The Bigblog!

   

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It's not being used 🤷🏻

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PM answered and thank you to both of you .

FFS..

What is it with delivery companies, they just don't give a Sh#t and make us pay insurance so they can f*ck it up without consequences.

Assuming so

It can be sorted, but at who's cost. That's the real question.

Seller has been in touch and Ive given him a couple of options, so let's see what he thinks.

Don't you just LOVE HiFi!

Seriously good session today. I have had a great time sitting down and trying out a new preamp, a vintage CDT with a new Superclock fitted and the now repaired Novafidelity X50D.

I'll start with the Superclock...

Should it make any difference? I dont know, but for the first 45 minutes i was hovering over the "send" button to send a message to Alan to tell him that we have to take it out. Alan had kindly fitted a Superclock into the Kenwood CDT, and when i first listened to it, it sounded rolled off, muddy and flat. Completely the opposite of how it sounded before. Thankfully, it started to come to life after approximately 1.5hrs, and after 2.5hrs, it was sweet as a nut.

My only previous gripe with the Kenwood DP-X9010 was that it could sound a little digitally. A bit sharp on the leading edge.

Now, it's completely gone. It's bloody brilliant. One album that highlighted this is TalkTalk - The Colour of Spring. There are some great little fleeting snippets of instruments popping out of the soundstage in the opening track, but the high hat sounded overly aggressive to me. With the superclock in, it's not changed the tonality, but it's increased fluidity and that high hat is no longer as aggressively pushed into your face. Today is the first time i have made it though the entire album without thinking about what i am hearing, and just enjoyed it.

I have also been listening to the very first releases of Tango in the Night and Rumours, and again, they were quite a tough listen previously, sounding thin, edgy and lightweight, but it was far easier to endure today and i found myself thinking about how much easier it was to listen to. I tried a few well recorded pieces too, albums from Lambchop, Peter Schneider and Eva Cassidy, and the fluidly really bowled me over.

The superclock cost me £17 i think, and i think it's well worth the cost at 10x the price. What a fabulous CDT this is.

The original Clock was on this flexible PCB! WOW!



New clock in place. Unfortunately much larger, so it wouldn't go back under the shield.





The X50D returned today, and i have to give a massive thanks to Nigel at SCV. It was out of my possession for 48hrs max...wonderful service. I didn't get a lot of time with it as i had togo to work, but i plan to se it up properly tomorrow and give it a good thrashing! Glad it's working though, and the 5mins of "Midlake" i listened to sounded fabulous.

So, you must be wondering what this "new" preamp is that i am listening to....

Its a......TVC. Transformer Volume Control, for those who weren't sure of the acronym.

Many years ago I had a Dave Slagle preamp (AVC). I was told "it's wonderful, one of the best preamps of all time!" .......it wasn't. I moved it on, and moved on. However, the glaring hole in my experience database is that up until now it's the ONLY TVC/AVC I have had in the system. I was given the opportunity to buy some transformers, so i did. I am not going to say what they are just yet, but if i tell you they were used in the earlier Music First preamps, you'll get the idea of what they are.

They don't look like much to write home about in the test box, but performance is stellar! :



The listening has been very good. I have been pleasantly surprised by how closely they compare to the BT2's tonal spectrum. From my experience with the Slagle AVCs, i had expected a much warmer sound, but they are as equally as neutral in voice as the BT2, which is absolutely fantastic. Resolution is high, certainly high enough that i am not aware that i am missing anything from the music, and the soundstage is equally as big. The difference between the two so far is the pinpoint soundstage placement of the BT2. The TVC's are good, in fact, very good...but they're not AS precise as the BT2 in soundstage placement. Due to that, the soundstage isn't as clean...so not as much space front to back or side to side. I am also pretty convinced that the exhaustive channel matching that goes into the BT2 is paying a dividend too, as the channel separation seems greater via the BT2, too. Those instruments popping out of the soundstage on TalkTalk, well, they don't appear to be as quick to appear, or as quick to disappear. It's hard to explain, and in 90% of peoples experience it may be called negligible, but we work in the fine margins here. The same happens with Pink Floyds - The wall album. It's like the BT2 reacts just that little bit faster at the start and end of fast punctuations in the music. It's a small thing, and it doesn't change my enjoyment level, but in order to deliberate on what i hear, one must try to describe these things.

All this aside, if i didn't own a BT2 and I needed a preamp, these transformers would be absolutely hitting the spot here. Great sound from them. They have been in the system all day, and i havent felt like they needed to come out, which is a ringing (inside joke) endorsement. What lovely things.

It's been fun to play with equipment again and try a few different things out.

That's why i bought the X50D. I know in my mind how i felt when the TEAC and X50D went against each other, and the plan is to do that with the DP-x9010. In truth, the first few minutes i listened to via the X50D sounded bloody great, but that's with a new BNC to RCA cable i have made, which i have not talked about yet, but will. I really wanted to pull the trigger on that TEAC, but this Kenwood has muddied the water. I need to compare it to the X50D to see where it's performance sits. Personally, i suspect it will be right up there. I really am a huge fan of it.

I will try a few cables and compare the X50D to the 9010 in the coming days. It's very exciting to hear such wonderful sound from your system, especially with a different preamp too. I'll put the BT2 back in for the comparisons though.

Is this the biggest U turn since ticket office closures were stopped? 🤔🤣

£2000 for an extra 5% - Bargain 😂