The biggest and longest running hi-fi show is back for another year as the Bristol Marriot Hotel opened its doors to hi-fi brands and fans.
The products at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2025 spanned those that had been released in previous months, as well as debuts and a sneak peak of products yet to come. We were there on the show’s first day to have a look around.
From home cinema, to head-fi products and hi-fi kit, here’s the most exciting stuff we saw at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show.
Arcam
We’ve been going through Arcam’s Radia range for the past year but the brand has more to come with a look at its upcoming flagship SA45 streaming amplifier.
Boasting Class G power, you’ve got wide-ranging file format support, plus Bluetooth streaming that includes Snapdragon Sound, LE Audio, and Auracast, features we’ve not often seen in a streaming amplifier.
No pricing is available yet, but despite being announced a while ago, this model is still listed as “coming soon”.
Devialet
French audio brand Devialet arrived at Bristol with its new Astra amplifier. As you’d expect from Devialet, the design was sleek some sci-fi futurism, although at first glance you might think it looked a weighing scale.
This high-end amp boasts a range of wireless connectivity from Roon Ready support to Google Cast, AirPlay, Bluetooth and more. It can drive speakers with 2 x 300W of power, which Deivalet says produces a sound with “zero” distortion and “zero” saturation.
How much does it cost? A cool £14,000.
HifiMan
HifiMan is not, unfortunately, a hi-fi superhero but a brand that mostly specialises in headphones and head-fi. As part of its new products at Bristol, we had a listen to the HE1000 planar magnetic open-backed headphones.
Featuring aluminum frame for lightweight construction, big oval-shaped earcups that have a sizeable amount of padding for a comfortable fit (it reminds us of high-spec Sennheiser headphones) and an “ultra-thin diaphragm” for a fast response and detailed sound, and an absurd frequency response of 8Hz – 65kHz.
We gave the HE1000 a listen and were impressed with its expansive and powerful sound. Not to be confused with the HE1000 V2, this particular version goes for £2499.
Musical Fidelity
Musical Fidelity had two new products at Bristol in the B1xi integrated amplifier and B1xCD.
The first model is a Class AB amp that can drive 50W of power into 8ohms. It’s capable of Bluetooth streaming and has coaxial and optical inputs, and notably, a HDMI ARC input.
The B1xCD’s presence is another sign of CD’s mini-resurgence, and Musical Fidelity say it’s designed to extract as much information from the CD while yielding a low jitter performance. The B1 series looks to make a return this summer.
Morgan Acoustics
Off the beaten path and during our wanderings we had a look at Morgan Acoustics 1012 hi-fi speaker.
We’ve not heard of this brand before, and according to Morgan Acoustics the 1012 (or Ten-12) features a wide frequency bandwidth, “ultra-low” distortion and “exceptional” transient response.
Sitting down to listen the speaker, and we certainly struck by the power and heft of its delivery. There’s no price yet for the 1012 but perhaps one to keep an eye out for.
Pro-Ject
Pro-Ject had three new products on display in the Colourful Audio System 2, Colourful Audio System E and the CD Set E. And yes, the Colourful Audio Systems come in an array of colourful options.
The new products showed a trend towards simple all-in-one vinyl systems where the customer doesn’t have to worry mixing and matching products. Everything is designed to work together seamlessly so you can get on with your listening to your records.
We were also very interested in the CD Set E (£599), as compact discs seem to be coming back into fashion with hi-fi brands.
Quad
Last year we saw the debut of the Wharfedale Denton speaker from IAG. This year it was the return of Quad’s iconic electrosatic speakers in the ESL-2912X.
The last electrostatic speaker from the brand appeared in 2012 (when this writer first started working). The new Quad’s delivered that impressive room-filling sound but also had its trademark soundstage where it’s hard to figure out the origin of the audio. Bass response was impressive too, which should be a poke in the eye for anyone who says electrostatic speakers can’t do bass properly.
The Quad ESL-2912X is due to go on sale summer 2025.
Rega
As usual, Rega turned up with a few new products, and what caught our eye was the Brio Mk7.
The new version of the Brio amplifier keeps the 50W per channel in 8ohm design with Class AB powering its performance, but Rega claims an improved performance with lower noise and distortion, more connections (including coaxial and optical S/PDIF); while the new case allows for more heat to be dissipated.
Pricing for the Brio Mk7 is £799.
Ruark Audio
Ruark was showing off its return to passive speakers after (counts fingers) 18 years away with the R610 + Sabre-R speakers.
We saw a preview of it way back at Munich High End, and it was officially announced in late 2024, but this was the first time we ‘ve had a listen to the speaker. In typical Ruark fashion, it sounded rich with a smooth midrange and crisp highs. We’d be hoping to take a closer look at this speaker system in the next few months.
Optoma
Just like it did last year, Optoma arrived at a hi-fi show with a home cinema projector.
The Optoma Photon Go is an ultra-short throw projector with a built-in battery designed to be used in any room within the home (or even outside). Using RGB triple laser to pump out bright and accurate colours, the Photon Go comes with Google TV for apps and entertainment.
Resolution is 1080p, but it does support HDR10, and it can produce an image of up to 100-inches from just 25cm away. It’s another compact projector looking to convince people to swap their TV for a device that’s more convenient. We’re interested to see where this trend goes. It’s due to launch in April 2025.
WiiM
We’ve been big fans of WiiM with its impressive performance at affordable prices, and at Bristol they showed off two products in the flesh with the Ultra streamer (announced last year) and Vibelink amplifier.
We also got a glimpse of two other products that we don’t think we can openly talk about yet, but we expect more news around Munich High End.
Wilson Benesch
Wilson Benesch turn up with a speaker that’s as radical as you can get in terms of its design. The new Horizon series that made its debut at the event could not be less like those previous speakers.
The model we saw was a farily normal-looking compact loudspeaker, tiny in size considering what Wilson Benesch is known for. But despite its size it produced a spacious, detailed and expansive sound. A change from the usual in terms of aesthetics, but still a high performing speaker.
