What a Weekend: Black Ravioli at the UK Hi-Fi & AV Show

It’s difficult to know quite where to start with our weekend at the UK Hi-Fi & AV Show.

In fact, our weekend really started on Wednesday night, when, while loading the van ready for the journey south, I managed to have an accident and tear my bicep. Not exactly ideal preparation for an exhibition!

We travelled down on Thursday and, having made it to the hotel, later found ourselves sitting at the bar. A gentleman sitting nearby noticed the rather impressive bruising on my arm and asked what had happened.

That started a conversation.

Naturally, being in the hotel hosting the Expo, we assumed he may also be there for the show. We got talking, ended up spending the evening together and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

We had absolutely no idea who he was.

It was only after we exchanged details that we discovered we had spent the evening with a movie star!

Had I not torn my bicep the night before, there’s every chance we might never have spoken in the first place.

What has been even more remarkable is the interest he has taken in what we are doing at Black Ravioli since then. I won’t embarrass him by saying too much here, but it was a completely unexpected and rather wonderful way to begin the trip.

Thankfully, Friday was a little less eventful. We had the day to get the stand set up, get both systems running and properly test the analogue and digital demonstrations before the show opened. Once we were happy with everything, we actually had the rest of the day to ourselves before what we knew would be a very busy weekend.

After months of preparation, it was a good feeling to finally see the Black Ravioli stand come together, with the demonstrations ready and our StereoNET Applause Awards proudly on display.

A few people to thank

Before I go any further, I have to give a massive thank you to Justin Bird for all the hard work he puts into making the show happen and, personally, for giving me the opportunity to bring Black Ravioli along and put our products in front of so many people.

For a small Family company like ours, having the opportunity to demonstrate the products and let people make up their own minds is incredibly important. I’m very grateful to Justin for giving us that opportunity.

A particular thank you also has to go to Garry and Gordon at GSL Branding, who made sure we arrived with a stand we could genuinely be proud of.

I’d also like to personally thank the show TEAM Martin Windebanks, Glenn Le Santo and Orla Ottesen-Phelps for all their help over the weekend. There is a huge amount of work involved in putting something like this together, and I couldn’t have done it without the help I had around me.

And needless to say, a very special thank you to the "Captain" William Campbell, who stayed behind in Scotland and took on perhaps the most important responsibility of the weekend: looking after my dog!

Knowing everything was being taken care of back home allowed us to concentrate on the show, so his contribution certainly didn’t go unnoticed.

Hearing is believing

The real reason we were there, of course, was to demonstrate.

We ran analogue and digital A-B demonstrations throughout both days, giving people the opportunity to listen and make up their own minds about what the Black Ravioli products were bringing to the system.

The response was quite something.

On the digital side, we demonstrated the Next Level Grounds (NLGs) on an Innuos ZENmini Mk3 music server and its separate power supply.

This produced some of the most memorable reactions of the entire weekend.

On the analogue side we were able to demonstrate the Black Ravioli approach in a completely different environment, again using A-B demonstrations rather than asking anyone simply to accept what we were telling them.

That was really the whole point of being there.

We can talk about our products and explain the thinking behind them, but nothing replaces putting the headphones on somebody and letting them hear it for themselves.

The well wishes, encouragement and response to the demonstrations over the two days were unbelievable.

It was particularly rewarding to meet people who had come to the show especially to see us, as well as those who stopped to tell us they were pleased Black Ravioli was there.

After all the work that has gone into changing the direction of the company and taking Black Ravioli directly to our customers, those conversations meant a great deal.

And, of course, a huge thank you to everyone who purchased Black Ravioli products at the show.

We will be following up personally with every one of you, even if we have already had the opportunity to speak since the weekend.

32 hours of footage...

We filmed the demonstrations throughout the entire weekend and somehow came home with around 32 hours of footage to edit across the analogue and digital demonstrations.

So please bear with us. It’s going to take a little while to work through it all properly!

Some of the reactions we captured are quite extraordinary, particularly during the NLG demonstrations on the Innuos ZENmini Mk3 and its power supply.

There are moments we simply couldn’t have scripted.

And that, for us, is what makes the footage so valuable.

These are people hearing the products for themselves, often for the first time, in a straightforward A-B demonstration and giving us their immediate reaction to what they heard.

Most people were also kind enough to allow us to use their footage, so over the coming weeks we’ll begin sharing some of those demonstrations and reactions.

There is a lot to get through, but having started looking back at what we captured, I genuinely can’t wait to put it together.

Independent coverage

It was also great to see independent coverage of the show appearing so quickly.

Th3RealSpot has produced an excellent YouTube video covering the weekend, and Black Ravioli appears at around the 26-minute mark.

The shout-out was awesome.

It was particularly encouraging to see independent press recognising what we are doing and the importance of products that can actually be put into an A-B demonstration for individual listeners and improve the music on equipment you already own. 

For us, that is what matters. 

We would much rather demonstrate what Black Ravioli does and let somebody decide for themselves than simply tell them what they should be hearing.

Hearing is believing.

Next stop: Scotland

And we’re going to do it all again.

Following the response we received over the weekend, we’ll be taking the team and the demonstrations to The Scottish Hi-Fi Show on the weekend of 31 October and 1 November At Hilton Doubletree Edinburgh Airport. Entry is free when booked in advance

It will be particularly nice to bring the demonstration back for our 2nd year in a row, this year with the addition of the successful NLG demo on home soil.

For anyone who couldn’t make the journey to see us this time, we hope we’ll get the chance to meet you in Scotland and let you hear the products for yourself.

Hopefully my arm will be in slightly better condition by then too!

And finally... did you win?

We also ran our free prize draw throughout the weekend, and I know quite a few people have been waiting to find out the result.

There were two prizes:

A Black Ravioli product of the winner’s choosing

and

A bottle of 16-year-old Aberlour Single Malt Whisky.

The draw has now been made.

The winner of the Black Ravioli product is:

Ray Francois

And the winner of the 16-year-old Aberlour is:

Nick Mcauley

Congratulations to you both. I’ll be in touch personally to arrange your prizes.

To everyone else who entered, thank you for taking part and, more importantly, thank you for taking an interest in Black Ravioli and what we are doing.

It was a tiring few days, particularly with one functioning arm, but meeting everyone made it completely worthwhile.

We came home with around 32 hours of footage, some extraordinary reactions, plenty of ideas and, most importantly, a huge amount of encouragement from the people who took the time to listen.

Thank you to everyone who visited us, everyone who took a demonstration, everyone who bought from us, those who came specifically to find us and everyone who simply stopped by to offer their support.

It was genuinely appreciated.

There is much more to come.

Tom Ethell
Black Ravioli