My thanks to everyone involved in the London Noble/Chord demo event at SCSAV. I had the great pleasure of spending a leisurely couple of hours alone today with the K10 and Hugo.
Thanks to an oversight on my part in not taking along appropriate connectors (if you're going along with your own source, don't forget) I wasn't able to hook up my X5 to the Hugo so had to make do with unfamiliar high res music streamed from a laptop - but it sufficiently piqued my interest enough to book a return visit suitably equipped.
That said, it's pretty clear the K10's are the real stars, & plugged into my own kit made it very apparent just how good they are. The X5 can be a bit rough with treble on occasion, but (partnered with an E12 amp) through the K10's it's spectacularly good. It's a total cliché to say it, but in a way I've never heard before, the K10's highs are genuinely silk smooth with absolutely no grain at all, topping off a lovely balanced, full-bodied, full-scale soundscape. Yes, I'm smitten - better start saving.
The oddest part of the experience is that despite being totally taken with the K10's and having the desire for ownership set in place, I came away feeling even more content with my N4's as, whilst being quite obviously less capable than their big brothers, making a direct comparison demonstrated how exceptional they are at their price point.
Cracking afternoon it was.
Thanks to an oversight on my part in not taking along appropriate connectors (if you're going along with your own source, don't forget) I wasn't able to hook up my X5 to the Hugo so had to make do with unfamiliar high res music streamed from a laptop - but it sufficiently piqued my interest enough to book a return visit suitably equipped.
That said, it's pretty clear the K10's are the real stars, & plugged into my own kit made it very apparent just how good they are. The X5 can be a bit rough with treble on occasion, but (partnered with an E12 amp) through the K10's it's spectacularly good. It's a total cliché to say it, but in a way I've never heard before, the K10's highs are genuinely silk smooth with absolutely no grain at all, topping off a lovely balanced, full-bodied, full-scale soundscape. Yes, I'm smitten - better start saving.
The oddest part of the experience is that despite being totally taken with the K10's and having the desire for ownership set in place, I came away feeling even more content with my N4's as, whilst being quite obviously less capable than their big brothers, making a direct comparison demonstrated how exceptional they are at their price point.
Cracking afternoon it was.
