To my surprise, the final day of the Bristol Hi‑Fi Show 2026 was considerably quieter than the first two. Day one used to be reserved for the press—but no longer. And with the show open to the public for the entire run, most people who were keen to attend came on the first two days. The lighter crowds on day three made it much easier to get into the rooms and spend time chatting to manufacturers, which is always illuminating.
Cadence Audio / SME / Spendor
Cadence Audio showcased new products from two of their legendary British brands: SME’s entry-level Model 8 turntable (£9999) and Spendor’s A2.2 loudspeaker (£1999/pair).
The Model 8 is an unsprung but fabulously engineered deck that benefits considerably from the fitment of a beautiful SME Series 309 tonearm. The plinth is CNC-machined from the same inert polymer resin that SME uses on its higher-end turntables. The main bearing, spindle, and drive pulley are all precision-machined to SME’s exemplary standards, while the external speed-control unit is derived from that used on the Model 35 and Model 60. This control unit includes fine control of pitch as well as 33⅓- and 45-rpm operation. Three finishes are available: black, white, and the gorgeous Midnight Blue I have on my SME 35.
The Spendor A2.2 is a diminutive floorstander with a 22mm polyamide-dome tweeter and 5.9″ polymer woofer housed in an extensively braced bass-reflex cabinet. Four finishes are available: black oak, walnut, oak, and satin white. The A2.2 offer great placement flexibility, including the ability to place it against a wall, a useful consideration for those with small listening rooms.
“Lost for Words” from Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell sounded impressively detailed, with a reassuring amount of bass given the size of the speakers. Crucially, the sense of commanding authority, neutrality, power, and control characteristic of all SME turntables was very much in evidence. I left thinking that the Model 8 offers compelling value for money, considering the superb tonearm and offboard power supply (often extras on other decks).
ProAc
ProAc, another of Britain’s most-loved audio manufacturers, chose Bristol to launch its Response DB1R standmounted speaker (from £2995/pair, depending on finish). The DB1R is a derivative of the firm’s DB1, but employs a ribbon tweeter, rather than the silk dome employed in the DB1. It’s the smallest loudspeaker ProAc has ever offered with a ribbon tweeter.
(Photo courtesy of Jason Kennedy from the-ear.net)
ProAc says that the ribbon’s diaphragm is lighter than a human hair, and there is a damped chamber behind the tweeter. The DB1R is a front-ported design with a long-throw 6.5″ woofer and delivers impressive bass response for its size.
On Supertramp’s “School,” the DB1Rs showed excellent detail retrieval and a lively delivery that proved big on fun, if a little light on bass slam. ProAc says the speaker uses alnico rather than neodymium magnets and promises “exceptional high-frequency detail, speed and transparency.” Eva Cassidy’s “Ain’t Doin’ Too Bad” revealed more warmth, with superb timing. The song was a very enjoyable listen on these latest speakers from the ProAc stable.
Naim Audio / Focal
Naim wasn’t exhibiting their usual huge system this year, but elected instead to concentrate on headphones from sister-brand Focal. I recently took a pair of Focal Bathys noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones (£699) on a trip to India and was blown away by their quality and comfort.
At Bristol, Focal showed another high-performing design, the Bathys MG headphones (£999). The MGs employ 40mm all-magnesium drivers, which are lighter, faster, and more responsive than the aluminum-magnesium drivers used on the standard Bathys ’phones. Battery life is quoted as 30 hours, and Focal says that they have upgraded some of the materials, including new foam for the headband and earpads. Naturally, there’s noise-canceling and support for all the latest Bluetooth codecs, including AAC, SBC, aptX, and aptX Adaptive. I found the Bathys MGs even more transparent and natural-sounding than the standard Bathys ’phones I use. In my opinion, the MGs are some of the finest travel headphones money can buy.
Symphony Distribution
Symphony Distribution, which handles a variety of brands in the UK—including Esoteric, Kerr Acoustic, Lehmann Audio, and TEAC—was showcasing an attractive range of cables made in New Zealand by Montaudio. This firm prioritizes the rejection of vibration and airborne interference in their designs and combines laser-engraved natural-wood housings with high-quality copper conductors featuring a polyethylene dielectric. I was impressed with their evident build quality, although they weren’t actually on demo in a system.
Also on show at Bristol was a line of linear power supplies from Sbooster. Designed to power turntables from Rega, Pro‑Ject, and Thorens, as well as streamers from Innuos and Bluesound, the Sbooster power supplies look very well made. Prices start at £329.
Chord Electronics
Chord Electronics revealed their stunning new flagship Ultima-series phono stage at Bristol. Priced above £15,000, it’s a fully dual-mono design with three inputs, each of which is configurable for MM and MC cartridges, with independent loading and gain options. The settings are manipulated using a large rotary controller on the front panel, with selections indicated by two LED dot-matrix displays, while the front panel also features two analogue VU meters that are so sexy I almost soiled myself.
Paired with the latest Michell Gyro turntable plus Chord’s Ultima Pre 3 preamplifier and Ultima 3 monoblocks driving Wilson Sabrina V speakers, the sound was fabulous—as you would expect of a system at this level. Detail, precision, dynamics, and power all served to convincingly recreate a live musical event.
This Ultima phono stage is one component I can’t wait to review. Its extensive flexibility, coupled with Chord’s world-class engineering, makes it a highly desirable new addition to their range. As it supports three turntables, this is also a dream for anyone who runs multiple decks.
REL Acoustics
Last, but certainly not least, REL Acoustics assembled a stupendous system with two line arrays of their new Carbon Special Black Label Series S subwoofers, arranged three per side. The rest of the system comprised Esoteric and Innuos sources and a pair of Hegel H30A amplifiers in mono mode driving DALI’s magnificent Epikore 11 floorstanding loudspeakers. The subs in this system cost £4799 each, which adds up to £28,794 for all six—but oh, the sound!
This was the best-sounding system I heard at the show, delivering the dynamics, clarity, emotion, and scale of a live performance with utter ease. Designer John Hunter and UK sales director Rob Hunt (shown in the picture below) demonstrated the amazing transformation that putting a line array into a system creates. I was particularly struck when they played a recording of female vocals and piano, first without and then with the line array in circuit. Despite the fact this wasn’t an overtly bass-heavy track, the sound went from exceptionally good hi‑fi to convincingly evoking a live performance in the room when the subs were connected.
Until very recently, I believed that no subwoofers were fast enough to keep up with well-engineered, high-quality main speakers. But these REL subs succeeded, while hitting incredibly hard and digging incredibly deep. This system was genuinely awe-inspiring.
In conclusion
Despite the downturn in the audio market, which has led to some significant belt-tightening across the industry, the Bristol show on Friday and Saturday was absolutely crammed with consumers keen to hear some of the finest audio in the world. On Friday, the crowds were such that I couldn’t even get inside the door of some rooms.
This tells me that there’s still a broad swath of people out there who love music and want to buy into serious audio. There’s no doubt that Brexit and Trump’s tariffs have made things tougher for brands, but perhaps the biggest factor in the downturn is the cost-of-living squeeze. Higher mortgage rates, high property prices, and rising taxes and energy costs have caused almost everyone to feel the pinch, even those with quite high incomes.
I don’t mind admitting that I was disappointed to see yet again some patchy marketing professionalism. I was astonished at the number of rooms that displayed no price or model information, so potential customers had no idea what they were listening to or whether they could afford it. This is surely Marketing 101. Can you imagine walking into a Toyota showroom and being confronted with a range of cars with no prices or model information? Thankfully, some rooms (notably Elite Audio) did a great job by projecting their systems and costs onto a wall, making it easy for everyone to know what they were hearing and how much it cost.
In times of diminishing sales, it would be foolish to underestimate the impact of effective marketing. The industry needs the press to get the word out into the wider world, and the press needs viable audio companies with the resources to continually innovate and push the frontiers of audio.
We still need to reach young music lovers, and we clearly need to reach more women. All of us who love music and high-quality audio have a role to play as ambassadors for this small but important industry, by demonstrating to friends and family how amazing music could sound in their homes with a well-chosen system.
Jonathan Gorse
Senior Contributor, SoundStage!
