[HiFi Show reportage] The Edinburgh HiFi-AV show 2024

Author: Mark Wheeler, The Old Scribe - TNT-Audio UK and Mark Charles Stewart
Published: February, 2025

Introducing Edinburgh

It's great to have a Scottish HiFi show again. Scotland and the North of England have been home to so much audio creativity from the earliest days of HiFi. This is a two-hander review by two Marks. Your Old Scribe has co-authored with other Marks before and knows that can be confusing for you, dear reader. From now on Your Old Scribe will be referred to as that while Mark Charles Stewart will be Mark. Your Old Scribe was unable to attend and so the eyes and ears of TNT-Audio are of trusted audio friend Mark who has visited shows with your Old Scribe who can vouch for his judgement.

Mark is a regular attendee of UK audio shows and also Hi End Munich twice. Mark's expectations were modest. The rooms were all on the ground floor in a sort of horse shoe arrangement, which is good for accessibility. Edinburgh is such a tourist hotspot that a tourist tax has been levied from 2025 so anyone attending any specialist event in Edinburgh is warned to book their accommodation very early.

The Organiser

Regular Hi-Fi organisers, The Chester Group are behind this show. As they rightly point out on their website, it is difficult to create a show that will appeal to a whole country. Mark and your Old Scribe would add that this is a country unfamiliar with such a specialist concept for many years. Roy Bird is a determined organisor with a great track record so we hope this concept takes off: “We have always endeavoured to cover the Country as no single show can achieve that, and in order to ensure we appeal to new markets, this year's show will combine Audio and AV”.
Hence the show title.

Logistics

It was a last-minute decision for Mark to attend. This was due to the scant advance publicity so we're warning you now that this event will happen again in 2025. Information of brands and exhibitors was equally vague, so the whole thing seemed very last minute. There were rumours at the show that a few businesses pulled out. On arrival signage and parking directions for the show seemed non-existent and parking at the Hilton hotel was advertised as costing £20 per day. On being told about parking in a nearby Airport Car Park with Park and Ride via Shuttle Bus, this was investigated but appeared to be non-existent, which wasted precious time. Hence after parking at the hotel, Mark entered the hotel with some trepidation and without the amount of time available that he'd hoped.

What Was Seen and Heard

Notable rooms of interest included Elite Audio who had 2 systems which were being alternated, sounding very impressive with Octave Amplification and Revival Loudspeakers at my time of visiting. All music was played via what appeared to be a very well sorted streamed source. This system was notable for amazing scale, power and value for money from less than obvious brands. Elite Audio are obviously trying to become established by offering very stiff competition to the obvious big players. Elite Audio seem to excel in sniffing out the gems and bringing to the UK market. The vibe in the room was cordial, welcoming and friendly with a good variety of music. Elite Audio impress as a company that Mark would deal with if he was in the market for something.

The star of the show for Mark was the Audiophilia Room. They were playing top level Scottish made ART Loudspeakers featuring Diamond Tweeters. These were being driven with a full Bricasti system, primarily playing SACD. This system sounded exceptionally good. The Audiophilia Room had a good vibe in room too. Mark was made to feel very welcome by Carlo and St John Hattersley and enjoyed a good variety of music and was even offered a coffee which was nice.

Chord were showing and doing comparative demonstrations of their range of cables, when Mark entered. Chord were comparing mains cables and power distribution blocks. Whatever their intention, the demonstration was unconclusive to Mark's ears. Another visitor offered a similar opinion but it was a good effort from the manufacturer. The little diminutively small Boenicke W5 Loudspeakers were impressive within their obvious size limitations. Within any small room similar to the hotel bedroom and playing suitable selected music, they are really quite mesmerising.

Time constraints prevented Mark hearing a demonstration of a full Meridian system, which was a rare opportunity missed. Another time casualty was the James Morrow Home Entertainment Systems room which featured Clearaudio Turntables fitted with the unique DS Audio Optical Cartridge's. When Mark passed these rooms the doors were closed. There were positive reports of pleasant sounds in the Audio Note UK rooms but sadly time ran out. Some vinyl was on sale which was unremarkable but reasonably priced.

What was missing?

The program was small, direct and compact, it was disappointing to see a lot of significant brands distributors and retailers missing from the bill, especially local and influential Scottish manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Some were present in a secondary role, like Audio Origami's PU7 riding appropriately on a Systemdek. Given the AV and lifestyle emphasis, Linn were notably absent, despite them being only an hour away from the Hi-AV show venue.

Conclusion

Overall Mark would say that the impression given was that this show was cobbled together at the very last minute. It might be that it was being tried out as forerunner of possible bigger things to come in Scotland. Scotland, a whole country, has not had an audio show in many years, probably not since November 2003, if Mark's memory is not mistaken. This is a shame when you consider Scotland's heritage in the world of Hi-Fi, and a population which is starved of opportunities to see and hear what's currently available without the sales pressure present when visiting stores.

Next year's visitors should allocate at least a full day to get around everything thoroughly, which for most visitors will mean booking 2 nights accommodation. It would be advisable to download the programme in advance and plan early visits to potentially busy rooms.

The return of the Edinburgh Hi-fi show is a successful experiment which proved the format. Judging from the attendance and comments from visitors and exhibitors it can be developed into a well-publicised, larger and better organised show for 2025.