UK Audio 2023 Show Report
Enjoying wonderful music at the UK Audio Show 2023.
Show Report By Clive Meakins

  Ultrafide (amplifiers) teamed up with Quested (loudspeakers) to form a really impressive-sounding combination. They both come from a serious studio background so you can expect very pragmatic use of technology. Both companies are based in Devon, England. Ultrafide customers include Jimmy Page and Pete Townsend. Quested have testimonials from Hans Zimmer and Abbey Road Studios, amongst many others. This is serious heritage.

Quested had their Passive and Massive monitors in use. They were wrapped in a new design covering which I found very attractive.

Ultrafide were using their U4PRE preamp – this is fully balanced, with phono stage and headphone amp, price £4,500. The U500 is the power amp. Seeing the large power transformer, I wasn't expecting the amp to be “Ultra Sigma” Class D but that's what it is. The U500 uses first-order feedback and a low-order output filter. That mains transformer is 500VA thereby giving oodles of headroom. 250 Watts into 8 Ohms / 500 Watts into 4 Ohms. Price is £4,500. The pre/power pairing will be available over the course of the next month or two.

On display was the MastersoundEvo 300B integrated amplifier. I love the 300Bs and they look attractively protected too. The power output is 24 Watts for this Parallel Single Ended design which costs around £10,000.

Moor Amps or "moor AMPS" as they write it come from Dorset, England demo'ed their Ascalon-8 Speakers (in blue and wood finishes). Their Control amp is the Angel-Pre which is a passive pre with a buffered output stage, £2,995. The power amps (low feedback & emitter-ring output stages) were Angel-4, 150 Watts into 4 Ohms, £5995, with the Angel-6 producing 300 Watts into 4 Ohms, £10,995.

Solid Sounds has been producing wooden supports and plinths. They were showing these plus their new HEX3 Open Baffle speakers, which are a natural extension to their existing business. You may know that I'm very keen on OB speakers and I must say these are good ones!

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