Nottingham Analogue Experience

That's withdrawal symptoms from the 850.

 

Sadly yes they can WM. With said apendage they sound positively huge with thwack the likes of which you haven't experienced since being called to the headmaster's office at Primary Secondary and being corporally punished for abusing your physics teacher.

Japanese Oodles

 

so by the law of averages then, by putting said bling fi on some 'proper speakers' things we improve expenentially.
Twas the games mistrisess actually, Miss Jones, always wearing a 'g' during rugby practice dirty wench

 

Merlin, you've just won my coveted Loon of the Year prize.

-- Ian

 

got to say I like the speed of this PC, traded my steam driven thing in yesterday humm, this thing motors and has great thwack

 

Very honoured to be pre eminent in such reverred company Ian.

Astonishing product - sell the company and buy one, you can bring Coltrane back from the other side

 

Hi Micheal

is the pre amp one of these items.

I heard some of this at the Bristol show sounding very good along with a SME 30A turntable.

Kevin is the UK agent for Audio Note Japan. How much is it going for in the UK?

So is the SME now the favourite. What other decks did you hear at Kevin's? I'm not surprised you prefered the Border Patrol. It doesn't sound like most 300B amps. A lot of this is down to the choke input supply. Most sound soft (on the extremes) in comparison. Also did you just hear the P20 (Push Pull) and not any of the single ended Border Patrols? I always have a soft spot for Audio note stuff. It was the brand that sent me down the single ended path (Ongaku) and also one of the brands that got me interested in valve amps.


SCIDB

 

Hi Dean, yes I heard both the M7 and the M77 Ongaku and they are quite remarkable in their ability to create the illusion of reality. I also heard the phono stage, again amazing!

To be honest, we didn't compare a great deal of other kit, save the pre's, the phono stages, and the amps. The SME 20/2A just worked and I was amazed considering the rubbish spouted around on the internet. I suspect the Acutus/SME5 is at least as good, and very similar in it's strengths, but have not had the chance to compare. The cartridge was the Kuzma Reference. Kevin quickly ascertained that I was too fussy to allow a downgrade in this department!

The BP20 offered a different presentation to the Art Symphony 11. I've always enjoyed the BP20, but hearing it on the end of the Kondo was amazing. In comparison, BP's own preamp and the Vibe Pulse just sounded like good hifi. The Art Vinyl 1 phono stage was damned good though.We also listened to the Opus 21 CD player, which again was transformed by that damned preamp.

The OBX have always impressed me too, but I have never heard the sing like they did with that bloody preamp! Before they have sounded like a really good £4K speaker. Yesterday, the scale, dynamics, and timbral accuracy suggested a much larger and more expensive speaker was in the room (they weren't - they were in the other room!)

 

at current exchange rates, that m7 on audiogon, is a steal at only gbp7,800. good luck! there is something very "ongaku" about it's looks too! i would almost be tempted myself except the wife really would kill me.

 

even better!!! it's in the EU, so no duty!!! that really is a bargain!

 

The BP line-only preamp [the more expensive copper chassis version], BP P21 [20w push-pull like the BP20, but with only one power supply rather than two] and beautiful ebony Living Voice OBX-Rs we ordered from Kevin arrived over the course of this week.

The amps came first. Had to connect them to our baby Sonus Faber Concertinos as the OBX-Rs weren't quite ready. The system sounded great with the limited amounts of records we had time to play. Our record player [original Roksan Xerxes/Artimez/Audio Technica ATOC30/Tom Evans Microgroove Plus] sounded especially good [less "forced" than CD, though that might have something to do with the unattenuated i/c we used]. When we had our previous amp, the Sonus Faber Musica integrated, the record player sounded a little thin. We were especially struck at how much less intrusive the surface noise/hum from the phono stage was.

The OBX-Rs arrived on Tuesday night. I'd just got back from France so was a little knackered - the speaker cable quotient of the OBX-Rs is a little daunting. There's a bi-wired set from amp to crossover then another bi-wired set from crossover to speakers. With the help of my wife Sarah-Jane and clear instructions we got them up and running pretty quickly. We put the speakers a little further out into the [small] room than the Sonus Fabers, but about the same distance apart, with no spikes [yet]. We poured some wine and I put the first record on.

Hell.

I've never heard anything so beautiful. We didn't take our turntable to Definitive - we travelled up twice from Tunbridge Wells, once to check out the power amp and speakers, the next to check whether our Denon DVD2900/DAC64 Mk 1 sounded OK with the amps/speakers, and to choose a preamp. [Kevin used a Kondo pre-amp at our first dem - we ended up choosing the new BP pre-amp as above]. S-J and I both thought that the BP held its own, but we didn't actually audition it against the Kondo, and we'd heard the Kondo a full moth before. We're more than happy with the BP pre, and we couldn't have afforded the Kondo anyway. I buy less records than CDs, and as the car was jammed with amps/speakers/CD players etc we left the Roksan at home when auditioning. To tell the truth, if we had got the new kit and the Roksan had sounded rubbish through it, we would have sorted out that at a later date.

The Roksan's staying. It sounds AMAZING. Kings of Leon, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Madonna, Dvorak and loads of other vinyl in the next three hours were incredible. Surface noise was ZERO. Instruments [ie Coltrane's sax] sounded real. We really had to pinch ourselves, it was that good. A touch bass-light, but moving the speakers by a bit will probably sort that out.

Therefore I suppose we could say that in our system the OBX-Rs, or the synergy between the BP amps and OBX-Rs made all the difference.

We'll be paying back quite a lot of money over the next year but the whole idea was to splurge the money while we could afford it [ie before babies].

Finally, I can't recommend Kevin and Lynn enough. They are passionate about what they do, give loads of their time and are friendly and a pleasure to deal with.

Sorry about the ramble.

Paul/Sarah-Jane

 

merlin,

I think that there may be multiple versions of Audionote / Kondo pre's so I am not sure if this is the same one, but at current exchange rates this is a dam sight cheaper that prices mentioned so far.

Follow the link and it is the 14th item down.

http://audioconnection.com.au/trade.asp

Ken

 

Nice one Paul, from what I heard yesterday you have one hell of a system that will no doubt serve you for many years to come.

It seems to take a lot to impress me these days. Kevin managed it in about half an hour and the attitude was such a refreshing change from the norm.

Ken, the latest units don't mention AudioNote on them, although I doubt the M7 has changed that much. I really cannot believe I am seriously considering one Might miss the remote though

 

that works out to about gbp4k which is realy a steal. from the photo it certainly looks like the same one! i'm really getting tempted to pull out the old credit card and retribution from the wife be damned!!!

 

The dealer that has the Audionote 7 for sale is in Sydney. He is top class and very friendly and open to negotiation. I have dealt with him on and off for 15 years.

If you want any help I could talk to him on your behalf as I am only three hours difference in time zone.

Oh and Australia is 240 Volt / 50 Hz so power is no problem.

Ken

 

Hi,

The Audionote stuff is also known as Kondo. I have seen M7 on sale over the years. Interesting stuff.

Here is some Audionote Japan/Kondo porn.

http://www.blackforestaudio.de/AN-Kondo/an-kondo.html

http://www.audioevidence.com/kondo_preamp.html


SCIDB

 

Merlin,

Please think seriously about this before jumping -it's an insane amount of money to be spending. You'll then need a new source, a new power amp and speakers. you will then be getting into silly money territory. It surely cant be worth it.

My advice :- Get the A6 instead.

 

I would echo Robbo's comments.

 

That sort of money would buy me concert tickets well into my senility.

Merlin, you live close to London, which, as any fule kno, is the greatest city in the world, and has more than enough great live music for anyone.

S'only hi-fi after all.

-- Ian

 

I lay odds by the end of next week Our resident wizard will own one