The Happening Show Report
JOIN OSCAR AND KELLY AS THEY VISIT THE HAPPENING, A HIGH END AUDIO EVENT BY DISTRIBUTOR ABSOLUTE SOUNDS
On the 17th and 18th October, Absolute Sounds ran a bijoux HiFi Show called The Happening at the Haycock Manor Hotel, in Cambridgeshire, UK.
The Happening had six listening rooms, along with a main hall for some live music later on in the day. We had a couple of hours to explore the evnt, and it was rather busy on the Saturday morning, so join us for our coverage of this show.
THE HAPPENING SHOW REPORT
First, join us for a look around the static displays, and vinyl sales area, before moving on to the demo rooms.
WANSFORD SUITE
In the Wansford Suite you had a pair of Franco Serblin Accordo speakers, paired with a Thiele TT01 turntable, Analog Relax EX500 MC cartridge, Antipodes Oladra server, Nagra Series 2 Pre-Amp II-S, Nagra Series 2 II-S Power amps, Nagra Classic PSU and Nagra Compact phono. Cabling was from Ikigai, using their Tanzo and Kinzan lines. This setup had great scale, impressive dynamics – natural and real timbre, with a deep and accurate soundstage. Great pairing, with good control and no overhang. This was an incredibly natural, and effortless sounding room, piano key strikes were impressively impactful, with a distinct lack of harshness.
KINGSCLIFFE SUITE
Kasia was at the show with gongs aplenty in her Wellbeing Strategist room, running various sound baths throughout the show. This is always a relaxing oasis, whilst being the best smelling room too. The soothing sounds, calm environment, and incredible aroma are not to be missed.
NEWTON SUITE
In this room you had the 2026 edition of the Magico S7 speakers, paired with a Constellation Audio Performance 2 stereo power amp, matching pre-amp, Dohmann Helix One turntable with Analog Relax EX1000 MC cartridge, TechDAS AF10 tonearm, HSE ML7 phono stage, Antipodes Oladra, DCS VTT CD/SACD transport, and full headless DCS Varese system. The Constellation kit kicks out a ton of power, with finesse and control, bringing out excellent body, depth, and scale from the S7 speakers. This amp keeps everything in check, the digital front end providing clean, detailed audio, whilst the amp and speakers play it back effortlessly. This was one of those systems that doesn’t hide anything, yet it didn’t come across as overly neutral or harsh, it managed to always retain a level of body and punch that made it musical, along with being revealing.
MANOR TWO SUITE
Here you had the Wilson Audio Alexa V speakers, with a pair of Dan D’Agostino Momentum Z monoblocks, C2Z preamp, Antipodes Oladra Presence server, DCS Varese headless system, TechDAS Air Force IV turntable, TechDAS AF10 tonearm, TechDAS TDC01 cartridge, along with a second Reed 1H tonearm, Analog Relax EX 1000 cart, and HSE RL 7 Phonostage. These Wilson speakers are not easy to drive, yet the VU meters were barely moving on the Dan D’Agostino amps, there was plenty of headroom for the louder peaks and this was once again a very carefully curated system. There was musicality, blended with excellent technicalities, offering up a clear and detailed sound with punch and body aplenty when necessary. Wonderfully transparent sounding, yet at the same time, effortlessly musical.
There was also an Audio Research Ref 7 pre-amp and Ref 330M monoblocks in this room, on static display whilst the Dan D’Agostino kit was playing.
BARNABY SUITE
DeVORE had their O/Reference speaker system in here, paired with Trafomatic Elysian power amps, Trafomatic Lara pre-amp, and DCS Rossini Apex DAC + Rossini Master Clock. This was a fun system, the O/Reference kicking out a lot of body and width, when the subs kick in its full yet controlled, and this was a setup that gets you tapping your feet. The energy from this setup was superb, it was both big and bold, yet subtle when called for, and there was plenty of detail throughout. This was one of the more engaging rooms, and I have always enjoyed the DeVORE speakers in systems I have heard them in.
THE GARDEN LOUNGE
This was the UK’s first showing of these DarTZeel MHD-12NB speakers, paired with Zikra 211 Nano X Core Silver monoblocks, Zikra LCR RIAA pre-amp, Zikra MC transformer, Dohmann Helix Two MK3, Reed 5T tonearm, Analog Relax EX700 cart, and DCS Vivaldi DAC + Vivaldi clock with Antipodes Oladra as a digital front end. They played a mix of Opera & Jazz music – throwing out a wide sound that was very natural and smooth with excellent dynamics. The system handled these genres with ease, with great timbre, being engaging yet nothing standing out as forced or out of balance. There was a Kostas Metaxas Tourbillon T-RX reel-to-reel player in this room, it was sadly out of action when we were in the room.
Absolute Sounds have put on a great little show with The Happening, in a fantastic venue, and it was clearly a hit as the corridors and rooms were rather busy when we were there.
A big thank you to the Absolute Sounds team for hosting the event, and it was great to see that the proceeds of tickets sales for this event were going to Cancer Research UK.
Oscar Stewart
Additional photography by Kelly Bowden
