The National Audio Show at Whittlebury Hall, a venue which went into administration in September, surprised me this year. Visitor numbers seemed noticeably higher than last year and, despite this, I did not come away from the event, as I did last time, needing a week in bed to recover from germs coughed and sneezed over me by some ill-mannered cretin who was unaware of the availability of tissues that enable one to keep one’s infections to oneself.

Forum visitors writing their show reports and comments could not, as usual, agree   on anything.  One commentator lavished praise on the event while another noted “a flop. it won’t run again. even reps said it (the show) was sinking fast”.  Equally one room that I vacated declaring it a completely music-free zone was adjudged as delivering one of the best sounds of the show. It takes all sorts, I guess.

As I only spent 9:30am to 4:00pm on Saturday at the show, and three of those hours were spent at a lecture, interviewing Hayato Ishiguro of Oyaide (cables  and accessories), and taking lunch, I don’t feel it appropriate to issue pronouncements about too many of the exhibits because I simply didn’t get to see all of the rooms.

I liked the look of the Burmester system, in particular the fabulous looking hard disk player with its in-house-written software. I also liked the sign above the system declaring “Burmester: Coming back soon to the cradle of high-end audio,” overlaying a Union flag.  I guess that means the company is finally sorting out new distribution for the UK, which has to be good news for well-heeled audiophiles, particularly those with a penchant for chromium plating.

Alongside its room filled with the Stella Utopia loudspeakers, Focal also had some extremely funky looking active desktop speakers on display. Needless to say, given our fascination with high-end audio on the desktop, I registered my request for a loan pair for review immediately.

Arriving with me for review almost immediately I hope is the dazzling little Media Player from Pro-Ject. I heard this £600 device playing through a £200 amplifier and a £100 pair of loudspeakers, and the performance was instantly engaging. I greatly look forward to having a proper play with the unit under the more controllable circumstances found in my office environment.

One exhibitor I visited during the afternoon was having to contend with a manufacturer of horn loudspeakers playing truly awful music at astronomical levels in the room across the corridor. How he managed to restrain himself from introducing fisticuffs into the situation I have no idea. It was not just the SPLs that were annoying: it was the fact that Herr Honkenboom was playing Queen’s low rent anthem “Another one bites the dust”... One day people will realise that the “mine’s bigger than yours” approach is not relevant when judging bass performance: it’s quality not quantity that counts.

One room in which Queen most definitely was not playing was that shared by Kudos loudspeakers and retailer Cymbiosis.  We used the Kudos Titans to compare two tweaked Linn Sondeks – one with a Naim unipivot and one with a Linn Ekos tone-arm – playing Bad Company. Remember that scene in Wayne’s World, where Wayne and his chums are head-banging in unison in his car? We replicated that in Syndicate 21. That is the problem with systems that communicate effectively: they make sophisticated middle-aged gentlemen behave like gauche twenty-year-olds. Party on, Linn!. Party on, Kudos!

Other rooms that subscribed to the “do something a little out of the ordinary to make people remember you” rule were Axhorn loudspeakers who had a light display playing on the wall behind their distinctive looking horn speakers, which managed to avoid obviously sounding like horns. The guy in charge of the room remarked that the lighting was “a bit rock’n’roll and that is what this is all about, isn’t it?” Whatever your opinion of the “rock’n’roll” nature of the room, you were not going to forget it in a hurry. Another exhibitor was playing recordings transferred from his laptop onto a reel-to-reel. When we asked why he was doing this his reply was simple: “Because I can.” He was having a good time and not hard selling his products: he was just the sort of chap that audiophile enthusiasts could engage in conversation for hours on end, and the type of character that one needs at specialist shows such as this. In moderation, of course.

I mentioned earlier attending a lecture. This was the “Computer Audio – An Introduction” given by Abbingdon Music Research Director, Vincent Luke and Audirvana developer Damien Plisson. Speaking publicly about computerised audio is not a task I envy anyone. How does one pitch a talk so that one neither patronises nor fails to deliver sufficient detail, when the subject is relatively new and changing minute by minute? The two speakers did remarkably well, in particular Mr Plisson for whom English was not his first language, and duly entertained their audience.

HIFICRITIC publisher and reviewer, Martin Colloms put his Journalistic credibility on the line by launching a pair of kit loudspeakers that he had designed, The Rhythm Kings.  A floor-stander about a metre high, the design uses a Balanced Mode Radiator as its primary drive unit, and a conventional bass unit to deliver frequencies below the range of the BMR. Colloms shared the room with Wilmslow Audio, who supply the speaker kit and components, and DNM, who provided loudspeaker cabling for the demonstration. Selling for around £1200, the speaker demonstrated distinct promise and rewarding subtlety. (And there was a genuine shortfall in subtlety in most of the demonstrations I witnessed...)

All things considered this was not a bad show: certainly it was better than those that had preceded it. Assuming that Whittlebury Hall stays in business, it will be fascinating to see how and if the show develops in 2012. My only reservation is whether this type of event has had its day or if there is a way that someone can breathe more vitality into what, for many people – not least exhibitors, appears to be a rather tired format.

From the Publisher:

I can’t believe I am saying this, but I actually enjoyed the show this year. After the debacle of the London, Park Inn show, I did not hold out much hope for Whittlebury (it is organised by the same company, The Chester group). I had originally planned to attend just on the Saturday but found myself only about three quarters of the way around the show come closing time. So back for a second day.

Attendance was definitely up this year, especially on the Sunday which is a very promising sign. The exhibitors all seemed in an upbeat mood and there was a good vibe in general around the show.

Great to hear a wider variety of music as well: Ensemble delighted with some rousing classical pieces; Audio Note with The Stranglers; and Axhorn having their own little party with rock all the way.

It was also great to see what could be classified as an audiophile show fully embracing serious computer based audio and show casing this technology as a genuine alternative to the more established source components.