Hong Kong Hi-End Show 2008 Pics

Since Aussie's are the order of the day around here, here's some Halcro down unders...

Lest we forget the French... the JD1-Pro II with an awesome wooden top and power supply, plus a nice DA-88 signature... bonjour! Nice neat work in the DA-88...

Back Stateside, we have the Wilson's... now these really are good. Excellent, ultra strong cabinets, combined with awesome drivers... and some Jadis/Boulder kit to do them some justice...

We've seen them all before, including the Maxx2s, but they are up there amoungst the world's best, so here they are, where the deserve to be, reminding us ML owners that there are other greats out there too! Lest we forget...

Morch tonearms... who owns one of those, I wonder... And very musical / easy flowing too...

Big Macs - driving some odd speakers... REALLY disappointing... sorry, but all that hardware turning in a totally average sound... bad moment indeed...

However, had I come back an hour of so later... it probably would have been THE SAME!!! Such a poor selection of disks at the show... And to be honest maybe that speaker design just sucks. Doesn't look as though it's going to work well to me.

I have just been thinking about the Quads featured earlier... and reading the literature. I think one of the reasosns I prefer MLs is that the mylar is mostly exposed to the air...

Looking at the 2905 design - the film first meets a dust cover, then a grill. This is BAD, BAD, BAD... we all know grills get in the way of ambient and fine detail, and the 2905 has to get through 2 obstructions... I'd love to hear it stripped to the bone, and the frames mounted in some solid concrete...

That said, Mr CLX, it does go down to 32 Hz... and it is smaller. Let's qualify that, though, it is NOT +/- 3db, but 6db as quoted in the sales leaflet...

It's also made in China these days. Then again, in the UK, we don't make that much anymore...

Eat your heart out Burmester - you think the you are shinny? OK, so the Burmester pic I posted earlier doesn't look that shinny, but believe me IT IS Enter the Jeff Rowland 312...

Some interesting looking Jungson kit... not keen on this stuff, but I thought I'd show it because it's not that well known...

Think the CD is screaming "give me a disk"! Go on someone...

Great coverage , This is better than any Magazine coverage . You da man User!

Im drooling at the Rowland. >....................

Next up will be the rest of the turntable pics I have that came out reasonably well... but not until tomorrow I suspect...

I have to say there were more turntables connected to demo systems at the show than any other source... and it has to be a toss-up between Transrotor and Clearaudio for the world's finest turntable manufacturers. Here's some more Transrotor chromeness...

Sorry Sota, Basis, Michell, Linn etc... but zee Germans rule zee roost here...

Here's a taster...

Achtung Baby!:rocker::guitarman::guitarman::guitarman:

C.A.P said:

Great coverage , This is better than any Magazine coverage . You da man User!

Im drooling at the Rowland. >....................

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Thanks, C.A.P, that's pretty generous. I think it's a while before I beat Ken Kessler... In terms of picture coverage, I think it WILL beat the magazines. Apart from those in HK, of course...

Honestly I am AMAZED at the HK hi-fi mags... they are about 1 inch thick!!!. Beat that any other country. They are also printed on ULTRA HIGH QUALITY glossy paper. That said, they have minimal journalism, and are FULL TO THE BRIM of ads. A bit like Sterophile... but then I do love the Upscale ads... "Use a transistor... get arrested!".

The world's best hi-fi magazine remains the UK's Hi-Fi News. Until Ken stops contributing, that is. When Ken retires, I'll Paypal him some dosh every now and then to wake him up and get him writing again! Rock on Ken... I even like a few Keb Mo tracks

User211 said:

Thanks, C.A.P, that's pretty generous. I think it's a while before I beat Ken Kessler... In terms of picture coverage, I think it WILL beat the magazines. Apart from those in HK, of course...

Honestly I am AMAZED at the HK hi-fi mags... they are about 1 inch thick!!!. Beat that any other country. They are also printed on ULTRA HIGH QUALITY glossy paper. That said, they have minimal journalism, and are FULL TO THE BRIM of ads. A bit like Sterophile... but then I do love the Upscale ads... "Use a transistor... get arrested!".

The world's best hi-fi magazine remains the UK's Hi-Fi News. Until Ken stops contributing, that is. When Ken retires, I'll Paypal him some dosh every now and then to wake him up and get him writing again! Rock on Ken... I even like a few Keb Mo tracks

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Or is that "go to jail..." now I think... there you go, quoting myself... must be time for bed.

User211 said:

The world's best hi-fi magazine remains the UK's Hi-Fi News. Until Ken stops contributing, that is. When Ken retires, I'll Paypal him some dosh every now and then to wake him up and get him writing again! Rock on Ken... I even like a few Keb Mo tracks

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KK is a great writer (and HFN-RR a great mag), but for my money, The Absolute Sound is the best hifi mag (though I used to read HFN-RR and Hifi Choice religiously when I still lived in the UK). IMHO of course!

User211 said:

Familiar US ground coming up, and PLENTY of reason for Stateside viewers to be proud. AR awesomeness - CD7/REF3/REF210... and some Sonus Fabers....

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Fantastic pics; many thanks for taking the time to post them! Small nit, though: the ARC Ref 210 is a monoblock, so the amp in your picture is probably the Ref 110.

RichTeer said:

Fantastic pics; many thanks for taking the time to post them! Small nit, though: the ARC Ref 210 is a monoblock, so the amp in your picture is probably the Ref 110.

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A quick zoom confirms it is a REF110... oh well, can't win 'em all. I may have made some other mistakes too...

While Stereophile appears here on the newsagents racks, The Absolute Sound does not... so I haven't read enough issues to comment, really. HFN is therefore the best mag I have read... I cancelled my Stereophile internet subscription, though the April edition is always worth a read...

User211 said:

Back Stateside, we have the Wilson's... now these really are good. Excellent, ultra strong cabinets, combined with awesome drivers... and some Jadis/Boulder kit to do them some justice...

We've seen them all before, including the Maxx2s, but they are up there amoungst the world's best, so here they are, where the deserve to be, reminding us ML owners that there are other greats out there too! Lest we forget...

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Those wheels on the MAXX2s make it look even more like a rubbish bin. Sorry - I don't like Wilsons. Now show us more ARC pics!

amey01 said:

Those wheels on the MAXX2s make it look even more like a rubbish bin. Sorry - I don't like Wilsons. Now show us more ARC pics!

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Yeah they do look pretty horrid - and they come in some vile colours too. But they are capable of excellent sound. To my mind, though, excellent sound AND looks are the order of the day...

No more pics 'til I get back to the UK - going to a movie now and it's a flight back tomorrow. All in all, though, and awesome 9 days out here...

amey01 said:

Now show us more ARC pics!

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Yeah! Love those ARC pics !

More ARC, hey? Well, unfortunately, there wasn't anymore... don't get the Chinese wrong, though, they are extreme tube'o'philes... just not of the ARC variety...

Bought me a copy of "The Tube World Monthly" - reason? This one ISN'T one inch thick, so it was easy to take back on the plane. It is about 1/2 inch thick, though, and I can't read 90% of it because it is in Chinese. However, it gives good tube vibes, shows an amp with the awesome WE 212 valve, has some big old Tannoys in it, a pair of doubled up Quad 57s per channel in a custom made frame - just awesome old school fanatic "love of hi-fi" stuff that is pretty touching... Western Electric horn drivers are highly esteemed, as are old WE transformers - these guys like US and English kit a plenty..

Back in the UK now... but what a buzz that holiday was... HK is unreal in certain respects. The MTR tube trains are absolutely spotless, there is never a wait beyond about 7 minutes max and it is ultra cheap... talking to a local "HKer", he described the NY trains a "lousy" - in comparison we had to agree - but the London Underground is worse the either by a fair margin. UK public transport sucks badly... and Terminal 3 at London Heathrow is a natioanl embarassment.

Last para really off-topic but I feel these points need to be made... more pics tomoz when I have recovered from the jet-lag... and more reasons why HK is awesome... and also, why it is NOT!

User211 said:

UK public transport sucks badly... and Terminal 3 at London Heathrow is a natioanl embarassment.

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If you think UK transport is bad, you should see Sydney's CityRail!!!

amey01 said:

If you think UK transport is bad, you should see Sydney's CityRail!!!

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You might not believe this, but the MTR carriages were done by and Australian contractor, judging by the stickers inside them. I'm not sure if they did any of the rest of the setup.