Jaw-dropping experiences - post them

Evening Rob, try it again, I posted the wrong link!

Not awake yet, still getting used to Aussie time!

It was meant to be Schubert, not Ibert!
 
Dev said:
Have a word with Steve. He's very helpful.
Click to expand...

Hi Dev,

Actually I dare not. I just know they will sound much better in Steves cabinets!!! And then I won't enjoy mine as much.......

And to be honest, my room is quite long but rather narrow which means not enough space to squeeze in big boxes.

Also, I think I should keep these speakers original. This early HPD 10" model which uses the older style cabinet and apricot coloured crossover unit (ie similar to 111LZ) was only produced for about a year and there seems to be much less of them around than the bigger Mansfields and Amesburys. Google searches for Chevening bring up virtually nothing other than Japanese links! I can imagine they would be quite popular in the east. Audiophiles there have long appreciated the Dual Concentric and the little models are much easier to ship over there.

However my long term aim is eventually to get a 15" Tannoy. It may have to wait until I move house though. Then I can add jaw dropping experience no 7!!
 
The first time I heard some Rogers LS3/5a's at the end of a Sugden A28 amp.
It was somewhere in the mid 80's at a big HiFi-show in Holland.

Another jaw-dropping experience was, when I heard a simple, affordable system consisting of a Naim Nait 2, Rega Planar 3 and some cheap Mission 760SE's on Target stands. This little system was just sooo musically involving, mainly due to the little Nait 2! (this was at a friends house, around 1993)

In the late 90's I experienced the beautifull musical synergy between the British Sonneteer Alabaster integrated amp and the small PENaudio Charisma speakers from Finland. A very natural, deep and wide 3D soundstage with loads of detail and involvement. This combo is still being demonstrated on a daily basis, at the only dealer in Holland, Rinsma HiFi.

That's about it for now I think...

cheers,
Alco :cool:
 
1 Quad 57s in the Quad room at the Harrogate show

2 Isobariks driven by Electrocompaniet 25W kit, also at Harrogate, in the Syrinx room I think

3 Quad 2905s driven by Audio Synthesis electronics
 
Dev said:
OK, please yourself! :D


I thoroughly recommend Canterbury or Westminsters:D.
Click to expand...

Yesterday I was invited to a bake-off up in the mountains, around 150 Kms from where I live. A pair of 15" Tannoys driven by a humble Audio Note Oto amp. Jaw-dropping? I bettcha :eek:.

Here's a (bad) pic taken with the phone. Bathed in sunlight, of course...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Regards,

Vincula
 
Not a monster 'wow - that's wonderful' jaw-dropper, but a real conceptual turning point was the first time I powered an iPod dock - only sending digital - with a linear external PSU: WHAT could POSSIBLY be happening here? That little audition was the entrance to the rabbit hole for me . . .

That, and hearing Oxygene at age 8.

And, at an uncle's house, a big orchestral piece (- dunno) played through some LS3/5a's and some other audiophool gear (- dunno) at age 12.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
UK Duty Paid said:
In Audio it was hearing a pair of Electrofluidics

I was already planning on getting Jordan drivers but I did not have a clue about how different these speakers would be from all others I had heard.

I've been grateful ever since.

Non Audio it was looking at a Lowry painting in my girlfriend's house & realising it was an original & not a good reproduction. Would you believe he sold these for around £200 in the early 60's?
Click to expand...

Patrick Handscombe (owner of Electrofluidics and inventor of these amazing speakers) Designed 2 versions of these Speakers The FR1.1 's which had a single woofer and high freq' driver but with a ported cabinet. Followed by the FR2.2's which had 2 of each driver in a sealed enclosure. He then designed the FR1 which he manufactured with Tom Evans, these were made of a very lightweight sealed enclosure with a single full range Ted Jordon driver. He was trying fora fully phase linear design. Hence excluding a crossover. I think that Patrick only made about 60 pairs of the FR2.2's which sold for around £6500 retail. My son still has a pair of FR1.1's. He then made his 20/20 speaker cable.
 
The Single driver Jordan units were called the Eikos FR1 - well reviewed when they came out but the foam enclosure was not very durable & flexed under pressure (I have a review here of them). My own sealed cabinets measured better with around 6 litre as opposed to the 4.5 litre of the Eikos FR1.

IFIRC the units I heard had 2 bass units Jx125's & 2 JX63's in the Handscombe resin enclosure. The Eikos FR1 was to be the joint venture with Tom Evans & marketed with a variety of colour finishes. A similar small speaker design concept was marketed by Rogers at the time but the market bottomed out & the attempt was a failure. I never heard these units.
 
Iv'e just had one, I was tinkering like you do and listening to some music via the tv surround system as my blu ray has a wireless card, so I stuck a set of interconnect cables from my blu ray player into my hifi amp and bingo it worked, not only did it work but it sounds bloody great considering it's only mp3's from my laptop, looks like i will need some propper streaming kit now
 
So try some lossless files, will it play those? You might find the output of the player is perfectly good.
 
for all it's worth, having tried speaker cables to go and perform good to my ears and make love to my tannoy's i have now reached the fulcrum point on the LAT SS 1000 MK2'S having tried, atlas mavros, nordost red dawn, and various others, etc. the LAT is to me jaw dropping, :)
 
I bet it cant play punk!

bottleneck said:
that is very easy for me.

it is hearing ''kevin scotts prototype 5 way horn system'' all powered with kondo power amps - one per channel... that's over £100,000 in power amps alone... lets not mention the K77 pre-amp..

What really blew me away though was the bass from the folded horns. I will build the same pair (the plans are pretty well known) when I have a room capable of doing it justice, and neighbours sufficiently distant to never know..

Nothing at any show, in any living room, or on any occasion - be it a live event, recorded music or even live music blew me away as much as this did. It didn't just raise the bar for me, but put the bar on another planet.

All other hifi discoveries for me have been very minor in comparison.. and theres been a few of them..
Click to expand...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top