Awards
The BFA is pleased to announce the results of its Sound and Vision Show Awards 2006.
Three awards were presented to the winning exhibitors on the Sunday morning of the Sound and Vision 2006 show (also known as The Bristol Show).
The judges visited every room/booth at the show at least twice during the three-day event and took advice from other visitors-members of the trade and press-just in case that their visit to a room had been during an 'off' moment. In addition, the BFA commissioned a poll of public visitors to the show. The results of this were duly taken into consideration to ensure that the Awards accurately reflected the feelings of consumers as well as those of the BFA.
The three awards were for the Best Two-Channel Demonstration, the Best Multi-Channel Demonstration, and the Best Looking exhibit. These were all judged with weighting according to the following parameters, which BFA members deemed to be of primary importance: 1. the sound quality (when sitting down in the demonstration); 2. the appearance of the room or exhibit; 3. the graphical explanation given of the products displayed in the room; 4. the general room atmosphere; 5. the conveyance of the company's brand image.
The Awards were given to:
- Neat Acoustics for the Best Two Channel Demonstration
- KEF Audio for the Best Multi-Channel Demonstration
- Focal for the Best looking exhibit
Neat Acoustics and Focal were both previous winners. Other companies such as Naim Audio and NHT came very close but the judges thought that Neat with its simple, well displayed room, and good choice of music being played at sensible levels just edged ahead once more. Focal presented two elegantly styled rooms this year: one was based on a modernistic European living room and the second was based on a typical British living room. The judges felt that this effort improved on last year's single style rooms and was sufficient to place it just ahead of Naim's radical 'Chill out' room.
The Best Multi-Channel demonstration was a closely run contest with KEF Audio finally winning because the judges were highly impressed by the presentation of Johan Coorg and the quality of the system-especially considering its budget nature. The closest competitors were Meridian and Naim Audio, both of whom delivered striking, impressive multi-channel demonstrations.
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Steve N Harris with Neat Acoustics' Bob Surgeoner |
...and with KEF's Johan Coorg |
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...and with the team from Focal. |
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