Three get surrounded in South London - Martians return armed with oranges
Posted by: David Hobbs-Mallyon on 27 October 2003
The promise of wine, super-heated chicken wings and song was enough to galvanise the Riders minus vegetarian Dave J back into action last week for a trip to revisit Alex S's system. Having been a good six months since the last visit, the 'usual' major changes and audio exotica were expected - we were not to be disappointed.
For those that can't remember the details of Alex's old system, have a look here. For those that can't be bothered, think Huge South London workshop, Austrian furniture, temperamental Danish CD player, LP12 with Japanese cartridge, powerful Antipodean amps and unique Martian speakers.
As before, Alex was quick to get us in the mood with the bottles of bubbly - very much appreciated - however at the last minute the chicken wings cancelled. Fortunately in their place up popped Goose, Jason Hector and 'Seventh Veil' Steve. Quite an interesting mix for the evening, which I would classify as in the glowing green corner Nick and Tom, in the glowing red corner Goose and Jason, sitting on the fence myself and Steve - so I expect there will be some differences of opinion.
So to a description of Alex's sistem in the latest guise:
Room - no change
Sources: Big change here - out goes the LP12 - in with a Well Tempered deck and cartridge - Alex will have to give details of the specific model. P100 Phono Stage
For CDs, Alex has stuck with the Densen Beat B-400 XS CD player
Amplification: Still the Dynavector L100 /HX1.2 pre/power combination. Now with the option of Japanese Dynavector surround processor with the option of extra grunt from a Naim NAP110.
Speakers: Yes still the O'Heochas, which certainly got the attention of resident speaker manufacturer Steve - out has gone the subwoofer, and in has come some satellite Gallo speakers, not unlike a pair of oranges - these are in use when the surround processor is on. I can't remember if the Mana was under the speakers or not.
Stands: Amazingly still Hutter - stand makers out there just can't be trying hard enough.
Cables: Mains - some design that screens out RFI - Alex? Interconnects - out goes the DNM, in comes cheapo microphone cables with Eichmann bullet plugs. Speaker cables, still Townshend Isolda.
On to the some listening, and first off we started with some nerdy A-B comparisons of the system with and without the surround processor. First thing to note is that the satellite speakers are placed just in front of the listener, and if you get up close to them, they make a surprising amount of sound - I guess I expected that they would just have a small amount of ambience going through them. Apparently they work on some time delay related to frequency. I'd had a sneak preview of the surround processor a couple of weeks earlier, and initial impressions were that the processor was adding some weight and scale that had previously been missing from the system, along with some presence, with none of the adverse effects that Alex had found with the subwoofer. As can be typical for these evenings, sometimes, the system doesn't quite behave as expected, and on the night for whatever reason, the processor was giving a boxy and grainy quality to the mid-range and general consensus seemed to prefer the processor off. What can be added in that in the meantime, Alex seems to have solved the scale issue anyway which he's put down to the last minute addition of the RFI screening mains cables to the system. Certainly the system gave a suitably impressive Rammstein performance of Herzelied but the surround processor looked like it didn't want to be there. A sadomasochistic request for more Rammstein from Goose led to the surround processor being retired for the evening, allowing for us to turn the wick up on the HX1.2 even more - the system put in a top performance, possibly given room conditions, the best yet.
On to the Well Tempered - although my experience with vinyl is limited, I'm certainly impressed. I'll leave it to other to provide more detail. For me I'm coming to the conclusion that the well Tempered really is well matched with the Dynavector Amps, and certainly it performed far more consistently than the LP12 did on the previous visit. In fact, for me it's the most persuasive case I've heard for vinyl so far. I'd also add that I'm not convinced that the WT would really gel with a Naim system. Sonically, the Densen performed as admirably as last time - given some software tweaks the machine was far less temperamental, although track information is left to the imagination. Alex assures me that they have now solved this issue - either way the player sounds like a bargain choice to me.
So to sum up, having heard the surround processor I have a feeling it may end up in Alex's increasingly complex home AV system. However, I think Alex has now got an extremely listenable system and a very engaging and consistent performer over a wide range of music choices. The system has now really come together in terms of solving the problems that the room throws at it, and it's taken some fairly esoteric choices to get there, but to my ears the system really works.
Once again, many thanks to Alex for the generous hospitality, good to see Jason again (another ride planned soon hopefully), fun catching up with Goose after corresponding for quite some time by email, and always glad to catch up with new friends such as Steve on these evenings. Hopefully time for one last ride before Tom make his way north
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on TUESDAY 28 October 2003 at 00:22.]
For those that can't remember the details of Alex's old system, have a look here. For those that can't be bothered, think Huge South London workshop, Austrian furniture, temperamental Danish CD player, LP12 with Japanese cartridge, powerful Antipodean amps and unique Martian speakers.
As before, Alex was quick to get us in the mood with the bottles of bubbly - very much appreciated - however at the last minute the chicken wings cancelled. Fortunately in their place up popped Goose, Jason Hector and 'Seventh Veil' Steve. Quite an interesting mix for the evening, which I would classify as in the glowing green corner Nick and Tom, in the glowing red corner Goose and Jason, sitting on the fence myself and Steve - so I expect there will be some differences of opinion.
So to a description of Alex's sistem in the latest guise:
Room - no change
Sources: Big change here - out goes the LP12 - in with a Well Tempered deck and cartridge - Alex will have to give details of the specific model. P100 Phono Stage
For CDs, Alex has stuck with the Densen Beat B-400 XS CD player
Amplification: Still the Dynavector L100 /HX1.2 pre/power combination. Now with the option of Japanese Dynavector surround processor with the option of extra grunt from a Naim NAP110.
Speakers: Yes still the O'Heochas, which certainly got the attention of resident speaker manufacturer Steve - out has gone the subwoofer, and in has come some satellite Gallo speakers, not unlike a pair of oranges - these are in use when the surround processor is on. I can't remember if the Mana was under the speakers or not.
Stands: Amazingly still Hutter - stand makers out there just can't be trying hard enough.
Cables: Mains - some design that screens out RFI - Alex? Interconnects - out goes the DNM, in comes cheapo microphone cables with Eichmann bullet plugs. Speaker cables, still Townshend Isolda.
On to the some listening, and first off we started with some nerdy A-B comparisons of the system with and without the surround processor. First thing to note is that the satellite speakers are placed just in front of the listener, and if you get up close to them, they make a surprising amount of sound - I guess I expected that they would just have a small amount of ambience going through them. Apparently they work on some time delay related to frequency. I'd had a sneak preview of the surround processor a couple of weeks earlier, and initial impressions were that the processor was adding some weight and scale that had previously been missing from the system, along with some presence, with none of the adverse effects that Alex had found with the subwoofer. As can be typical for these evenings, sometimes, the system doesn't quite behave as expected, and on the night for whatever reason, the processor was giving a boxy and grainy quality to the mid-range and general consensus seemed to prefer the processor off. What can be added in that in the meantime, Alex seems to have solved the scale issue anyway which he's put down to the last minute addition of the RFI screening mains cables to the system. Certainly the system gave a suitably impressive Rammstein performance of Herzelied but the surround processor looked like it didn't want to be there. A sadomasochistic request for more Rammstein from Goose led to the surround processor being retired for the evening, allowing for us to turn the wick up on the HX1.2 even more - the system put in a top performance, possibly given room conditions, the best yet.
On to the Well Tempered - although my experience with vinyl is limited, I'm certainly impressed. I'll leave it to other to provide more detail. For me I'm coming to the conclusion that the well Tempered really is well matched with the Dynavector Amps, and certainly it performed far more consistently than the LP12 did on the previous visit. In fact, for me it's the most persuasive case I've heard for vinyl so far. I'd also add that I'm not convinced that the WT would really gel with a Naim system. Sonically, the Densen performed as admirably as last time - given some software tweaks the machine was far less temperamental, although track information is left to the imagination. Alex assures me that they have now solved this issue - either way the player sounds like a bargain choice to me.
So to sum up, having heard the surround processor I have a feeling it may end up in Alex's increasingly complex home AV system. However, I think Alex has now got an extremely listenable system and a very engaging and consistent performer over a wide range of music choices. The system has now really come together in terms of solving the problems that the room throws at it, and it's taken some fairly esoteric choices to get there, but to my ears the system really works.
Once again, many thanks to Alex for the generous hospitality, good to see Jason again (another ride planned soon hopefully), fun catching up with Goose after corresponding for quite some time by email, and always glad to catch up with new friends such as Steve on these evenings. Hopefully time for one last ride before Tom make his way north
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on TUESDAY 28 October 2003 at 00:22.]