A Night in Tunbridge Wells 2 - The Big Headphones
Posted by: David Hobbs-Mallyon on 24 September 2002
Following the success of a previous evening of music in Tunbridge Wells at Mr Lees’ residence, last week Nick, Dave J and myself headed round to Mr Alves’ establishment for a night of wine, whisky (sad I know) and song. First-up, I must declare that any recollections of the evening are restricted to the wine period – anything after that is consigned to oblivion. Many thanks to Mrs Alves for being such an ‘efficient’ hostess and for giving me certainly the greatest hangover I’ve had in the last 5 years or so. Waking up with the hangover from hell with the smell of goose salami and truffles is something I’d only reserve for my worst enemy.
Tom’s system consists of 52/180/SBLs – this is fed by CDSII, LP12 and NAT02. On the night, only the CDSII was given a hearing. What Tom was also keen to demonstrate was his latest ‘Amazing New Discovery’ - OK, another bloody mains cable.
Just as previous, prior to listening to any music, we all scrupulously checked system environment and set-up.
Room – I would expect to be acoustically challenging, due to the near cubic dimensions. Not sure how much of a problem this is, but Tom had tackled this with an array of soft furnishings. I was given Tom’s favoured ‘large headphone’ listening position of the chair located directly between the speakers, facing the same direction as they were firing.
Rack – Tunbridge Wells is the Hutter capital of the world, therefore the only choice you need to make is the colour. Tom is a cherry man.
Electrics – Separate mains spur, Musicworks block (something I still remain dubious about) and the ‘Amazing New Discovery’ – his Black Widow mains cables. According to Tom, these have removed a huge amount of hash from the system. Any more details Tom?
Speakers – SBLs on MDF Phase 2 – each phase costing a total of £1.50 – anyone interested should contact Tom for details.
Warm-up – to ensure consistency with last time (very important) we kept to the couple of bottles of wine before drinking started.
Overall set-up - I was slightly disappointed to find out that unlike some other forum members, Tom has not optimised his set-up for Bruckner’s 8th symphony. To the huge relief of everyone else, all my Bruckner discs were therefore left unplayed, leaving mainly a selection of jazz. Despite Mr Lees’ recent conversion to jazz, he was seen to make the odd excuse to leave the room for a cigarette whenever brush touched drum - some more work still to be done. Equally Nick was in a bit of a hippy mood, and I was seen making my excuses when the Grateful Dead made their entrance – there was to be no escape, Nick has provided me with a copy of ‘Without a Net’ to play at my leisure.
Anyway we then spent the next 4 hours or so throwing the usual very broad range of music at the system. Mr Lees has volunteered to provide the complete list, so I will avoid comment on the music until then.
So what of the system – well certainly Tom has one of the best set-up pair of SBLs I have ever heard. Attention to detail in set-up has extracted more bass than any other pair I have heard, and the room and speaker are definitely very complimentary. As an ex-SBL owner I was left with slightly mixed feeling from the evening – they reminded me what I really miss about SBLs – speed and timing probably better than just about any other speaker, and a way with bass reproduction (which I would put down to it’s boundary reinforcement design) which really brings out the rhythm of a piece of music. The down side for me was minor, but my tastes are slightly more round earth, and just a touch more depth to the presentation would have suited me. I also still have my reservations about the Musicworks block, but I will be investigating these Black Widows at some point. In the end, it comes down to how much you enjoy the music, and the system certainly scored highly with me.
Anyway, many thanks to Tom and Sarah-Jane for the hospitality – I shall aim to give you both an equivalent hangover at some point in the future. I’ll write some more on the music when Nick jogs my memory as to what we heard all evening.
David
Tom’s system consists of 52/180/SBLs – this is fed by CDSII, LP12 and NAT02. On the night, only the CDSII was given a hearing. What Tom was also keen to demonstrate was his latest ‘Amazing New Discovery’ - OK, another bloody mains cable.
Just as previous, prior to listening to any music, we all scrupulously checked system environment and set-up.
Room – I would expect to be acoustically challenging, due to the near cubic dimensions. Not sure how much of a problem this is, but Tom had tackled this with an array of soft furnishings. I was given Tom’s favoured ‘large headphone’ listening position of the chair located directly between the speakers, facing the same direction as they were firing.
Rack – Tunbridge Wells is the Hutter capital of the world, therefore the only choice you need to make is the colour. Tom is a cherry man.
Electrics – Separate mains spur, Musicworks block (something I still remain dubious about) and the ‘Amazing New Discovery’ – his Black Widow mains cables. According to Tom, these have removed a huge amount of hash from the system. Any more details Tom?
Speakers – SBLs on MDF Phase 2 – each phase costing a total of £1.50 – anyone interested should contact Tom for details.
Warm-up – to ensure consistency with last time (very important) we kept to the couple of bottles of wine before drinking started.
Overall set-up - I was slightly disappointed to find out that unlike some other forum members, Tom has not optimised his set-up for Bruckner’s 8th symphony. To the huge relief of everyone else, all my Bruckner discs were therefore left unplayed, leaving mainly a selection of jazz. Despite Mr Lees’ recent conversion to jazz, he was seen to make the odd excuse to leave the room for a cigarette whenever brush touched drum - some more work still to be done. Equally Nick was in a bit of a hippy mood, and I was seen making my excuses when the Grateful Dead made their entrance – there was to be no escape, Nick has provided me with a copy of ‘Without a Net’ to play at my leisure.
Anyway we then spent the next 4 hours or so throwing the usual very broad range of music at the system. Mr Lees has volunteered to provide the complete list, so I will avoid comment on the music until then.
So what of the system – well certainly Tom has one of the best set-up pair of SBLs I have ever heard. Attention to detail in set-up has extracted more bass than any other pair I have heard, and the room and speaker are definitely very complimentary. As an ex-SBL owner I was left with slightly mixed feeling from the evening – they reminded me what I really miss about SBLs – speed and timing probably better than just about any other speaker, and a way with bass reproduction (which I would put down to it’s boundary reinforcement design) which really brings out the rhythm of a piece of music. The down side for me was minor, but my tastes are slightly more round earth, and just a touch more depth to the presentation would have suited me. I also still have my reservations about the Musicworks block, but I will be investigating these Black Widows at some point. In the end, it comes down to how much you enjoy the music, and the system certainly scored highly with me.
Anyway, many thanks to Tom and Sarah-Jane for the hospitality – I shall aim to give you both an equivalent hangover at some point in the future. I’ll write some more on the music when Nick jogs my memory as to what we heard all evening.
David
quote:
Salmonella Dub - "Outside The Dubplates" - Wytaliba (Dreadzone Mix)
I'm impressed - "Inside" and "Outside" the Dubplates are fantasic - keep it up
Jay
Yabba, dabba, doooooo
