Here is our show report for this years National Audio Show from Whittlebury hall, an amazing 3 days! Thank you to everyone who came and said hello and listened to what we had to show. We hope you enjoy reading about our weekend.

Friday

On Friday we arrived bright and early. With a van and a car packed full of gear, Tom and Peter headed off to Whittlebury hall to join Dave of Kudos and Roger of Tiger Paw for the National Audio 2012. After collecting our keys it was time to prepare the rooms, get unpacked and set up. As with Previous years, we had a Naim based room and a Linn based room. The Naim Based system consisted of a Linn Klimax DS, 3 LP12’s, Naim 552DR and a NAP 300 playing through Kudos Titan loudspeakers. As we have found in previous years, the Kudos Titans worked as well as could be expected in a hotel room, and gave a brilliant sound even before our final tweaks. One of the main problems with all audio shows is that they are based in hotel rooms; this means that they are not furnished as a home and therefore it is difficult to get a system to sound at its best. After some cosmetic draping to cover whiteboards and securing some light fittings and picture frames we could sit down and position the Kudos Titan speakers to get the best results possible.

A shot of the Kudos Titan/Naim room, all ready to go.

In the other room Dave from Kudos, and Tom from Cymbiosis were un-boxing and setting up the Linn system. The Linn system comprised of an LP12, Klimax DS, Klimax Kontrol, and a pair of Klimax Solo’s running through the new Kudos Super 20’s. This was the grand unveiling of the Kudos Super 20 and we were shocked and impressed with the sound that they made. Even in their prototype stage in which they were shown at the show they were a marked improvement over the C20. Using the main tweeter from the Titan and a brand new Bass/mid driver and wiring configuration, the Super 20 was perfectly at home alongside the Linn system. Once we had given the room a cosmetic makeover it was time to get positioning of the speakers. If it was possible for the Super 20’s to get any better they did, with careful positioning they shone in the Linn room.

For the weekend we were also joined by Doug Trybulec of The Chord Company. He brought along a range of samples of the Chord cable range for people to see and feel. We were using Chord Cabling throughout both of our rooms, with the reference Chord Sarum cable being used with the Kudos Titan loudspeakers and Chord Epic Twin speaker cables being used in the Super 20’s. With both rooms sorted and ready for the next day we adjourned to the local restaurant for some well earned food before we welcomed visitors the next morning.

Saturday

On the Saturday morning we were greeted by cars queuing up the driveway for Whittlebury hall, showing how busy a day it was going to be for us in the rooms! On the Saturday we were joined by Phil as well as Roger from Tiger Paw, Doug from Chord and Dave from Kudos. With all of the hard work being done the day before and the systems warming overnight, it was all ready to go. We chose to have the same structure which had worked so well in previous years. We had the Linn/Super 20 room as an open come in and listen and chat room and then in the Kudos Titan room we had a more structured demonstration format with Peter leading the demonstrations with a range of LP12’s and the Klimax DS.

Dave from Kudos preparing the room ready for Saturday and Sunday

As we had expected from the queues up the driveway, Saturday proved to be the busiest day of the weekend and it was standing room only in both rooms for the majority of the day. The great thing about visitors to our rooms is that they bring their own music; Peter was able to play requests either from his own collection of LPs or music that people had brought along with them. This made for a great atmosphere of people playing good music and enjoying listening to something that they know and love.

With Phil, our digital expert being resident in the Linn room, we played a mix of LPs and Hi-resolution downloads showing off the expert credentials of the Super 20’s. The reaction of the visiting public to the Super 20 was phenomenal, and exceeded the hype of the previous year’s Super10 unveiling. At this point we must insert a big thank you to Derek and Dave at Kudos for having the Super 20s ready for NAS 2012, even though they were still in prototype stage, it was a brilliant unveiling and really showed how Kudos and Cymbiosis working together can combine to make one of the best sounds at the show.

Even though Saturday was scheduled to finish at 5:30, come 6:30 we still had a number of people listening in both the Cymbiosis rooms, a testament to the engaging Kudos speakers and people’s passion for just wanting to listen to music. Saturday evening came around and we headed down to the bar to share a drink with fellow retailers, friends and customers. Finally a well earned curry in a local curry house and a relative early night ready for NAS day 3 and Sunday.

Sunday

After a good night’s sleep we were back at Whittlebury hall for day 3 of National Audio Show 2012. Today was set to be a quieter day overall for the show but proved to be just a busy for us with both rooms being standing room only once again. Unfortunately Phil could not join us today so it was down to Peter and Tom from Cymbiosis to run both the rooms with help from Dave and Roger.

The Sunday had the same set up with Peter running a demonstration based room and Tom and Dave from Cymbiosis running the Linn room, chatting to customers showing what the new Super 20s could do. Time seemed to fly by and before we knew it on the Sunday it was 5 o’clock and all over. Now to break down the kit and pack up after a very successful National Audio show 2012, unfortunately Mother Nature decided that she did not want to help and sent “Hurricane Whittlebury” as it was dubbed by many of the fellow passing retailers to test us. Gail force winds and driving rain were one of the many challenges faced while breaking down the systems, re boxing everything and playing a version of packing lottery, trying to work out exactly how all the equipment that fitted into the vans on the way down can be repacked again to get back!

Peter running demonstrations in the Naim and Titan room.

Finally, at 9pm we were done, cold and wet we headed for the safety of the bar for a drink and chat about how successful NAS 2012 had been. For us it was a brilliant experience and it was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces as well as getting to know a lot of new ones. We really hope that you enjoyed what we did at NAS 2012 and it has given you an idea of what is possible from your system or given you an idea about something you may otherwise have never got around to hearing.

Our Thanks go out to the following for their massive support over the weekend, Doug of Chord for giving us massive help over the weekend. Even with him being a new father we really appreciate it, especially staying to help us to repack the vans! To Roger of Tiger Paw, with us all weekend and hopefully he gave our visitors a real insight into exactly what it takes so create a product as successful and advanced as the Khan and sKale and also bring them both to market. And last but not least to Dave of Kudos Audio, for providing brilliant speakers and helping throughout the show. We look forward to a successful NAS 2013; we hope to see you there!