Flatty's turntable bake off...

BlueEyes and anyone else in or near London, I'm happy to host a London TT gathering if there is interest.

Not on the scale of Andrew's as my place won't comfortably hold so many people but perhaps 4 people + decks is manageable.

We can put as much effort as we like into the needledrops, or none at all if people don't want them but I think they can serve a useful purpose. We can do things such as calibrate levels before the recording - so be as anal about things as people want
PM if interested.

 

Rob I have pm'd you.

 

I will do it with pleasure with my PL-71, and believe it or not I have no problem with you doing any form of digital recording. I wouldn't do it in my system with a computer connected as I can hear it on the TT reproduction. This though is one of the by products of my computer audio bake-off that I haven't talked about yet, but I am now pretty much convinced it is not so much the digital per se as the power supplies, because figlets box didn't mess up my PL-71's music where as a couple of others did. I kept sneaking a record on when people were chatting or eating

To be honest the only thing worrying me is using a Quad 405 and active filtered pre-amp. Call it predudice but a really do not like them and I think they block differences other amps would show. I love the ESL57's though, and obviously I have never heard the sprogs effort.

 

Quad 306 is the power amp (though have a 303 and 405) and the speaker will be Rogers Export Monitor. ESLs are not a good choice for this type of event - anyone off axis loses the top end.

We disagree on the active pre and filters issue, but the recordings bypass most of the system of course. Whatever the view on the system, the fact remains that most people don't use ultra-simple stripped down electronics, and their speakers have crossovers using more than two components. They still have to choose TTs to work in those systems and have done for many decades, so these events have to have some merit.
BTW, the Export crossover is only 2nd order electrical - none of the complexity seen in the LS3/5.

I'd suggest visit one weekend and just listen. You might get a pleasant surprise
Alternatively if you don't like the system you can skip the bake-off.
Happy to pop the ESLs on for a private visit as you can then hear them properly.

The bake wouldn't be for a couple of months.