Indulgence is three shows in one. You have the Headroom zone which focuses on headphones and portable music players, Audio London on the upper floors covered high-end Hi-Fi.

On the ground floor is the Pure Pleasure zone. This patch was to offer a range of luxury goods including Tesla cars, the Can-Am Trike as well as fine wines and food. Unfortunately, this wasn’t exactly brimming with stalls. But, first year and all that.

The plan was bold and brilliant, but did it work?

The Indulgence Show review

Venue

This was my first visit to the Novotel Hammersmith and it was remarkably easy to find and a mere hop, skip and a jump from Hammersmith Underground station – depending on which exit you used.

The venue is nice and airy and the show organisers had done a great job with the signposting. This meant no confused and lost souls hovering in the corridors. Even though the show was laid out across four huge floors, thanks to the signage and the show guide, I could always find what I was looking for.

First night

My first visit was to the pop up Marquee Club event on the Friday night.

This was definitely a test as, after a long day, I had to find my way not only to the hotel, but to the ‘venue’. That I did, and enjoyed a brilliant band made up of seasoned professionals.

Classic rock tunes that made the Marquee *the* destination were faithfully restored with all the energy of the originals.

The show

The Indulgence Show was billed as a lifestyle event and I started at the bottom, on the ground floor, with the cunning plan to work my way upwards.

Pure Pleasure

Here were opportunities to taste wine, check out fine food and, I believe the plan was, to also include other fancy goods such as premium luggage and the like.

As I have already mentioned, the luxury goods were a little thin on the ground but it did not feel like a floor of empty stalls.
I was greeted by the fabulous looking BRP Can-Am Trike. Sat next to it was a Tesla, so far so good.

Wandering around this area I found DALI’s Katch had its own stand and newly rebranded Convert Technologies were there with their Plato streaming all-in-one.

The Marquee Club also had a stand in this section selling merch, records and guitars.

After having a quick noodle around with one of Yamaha’s rather tasty sounding THR portable guitar combos, it was up and at ’em.

Audio London – mezzanine

Here was the first taste of what the upper floors had in store.

Big hitters such as Rega, Naim, Meridian all had a presence here.

It was good to see Rega with plenty of space to show their wares. I’ve generally seen them shoved in a tiny bedroom.

Devialet had their gold Phantoms out (ooooer missus). Even silent these speakers make a statement.

Of course, Devialet also brought along their Expert 220/440. This highly polished performer was paired with the very excellent Kef Blades.

The mezzanine is also where you could find various publications, including this rather dubious one 😉

Headroom

A huge pair of headphones made no bones about where you are now. This is the area handed over to portable audio and head-fi.

On my whistle-stop tour I said hi to Iron Maiden’s iconic mascot, Eddie, who has his own Ed-Phon3s thanks to Onkyo.

Around the corner was a bunch of Schiit. It was good to see this stand busy with people wanting to find out more about this Schiit.

Next door to Electromod’s pile of Schiit was new-comer, Sonoma.

Sonoma are debuting their electrostatic headphones which come bundled with their unique energiser. It’s unique as it will not work with other electrostatic cans, such as Stax. It is also designed to be an all-in-one solution as it contains an amp and DAC so only requires a source. I hope to get some more time with it soon, it sounded pretty darned good to me at the show though.

This floor was also host to the Marquee Club pop-up and Yamaha Music.

Audio London

After a visit to the bar to re-hydrate (beer is mostly water isn’t it?),  it was time to delve in to even more high-end Hi-Fi.

On the second floor you could find Bowers & Wilkins, PMC, Cyrus, Leema, Chord Electronics, DALI and more.

The third floor was home to CAD (Computer Audio Design), Arcam, Michell, and Musical Fidelity. The latter were showing off their new NuVista and Encore products.Also here were GIK Acoustics and Connected Distribution, amongst others.

The Indulgence Show 2016 conclusion

This was a bold project, to host such a large show right from the get go. For me, the organisers certainly pulled it off.

The stands and rooms were excellently presented and the holders I spoke to all said that load in and set up was well managed.

Foot traffic seemed low to me but I think that this was due to a couple of factors. The main one, I feel, is that there was much more space than any other UK Hi-Fi/Lifestyle show I’ve visited before. This is a good thing.

The other is that this is just the first show. Just as Headroom grew in to popular destination, I am sure that Indulgence will be bigger and better next year.

I, for one, am looking forward to it and hope to spend more time there next year.

More photos can be found over on our sister site, Hifi Pig.