Writing this on the morning of Friday 3rd March and thinking back to exactly one week ago as the doors opened for the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. Who knew that it was going to turn out to be one of the best attended shows for many many years, possibly in the history of the show.

This was about the twenty-somethingth show that I was working, yes it is officially classed as “work!”. Many years ago when I was still wet behind the ears in the industry, I would usually be found working at one of the quieter sales and advice rooms on the 2nd or 3rd floors, but as the years rolled on I found myself working at the Ground Floor sales desk, which was a heck of a lot busier than the upper floors in those days, (although recently the upper floors have experienced some seriously busy years with some new manufacturers being very successful selling their products from amazing demonstrations). Roll on twenty odd years later and I started to head up the sales team and Managing the Ground Floor sales and advice desk (or as the Boss called me - “the elder statesman”….. thanks!)

Myself and my wonderful partners in crime

So…. as usual my show week starts on the Thursday, heading up to the Hotel to help get the sales desks all kitted up, help our fabulous IT team get all the tills and card machines etc up and running (which in truth is me not touching anything that I shouldn’t and not pressing anything until I’m told) and making sure the Sales desk has all the relevant show posters and information displayed. Whilst my work only starts the day before the show, upon arrival and working through the day it is clear to see what an incredible amount of work goes into getting the show off the ground from everyone involved, the amount of work our fabulous management team does to the logistics of getting all of the exhibitors in and out of the Hotel in military fashion is truly incredible, not to mention the months and months of organisation before we even get to the Hotel!.

Friday morning arrives… early breakfast and have a quick peak outside on the way back upstairs to see if the queue has started. Bearing in mind it was only a few minutes past nine, there was already a queue forming. In the lead up to the show there were discussions of what we could expect considering there had been such a long break between shows, upon seeing the queue it was clear we were in for a very busy day.

Back downstairs for a 9.30 briefing from our Sales Director, and we were amazed to see the queue literally around the block. “Ooooooh my God!” was the reaction from those of us that have worked previous shows - we had never seen anything like it. 10am, the doors opened and off we went, suddenly we were back into the swing of things and it seemed as those three years had gone by in a flash!

One of the only drawbacks of working on the Sales Team is that we often don’t get to see a lot of the show, which is a shame, and especially this year with the Friday and Saturday being busy with visitors. I kept my fingers crossed that I could find a quiet hour or so to have a dash around and have a look at some of the show on Sunday.

All through the Friday and Saturday visitors were telling me about the rooms that they had been in, which they liked the best and so on, so I had a few things that I really wanted to see and hear for myself. My only chance was to get to some rooms really early before the show opened to the public to get a close up look.

So here are some photos I took of some things that really stood out for me…

Firstly, (and I will make no excuses) is the Rega Naia Turntable. As many of you know, I am the proud owner of the Rega Planar 10 turntable which I absolutely love, and of course hearing through the grapevine that the new turntable was going to be at the show my first stop had to be the Rega room. I just can’t wait until I can hear it in action.

Secondly, the REL room. I was lucky enough to be given a blast of this system before many other exhibitors had opened their room. Uuuuuuh….. “Bonkers” is the only word I can use to describe the performance of these Reference series subwoofers! Understandably REL could not play them at these levels as there would surely be a lot of complaints from other exhibitors floors away let alone rooms away!

The new Focal Bathys Bluetooth Headphones were causing quite a stir all weekend, and even with the very quick listen I had I could tell why they were so popular. They really did sound far far more expensive than their £699* price tag. I’m looking forward to having these in the shop as I’m sure they will prove to be very popular.

And of course the New Classic 200 Series from Naim. I failed to get into the Naim room on Friday as it was so busy, so tried again on Saturday. Lucky me, as I walked in one of my favourite tracks was playing - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pan Alley… Fantastic!! A wonderful sounding system, but also a great display of the electronics without their top plates so you could see the incredible work that goes into building these products.

That’s just a few of my standouts from the show, and below you will see more images I took of some of my favourite products and some of our good friends at the show.

If you are reading this and had attended the show, I hope it reminds you of what a great occasion it was to be back at the Delta Marriott once again. If there is anything that you saw at the show and would like to investigate further, then please get in touch with your local branch of Audio T.

But if you haven’t ever been to our Bristol Hi-Fi Show then I hope it inspires you to visit us next year. I strongly recommend making it at least a two-day trip as it is so difficult to see everything in just one day.

Nic – Audio T Swansea

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