Riders held captive by aliens in South London - The Official Pictures
Posted by: David Hobbs-Mallyon on 21 March 2003
After what seems like an extended break, the Riders were finally back in action last night, following an invite from Alex S. to come and listen to the latest incarnation of his ever developing sistem. With Andy Weekes, and David C, also on the guest list, we were keen to arrive early to get a decent amount of our own music in. Fortunately, we could draw upon Dave J's encyclopedic knowledge of the local speed cameras to ensure prompt arrival at Alex's workshop.
To get us in the mood, Alex quickly opened a couple of bottles of bubbly - as this was just the start of the alcoholic proceedings, you will find almost universal agreement on how the sistem improved as the evening progressed into the small hours. To mop up the alcohol, Alex had also laid on an interesting mix of nibbles, gherkins, pickled onions and super-heated chicken wings, which of course are getting the blame for the odd sore head today. In the meantime, Tom was getting himself in the mood with his new found enthusiasm for incense and pyromania. Fortunately, we promptly sussed his game of creating a smoke screen to enable him to put more of his own records on without anyone noticing.
Anyway, a description of Alex's sistem is probably best done in five parts.
Firstly: Room - in many ways this is the sort of space that most of us lust after. The room I would guess is probably of about 30ishx30ish feet with very high ceilings - in theory great, but in reality when bare produces some real acoustic nasties which Alex has had to treat with an array of bass traps, absorbers and diffusors - in such a big space, just this element has been quite an investment.
Secondly: Sources: Vinyl is Alex's main source, and it's where most of the investment has gone - consists of something like LP12/Aro (I knew there was some Naim in there somewhere)/Dynavector XX-2/Dynavector P100 Phono Stage/Lingo (Weekes modified). For CDs, Alex has his new Densen Beat B-400 XS CD player which has been programmed with the very latest 'mood-emulation' technology which means that sometimes it will only play after much persistence and persuasion. This has been finished off with the superbly crafted and expensive Gizmo remote, which has a whole array of buttons, of which only the Pause is guaranteed to work.
Thirdly: Amplification: Consists of the Antipodean Dynavector L100 /HX1.2 pre/power combination
Fourthly: Speakers are by O'Heocha plus a Richer Sounds £150 subwoofer - description of the O'Heochas would be pointless. Mr Lees will be providing some pictures taken on the night that will show these in all there glory - in the meantime, below is a stock image taken from their official website.
Fifthly: Stands and isolation (gulp). Alex uses a combination of Hutter for the electronics, with additional Stratabase for the LP12 and Mana, MDF and Nordost Pulsar Points for the speakers. Of course it's all been put together scientifically.
On to the sound of the sistem, and first-off we got some of the nerdy stuff out of the way. Switching the subwoofer on and off showed that even with the cheapo model, in Alex's room, the sub (set to a minimal level) produced a fuller, less harsh and better integrated sound. After that we got down to some serious listening - not sure whether it was the extended break, but the music selections were generally pretty loud stuff - just as well as Alex's sistem does the loud stuff superbly - this was to include an awesome rendition of a Govt Mule track, and a top Rammstein performance. It's at this point, it's worth pointing out, that Alex's sistem has almost no Naim elements, yet there were bags of PraT and musicality - there are a few other brands out there that do it, if admittedly they are few and far between. Certainly in the room, the amplifiers really have to work hard to fill the space, and for the most part coped admirably. My attempt to trip the sistem with Kerosene by Big Black completely failed as it gave a suitably nasty performance. It was at this point that Andy Weekes and David C arrived - if they brought any string quartet music with them, it was promptly hidden.
For the first half of the evening, I would say that the award for top performer went to the Densen - with the LP12 being much more inconsistent. Not sure whether with Andy's arrival, the 'treat your vinyl nicely' gang took prominence, but the LP12 started to consistently perform above the Densen. Near the end of the evening our A/B test of a Shostakovich track on vinyl and CD had the vinyl trouncing the CD. At this point, the Densen got predictably huffy, refused to load CDs without multiple attempts, and absolutely refused to show any track information to anyone but Tom. Talking of Tom, around midnight it was noticed that he had gone missing - a search party was sent out. He was found on his knees chatting up a local feline - enough said.
The downsides of the sistem on the evening were all pretty minor stuff. Despite all the room treatments there are times when some of the subtler detail stuff just gets subsumed - wasn't helped by the fact that most attempts to play quieter stuff were considered as good times for a natter by all. The speakers which I must admit to being slightly dubious ahead of the evening showed themselves to work generally very well in the room, with good rhythm and dynamics. On the really big stuff, I would have like a bit more scale to them, but I've yet to hear a speaker that does everything. It would certainly be interesting to hear a better sub, in the room, or a couple of other speaker options that work well in the huge space that Alex has - I'd certainly be up for a return visit.
So many thanks to Alex for the excellent hospitality -I ’ll write some more on the music when Nick supplies the track listing and the pictures of the evening.
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 21 March 2003 at 16:14.]
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 21 March 2003 at 16:15.]
To get us in the mood, Alex quickly opened a couple of bottles of bubbly - as this was just the start of the alcoholic proceedings, you will find almost universal agreement on how the sistem improved as the evening progressed into the small hours. To mop up the alcohol, Alex had also laid on an interesting mix of nibbles, gherkins, pickled onions and super-heated chicken wings, which of course are getting the blame for the odd sore head today. In the meantime, Tom was getting himself in the mood with his new found enthusiasm for incense and pyromania. Fortunately, we promptly sussed his game of creating a smoke screen to enable him to put more of his own records on without anyone noticing.
Anyway, a description of Alex's sistem is probably best done in five parts.
Firstly: Room - in many ways this is the sort of space that most of us lust after. The room I would guess is probably of about 30ishx30ish feet with very high ceilings - in theory great, but in reality when bare produces some real acoustic nasties which Alex has had to treat with an array of bass traps, absorbers and diffusors - in such a big space, just this element has been quite an investment.
Secondly: Sources: Vinyl is Alex's main source, and it's where most of the investment has gone - consists of something like LP12/Aro (I knew there was some Naim in there somewhere)/Dynavector XX-2/Dynavector P100 Phono Stage/Lingo (Weekes modified). For CDs, Alex has his new Densen Beat B-400 XS CD player which has been programmed with the very latest 'mood-emulation' technology which means that sometimes it will only play after much persistence and persuasion. This has been finished off with the superbly crafted and expensive Gizmo remote, which has a whole array of buttons, of which only the Pause is guaranteed to work.
Thirdly: Amplification: Consists of the Antipodean Dynavector L100 /HX1.2 pre/power combination
Fourthly: Speakers are by O'Heocha plus a Richer Sounds £150 subwoofer - description of the O'Heochas would be pointless. Mr Lees will be providing some pictures taken on the night that will show these in all there glory - in the meantime, below is a stock image taken from their official website.
Fifthly: Stands and isolation (gulp). Alex uses a combination of Hutter for the electronics, with additional Stratabase for the LP12 and Mana, MDF and Nordost Pulsar Points for the speakers. Of course it's all been put together scientifically.
On to the sound of the sistem, and first-off we got some of the nerdy stuff out of the way. Switching the subwoofer on and off showed that even with the cheapo model, in Alex's room, the sub (set to a minimal level) produced a fuller, less harsh and better integrated sound. After that we got down to some serious listening - not sure whether it was the extended break, but the music selections were generally pretty loud stuff - just as well as Alex's sistem does the loud stuff superbly - this was to include an awesome rendition of a Govt Mule track, and a top Rammstein performance. It's at this point, it's worth pointing out, that Alex's sistem has almost no Naim elements, yet there were bags of PraT and musicality - there are a few other brands out there that do it, if admittedly they are few and far between. Certainly in the room, the amplifiers really have to work hard to fill the space, and for the most part coped admirably. My attempt to trip the sistem with Kerosene by Big Black completely failed as it gave a suitably nasty performance. It was at this point that Andy Weekes and David C arrived - if they brought any string quartet music with them, it was promptly hidden.
For the first half of the evening, I would say that the award for top performer went to the Densen - with the LP12 being much more inconsistent. Not sure whether with Andy's arrival, the 'treat your vinyl nicely' gang took prominence, but the LP12 started to consistently perform above the Densen. Near the end of the evening our A/B test of a Shostakovich track on vinyl and CD had the vinyl trouncing the CD. At this point, the Densen got predictably huffy, refused to load CDs without multiple attempts, and absolutely refused to show any track information to anyone but Tom. Talking of Tom, around midnight it was noticed that he had gone missing - a search party was sent out. He was found on his knees chatting up a local feline - enough said.
The downsides of the sistem on the evening were all pretty minor stuff. Despite all the room treatments there are times when some of the subtler detail stuff just gets subsumed - wasn't helped by the fact that most attempts to play quieter stuff were considered as good times for a natter by all. The speakers which I must admit to being slightly dubious ahead of the evening showed themselves to work generally very well in the room, with good rhythm and dynamics. On the really big stuff, I would have like a bit more scale to them, but I've yet to hear a speaker that does everything. It would certainly be interesting to hear a better sub, in the room, or a couple of other speaker options that work well in the huge space that Alex has - I'd certainly be up for a return visit.
So many thanks to Alex for the excellent hospitality -I ’ll write some more on the music when Nick supplies the track listing and the pictures of the evening.
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 21 March 2003 at 16:14.]
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 21 March 2003 at 16:15.]
Fantastic write up and pictures guys! 
Dev
Dev
quote:
How can anyone claim I'm a cereal tweaker
so you like playing with your breakfast do you?
Thanks to Alex for a great evening, seems I'm one of the few not nursing monumental hangovers today, since I had to drive home
Alex's system has certainly changed since I last visited, particularly impressive was the better balance of bass end to the rest of the spectrum, things have leaned up a little, but become more natural to me. I use IBL's though, so don't take my comments about bass too seriously
I think that without any exceptions (I missed some of the earlier play) there was nothing that was played that I did not enjoy. An equal measure of both the systems ability to not get in the way, and the various riders excellent musical taste.
I even enjoyed (what little I heard) of the Barbie Girl remix - but I found out it was a 'Mixing It' play item which explains a lot - I'm a big fan of the wierd and wonderful that finds it's way onto the airwaves on a Sunday night.
The Densen CD player is a VERY impressive beast. The money has obviously been spent on some good engineering, and the cost savings were obviously made on the salaries of the not-good-enough-to-be-Microsoft-programmers that wrote the user interface software.
The player must have some kind of music / taste sensor built into the CD drawer - it spat enough of them back at their owners during the course of the evening
It didn't do anything wrong though - it never drew attention to any shortcomings, just got on with the job in hand.
Musical highlights for me go to the Gov't Mule, and just about anything David J played (there was some excellent blues and good old fashioned guitars etc. in most of his selection).
The Elvis track was probably just a little OTT with the volume, something somewhere was clipping and things sounded pretty un-musical until Alex rescued his system from the terrorist onlsaught, by the clever and ingenious process of lowering the volume, which he has to do by walking to the preamp and turning a knob - how quaint
The LP12 was sounding good for the time I was there, and I'm really getting the hang of wibbly-wobbly arm cueing now. I also circumvented protocol several times during the evening to sneak things on, whilst everyone was chatting - sorry Tom
A great evening, and as soon as the my neighbours holiday schedule is known I'm looking forward to the TW riders 'Visit to the cheap seats', later in the year.
Interesting to see how they cope with the shock - can you get insurance against Audio terrorism?
Andy.
Alex's system has certainly changed since I last visited, particularly impressive was the better balance of bass end to the rest of the spectrum, things have leaned up a little, but become more natural to me. I use IBL's though, so don't take my comments about bass too seriously
I think that without any exceptions (I missed some of the earlier play) there was nothing that was played that I did not enjoy. An equal measure of both the systems ability to not get in the way, and the various riders excellent musical taste.
I even enjoyed (what little I heard) of the Barbie Girl remix - but I found out it was a 'Mixing It' play item which explains a lot - I'm a big fan of the wierd and wonderful that finds it's way onto the airwaves on a Sunday night.
The Densen CD player is a VERY impressive beast. The money has obviously been spent on some good engineering, and the cost savings were obviously made on the salaries of the not-good-enough-to-be-Microsoft-programmers that wrote the user interface software.
The player must have some kind of music / taste sensor built into the CD drawer - it spat enough of them back at their owners during the course of the evening
It didn't do anything wrong though - it never drew attention to any shortcomings, just got on with the job in hand.
Musical highlights for me go to the Gov't Mule, and just about anything David J played (there was some excellent blues and good old fashioned guitars etc. in most of his selection).
The Elvis track was probably just a little OTT with the volume, something somewhere was clipping and things sounded pretty un-musical until Alex rescued his system from the terrorist onlsaught, by the clever and ingenious process of lowering the volume, which he has to do by walking to the preamp and turning a knob - how quaint
The LP12 was sounding good for the time I was there, and I'm really getting the hang of wibbly-wobbly arm cueing now. I also circumvented protocol several times during the evening to sneak things on, whilst everyone was chatting - sorry Tom
A great evening, and as soon as the my neighbours holiday schedule is known I'm looking forward to the TW riders 'Visit to the cheap seats', later in the year.
Interesting to see how they cope with the shock - can you get insurance against Audio terrorism?
Andy.
BTW Just went to play something and found the balance shifted 4 stops to the right - may explain the odd sonic fluctuation