The Haycock Manor Hotel Mystery – Chapter Three – Listening Sessions | The Happening – The Haycock Hotel Mystery > Eventos > Artigos

JVH and Pedro Henriques enter each room at The Happening with a magnifying glass to investigate which system sounds best. An impossible task: they all sound great, though their differences may appeal to different listeners.

Many reviewers refuse to assess sound quality under show conditions, and they probably have a point. So many variables can affect the outcome: room acoustics, a noisy audience, the choice of music, where you sit and how far you are from the sweet spot—or whether you are standing, as we sometimes were at The Happening.

However, we have extensive listening experience. As I said during the panel interview, I need only ten seconds to know whether a system sounds good, though it takes much longer to work out why I do or don’t like it. Let me give you an example: I loved both DeVORE-based systems the moment I entered their respective rooms. But I only really enjoyed the Wilson/D’Agostino system on Sunday. Perhaps it had finally warmed up and settled in. Or perhaps I had.

I recorded the 4K videos on a mobile phone. The picture holds up well on a large screen, if you select the highest available resolution. The sound, of course, is merely illustrative: it cannot reproduce the experience of being there. Still, with headphones, you can get a flavour of the music and atmosphere as you follow our brief, subjective impressions. At least you have a hint of what we are talking about. Words on a two-dimensional page can never fully encompass a three-dimensional experience.

Zikra Audio/DeVORE Bronze

Gold Medal for the DeVORE Bronze

I am familiar with DeVORE loudspeakers, though this was my first encounter with Zikra Audio amplifiers. The pairing sounded smooth and sweet, harmonically rich, with true colours and an expansive soundstage that held together even when I stood well off-axis by the door. The recording offers a glimpse of this. Watch the listeners and their changing expressions as the music's mood shifts. That’s how I felt too. Music, not merely sound, was ‘happening’ here.

Zikra Audio/DarTZeel

Hervé Is Full of Surprises

In the same room, Hervé Delétraz demonstrated his first loudspeaker design, the darTZeel MHD-12NB. Still a work in progress, it suggests Hervé is onto something that could surprise the audio world: a small speaker that sounds big and can sit close to the wall. The sound was fast, dynamic, and neutral, with well-controlled bass and a claimed extension down to 40 Hz.

Trafomatic/DeVORE O/Reference

DeVORE O/Reference Rocks!

You get what you pay for: the same musicality as the Bronze, albeit with greater bass extension and power. The O/Reference played everything with an authoritative charm that captivated me from the first note to the last. As I left, I told John DeVore: ‘This is my dream: a loft in New York with a pair of these in it.’

The sound could be a little too full at times—the room was small, and the bass units were close to the wall. Like cholesterol in everything that tastes good. As the show drew to a close, we returned for some loud rock, joining a small group that moved in time to the beat.

Nagra/Franco Serblin

Andare d’accordo

Accordo means both a musical chord and an agreement in Italian. The Franco Serblin Accordo Unica loudspeakers and the Nagra Series 2 components certainly vanno d’accordo. The music had such delicacy and tonal truth that I could feel Franco’s presence in the room.

I asked Professor Jeffrey Dam of Ikigai Audio to play James Blake’s rendition of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' for voice and piano. What a lovely interpretation. Then Pascal Mauroux, CEO of Nagra, played an LP of the Harry Potter soundtrack, and the system responded with tremendous dynamics. Siamo d'accordo!

Constellation/Magico S7

The Power and the Glory

The Magico S7/Constellation system was squeezed into a small room, and its bass could sometimes overwhelm the space. Yet its sheer scale and effortless authority made it easy to understand why so many audiophiles aspire to high-end audio. It delivered the punch of a live concert PA—with a velvet glove. Luca Natali also worked his magic with master tapes converted to DSD.

Dan D'Agostino/Wilson Audio

We Are the Champions, My Friends

The Alexx V sounded better to my ears with the D’Agostino Z monoblocks than with the Audio Research 330M monoblocks. Perhaps the system tuning favoured the Zs. On Sunday afternoon, I heard such power, physical weight, clarity and speed that I wondered: could the Z be Zorro’s signature?

After a long listening session, I felt exhausted—in the best possible sense. It was impossible to remain a spectator: the music drew me into the performance as if I were there.