The northern bakeoff autopsy...

Attending: Lordsummit, pbirkett, SCIDB and myself.

Location: Middle of nowhere, aka my flat, followed by lordsummit's flat.

The day got off to a shaky start, with a few late arrivals (ie everyone ). Lordsummit had to drop his other half off, pbirkett got himself very lost after driving straight past the door, and SCIDB had an unfortunate incident on the way (which I hope the other party's insurance will pay out for).

As people arrived, we played a good few tunes. Some old favourites, and some new stuff for everyone. The only kit swapping that went on was Dean's DAC64 went in place of the superdac for a while.

Then all over to lordsummit's place in convoy. More tunes, friendly dogs (I think he likes you... ), and a superb meal. All in all, a pretty good day I thought.

 

Yep definitely a great day. Congrats to Paul for pulling, and thanks to all who came for bringing some great music. Was nice to just focus on that. Dean your choice of music was impecable. Can't wait for you to write up what it was you played, and I heard two pieces of kit I wish I could go and buy now. the dac 64 was brilliant I thought, Isaac you know it makes sense :JPS: and I really really really really want some Meadowlark speakers. The bass from them is just unbelievable.
Cheers guys

 

Ahhh yes, another convert.

The DAC64 is interesting. I may be lent one next week which will give me the chance to give it a bit more of a listen.



Snapped a quick pic before the telly goes back in the way (until my rack extension piece is finished).

 

Oh, and an amusing incident when a rattling coinciding with a bass note on one of paul's leftfield tracks turned out to be a remote control on a ledge behind one of the speakers...

 

Doesn't the hifi get a bit warm when you have the heater switched on?

 

I don't need the heater with the S300....

 

Whooosh!! Just got home, only took me 1 hour 33 minutes

Great to meet you guys, thanks to lordsummit for the steak, some good tunes played and a couple of very nice systems. All top blokes, pity about Dean's car, looks like an expensive repair

And lordsummits dogs were really, REALLY friendly, LMAO!

 

Sounds like you all had a good time, barring the guy who had the car crash

Sounds like Pbirkett had a good time with the dogs too :duck:

Interesting positioning of the kit there Isaac, from the sounds of it I guess its temporary, but even so, must've beeen a real pain shifting all that heavy metal (S300, CD16 and that equipment rack = bad back time methinks :SLEEP: )

 

No, the rack and kit stays very firmly where it is. The telly moved from sitting on a table in front of the hifi rack. It will eventually go on top.

 

I gotta say, I was very impressed with the DAC64. I can see where some are coming from that it is a little hard (at least with Isaac's rig), but it was very attention grabbing I thought, and certainly has plenty of excitement in its sound.

Isaac's rig is good. Especially the bass which is outstanding in its precsence. The speakers did not sound as fast as my Ela's but they were really good I thought. The amp is a bit of a beast as well, and transport wise, I thought there was very little (if any) difference between to my ears between his Tosh DVD player and the Marantz deck.

I thought the SuperDAC sounded pretty close to the DAC64, not quite as attention grabbing, but also less hard sounding in his system, maybe not quite as good overall, but very close indeed considering (final 5% maximum improvement for me).

Dean had some great music, what was that jazzy one that was the cross between D+B and House, I forgot the name, but it was damn good for "jazz".

Lordsummits system was pretty good too I thought, but I didnt think the speakers were as good as Isaac's, the bass power was good though, and with the Naim it seemed lively enough to make the speakers sing. Obviously its hard to compare systems in two different rooms, but I think he may fancy some new speakers now

And those dogs. Wow, totally mental, and he had the biggest bathroom in the world

 

Yep I agree with you there Paul, I do fancy some new speakers now, but they will have to wait, I've promised swmbo not to spend any more money on it for a while. I'm planning to get a Moth record cleaner, and I really want to carry that out, and then I'll see. I'm not unhappy with the sound, but Isaacs system sounds great and definitely showed up some weaknesses with mine. I think the jazzy;d+b one was Herbie Hancock, I'm sure Dean will be along soon to help us out

Shadows missing you

 

Whats that big black box by the heater btw?

 

Trichord Powerblock 500.

Rich's system was lively. Best I've heard the 991 sound, and it was very liveable with. For the money paid for the speakers, they're stunningly good I thought. I felt that the tonal balance of rich's system was slightly better than mine... although at higher volume levels it started to lose the plot a bit (started to get a little harsh, and the bass definition was going out). However, when we got on to the jimmy smith(?) and james brown, that really suited the strengths of the system. Very chilled out but without being boring.

The DAC64 I will comment on more when I have one next week to listen to. Overall I'd say it probably was better than the superdac, but then it really should be for the price difference.

 

Just playing some chilled out reggae, and enjoying that room node Isaac
Thank-you that's very complimentary. I really enjoyed your systems ability to go loud without noticing. Mine definitely loses it when it gets louder, but at the normal levels I listen at it's fine.
Was nice to put names to all the faces. We should do it again soon.

 

Hi,

First of all, I would like to thank Richard (LordSummit), Isaac & Paul Birkett for a great day out. Thanks to Richard & Isaac for the having us rounds. I enjoyed it all.

The day didn't get off to the best of starts. I had gone into town to pick up some post. While driving through a set of lights that while on green, a Fiat Punto decided to crash into the side of my car. This, of course, made me late for the Bake-off. My car is still drivable but with a bashed in side & door. No one was really hurt but it did shake up the little girl who was in the Punto.

Finally getting to Isaac's very nice looking flat, I meet the others. The day was mainly about listening to music & good talk. I did bring my must travelled Chord Dac64 along with a pair ultra expensive interconnects (cost me less than £4 to make).

We sat listening to Isaac's system & chilling out. We weren't too bothered about choppiing & changing stuff.

Later on, after a short trip to richard's house, we meet the two dogs. What fine animals. We again chilled out to some more music via Richard's system. Everyone was quite relaxed after a good evening of music, good chat & good food. Must do it again sometime.

Of the many cds I had with me, here are the ones I played.

At Isaac's Flat.

The Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart. ( Quality poppy Indie music)
C'mon C'mon & Tell me what you see.

V/A - No Rules Selected Alternative Rock Tracks
Rage Against the Machine- Bullet in the head. (Rock rap Tomfoolery)

Herbie Hancock - Future 2 Future. ( jazz meets techno meets hip hop etc)
Kebero part 1, Wisdom, The Essence & This is Rob Swift

Danny Krivit - Grass Roots. (High quality disco album)
War - Galaxy & Patrice Rushen - Number One

V/A - Volume 2 1964-1967 Rhythm & Blue Beat.(A Promo with some Ska on it)
The Skatalites - Guns of Navarone & Justin hinds & the Dominoes -Rub up, Push up

James Browm - Funk Power. 1970: A Brand New Thang. (The Master at Work)
Give it up & turn it loose.

At Richard's house. (some of these tunes were plaing in the background while we were doing other things.)

Jimmy Smith The Best of Jimmy Smith. ( The Master of the Hammond organ)
Sunny, The Champ, Watermelon man, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? (part 2),

V/A - Hotel Pelirocco ( A strange mixture of some weird & wonderful tunes)
Fox - Single Bed, Primal Scream - Autobahn 66, Kenny Rdgers & the1st edition - Just dropped in (to see what condition my condition is in), Dexy's Midnight Runners - There There my dear, Little Barrie - Buy my own, Small Faces - Grow your own, Sister Sledge - Love don't you go through no changes on me, Family Tree - Family Tree & Minnie Ripperton - Les Fleurs.


SCIDB

 

My discs of the day were:

Eleanor McEvoy - Yola
I got you to see me through, The rain falls

The Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
Flyswatter, Mr E's Beautiful Blues

Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin
Nadia (of course!)

Train - Train
Homesick

Plus we pulled a few others out here and there, including the worst example of dynamic compression I have.

 

SuperDac is no longer in production. Neither is the Flying Cow. Wonder why they gave up

 

Dunno it seemed like a decent product, although bear in mind his was modified. The stock unit probably would not get quite as close as this did.