Brussels Hifi Show 2015 - a nice event!

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In fact, I find the sound a bit too hard here in this room, he said, an impression I also had from the beginning.
I told him I agreed, and that I had tube amplification at home, and he said he had BAT at home, and that he liked warm sounding speakers, like Tannoy and the likes (he has 12 pairs of speakers at home, from different brands).

He pulled out another LP.
You will be amazed by this he said.

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I love conversations with people that have a passion!
Louis certainly has this, in spades.












The LP he chose was Sonny Boy Williamson, a mono recording, but boy oh boy, how real this sounded!
If I have to pick one goose bumps moment that day: this was it!

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He then did a demonstration: while playing a record, he brutally moved the upper platter. The needle didn't move, thanks to the ingenious suspension mechanism.
I was flabbergasted.
I grew up with a turntable where the needle jumped out of the groove even when you dared stepping too hard on the (wooden) floor of my room!

The last thing he let us hear: a Daft Punk piece with lots of bass.
First with the second platter on (meaning: turning in the opposite direction): impressive lows! Very defined, very large sound.
Then the platter off, to show it isn't just a gimmick.
The sound became thinner, had less depth, and especially the bass was of less quality.
Then on again, and everything became much grander, more accurate, deeper.
You could clearly hear how sound waves can neutralize each other!
And then there is much less information...

I was impressed.
If I ever buy a turntable, this will be the one!

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Next room, also from Colab, which were best of show for me in '13, with their Avantgarde Acoustics set-up.
















I felt something was wrong in this room.
I told Pierre Costers from Colab that I preferred his set-up from 2013.
He answered me: "But this sounds more real!".
"Something is lacking, it is as if there is a filter on the music", I replied.
He was surprised and said because of the lively room, they had indeed done some correction on the highs.
Wrong move for me.

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But this room still had something appealing: Trulife Audio.
A Greek brand, the company led by Georgiadis Velissarios.
His company survived the hard years of the bank crisis in Greece, and is now coming back with very good looking gear.
You can see the Greek colours:






Trulife Audio makes single ended tube gear.
I want to hear it in other conditions, with the sound not tamed.




Pierre and Georgiadis.




He was happy to explain about his business, and is hoping for a bit of exposure!



TruLife Audio, Single Ended Amplifiers, tla, single ended triode, hi-end audio, true life, trulife,

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Jazzy Bird presented a very large collection of LPs, SACDs and Japanese import CDs.

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Colab had another room on that floor: home cinema.




McIntosh on display:






But more important: their home theater set-up.
The sound: Anthem and Klipsch. Reasonably good.
The image: the best I've seen!
By far.
The room was not really dark, on purpose.
But the image was oh so impressive.
Projector: Barco.










Barco is a Belgian company.
They started off with TVs, a long time ago.
But in the 80s-90s, competition from the far east became too tough in that area.
Then they moved to high definition displays for medical purposes, high end projectors for cinemas, and military equipment.
When they sold their military department, they again had time to make projectors for the consumer market.
Mind you, this is ultra high end stuff.
This projector for example is 40K, without taxes (21% here).
They have a lower model (half the price).
If you have the dough, this is your projector!

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Some very interesting screens.
They showed an image almost as good as a TV, in broad daylight!
Price: 3K range.




Sony and Epson projectors: 7K euro.




These projectors + screen (especially the right screen in the picture above) can replace a TV set.

Rumours: Oppo will launch a 4K device.
But one might expect they will wait a bit until they see where the market is heading... and then come with a product that will destroy the competition!

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More tomorrow!
Stay tuned for a Kii Three review!