Auden Distribution and Moorgate Acoustics Show Report
4 Systems, Tons of Music and One Very Happy Reporter
So, what do you think of when you hear the words “Let’s go to a HiFi show”. Do you think that you shouldn’t go because you can’t afford anything there, or are you more open to the idea of one because you’ll get to listen to something totally out of your budget? But at the same time, listen to something a bit more down to earth, like the Amphion Argon 1s I’m currently sat listening to.
Well, I’m at the Auden Distribution and Moorgate Acoustics HiFi show, aka the Sheffield Audio Show, listening to four very different systems and having a blast doing it. Before I get into the nitty-gritty bits, first a bit of background. Auden Distribution are a UK distributor which sells a whole host of brands such as Hegel, Amphion and EgglestonWorks. All three of which are present at this show, but more on them later.
Now this is the first show I’ve attended with my reporter cap on rather than the average “I can’t afford this” cap on my head, and it’s definitely a different viewpoint.
The four systems here range from a cool £5000 to a mind-blowing £115,000
Systems 3 and 4 blew me away; in no way is it in the price range we at Starting Out recommend to our readers… BUT! It shows you where you can go with HiFi IF you spend the money later down the line. That, to me I feel that is a vital part of HiFi. You can love your system to bits, but one day, you will think to yourself, “You know what, I want more power” or “I want faster speakers”. If you decide to limit yourself to what you can afford now, you will end up being clueless as to what you like and could end up with something that isn’t your cup of tea.
So, without further ado, down to the nitty-gritty.
System 1 – Small Speakers, Big Surprises
System 1 was originally going to be made up of a Hegel H150 amplifier (£2750), Amphion Argon 1 speakers (£1650 for the pair) and a Rega P3 turntable (£800), totalling £5200. However, due to a technical fault, the Rega P3 wasn’t able to be used and was replaced with a Mitchel Tecnodec (£2000), which in reality is above the price range we consider recommending at Starting Out.
Regarding the Amphion Argon 1 speaker, a bit of background on Amphion is that they are a well-respected Finnish studio monitor brand, and it shows up in the Argon 1s with them sounding quick, with easy-to-follow vocals regardless of the type of music played (trust me, a massive variety was played, including Teardrop by Massive Attack, which was bloody brilliant).
Highlights of the Argon 1s are that, for being so small, they had an incredibly rich bass which showed up beautifully in ‘The Game Has Changed’ from Tron: Legacy whenever the low notes from the synth showed up. The treble too was spectacular, giving each violin stroke its own distinct personality and was most pleasing to listen to. Not something you might expect from the studio heritage.
Now what did shock me was how well the sound staging was done; I wasn’t even sat where the sweet spot for the speakers was (I was far from it, in fact), and yet I could distinctly tell where instruments and vocalists were. This was due to Amphion’s 5th generation waveguide present on the tweeters; in a nutshell, a waveguide is a specially shaped structure that resembles that of a flared horn around a tweeter, which controls the spread of sound waves.
Why does this matter? High-frequency sound waves are narrow and point in One Direction (pun fully intended); a waveform helps those sound waves spread out so more people can enjoy the same experience you do from the sweet spot.
What was nice to see, though, was the Hegel Viking CD Player. At £4,500, it’s nowhere near the Starting Out price range, but it showed something vital. CDs still matter in today’s day and age, even in the wake of the great vinyl revolution and streaming. If it didn’t, then why would Hegel put out a product like it? Makes you think: are CDs about to have a similar revolution? Who knows?
The Argon 1s were soon swapped out for a pair of Amphion Argon 3X speakers (£3600 a pair), which feature a passive radiator and a noticeable bump in bass along with it. Hold on just a minute, what the hell is a passive radiator? Well, it looks just like a normal speaker cone, but it has no voice coil or magnet of its own; instead, it sits inside the cabinet, relying on the air moved by the main woofer to move it back and forth (air is compressed and decompressed; this air is trapped in the cabinet; this pressure then moves the radiator, causing it to vibrate in sync with the music). It results in a deeper bass while reducing the booming noise often present in small speakers trying to fill a room.
System 2 – Time To Work On The Shopping List
“Oh boy, here we go,” were my immediate thoughts going into this. I had already started forming a mental shopping list while listening to the first system, and I was hit with this. Guess I’m adding more stuff to my ever-growing wish list. (Christmas is coming up after all, so who knows?)
Systems 1 and 2 were in the same room, and so, about twice a day, they flipped the systems around and bloody hell, it was enjoyable, especially the Rega Naia turntable (£13,125). I never knew how much of an impact a flagship turntable can have on the rest of the system; now I know. The ceramic bearing was incredible, offering a near-frictionless design while letting the music speak for itself without adding noise I’m all too familiar with regarding budget turntables. After all, a turntable’s purpose and really any source, be it a streamer or CD player is to play your music without altering it. I’d say the Naia hits the nail on the head quite well there.
As for amplification, we were treated to two! The Hegel A200 (£2750), a pure analogue amplifier and the Hegel H200 (£3,500), the A200’s all-in-one streaming twin. Both of which were highly impressive, offering a noticeable step-up from the H150; doubling the power output from 75W to 150W does tend to have that effect!
The command they had over the EgglestonWorks Emma (£9,900) was commendable; going from bookshelf speakers to floor standers does many things to a person. Depending on how you like your music, you may find yourself excited by how far the bass extends itself or how clear vocals are from something like “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk filling the room effortlessly without making your ears tired after just a few tracks.
System 3 – Things just got serious
Right then, the elephant in the room: I would be lying if I said I didn’t tot up the total cost of these systems (System 3 costs £75,000 and System 4 £115,000 or thereabouts, for future reference).
If you’re reading this as someone just starting out in HiFi, do not panic; no one starts at this level, and more importantly, not everyone gets to this level either. I, for one, haven’t lived with a system worth more than £12,000. No one expects you to drop the equivalent of a nice car on speakers. These are the systems to aim for; these give you a benchmark of what you like and what you can eventually get to. That’s if you want to, of course.
System 3 featured the EgglestonWorks Andra V speakers at £39,000 (I did say these two systems weren’t cheap), which absolutely commanded the room, with “Seven Devils” by Florence + The Machine taking control of it within seconds of being put on after I asked Bill (Owner of Auden Distribution) to pop it on for me. That’s another thing: you meet so many people at a show; there are no barriers regarding who you can and cannot talk to, as well as the fact that you can always request a track if you want to listen to a system with music you know and love rather than something you’ve never heard of from the 1980s. Like I said, all you need to do is ask, and you may, if the room isn’t packed, get a chance to do just that.
System 4 – Boom, boom, shake the room
Now we are onto the big one, System 4. Of all the systems here, there was one that blew me away. Literally, my chair (and the room) shook with each bass note. That’s not to say the system was unbalanced; that would be wrong of me. The vocals and synths were the definition of perfection. I haven’t many words for the system other than that. It was made up of the aforementioned Hegel Viking CD Player, a Hegel D50 DAC (£4,250), a Hegel P30A (£7,000), two Hegel H30A power amplifiers (£17,000 each!), Innuos ZENith NExt-Gen streamer (£16,400) and EgglestonWorks Viginti speakers. (£39,000). I walked in, listened for 5 minutes and ran back to my room and grabbed my Tron Legacy CD to play End of Line on it. Worth it! Never have I heard End of Line with that much punch; each low-frequency synth wave carried so much unexpected energy that I nearly fell off my chair.
With such an impressive component list, you would expect it to sound great, and yep, it does that, but I find it hard to find a reason to spend so much money on a system when something like System 1 meets most of my needs even though it costs a fraction of the price.
Back down to Earth, I found myself constantly gravitating back towards System 1 and sitting in there for hours writing up this report, listening to whatever happened to be playing.
Around 10:30, before the event opened on Sunday, I had brought my Tron: Legacy CD with me and took it out while in the room; someone noticed and asked me to put it on. I obliged, and for the next hour Daft Punk’s finest album rang through the halls of the hotel while time ran away from me and that certain someone ended up buying a copy. Result!
Overall, I had a brilliant time covering my first show and highly recommend anyone, of any age, to go to one. I’m ever so grateful to Bill from Auden Distribution and everyone at Moorgate Acoustics for organising such a welcoming event that perfectly paired with Starting Out’s values: that not everyone has the money for expensive systems, but that doesn’t stop you from listening to high-end systems.
At the end of the day, HiFi comes down to your love of music, not the price tag of the gear you listen to it with; you may go to a show with nothing to your name but a JBL speaker and come away with big dreams or decide that something like the Argon 1s are plenty. Either way, it doesn’t matter.
Alban Skipworth
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