WithamFest07

[Paul Barker]

Just make sure nobody upset Nick ever it'll be a hell of a job to fill in all the gaping holes in our stuff without him.

[Dave the bass]

...from the above.
I forgot to mention Max and Steve S bought along two TT's too, each bought its own 'character'. Max in particular changed summink and all of a sudden the sound came alive, dunno what it was TBH. Andrew also connected up some dodgy cheap step ups (kidding) !!!! Very nice sound they made with the LCR pre. So good in fact that I belive they were left in situ for the entire day (?).

Max and his Technics getting a fettle...


Steve S's Oracle in flow...


The Ongaku/Hiels combo was great, he's a clever man that Mr I and entertaining too. Had a good sesh with that little lot. Click on this link to hear and see it in full flow...
http://www.dartfordskatepark.co.uk/d...gakuinflow.avi (2MB download)

As NickG pointed out to me the CS+N LP is a nasty one to test things with, the Ivimey combo worked beautifully IMHO.

Here's Andrew I trying to make the beast levitate!!!



Contd...

[Dave the bass]

...from above...

I think next up was my BOBA, it seemed fitting to follow a £50K super amp with something costing nearer 50p.

It was deemed that BOBA shall be connected to the Heils! And here he is in full flow with a bit of 'America'... http.http://www.dartfordskatepark.co.uk/d...aheilmovie.avi

I think I wasn't the only one who was suprised with how it sounded given the phenominal budget ;-) I don't think Andrew's speakers were overly concerned with the walloping 2/3 watts BOBA was unleashing (also the local power station was happier too I'd imagine).

I think then it was motioned that Steve' Lowthers with they're super efficient horn set-up would work well, and sure enough they did. Here's another poor quality vid.. http://www.dartfordskatepark.co.uk/d...wthermovie.avi notice how it was SO good sounding that T'other Andrew sabotaged the proceedings!!!!!! Just kidding!! Seriously though, thanks to a combination of Tony Moores loaned Alps black volume pot (costing more than BOBA incidently!) and Steve's Lowthers even 2/3 watts was deemed enough. Unfortunatley I think it was Simon 2A3 who said "lets bung on that Metal-licker track"... and BOBA's moment of glory died.....it turned from amp to compressor in a few minutes, sniff. :-) It sounded **** on it, all squidged and lifeless. The plug was pulled but not before some piccies...







Andrew I and NickG have very kindly donated 2 6/13EM7's for the next 'SE lures DTB' project so I can find out what low-power SE can REALLY sound like given a good PSU and o/p TX's. I'll budget properly on the TX's and chokes. That project I hope to start after the Lenco is finished. Cheers for the donations gents, I owe you both and doff my cap.

Cont'd later, got work to do now boo!

DTB

[NickG]

Very nice sound they made with the LCR pre. So good in fact that I belive they were left in situ for the entire day (?).

Just to add to this, it was to prove/experiment with a theory Andrew had about stepup loadings (and he was proved right). but as this involved dismanteling both the S&B's and the front of the phono stage, it wasn't something that could be removed in ten minutes.

The next morning, I reversed the change back to the lundahs, with the loading modifications on, and the same setup worked for them as well.

I think the S&B's are slightly better, but not sure if I could say £200 better though :-)

[The Shadow]

Thanks for the pictures Dave.
You are making this event come alive for those who could not attend.
nice videos and soundbites too

Steve.

[Dave the bass]

...from above...

I think next came an Steve's PX/PT (?) and Lowther combo, I can't find any photo's of that (sorry Steve) I think was having a munch at the 'Sam Buffet Bar' around this time and had my nose sunk into a pint of Titanic.

A crowd shot...



Had a few chats with folks around the back of the room then I think it was Pauls OB's and Simons 300BXLS/GTI/TDi/16v (can't remember all the letters or the combinations of speakers and amps) . Blistering. Really brilliant, even Metallica didn't flatten it. later we tried Simons amp with Martin STL3's and STILL it took Sly and Robbies dub with no problems.

Talking of which, we had a go with the only PP amp at WF, my WD88. I think firstly we used Andrew I's Heils which sounded great and then Steve's Lowthers again...



Really pleased with both combo's, I was glad it can drive all different speakers OK. Later on in the day we tried the '88 with Martin's IPL TL's, he INSISTED we challenge them with bass-heavy musics. Acoustic ska, no prob's, over-dubbed Electric upright via Eberghard Weber, no prob's, Finley Qauye debut, no prob's but a bit blurry on my amp but Simons 300B handled bass differently than my PP. His wasn't as loud but boy O boy was it musical. Also around this time Martin dug out a track on 12" (Madam Medusa-UB40). The combination of Nicks LCR and my PP amp did this to Martins speakers which STILL coped OK with the bass!!! .... http://www.dartfordskatepark.co.uk/d...conewobble.avi

We had some more Sly and Robbie dub from my vynil collection which really worked well IMHO and some System of a down on CD that was the only GGGrrrrrr-style music we had all day, again all great through Martins TL's.

I think Simons 300b amp was the best music wise towards the end of the day, it sounded 'special'.

Simons amp...

Sadly I had to leave, it was 8.00pm and the gents were going to dinner anyway. I left being a very happy but tried chappie, AND with a trophy Thanks again everyone, that was real suprise and much appreciated.

Drive home was fine, got home after a couple of hours and a dinner stop on the way, belly was empty and complaining.

Showed Julie my trophy and went to sleep, in the morning told Julie and the kids all the above. Boy were they interested.....not!

I had a great time, thanks for putting up with me :-)

DTB

[Dave the bass]

Originally Posted by The Shadow

Thanks for the pictures Dave.
You are making this event come alive for those who could not attend.
nice videos and soundbites too

Steve.

My pleasure, it was a hoot.

DTB

[simon2a3]

My thanks also to Martin and Sam for a really good weekend. I also thought the room was good and excellently located!

Dave, very close, just missed the KR at the beginning. Thanks to Paul who had a quick look at the circuit and came up with a nice looking mod to remove the driver cathode bypass cap and associated gubbins and replace with a voltage regulator. Looking forward to trying that.

We heard lots of different kit in various combinations, and whilst some worked better than others (driving the IPLs is a bit of a struggle for low powered SET...) I thought pretty much everything sounded very nice, with the exception of my 401 which was horrible. Not quite sure why that was and I haven't had chance to set everything up again to check it's still okay.

Thinking about things on the drive home I reckon a new phono stage should be my next project. Andrew's idea of C3Gs into my Aikido headphone amp sounds really interesting and I have just the modular breadboards!

Roll on EF5.

Simon.

[Andrew]

Hi Simon,

A new phono would work a treat with those nice KR 300Bs you have. The C3g as a input is James' suggestion I can't take credit for it, I just did a circuit for it. However, in great James tradition all the values are not all filled in, so I will do that over the next few days. The Aikido output to get you going is my own twist, tho' I suspect it will work a treat. PM me for the the C3g circuit. Just to check what are the Aikdio valves?

cheers,

-- Andrew

[colin.hepburn]

Hi All
Well then a good day had by all I would have liked to have been there but alas I live too far way ho well < nothing like this happings up here nice thread Dave I take it you are chuffed with your WD88 and it nice to put a face to you all keep it going lads
Good stuff