Northern Sound & Vision Show

[Andrew]

Ouch, sorry to hear that Peter, here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

cheers,

-- Andrew

[Global]

My daughter is newly recovered from a similar accident!

Get well soon.

Mark

[Stratmangler]

I'm saddened to hear of your injury Peter.

Like a number of us on the BB I was looking forward to meeting you at the show at Manchester Airport - another day maybe.

Mend well

Chris

[petercom]

Thanks for all your sympathy. I am now using voice recognition software for dictation to give the wrist a holiday!

[Dave the bass]

Originally Posted by petercom

Thanks for all your sympathy. I am now using voice recognition software for dictation to give the wrist a holiday!

AKA shouting at the computer

Get well soon,

DTB

[SimonC]

Originally Posted by petercom

Thanks for all your sympathy. I am now using voice recognition software for dictation to give the wrist a holiday!

Peter,

I remember a while back teaching a voice recognition system a whole variety of swear words as shortcuts for my most commonly used commands...it made a nice change to be able to swear at my computer and have it do something useful as a result, instead of the other way round. :-)

Have fun.

Simon C

[IslandPink]

Went to the show yesterday .

Didn’t see any WDers unfortunately . Was anyone else there ? – how about Saturday ? Overall, bit disappointing – not much that sounded very interesting , plenty of stuff there, but not much that was truly exotic or high-end, or even remarkable-sounding . Not as good as two years ago for sure . Too few analogue front-ends . No Nick Besley ( shame ) .

There were some good bits however. Let’s start with the best sound in show :
HiFi World room , late afternoon, when Noel and the guys agreed to hook up the analogue front-end ( Pioneer DD of some type, Hadcock 242, Ortofon cart ) through WD88V amp into the Tannoy Westminster Royal HE speakers . We’d been listening for a while on the B&W 801’s or whatever they are ( big expensive ones with a 15” bass driver ) and it was impressive, with very comfortable low bass , but a rather high-end sound to my taste. When they swapped to the Tannoys, despite them only being run-in for three days ( bass still tight ) the sound suddenly took on a much more sophisticated, delicate and natural sound . Looks like it’s that Alnico again ….no substitute .

What else ?
The little Gamut speakers
http://www.rayofsound.com/gamut_spkr.html#l3
..were nice . Not cheap, but beautifully made and finished , with interesting drivers ( midbass with diagonal cuts on cone, tweeter is a ring-radiator ) – sounded to be doing a very good job despite a transistor power amp .

Midland Audio Exchange had a set-up that was promising . They were risking a £5000 Koetsu Jade Platinum on an SME V on a SME 20 deck as a front end . Had a listen , but the fine signal was degraded stage by stage via Audio Research amps and those big Wilson ( Maxx 2 ? ) speakers and the end result , although powerful, was distinctly ordinary-sounding . He also annoyed me by loading up ‘LA Woman’ by the Doors and insisting on playing ‘Riders on the Storm’ – I mean for god’s sake there are several superb tracks on that album, and it’s not that one !!

Audio Note room .
Almost the same set-up as last time , which made comparisons easier . TT2 front end via Meishu 300B integrated into new versions of ‘E’ speakers with the blue Hemp-cone bass drivers . I reckon they had more tone from the new cones . There’s still the characteristic Audio-Note sound that is a coloured a bit from the cabinets I guess, but the overall effect is very engaging and musical, and a bit more refined now - which could be from softer break-up at the top-end on the bass cones perhaps ? . Those speakers aren’t cheap by DIY standards, but they are very efficient ( claimed 97db but I’d be surprised – maybe 95 ) and better than the majority of the junk available at £2500 in my opinion . They would open the door to the likes of 2A3s and 45s , which has to be a good thing . The guy even had a Pentangle LP in his box, which we played, and it sounded excellent .

I’ll add some more thoughts later .

MJ

[petercom]

Originally Posted by IslandPink

There’s still the characteristic Audio-Note sound that is a coloured a bit from the cabinets I guess, but the overall effect is very engaging and musical, and a bit more refined now - which could be from softer break-up at the top-end on the bass cones perhaps ? . Those speakers aren’t cheap by DIY standards, but they are very efficient ( claimed 97db but I’d be surprised – maybe 95 ) and better than the majority of the junk available at £2500 in my opinion . MJ

'97 dB!, rubbish, you can see the true sensitivity in the stereophile test which indicates around 91 - 92dB sensitivity as one might expect from those drivers. The coloration seems to come from leaving the midrange output of the bass driver to gradually rise to give an apparent high sensitivity output, and then creates a gap where it crosses over to the treble unit. http://www.stereophile.com/standloud...an/index4.html

[IslandPink]

Interesting test detail - I didn't know Stereophile tried so hard these days !
The results do seem to account for some of the character of these speakers, and they always demo them stuck deep into the room corners, so there's no soundstage to speak of . However, somehow they seem to sound better than the tests would suggest . I couldn't see if the Stereophile test was on the new blue coned ones or not , maybe not . They seemed to be a step up from the last ones I heard . It's a big step from 92 to 98 though isn't it ?

Oh, there was another interesting speaker there . Looked like a big Electrostatic but turned out to be a wierd panel speaker with a big sheet ( two layers of thin plastic or mylar, seperated by about 5mm of paper honeycomb ) driven by about 5 little speaker drivers/pistons down the centre . Seemed quite good at first listen, could move some air , but 2nd listen I wasn't sure it was delivering much tone . Meant to stay a bit longer and get a better impression with known music but the designer/promoter seemed to be keeping close control on the material at least when I was in the room . Maybe someone else heard them at length ?

Mark

[Dave_The_Vinyl_Junkie]

Originally Posted by IslandPink

a £5000 Koetsu Jade

They might want to rename that for the UK market at least!

Good God. Five grand for a cartridge! Which is, after all, a consumable item.

I sort of feel a bit like the the kid in the Emporer's New Clothes story when it comes to Koetsu cartridges, they seem hugely overpriced, and appear to sell on hype and reputation alone. Word is that the current crop simply don't sound the same as Koetsu's of old. I bought a Urushi 3 years ago from the well-reputed Hong Kong-based '2juki' reseller on eBay for less than half what they retail for in the UK - which shows how much price-gouging there is by the importer. For about one side in every 10, it can sound exceptional. But most of the time, I'm left wondering what on earth all the fuss is about. I've tried it in countless arms (best was the Illustrious, with the Graham 2.2 it *should* have taken me to audio nirvana but it ended up as some of the most boring audio I've ever heard from my system) and gone through almost all the setup combinations possible, plus 2 sets of step-up transformers and an active head-amp. I keep meaning to eBay it.

My Music Maker is more dynamic and involving, costs a lot less, the high output is perfect for valve phonostages, and I'm a lot less nervous setting it up! Must admit to not having heard a 103R, sounds as though it's even more of a no-brainer, value-wise.

Only my opinion and experience, the usual YMMV disclaimers apply...