Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

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pre65
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#301 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by pre65 »

No other reports ?
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#302 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Michael L »

I wish I had been there to hear the kit for myself. I am rather surprised at some of the opinion in the first published comment.
Come on guys - get typing!
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#303 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Cressy Snr »

Couldn't make head nor tail of that report. There's nothing about music in there that I can see. Plenty of stuff about prices, micro dynamics, macro dynamics, bass,smoothness, dynamic swing, space weight.
I've read it three times and I don't understand a word of it.
Credit to the guy for taking the time to write something, but...... :?

What you need David is a good scribe. :wink:
Last edited by Cressy Snr on Mon May 28, 2018 11:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Stratmangler
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#304 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by The Stratmangler »

Cressy Snr wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 11:01 am Couldn't make head nor tail of that report. There's nothing about music in there that I can see. Plenty of stuff about prices, micro dynamics, macro dynamics, bass,smoothness, dynamic swing.
I've read it three times and don't understand a word of it.
I suspect that comments about being able to discern a smaller bodied, shorter scale acoustic guitar would be equally helpful.
Some stages told you that, and some didn't.

I didn't hear everything on offer, so can't really give a decent account of things.
I can tell you what floated my boat from the ones I did hear, but that would be fairly meaningless.
Chris :happy3:
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pre65
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#305 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by pre65 »

The Stratmangler wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 11:52 am
I didn't hear everything on offer, so can't really give a decent account of things.
I can tell you what floated my boat from the ones I did hear, but that would be fairly meaningless.
What ones that you did hear floated your boat Chris ?

Meaningless (or not) prey tell. :)
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#306 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Cressy Snr »

Yes, It'd be a good start at least.
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#307 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Nick »

I have to be honest twice. first I still am sorry Steve, I don;t see how I can talk about music when describing the difference between two bits of it. I just can't, I am sorry.

Second honest, I have several dogs in this race so what I say may be biased, either intentionally, unintentionally, or just because I make design choices based on what I like to hear. But with that said, the stages I found most interesting were the Modright, my jfet valve hybrid, the Paradise, Jez's new stage and the MFA LCR (also mine).

First the Paradise was almost faultless very clean, very fast, very detailed. Nothing not to like.

The Modwrite was on before the paradise, and I think everyone but me liked it a lot, it was doing a lot of things right, but I could hear a sense of it shouting, it was a fuzz on the notes that I don't know if anyone else was hearing, but I know I am very sensitive to it seems, it was the same effect I heard comparing my p6's months ago to Colins MF power amp, I know it when its there but maybe its just something I hear.

The LDA Jfet was fine as far as I was concerned, I had a chance to hear it quickly after the paradise and the difference was clear, less detail and a bigger warmer sound.

The Jez's prototype was after that and I found that very interesting, to me it sounded very similar to my jfet stage, maybe a bit less valve warmth as would be expected. It was very nice, no complaints, but I have to say I didn’t in any way hear any similarity in the sound to the Paradise. I know topologically they are meant to be similar, but to me I didn’t hear it. That said, it sounded very nice indeed, will look forward to hearing it when its in its final casework (not that my jfet was in its final casework either).

Finally we went back to the MFA LCR, its wasn’t as detailed as the paradise (maybe 95%), it wasn't as dynamic either (again maybe 95%) but for me it had a correctness of tone and engaged you into the music dynamics and emotion. But again, I did make it to match what I want to hear, so my bias is strong on this one.

The other stage that I should mention was the NVA Phono 2 that despite our best efforts we were unable to hear properly, the gain of the stage combined with the gain of the preamp and the output level of the cartridge meant that we could not get it loud enough to give it a fair chance of comparison. The preamp went to 80, most stages were used between 56 and 67 to give some idea of what the gain set-up was like.

Oh, and also, the Tom Evans, was ok, but not very engaging. The clone, was very nice, but I heard far too much energy in the HF, I don’t know if this was a result of the RIAA eq or the choice of op amps.
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#308 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by IslandPink »

Interesting stuff - thanks. So re. the Paradise unit. are you using the word 'detail' in the sense I would, ie. HF resolution, crisp edge, the top octave ?
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#309 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Nick »

Yes, with the emphasis on Crisp. In the Clearaudio direction of Vinyl if that helps.
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#310 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Ant »

Nick wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 12:11 pm but for me it had a correctness of tone and engaged you into the music dynamics and emotion. But again, I did make it to match what I want to hear, so my bias is strong on this one
This is the bit that interests me.

I am quite incapable of listening to things critically these days, a sound either engages me or it doesnt.

Take a pass f5 for example, ( yes i know, it's the example that means something to me personally not anyone else) people describe it as clean, and it is. I like clean, very much, but if it doesn't engage me then it doesnt matter how clean it is. The f5 pulls off this trick.

Nicks 10 grand one engaged when i heard it. There have been lots that haven't. Phono 1 engaged me, I cut a deal to get the benedict hothead as it engaged me. Nicks Ph1 might not be a patch on the ten grand job, but it did something that made me want to listen to it.

Sometime your ears prick up, like they did for me with benedict, the mfa and the phono 1.

Ive heard a whest phono stage that did nothing for me, so in my case, I must be wrong as the whest was a fortune compared to the benedict.

Id rather have something i want to listen to than something that I 'should' want to listen to.

Id like to hear what Chris liked too. Thats more important to me than all the macro/ micro dynamics.

Guitar players play a guitar that they like. That feels right, that they like the tone of, not one that they don't like but is supposedly better.

Perhaps I listen in the wrong manner for bake offs, the guy who wrote his impressions didn't seem to say which he actually likes, apart from the one he actually has. He must have heard something in that one that he liked or he wouldn't have bought it.
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#311 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Nick »

Ali left the Modright stage with me and I have just had a listen to it. I don't hear what I heard at Dave’s with it, but that is probably a demonstration of a lack of resolving power with the system here, The weak link is a Exposure power amp as I don’t have one of my own on hand ATM. What I do hear with the Modright here that probably aligns with what I heard on Saturday is a slight relentless quality to the sound, however it was a great deal Ali got for £500.

I have come to the possibly unhelpful conclusion that different people listen for different things, and possibly one of the litmus tests is the thought that anything of value can be learnt from a phono stage by playing Yellow's the Race through it. I am not in that group.
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#312 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by pre65 »

I don't go to many equipment comparison events these days, apart from Owston.

I find that at least 75% of the music played is not to my taste, and probably pieces I've not heard before, so how am I supposed to know what they should sound like ?

Good write ups so far. :)
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#313 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by Cressy Snr »

pre65 wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 2:40 pm I don't go to many equipment comparison events these days, apart from Owston.

I find that at least 75% of the music played is not to my taste, and probably pieces I've not heard before, so how am I supposed to know what they should sound like ?
Nobody knows what they should "sound" like. That's the problem I have with hi-fi speak.
The question has to be: does this piece of equipment communicate musically?
Even if you don't like the music being played or know the music, it should say at least something to you, if it doesn't, then the system has a piece of equipment in it, that is impeding the musical message.
Last edited by Cressy Snr on Mon May 28, 2018 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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pre65
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#314 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by pre65 »

Cressy Snr wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 3:24 pm
Nobody knows what they should "sound" like. That's the problem I have with hi-fi speak.
The question has to be: does this piece of equipment communicate musically?
Even if you don't like the music being played or know the music, it should say at least something to you, if it doesn't, then the system has a piece of equipment in it, that is impeding the musical message.
Yes, that is true Steve.

Usually the record or CD in my case. :lol:
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#315 Re: Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Post by mainscablesrus »

None of the horses in the race were losers IMO.

Clear differences could be heard with most of them. Some were far better than others obviously, a pleasant day for me and some lessons learned.

Nick's Ref. phono is still un-beaten IMO.
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