Been chatting to a fellow forum member over the past couple of weeks about this and that, upgrades, what we've got, what we're thinking of doing etc, normal hi-fi chit-chat stuff and as usual he tells me I need to change my speakers blah blah blah, holding my system back blah blah blah and as usual I sit there thinking it's not me that needs to change my speakers mate... well you know what I mean.
Anyway, he tells me he's got some new speakers (maybe telepathy exists after all?), has done a few tweaks on his amps, has had a bit of a fettle with his CD player and la-di-da-di-da etc, 'why don't I come down for a listen'?
Well, the last time I paid him a vist his system sounded like a cat with somebody standing on it's tail! To be fair his CD player was bust and he was making do with a 'stand-in' CD player, his amps were new (those Bel Canto eVo 2 things), which weren't run-in, and he wasn't using his normal power cables, all-in-all he was a little embarrased as it was clearly the worst his system had ever sounded and he'd hoped that I'd bought my Wadia with me, no such luck.
So, yesterday, as I'd got some hours acrued at work I left early and paid this guy a visit. Knowing that he's a bit of dab hand with a soldering iron and doesn't charge the earth for his work, I took some of my amps down with me thinking that he could do a bit of his tweaking on them if he's not too busy.
Well, when I get down there I ring the door bell and... nothing. I stand there for what seems like a couple minutes thinking 'what do I do now, he's not in' when, to my relief, the door opens and... 'hi Gary, how ya doin' mate'. 'Hoorah', he's in!
We go inside and as I pass through his listening room to the Kitchen/Diner I notice his new speakers and think, 'not much different to the old ones, two bass driver's instead of one, big deal'. Once in the dining room I saw the reason why he didn't answer the door imediately, he'd got a Wadia CD player in pieces on his workbench and had just finished off working on the player. Knowing that I used to work in electronics he showed me what he'd been doing. I was gobsmacked, this bloke is off his rocker, there were custom components all over the place. Most of the standard surface mount stuff on the 4-layer circuit board had been replaced with fancy top-notch custom components, not a job for the feint-hearted! Even in my hey-day I wouldn't contemplate having a go at that sort of thing.
After a cup of coffee and 10 minute detailed tour of the tweaks we get down to business and he shows off his new speakers.
Well you know what it's like when you hear other people's systems, I smiled politely, nodded in the right places, listened intently while he explained how he'd got them and what he'd done to his amps and what he'd done to his CD player etc not really noticing the sound other than it was a bit clinical for my liking. However, as we were chatting I noticed my attention was wandering from what this guy was saying, he was playing the odd excerpt from this track and that track and I was becoming more and more aware that the music was DEMANDING my attention. After about half and hour, the amps had got into their stide and the speaker voice coils had warmed up and I was transfixed!
The dynamic range of this sytem was incredible, he played a track that had a drum intro which sounded like the drum kit was in the room, the slam and punch was unbelieveable. I actually commented that I thought it was too much! I was starting to feel physically ill from the shock waves. He then went on to play an orchestral piece which sounded fabulous, I'm not normally one for that type of music but this system showed that it wasn't just a 'one trick pony' and could handle any genre of music with aplomb. In fact, several hours of listening to every type of music you could think of left me astounded, this system was the finest music reproduction system I've ever heard, bearing in mind that my own Wadia 270/27ix Krell system isn't too shabby. My previous reference point of Midland Audio Exhchange's dCS stack (Verdi, Purcell, Elgar Plus), Krell 700cx and Martin Logan's had been blown out of the water.
Somewhat rather depressed it was time for me to go, I gingerly asked this bloke if there was anything he could do with my amps to which he replied, 'I can get them to about 90% percent of mine" yippee!!!!
I'll be back to visit Wadia-Miester next month to pick up my amps.
Regards
Gary
Anyway, he tells me he's got some new speakers (maybe telepathy exists after all?), has done a few tweaks on his amps, has had a bit of a fettle with his CD player and la-di-da-di-da etc, 'why don't I come down for a listen'?
Well, the last time I paid him a vist his system sounded like a cat with somebody standing on it's tail! To be fair his CD player was bust and he was making do with a 'stand-in' CD player, his amps were new (those Bel Canto eVo 2 things), which weren't run-in, and he wasn't using his normal power cables, all-in-all he was a little embarrased as it was clearly the worst his system had ever sounded and he'd hoped that I'd bought my Wadia with me, no such luck.
So, yesterday, as I'd got some hours acrued at work I left early and paid this guy a visit. Knowing that he's a bit of dab hand with a soldering iron and doesn't charge the earth for his work, I took some of my amps down with me thinking that he could do a bit of his tweaking on them if he's not too busy.
Well, when I get down there I ring the door bell and... nothing. I stand there for what seems like a couple minutes thinking 'what do I do now, he's not in' when, to my relief, the door opens and... 'hi Gary, how ya doin' mate'. 'Hoorah', he's in!
We go inside and as I pass through his listening room to the Kitchen/Diner I notice his new speakers and think, 'not much different to the old ones, two bass driver's instead of one, big deal'. Once in the dining room I saw the reason why he didn't answer the door imediately, he'd got a Wadia CD player in pieces on his workbench and had just finished off working on the player. Knowing that I used to work in electronics he showed me what he'd been doing. I was gobsmacked, this bloke is off his rocker, there were custom components all over the place. Most of the standard surface mount stuff on the 4-layer circuit board had been replaced with fancy top-notch custom components, not a job for the feint-hearted! Even in my hey-day I wouldn't contemplate having a go at that sort of thing.
After a cup of coffee and 10 minute detailed tour of the tweaks we get down to business and he shows off his new speakers.
Well you know what it's like when you hear other people's systems, I smiled politely, nodded in the right places, listened intently while he explained how he'd got them and what he'd done to his amps and what he'd done to his CD player etc not really noticing the sound other than it was a bit clinical for my liking. However, as we were chatting I noticed my attention was wandering from what this guy was saying, he was playing the odd excerpt from this track and that track and I was becoming more and more aware that the music was DEMANDING my attention. After about half and hour, the amps had got into their stide and the speaker voice coils had warmed up and I was transfixed!
The dynamic range of this sytem was incredible, he played a track that had a drum intro which sounded like the drum kit was in the room, the slam and punch was unbelieveable. I actually commented that I thought it was too much! I was starting to feel physically ill from the shock waves. He then went on to play an orchestral piece which sounded fabulous, I'm not normally one for that type of music but this system showed that it wasn't just a 'one trick pony' and could handle any genre of music with aplomb. In fact, several hours of listening to every type of music you could think of left me astounded, this system was the finest music reproduction system I've ever heard, bearing in mind that my own Wadia 270/27ix Krell system isn't too shabby. My previous reference point of Midland Audio Exhchange's dCS stack (Verdi, Purcell, Elgar Plus), Krell 700cx and Martin Logan's had been blown out of the water.
Somewhat rather depressed it was time for me to go, I gingerly asked this bloke if there was anything he could do with my amps to which he replied, 'I can get them to about 90% percent of mine" yippee!!!!
I'll be back to visit Wadia-Miester next month to pick up my amps.
Regards
Gary
Humm, Its got potential I think I'll say for the system.
