the show was down to speakers and room interactions. It was certainly not possible to hear a "tube sound" or an "analogue sound" or a "tape" sound (from the reel to reel eg). Or even Cassette tape weaknesses - All such differences were lost in the overall (speaker/room?) sound variations.
3 - Despite huge and expensive setups being in the majority (Eg dual tube power amps, huge turntables and massive speakers) I would say my relatively modest AVR amplified and small floor standers with sub system beat at least 75% of those I heard for sound quality. The reason (iMO) is DSP/room correction. Without exception, the best sounding rooms were all using some sort of DSP. Many or most of those that didn't (regardless of cost/complexity, analogue purity or digital perfection etc) all suffered from what I've battled most of my life "pre DSP" : Flabby bass, wooly "smeary" sound, lack of clarity (sorry for the subjective descriptions here but I need some to try to describe what I was hearing)
4 - An auction of some audio gear during which many visitors put their hands in their pockets (up to nearly £2K in a couple of instances) to bid for items, with all proceeds (items were donated by members and a couple of local businesses) going to Barnsley Hospice. That, together with a raffle, contributions from the bring and buy sale, and some other things raised a total of about £8400 for the hospice.
5 - Those aforementioned home built
Soundblab wave guide speakers. As I walked into the room, there were two small speakers, and so much bass, I was looking around for the subs. There weren't any. All the sound was coming from 2 small (around 10cm x 30cm x 30cm) speakers. They blew me away.
What didn't delight me?
Pretty much nothing. Except a 1 1/2 hour drive to get there.
I will be going next year again.
