signals Audio Show East Trinity Park Ipswich User Guide
- June 1, 2024
- SiGNALS
Table of Contents
signals Audio Show East Trinity Park Ipswich
Welcome
Welcome to Audio Show East. Thank you for coming along.
It’s ten years since we celebrated Signals hi-fi’s 20th birthday with our
first mini hi-fi show here at Trinity Park.
Our last Trinity Park Show was in 2018 and a combination of trying new,
smaller, events at our St Cecilia’s House HQ and the restrictions brought by
Covid led to a sizeable break.
Our business has grown considerably in recent years and now, even more than
ever, this event can show only a snapshot of what we have available. Far more
products are held in Trimley so, if something catches your interest, please do
get in touch.
There is a plan of the site on the outside back page. As you can see, we are
using two buildings, the main one, where you will have entered, and the
Suffolk Rooms on the other side of the courtyard.
Prizes / gifts / incentives . . .
Starting with the premise that no-one actually wants to come to these things,
we have a history of offering some rather good prizes in a free draw for those
who do make the trip. Manufacturers often ‘chip in’ with products that we can
give away.
With this year celebrating thir ty years of Signals hifi, we felt old and ugly
enough to raid our own stock cupboard and do this ourselves but we’ve been
touched by some suppliers offering items without us even asking. If you
registered in advance and check-in at reception, you will automatically be
entered into our free draw for a prize.
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First is the Naim mu-so QB 2 worth £799
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Next, a Chord Mojo 2 DAC / headphone amp worth £499 – it’s smaller than it looks here!
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The rather wonderful Meze Classic 99s pictured left and worth £279 come next in the line-up.
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Final prize, for the main draw, there is a QED Reference Ethernet cable (2m) worth £159 But there’s more! Indeed, the best has yet to come.
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Go into the Dynaudio room, click on the QR code and you could win a pair of their stunning Evoke 10 loudspeakers, worth £1300, in the finish of your choice.
You can even upgrade to something better from their ranges for the difference in the price.
Loud and Soft
Because the movable walls between rooms in the main building are a little too
communicative, we have established a rule of adjoining rooms having
alternating loudness levels.
Effectively, this means demonstration periods interspersed with quieter times
when people can talk or, in the case of the Chord Electronics and Naim Room,
play headphones. The schedule will be posted on the doors.
Signals
In case you are finding us via this show, Signals is a small, independent,
audio dealership with a fairly wide reach. We are based in a re-purposed 1993
built former Catholic church in Trimley St Mary on the outskirts of
Felixstowe.
We have a number of demonstration rooms and masses of demo (and new) stock.
Bookings are appreciated, so that we can get ourselves organised and relevant
equipment set up. For Audio Show East we get our suppliers to set up systems
in the various rooms that Trinity Park offers. All are large, so can skew
results somewhat from what ‘normal’ rooms would allow.
At St Cecilia’s House (our HQ), the rooms are set up more like normal domestic
ones, although our central area is 7m tall and useful for people living in
barn conversions. Our team of Andy Heavens, Mick Dann, Kevin Fulcher and
Alastair Gardner (me) will be on site with name badges in place. Feel free to
chat to us.
Big Nose / Big Head
Explosive new Hi Fi industry Double Act Kevin Fulcher (DittonWorks on Youtube)
and Russell Kauffman, the nose behind Russell K, invite you to join them in an
open discussion on speaker design. It is intended to be very informal, just
like a group of friends chatting in the pub. Except in this case it’s bring a
coffee and join the conversation.
Russell will be talking about some of the decisions designers have to make
developing loudspeaker systems, notably how he chooses woofers and tweeters
whilst demonstrating how ‘raw’ drive units with no crossover or cabinet can
differ in perceived sound quality.
He will also demonstrate a comparison of a speaker cabinet with and then
without damping This will be the centre section of the Suffolk Rooms over the
courtyard from main building. Please check at the main desk for times and
availability or book via this QR link:
Suffolk Suite (smaller building, across the courtyard)
Representing Audioquest, Toby Allen is your guide.
Let’s address the proverbial
Elephant in the room, and get straight to the point, all cables are bad…there
aren’t any cables from any manufacturer any-where in the world that can make a
system better.
Impossible. There you go, we said it.
However, the actual challenge is to make cables that do as little sonic damage
to our systems music replay as possible; it doesn’t take anything medical, or
military grade, or the inclusion of rare earth metals to make a cable that
honours the signal it needs to carry.
If you commit to understanding the context of what the cable needs to do, be
that a speaker cable, power cable or interconnect cable, you can design and
build products that do a better job of connecting from point a to point b with
minimal loss and disruption.
But you shouldn’t take our, or anyone else’s word for it, you should take a
listen and judge for yourself.
We’ll have a system set-up
featuring a brand-new model from GoldenEar, prior to its world-wide launch at
the Munich High End Audio Show in May Accuphase and Linn electronics that’ll
be perfect to check out AudioQuest, power, speaker and interconnects for
yourself.
One of several brands celebrating 50 years this year are Rega.
Rob Noble from Rega is on hand to take you through the range.
Rega has become an increasingly significant brand for us at signals. Based in
Southend and manufacturing in the UK from their two factory sites, they have
grown dramatically in the past few years.
Originally recognised for their roots in more budget hifi, they are
increasingly making some extremely serious products. The primary system that
will be played comes into the sensible mid to high end category.
Their Aura Phono preamp costs £4400 but has embarrassed several far more
expensive alternatives.
The Planar 10 turntable with Aphelion cartridge may seem pricey at £6840 but,
again, it’s terrific value when put in context.The Aethos amplifier is a
similar story and Rob’s decision to use Dynaudio Evoke 50 loudspeakers was
driven by the same desire to give maximum possible ‘bang for buck’.
Lateral audio stands will be used in the Rega and Accuphase rooms. Lateral’s
owner and designer, Kevin Hancock, will be on hand to answer questions.
His new Arena audio interfaces will be there too. Kevin will have a stand in
the marketplace; area in the centre of the Trinity Rooms section of the site.
Events Centre – Main Building
First room on the right as you enter the main building and you’ll find Chris
Fayers and Clive Smith from ‘Musicworks’ with an array of their Accuphase
integrated amplifiers.
Their room system source will be the very fine Accuphase DP750 SA/CD player
and the full range of the ‘Accuphase’ integrated amplifiers will be on hand.
The Musicworks’ team have decided to focus on their integrated amplifiers at
this year’s show. Should you be tempted by the Pre & Power route, we can
always play these at St Cecilia’s House at a later date.
The other complimentary parts of their room system: Dynaudio’ Confidence 20
Loudspeakers, signal cables from ‘Audiomica’, equipment racks from ‘Lateral’
and for the 240v side of things, a ‘Musicworks’ G4 Mains Distribution block
along with an excellent alternative choice of power cables, and very much a
favourite at ‘Signals Hi-Fi’, the ‘Naim’ Powerline.
Next room on the right and you’ll find Dynaudio’s Bill Livingston and Marc
Brekelmans playing the new Naim 200 series electronics into a pair of Dynaudio
Confidence 30 loudspeakers.
Dynaudio is a Danish loudspeaker maker, founded in 1977. Dynaudio builds
speakers using only their own drivers.
With two adjacent rooms using Confidence series loudspeakers and Rega choosing
to use their Evoke 50s, Dynaudio are having a fair amount of exposure at this
years show.
Scan the QR code in their room and you can enter the free draw to win a pair
of Evoke 10 loudspeakers worth £1300.
A relatively new brand to the Signals’ portfolio, Dynadudio has made a huge
impact on us. At all price levels, they offer impressive value and
performance.
For the show, we are sticking to conventional passive loudspeakers but the new
Focus series of digital, active, internet ready speakers are worth seeking
out.
Continuing down the main corridor from the front door, third room on the right
is being looked after by Chord Electronics.
Representing Chord Electronics, Maurice Tryner and Doug Graham are
demonstrating the new Chord Ultima 3 pre-amplifier with both Ultima 5 + 6
power amplifiers.The source components are Innuos Zenith music server
connected to Hugo M-Scaler and Dave DAC.
Loudspeaker choices are Kudos Titan 606 + 707 floor-standers.
On hand for the quiet periods will be the full range of Chord DAC / headphone
amplification products along with a selection of headphones.
Next, and final, door on the right hand side of the corridor leads you to Naim
Audio.
Naim have suffered huge supply related woes over the past couple of years.
Part of the issue was that they were simultaneously developing and commencing
manufacture of a whole new ‘Classic’ range of amplification and streamers.
Now it’s 2023, the new range can start to be revealed and moods could hardly
be more buoyant.
Darren Woodyatt, Jason Gould and Tom Gooderidge are playing the new Naim NSC
222 pre-amplifier / streamer with NPX 300 power supply and the New Classic NAP
250 power amplifier.
Focal transducers will be used. We’ve heard the New Classic 222 / 250 combo
drive some very high end loudspeakers, so we expect something fairly serious
will be used at the show.
In addition, the full range of Focal Headphones will be in the headphone bar.
Whether this is in the Naim room or in the central section of the Suffolk
Suite will be decided closer to the event.
Either way, there is a lot worth hearing and those Bathys bluetooth ‘phones
are better than they have any right to be.
Other side of the corridor from Naim and you have Kudos Audio, a long time
Signals’ favourite brand. Derek Gilligan (MD) and Mark Benson (production
manager) are your guides
In previous years they have been operating in active mode with external line
level crossovers and multiple power amplifiers.This year, the system is rather
simpler and the speakers will be using their internal passive crossovers.
With Chord Electronics using Kudos Titans, it’s novel to report that Kudos are
powering theirTitan 808s (the flagship floor-standers) with Chord Electronics.
The Ultima Pre 3 preamp will be used again but this time with dual Ultima 3
mono power amplifiers.
Front end is up a notch too, with Innuos Statement server, Chord M-Scaler and
Dave DAC
With Innuos being demonstrated in two dem rooms, we expect to have Stephen
Healy from Innuos on site too for the duration.
With their new Pulse streamers, high end Phoenix Net switch, Zen, Zenith and
Statement servers and Phoenix USB reclocker, Stephen will have some
interesting products to show and explain.
Working your way back towards the front of the main building, last door on the
right leads to ATC.
This is another company who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. ATC is the
longest established brand on our portfolio. We’ve been stocking their products
for almost all of the last 30 years.
Ben Lilly and Dave Spiers from ATC will be your guides along with Richard
Bates from Auralic.
The equipment line-up is ATC SCM 150 active loudspeakers fed by ATC SIA-2 pre-
amplifier and Auralic Aries 2.1 Streaming Transporter and Vega 2.1 DAC.
For analogue, there is a Vertere MG-1 ‘Magic Groove’ turntable with Phono One
phono stage.
Auralic is a relative newcomer to Signals but we’ve been impressed with how
well they can work.
Their Altair G2.1pre-amp-cumstreamer (complete with moving magnet phono stage)
is an excellent match for ATC’s active loudspeakers.
In this instance, we are using something from a little further up the range.
Lurking in the bar / cafe area, you will find Alan Ainslie and Stewar t Day
from ADMM. They distributor Melco, ADOT optical Ethernet and NuPrime.
We were early adopters of Melco music servers and have consistently seen this
as the best way to store and serve data to UPnP devices such as Linn and Naim
streamers. Melco also make high end data switches and CD drives.
Uniquely, when Melco use solid state SSD drives, they also disable the default
data cycling that is normally in place.
The recent arrival of the N138S solid state server has seen a significant
uplift in performance. We hope to be able to demonstrate this at Trinity Park.
ADOT offers a very cost effective way to isolate your music data network from
electrically noisy drives and PSUs and is well worth investigating.
The ADMM gteam are well versed in explaining, so gve them a good grilling:)
Taiwan based NuPrime make some excellent affordable audiophile data switches,
music streamer transports, DACs, power amplification and headphone amps.
Songkonga and how to use it Paul Taylor explains
Have Melco? Baffled by SongKong?
We will be holding a couple of sessions per day with Paul Taylor from SongKong
in the Trinity Rooms.
Follow the QR link and you can book your space.
Events Centre
Trinity Rooms
