After a few years where Bristol Hi-Fi Show was off the schedule, its had two consecutive years where it looks as if business is back to usual for the biggest and longest running hi-fi show in the UK.
And as usual they were a number of new and recently announced products at the show, as well as a few prototypes that made their way into the (converted) rooms of the Bristol Marriot Hotel. With The Bristol Hi-Fi Show over for another year, here are a few of the products that caught Trusted Reviews’ eye at the event.
Optoma
I can’t say I’ver known a hi-fi show for also being showcase for home cinema launches, but according to a colleague the Bristol Hi-Fi show used to be home to both. So consider this as something of a return to its ‘Sound & Vision’ days with the launch of the Optoma UHZ55 projector.
Key features here include 3000 lumens of brightness, HDR support, and Optoma’s DuraCore laser light source that it says is capable of producing razor sharp images. Watching the Furiosa trailer on the projector it certainly looked impressive.
Kanto Audio
Kanto were displaying its speaker range at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, from its smallest speakers to subwoofers, and bigger models, one of which is due later this year. The Kanto Ora was announced in 2023 but what sparked our interest was the new Ren active speaker with a HDMI ARC connection. It’s due later this year with aspirations of being the speaker that sounds better than a soundbar without taking up much space.
Naim
I actually saw the Naim Uniti Nova PE (Power Edition) at CES 2024 but wasn’t allowed to talk about it. With it now announced and in the flesh, the Nova PE crosses the same Naim design aesthetics but comes with even more power than before. This is an all-in-one system that believes it can power any headphone or hi-fi speaker you have in your home with ease.
Focal
The Focal Aria Evo X was another product that was announced ahead of CES and is now available for purchase. Lovely looks combined with an impressively transparent sound will, we assume, make these a premium pair of floorstanders that will be highly sought after.
Tannoy
In the midst of a ressurection after disappearing from the hi-fi scene for a few years, Tannoy previewed the Stirling III LZ Special Edition standmount speakers; a two-way floorstanding pair with 10-inch dual concentrentic speaker, and a cabinet crafted from oiled walnut veneer. Like many hi-fi speaker brands, the Stirling has gone down the route of “incredibly massive and ornate looks”. It’s also pretty expensive at £11,995 per pair.
Fyne
Moving from Tannoy to Fyne (who were Tannoy in another lifetime), they debuted the Vintage SuperTrax, although it’s not so much the speaker itself that drew the most attention but the SuperTrax technology Fyne introduced at the event. The SuperTrax is a “super tweeter” that Fyne says is able to eliminate the narrow beam of directionality that afflicts tweeters and produce a 360-degree “omnidirectioncal dispersion”, effectively eliminating the sweet spot.
If you ask us, it looks like a mousetrap. Or that contraption people would tap when generating Morse code.
Rega
We hopped over to the Rega room and found some prototypes with the Solis power amplifier and Mercury pre-amplifier. There wasn’t much info available on either product but expect details to spill out ahead of its launch sometime in the middle of 2024. Also on show was the Nd7 Moving Magnet cartridge that Rega says has been developed for over ten years to deliver “next level performance.” Also expect that later in the year.
Wharfedale
We didn’t get time to cover every brand/product we wanted to at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, so our summary of the even ends with Wharfedale, specifically the new Super Denton (not Denton 3) speaker. A three-way (yes, three-way) speaker with a 1-inch soft dome tweeter, 2-inch soft dome midrange, and 6.5-inch woven kevlar unit for the low frequencies.
Boasting a compact design (though slightly bigger than a traditional bookshelf); they’re priced at £999.95/pair and sound rich and lively. Expect the Super Denton to be another Wharfedale speaker that sells like hot cakes.
