Nottingham Analogue Experience

...meaning some lucky punter 6 months down the road will be able to take it off his hands for half the price he paid when he's got bored with it

 

hey come on now. by merlins standards he's held on to some of his kit for quite a while now. the jbl's are still about in the background, the crown bass amp is still there afaik and the mac hung arround for nearly a year. at this rate he should be able to hang onto the audionote for 2 years - then i recon he'll go for a full on active cello system and live in his car.
cheers


julian

 

Nice new car or OTT hifi???

Hmmm. Tough choice. :chair:

 

Well Neil, the fancy car would be great for poseurs but would it enhance my quality of life

I feel pretty sure that having the preamp would massively increase my apreciation of music, but you are right it takes me way over budget

The system I want to get would have the M7 with BP20, the SME20A and the OBX's. That little lot retails for over £30K although with some judicious purchasing it might be possible to spend £20K. Sell what I have and I'll be looking at about £12K. I would have to get a lot of it from Kevin - the guy is too good to screw about.

I know - madness Silly thing is I'm sure a lot of you would be able to boast greater bass extension and other hifi niceities. I just doubt I could be so convinced by any other kit at the same price or lower.

Time to assess my priorities

 

Glad you had fun at Kevins Mike.

He's one of the few dealers I like to use.

Border Patrol amps and Living Voice speakers eh?! I cant criticise!

Its got to be some home auditions if your serious. Its just too easy to burn money after an impressive audition, Ive done it a hundred times myself..

Living Voice speakers sound amazing in Kevins room, but because they're rear ported you've just got to try them at home, they are very fussy on placement. The ones I used to own sounded a lot better at Definitive than they ever did at my house.

Chris

..who is having some great fun with borrowed lowther horns...

 

Thanks for that Chris.

I did make a point of asking about the port. Keving thinks ( ) it's ported at 50hz tuning. The Harbeths were a disaster in my room - they are front ported but I am unsure as to the tuning.

What really grabbed me was the ampification and the impact it had on the speakers. The OBX's might be a damned good fill in until my man in California finishes the horns To be honest, if I could get the Avatars to perform like that at home, I'd probably free up the living space and spend the cash on the amps and source.

I also understand that the new crossovers lead to a much less fullsome bass response. It was cetainly extended and controlled at he dem, but the room is probably free of major resonances, given the high ceiling in particular.

 

Im getting quite a few suprises with the Lowther horns Im borrowing..

Great response with Dance music, drums sound great, and they seem very well suited to AV!

I expected something polite that only really did acoustic stuff well.

I think I'll find the manual for ''what hifi should sound like'' and burn the flocker.

There really is no replacement for trying something in familiar surroundings..


NB
I think you're right about the high ceilings and lack of room resonances. He must have them over 6 feet from back and side walls too.

 

So you have some Lowthers I'm glad to hear you haven't been left in the lurch. My guy in the States has just finished the prototypes and will be testing next week. He's trying to improve on the TAD4003 for a fraction of the price so fingers crossed. I quite like the idea of being the only person I know with satin black aluminium horns

Of course, they'd need something like the Kondo/Border Patrol anyway so the amps would be safe either way. What are the Lowthers like? I've heard the Beauhorns but felt they really needed some support in the bottom end. Any idea on when you are getting the Vitavox units? I di notice some prototypes at Kevin's using biradial horns rather than the RH330's of old. He seems to have a lot of RH330's

 

These Lowthers are horn loaded for bass, but the dispersion of the horn is pretty small.

Im getting plenty of bass though - enough for music like Underworld (on now) and movie soundtracks, which must mean they are reasonably bassy.

Im beginning to wonder if bad hifi showroom acoustics are responsible for a reputation for bass lightness with horns.

I know Dean uses (or used to use) a pair of horns for most of his listening - and he likes bass rich music.

My own horn/hybrid speakers will be ready probably in Jan. No rush, Im enjoying trying other things .

So are you definately going ahead with a pair of horn speakers then?

It might be worth your while trying BP SET amps as well as the push pull ?.. especially with the speakers you are thinking of..

 

Well, dont rush into anything without being 100% sure. Once you are sure then do what you think is right for you. Oh, and can we come round for a listen

 

OK Neil, I'll do as you say

I guess there's always going to be a couple of M7's going on the internet so best not rush in. As Chris points out, the likelyhood of me getting that performace in my room is small, and I'd need to have that to justify the considerable expense.

BTW, have you had your early morning dose of 16hz yet

 

Not yet,

But I am thinking of setting it up as some kind of alarm clock that automatically goes off at a set time each morning. Some people have vibrating phones, I have a vibrating house

 

Excellent idea! Although I doubt Joel will want to stay over

I was talking with ST yesterday who remembered a reviewer for way back (Rex something) who had a bass horn placed under the floor coming out behind the listening position. All ST remembers is feeling physically sick throughout Mahlers Fifth

 

LoL

But was that anything to do with the bass, or merely the fact that is was classical music

 

No, ST is a huge Classical fan, although he is the first to complain that a full orchestra doesn't play loud enough

 

You are quite right Merlin. Although future travel plans do include the Andean Altiplano and Atacama, Kamchatka and Inner Mongolia, I don't expect to set foot in Bracknell ever again. My loss no doubt.
BTW, you boys need to feel the effect of real, BIG drums at CLOSE range. Maybe even try your hand at African Bata or Japanese Taiko drumming.

 

merlin,

I might of missed it, but as your visit was for the intention of listening to turntables, which Phono Stage was in use with the AudioNote/Kondo 7?

Ken

 

I used to know someone who'd built a concrete enclosure going 50m into his garden with an 18" cinema driver in it...
Felt like ten of those long throw bass bins used at a Motorhead gig!

 

Ken with the M77 Ongaku we used the Kondo Phono Stage initially (a snip at £12,000 )

Most of the subsequent listening was with the Art Audio Vinyl 1 which was far from disgraced in such exalted company. To be honset, I currently use the TEAD Microgroove + with the latest Lithos PS and even Kevin felt it punched well above it's weght. So I may well stick with the phon stage in the short term.