UK Audio Show 2024 Show Report
Discovering many glorious new companies and equipment too!
UK Audio 2024 Show Report By Clive Meakins

  Henley Designs ran a competition to win a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo 2 turntable – it's a tidy deck for £599 and even better value as a prize.

Focal were present with their Utopia Diva active speakers. When you take into account that the speakers include streamer, DAC, and amplifiers the £30,000 asking price is quite reasonable. A very room-friendly solution. The electronics are from Naim so it's no surprise there's a Naim signature to the sound.

CML Music (Curvi-Hifi and Etude Loudspeakers UK) was showing their Curvi-BMR Mk2 and Etude 5 loudspeakers (£4000 and £10,000 / pair respectively).

CML Music produces speakers and a DAC / Preamplifier. The DAC and Preamp are just about to be launched, you can see the initial production units above. The speakers are the Curvi and Etude as previously mentioned. You can spot the Curvi quite easily. Dr Christopher Liauw uses Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) drivers for both loudspeakers. I found both designs to be very attractive and they sounded good in the show environment.

Kanto specializes in quality desktop speakers. There is a broad range with many connectivity options for these Canadian designs.

The Golden Ear BRX is a more sophisticated speaker than it initially looks. It has an AMT tweeter, and traditional midrange / bass / woofer with a pair of side-mounted planar radiators. It's a lot of speakers for these Californian designed £1,699.

To finish up we have a pair of European Audio Team - EAT turntables, the C-Sharp is very slim, uses Carbon Fibre and Termoplastic Elastomer as part of their recipe, price starts at £4,049. The C-Dur Concrete starts at £6,499.

Final Thoughts
The UK Audio Show was very enjoyable, I came across companies and equipment that were new to me. There was innovative thinking in evidence too. I also very much enjoyed the Alphason technical session where the highly experienced Mike Knowles was very on top of his subject. The Bob Harris sessions were a masterstroke, they combined a love of music with highly interesting tales from the music industry.

I'm left with the feeling that for myself at least, it's important to combine visiting equipment rooms with technical sessions and music industry-related talks. After all, the hi-fi equipment we are looking at and listening to exists to help us enjoy the music. I for one am going to aim to achieve this type of balance at future shows, I hope the next shows I attend offer the balance I found so beneficial at Staverton.

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