By now, you may have already seen several reports about the UK Hi-Fi Live Show, held at Ascot on 27/28 September. However, I thought it might be interesting to share my perspective as an exhibitor.
At first glance, Ascot is a daunting venue. The Grandstand is almost half a kilometre long, has five exhibition floors and 280 private boxes. This means a lot of walking, especially as the Hi-Fi Live organisers – Paul Miller and the team from Hi-Fi News – strategically use the space between demonstration rooms to minimise noise pollution. This mostly works, although one or two exhibitors regarded it as a challenge.
And no, you couldn’t cut down on the walking by borrowing one of the fabulous cars on display in the main concourse.
In many ways Ascot is an ideal exhibition venue. It’s light, airy and offers food on site. The separation of exhibitors is a definite plus, and the staff are friendly and helpful. On a typical race day, the Grandstand can hold up to 70,000 people, making Hi-Fi Live a comparatively relaxed event. There’s ample space to walk around; none of the crowded hotel corridors of some other shows. And if you get lost, there is always a friendly, bowler-hatted Ascot guide to direct you.
This was EJ Jordan’s first time at Hi-Fi Live. As a small company, a hi-fi show is a significant commitment in time and money, so it was crucial to have a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve. Even so, I left with more ideas than I started with.
EJ Jordan showcased two loudspeakers during the weekend: the stand-mounted Greenwich and the floor-standing Kingsway.
The Kingsway posed a major challenge. It’s a bi-pole design that relies on the room’s acoustics to create a sense of space and ambience. While this works well in most rooms, those at Ascot are private boxes for owners and their guests to view the race course, so each has a wall entirely of glass. This made the Kingsways sound colder than they should and required some crafty sound deadening with upholstered benches. It worked well enough and the comments from visitors were very encouraging.
The rest of the system was kept as simple as possible: a MacBook, running Audirvana and Qobuz, and a lovely integrated amplifier/DAC on loan from Primare. For once, wifi was not an issue and I was able to play a seamless mix of music from hard disk and streaming. Even better, no one tried to interfere with the software and show me how to do it better … the visitor who tried that at the Edinburgh Show is currently buried in the hotel flowerbed.
Saturday was busy, with the room at capacity for a lot of the time. Sunday was a little slower, giving time for a trip round a few other rooms – always challenging for an exhibitor. My favourite sound was in the Revox room, where open reel tapes were playing via a B77 mk3 and Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pro headphones. But then, these are old friends. The Hi-Fi News vintage B&O 8000 system had a nice, understated sound that contrasted with the overly loud, over-bright material playing in a few other rooms.
The visitors make any show. There were some genuinely useful conversations and insights. There were also a few odd requests. I’m not sure how anyone can judge loudspeakers with a highly-processed Madonna track, as I still cling to the old-fashioned idea that hi-fi means fidelity to the original sound and I’m not sure what the original sound was meant to be. The gentleman who requested it did apologise afterwards.
Attending a hi-fi show is not only an excellent opportunity to chat with fellow exhibitors and make contacts, but it’s also a chance to see some genuine new thinking, as demonstrated in the Node Audio room, a little farther along the corridor.
Exhibiting at a hi-fi show is exhausting, stimulating, hard work, nerve-wracking and – did I mention? – exhausting. But this was one of the best.
See you there next year.
For details of this year’s UK Hi-Fi Live Show and advance notification of next year’s, click here.
For full details of the Jordan Greenwich and Kingsway loudspeakers, click here.
Photographs © Tom Ballard, 2025.