Tag: london audio circle

DHT Audio Shootout @ London

Here’s the summary of the shootout day we had yesterday at my place with  Tony Rees and Andy Evans

Test Music

For testing the pre-amps Andy suggested the following 2 tracks:

  1.  Ravel Feria (Cleveland/Boulez)
  2. Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen Act 3 Scene 7 “A vixen’s running through the woods” Prague Theatre/Gregor


The Ravel is orchestrated for a large orchestra and percussion, and listening was particularly for the timbre of strings, brass and woodwind and the clarity of the percussion. The Janacek is for several different voices and chorus, and listening was for the tone and character of the voices and how well they were differentiated from each other. In both cases the overall clarity, life and crispness was considered.

Andy Evans

Although I wasn’t familiarised enough with these 2 tracks myself, I found them to be an excellent choice and a reflection of Andy’s musical experience and knowledge as musician. 

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Starlight Discrete DAC Festival – London 2014

Jon’s ESL 6C4C drivers
Oh, are you taking a picture?
Bipolar discrete DAC ready
Final adjustments to the bipolar DAC guinea pig!
It never goes as planned
One hand is never enough
Jonathan’s Ti48 + DAC

A lot was already said about this fantastic day at Jon’s. The Starlight CD + Discrete DAC festival didn’t go as planned but we had a wonderful time. I had the chance to bring my own Starlight and sounded nice in Jon’s system despite the ground loop issue. Not clear what it was, despite it played well at low AVC levels but not when volume was increased. Perhaps was the load? Anyway, lots of tests from differential DACs to cathode follower outputs and Tom’s bipolar version.

I have to admit that the transformer coupled DAC sounded very transparent and detailed. The valve output gave a warmer tone and even harmonic contribution. The 6N1P implemented as cathode follower was very well received.

Tom’s bipolar DAC implementation is very promising. Clearly the tiny DC bias saturated the AVC and bass wasn’t good. Once we added the coupling PIO it came back to life with a subtle sound I enjoyed very much. Some challenges aside with the ESL resonances which I hope Jon can sort out soon.

Food and hospitality were superb in another unusual warm September day.

Most of all, a great day with fantastic company.

Thank you all

Ale

 

 

London Audio Circle meeting March 2014

20140310-190819.jpg

We had a terrific day at George’s on Saturday. Weather played in our favour and barbecue was on the agenda. I’m not looking to review a fantastic day with the circle members on this post, but just to capture a moment of this day with Susan Parker fitting her new cartridge on George’s Audiomods arm. I contributed with my Phono RIAA stage which was very well received (I think) despite the hum picked up by George’s system unfortunately. Great records played though…

Thanks George for the hospitality and a great day with friends.

Susan’s cartridge grabbed all the attention this day. I wish I could afford it!

Cheers

Ale

 

 

London Audio Circle Meeting – June 2013

Tom's sunrise
Tom’s sunrise project

I arrived late due to some home duties I couldn’t get away from, but just in time for a proper listening session to Tom Browne’s “Sunrise” digital phono project. A superb achievement so far. Jon’s setup is pleasant as fantastic is to see him re-routing cables as his system were a maze (which I personally think it is!). I had a great time listening to different setups of RIAA stages, step up transformers, ADC/DACs and the joy of music and friends.

Better to read (un-biased?) opinions from other members of the group:

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