Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in the UK a couple of extra days, but here’s what I missed out on at Tom Tom Audio’s latest event, held at the St. Michaels Manor Hotel in St. Albans. In addition to the great HiFi that was set up, including a sneak peak at the new Naim standalone DAC, they had quite a few new and vintage Bentley automobiles on hand for the crowd to enjoy.

And If you will notice, there were women attending this event…

I just spent some time interviewing James for a forthcoming article in TONEAudio about “Dealers that do it right”, so look forward to hearing more about this shop that offers tremendous service, combined with an equivalent amount of passion for the gear and the music.  Watch issue 23 for the full story.  I won’t miss this one next year!

And if you are anywhere near St. Albans, book an appointment to meet James, even if you don’t need new gear just yet.

Here’s some more pictures from the event:

http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/48019385/m/5542938227

And a link to TOMTOM Audio:

http://www.tomtomaudio.com

Had a fantastic time at the Meridian factory in Cambridgeshire yesterday with Bob Stuart and his crew.

The full factory tour included every aspect of the company, including their extensive R&D facility along with their anechoic chamber where everything is measured.  Having  just been at the BBC the day before, I probably won’t ever visit two anechoic chambers in the same week again!

I was blown away by the size and scope of the facility as well as the attention to every phase of the construction of Meridian products.

The day ended with a visit to their home theatre room, featuring the outstanding 10k Meridian projector that some of you may have seen at this year’s CES show.  Thanks to new calibration techniques, they’ve taken this system to new heights of performance, and it is by far the most impressive video display system I’ve ever seen.

And, I got to see the Sooloos Music Servers being built and meet everyone involved with Sooloos design and programming.  Watch for some exciting Sooloos news in our next issue.

Yesterday, Alan Shaw of Harbeth Speakers took me to the BBC research centre at Kingswood Warren.  Just outside London, this quiet location is where many significant developments in the world of audio, TV and radio were produced, not the least of which, the legendary BBC monitors like the LS3/5a…

Here you see me in my best spokesmodel pose, holding a large pile of research and measurements that were done on the LS3/5a and other speakers in the range, complete with the engineers notes, photos and measurements.  I even got to see the first LS3/5a prototype!

Very cool stuff and a lot of history here….

Madeleine Peyroux took the stage Thursday night after Allen Toussaint thouroughly warmed up the crowd.   She delivered a very warm and romantic set, not at all unlike what fans have grown accustomed to on her records.

While the performance was excellent, it did not deviate terribly from the set list that I had seen when she stopped in Orgon a few months earlier this year.  The band was tight and did not miss a beat, however the Oregon performance at the beginning of the tour was more lively.

Here in Montreux, Peyroux was playing it safe, perhaps knowing this show was being recorded and filmed?

Regardless, the fans got a nice mixture of her last two albums along with a number of her original compositions from her current record, Bare Bones, which features all original tunes.

John Scofield took the stage in Montreaux last night with a very different band than the one he was touring with just a few months ago when he came through town for the Portland Jazz Festival.

Touring to support his recent release, Piety Street, which has much more of a gospel feel, the band consisted of Jon Cleary (vocals, piano, Hammond B3 organ); Donald Ramsey (bass); Ricky Fataar (drums) and Scofield on guitar..

The band played most of the tunes from the album, and the evening had a very laid back feel, in contrast to Scofields usually more free form guitar escapades, with him adding some occasional background vocal tracks.  However, the set was not without a few great Scofield guitar solos, which kept the audience very entertained.

The Miles Davis hall had a perfect ambience for this music and the live mix was excellent.  If you love jazz, Montreux should be on your calendar for next year!

Couldn’t resist, but this is that famous place and it certainly has its charm.  Off tonight to the Miles Davis hall (Below) to see John Scofield and the Piety Street band.  Curious to see how the lineup has changed since the Portland Jazz Festival in March.

Switzerland is awesome and I bought electronics from a very nice French lady.  Nerds always share a universal language!  More pics to follow and tomorrow we are off to the Nagra factory to see their latest offerings!

Staff writer Todd Sageser took a trip to Indianapolis in early June to visit Indy Audio Labs for a few days.

Indy Principal Rick Santiago introduced Todd to his partner Ted Moore and the guys spent a good deal of time listening to many of the classic Aragon and Acurus products, including a 2 channel system with the Aragon 28K pre-amp driving 8008ST and 3002 amps.  Source material included a variety of CDs and downloads from HDtracks, streamed through a Roku M1000 Soundbridge.  Todd was impressed with the openness and sheer dynamic capability of the Aragon product with a variety of speakers.

In a 2.1 studio control room system, the Aragon SoundStage Pre-Amp/Processpr drove a 8008×5 amp for the studio monitors and an Aragon Palladium monoblock easily handled a pair of Shure subwoofers.

Finally, in a home theater system, the new Aragon Stage One Pre/Amp processor fed an Acurus 125×5 5-channel Home Theater Amp.  Even with some modest Klipsch speakers, the image and sound quality blew away anything from the home theater receivers that were sitting on the shelf for comparison.

Ted and Rick in the control room with new Aragon processor.

What’s up next?  Expect to see Aragon and Acurus return to separate branding.  Also, there are some great new remote-control capabilities in development, where Rick and Ted will be getting to use their specialized engineering skills.

Todd plans to make regular visits to hear what develops and Indy Audio Labs will be sending Todd some beta product to listen to.  The guys have promised that Tone will be the first to get their new products for review!

Tomorrow morning and it’s on the road again, or rather in the air again!

Headed over to Switzerland to tour the Nagra factory and take in a few evenings of music at the Montreux Jazz Festival.  Stay tuned for daily updates, this should be a very interesting trip.

Here’s a few extra shots from the Coldplay show at the Clark County Ampitheater.  Review and more pics to follow in issue 23.