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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2019 8:41:11 GMT
Tomorrow sees the return of Steve (STD305 on AoS) visit, for a little listen to the new rig.
He hasn't been up since I moved to the DCB1 and Krell KSA100.
We have the Firebottle Vivant phonostage here and we're gonna do a little bakeoff between that and the phonostage in Steve's Nakamichi CA5.
Its widely reported as being pretty special as it was designed by Nelson Pass. I have wanted to hear one for a while so I am looking forward to that.
Unfortunately, I haven't got a Bigbottle phonostage to compare with at the minute as it's still under construction. I'm disappointed but it can't be helped. Steve is also building a Bigbottle phonostage so it would have been nice for him to get a listen.
I'll add some pictures tomorrow
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Post by antonio on Jan 5, 2019 9:44:05 GMT
Enjoy the day, would love to hear your SP10 sometime.
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Post by savvypaul on Jan 5, 2019 9:48:28 GMT
Have a good one. Look forward to write up and photos.
+1 to hear your SP10
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2019 20:19:47 GMT
Thanks Dave, Paul.
You are both more than welcome to visit the Midlands for a get together. Bring your phonostage or anything that we can have a listen to.
It's only a small space but it will have to do for now!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2019 20:28:21 GMT
Sh#t if i hadn't gave me NVA phono 2 x 2 PSU'S away to Ali Tait......i might have headed South and embarrassed you Ollie.
Westie.....you still got the Soneteer Alabaster.
Now thats a fukin good phono.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2019 22:09:06 GMT
Sh#t if i hadn't gave me NVA phono 2 x 2 PSU'S away to Ali Tait......i might have headed South and embarrassed you Ollie. Westie.....you still got the Soneteer Alabaster. Now thats a fukin good phono. Lol, mate, There'd be no red faces here 😉 I checked. |
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Post by alit on Jan 6, 2019 15:13:10 GMT
Still have the NVA, wanted to compare it to my Modwright when I have a vinyl set up again. That might be some time though.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2019 15:28:15 GMT
Look forward to your findings Ali.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2019 19:11:22 GMT
Today i had the supreme pleasure of hosting a little digital bakeoff at my humble abode. The real purpose of this was so that Steve (STD305) could come and have a listen to the Krell KSA100 MK2. Now as 90% of the gear listened to was owned by me, I am not going to say anything about how my system performed, i will leave that to Steve and i will post his AoS response here too. What i will say is what was used and how i felt it ranked. System used was: 1.2A DCB1 with Khozmo preamp. SPOTFIRE Cables Krell KSA100 MK2 SPOTFIRE Speaker Cables Pioneer CS-77A First up was the Recently loaned to me Raspberry Pi With Allo Boss DAC:  I have been so impressed by this little thing that i had to buy one. I just can't fathom how this little unit does so much good for so little money. Before any one says "why is there a record weight on there" It's there to hold it down! It's too lght and the cables just move it where ever they want. If anyone wants to know what i think of this Pi, read here: theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?62032-Raspberry-pi-and-the-delights-of-invisible-media! We listened to a few tracks, discussed what we heard and decided to compare it to Steves GBP1200 Cyrus CD player:  We used Steve Miller for this one and in about 30 seconds, Steve turned it off. "That sounds Sh#t!" We tried another CD and it sounded better but to me, it didn't reach the HD levels of the Pi. We were a little surprised and to be honest, we laughed a bit too. This little box of Pi was kicking Ass. I then threw my Sony CDP into the Mix. It came to me via the generousity of Macca so it really owed nothing at all :  Once again we laughed. The feebie Sony was prefered to the Cyrus but still sits well behind the Pi. What is this little gadget doing to all of my pre conceived ideas of HIFI!!! In next went a left field CDP. My Yamaha CDP- 385 (?) Unfortunatly, i didnt take a Pic!! This was when things became very interesting. The Pi, or me was still better but this closed the gap. It showed the Sony to be muddy, almost smeared. It also had a little more richness or "luxury" in the mids compared to the Pi but it coudnt match the Pi's HF quality. Again though, the Cyrus was lacking in the rankings now dropping to fourth against the PI, Yamaha and the Sony. We were very surprised. So surprised we spent the next 30 minutes looking at Pi's for Steve lol. We also played a bit of vinyl but as that was all my gear, i'll leave Steve to describe how he thought it sounded. Overall, a great day and totally interesting to see how everything compared. A few gratuitous pics of the rig:    |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2019 19:13:10 GMT
Still have the NVA, wanted to compare it to my Modwright when I have a vinyl set up again. That might be some time though. Be interested in your thought on that Ali, Feel free to share a write-up here at AA. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2019 19:23:32 GMT
Only Raspberry Pi im intrested in is the edible kind, luvely with custard.
Listen im a ludite Dinosaur best put me hand up now......im happy with cd / vinyl / cassette...... you know something you can actually fukin hold / own.
Why would i want to embrace this latest bullshit fad.....ffs.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2019 19:53:58 GMT
Only Raspberry Pi im intrested in is the edible kind, luvely with custard. Listen im a ludite Dinosaur best put me hand up now......im happy with cd / vinyl / cassette...... you know something you can actually fukin hold / own. Why would i want to embrace this latest bullshit fad.....ffs. I felt the same. BUT i have a Sh#t ton of file based music that i couldn't listen too. Other attempts to get god replay have failed miserably so i gave it a go. If you have no file based library, you don't need it! |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jan 6, 2019 22:24:39 GMT
Sh#t if i hadn't gave me NVA phono 2 x 2 PSU'S away to Ali Tait......i might have headed South and embarrassed you Ollie. Westie.....you still got the Soneteer Alabaster. Now thats a fukin good phono. Lol, mate, There'd be no red faces here 😉 I checked. I sold it as I don’t have vinyl right now and I wanted a lower box count. They come up regularly so I expect to get another when I get vinyl running again. I’m not in anyone position to set up and run a turntable right now, but it will come.....and so will another Sonneteer Sedley. |
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Post by antonio on Jan 7, 2019 6:11:39 GMT
Pleased the day went well, and some nice pics.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 10:12:22 GMT
Pleased the day went well, and some nice pics. Thanks Dave. Yes it was a nice little bakeoff. No pressure on anything as it wasn't a competition. We listened to some good tracks and to be fair, when Steve was waterey eyed after listening to Albert King-The very thought of you, I knew my vinyl side was as good as I believed it to be. Goosebumps all over too. Superb. The best bit was the critique on the speakers. Previous meetups has shown a bit of criticism for the pioneers but I've worked on taming the bass in the room and it's really paid off. I no longer feel they are the weakest link in the chain. Now they perform really well too. A good day. |
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Post by savvypaul on Jan 7, 2019 10:31:05 GMT
Thanks for photos and write-up, Oliver. I always enjoy when people share their experiences. I heard a Pi, briefly, at one of my bake-offs, a few days after my mate had bought it. He was just getting used to the configuration options and starting to think about power supplies. I'm hoping he'll bring it back again, soon, for a longer listen. At the bake-off I did get put off by splashy cymbal and over brightness but he reckons that the power supply is a big part of fixing that. He has also added a 'DigiOne' which he raves about...but i haven't worked out what that actually is, yet!!  |
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Post by antonio on Jan 7, 2019 11:03:59 GMT
Never heard Pioneer speakers, only TAD which were sublime. Speakers are, IMO the most personal of hifi components. Looking at your amp/tt one might expect the speakers to be the 'weak link', but you may have to pay £000's to find something you feel betters them.
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Post by savvypaul on Jan 7, 2019 11:12:15 GMT
If you have the Pioneer CS77'S...I think?
I would be in no rush to sell them. They tick a lot of boxes in what I would be looking for.
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Post by alit on Jan 7, 2019 11:20:32 GMT
Still have the NVA, wanted to compare it to my Modwright when I have a vinyl set up again. That might be some time though. Be interested in your thought on that Ali, Feel free to share a write-up here at AA. Will do at some point, though all my vinyl gear is in storage at the moment, can’t see that changing any time soon. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 11:30:32 GMT
Be interested in your thought on that Ali, Feel free to share a write-up here at AA. Will do at some point, though all my vinyl gear is in storage at the moment, can’t see that changing any time soon. So there's a Modwright sat there not being used! Outrageous lol. |
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Post by macca on Jan 7, 2019 13:07:41 GMT
Never heard Pioneer speakers, only TAD which were sublime. Speakers are, IMO the most personal of hifi components. Looking at your amp/tt one might expect the speakers to be the 'weak link', but you may have to pay £000's to find something you feel betters them. The speakers are the weakest link in Ollie's system but only because the rest of it is so good they don't do it full justice. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 13:49:21 GMT
Will do at some point, though all my vinyl gear is in storage at the moment, can’t see that changing any time soon. So there's a Modwright sat there not being used! Outrageous lol. Aye......fukin outrageous indeed.....ffs. 🙈🙉🙊 C,mon Biggy....had it been a Lector, Burmeister, Audio Research, Nagra, etc etc etc |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 15:03:29 GMT
So there's a Modwright sat there not being used! Outrageous lol. Aye......fukin outrageous indeed.....ffs. 🙈🙉🙊 C,mon Biggy....had it been a Lector, Burmeister, Audio Research, Nagra, etc etc etc What do you mean? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 15:17:27 GMT
Aye......fukin outrageous indeed.....ffs. 🙈🙉🙊 C,mon Biggy....had it been a Lector, Burmeister, Audio Research, Nagra, etc etc etc What do you mean? What do you mean, what do I mean ? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 15:33:52 GMT
What do you mean, what do I mean ? I'm more confused lol. Don't worry, probably just my tired brain not aligning the ducks correctly |
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Post by alit on Jan 8, 2019 13:16:37 GMT
Aye but it’s mine aaalll miiinnnee..
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 17:49:55 GMT
Sh#t even im confused now.
Wots all yours Ali ?
Ducks...!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 21:58:57 GMT
Never heard Pioneer speakers, only TAD which were sublime. Speakers are, IMO the most personal of hifi components. Looking at your amp/tt one might expect the speakers to be the 'weak link', but you may have to pay £000's to find something you feel betters them. The speakers are the weakest link in Ollie's system but only because the rest of it is so good they don't do it full justice. I agreed with Macca when he came down for a visit. His attention was drawn to the colouration of the mids and the excess of bass from the speakers which is basically down to the lack of isolation from the suspended floor. Since that Visit, the DCB1 has been replaced by a far better version, which unbeknown to me, would clean the bass up substantially. There is also a few more egg boxes dotted around to tame reflections a little and to me, and Steve, The speakers are definitely reaping the benefits. Whilst i am hesitant to say they are now perfect or close to, they are FAR better than before. In terms of the relation in quality to the TT, Amp and pre.....I know there IS better out there than the pioneer and ultimately i do need to upgrade to get the best from the surrounding gear. The trouble is, i absolutely love these speakers. I will be getting a loan of Macca's JMLabs when his Tannoys are delivered and i am told there will be a significant improvement. If this is the Case and Macca want some money for them, i will dip my hand into the savings and buy them. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 22:02:17 GMT
If you have the Pioneer CS77'S...I think? I would be in no rush to sell them. They tick a lot of boxes in what I would be looking for. They are the CS-77A They are a superb speaker when you treat them well. I absolutely adore them and have only heard 2 pairs of speakers i'd let them go for. Yamaha NS1000M and Macca's JMLabs. oh, and that huge pair of JBL's which cost 11 grand lol |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 22:06:40 GMT
Thanks for photos and write-up, Oliver. I always enjoy when people share their experiences. I heard a Pi, briefly, at one of my bake-offs, a few days after my mate had bought it. He was just getting used to the configuration options and starting to think about power supplies. I'm hoping he'll bring it back again, soon, for a longer listen. At the bake-off I did get put off by splashy cymbal and over brightness but he reckons that the power supply is a big part of fixing that. He has also added a 'DigiOne' which he raves about...but i haven't worked out what that actually is, yet!! What i have found with the Pi is that the PSU makes a difference. I was using the wall-wart and it sounded great. I swapped to a better plug (HuaWei High speed charger) and it got better. I have ordered a LPSU for it and if it ha the same efect, it's 40quid well spent. I have noticed on certain albums that things can get a bit bright and splashy but the better the File or mix, the better it gets. It's the first digital replay device i have had here that is transparent enough to clearly demonstrate a Sh#t mix or a bad bit of engineering. I am not saying it's better than ABC but its been an eyeopener. |
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