Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

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izzy wizzy
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#31 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by izzy wizzy »

What Ant said. Pretty much my experience.

On Sunday I heard the same tonal deficiencies with my amps on Steve's speakers more or less. In the quest for low noise no hum, baby went with the bath water. It was way to sterile for my liking and not what I had earlier.

And at home it's lost the ability for me to just sit down and enjoy the music following up on what Ed and Steve said.

Cheers,
Stephen.
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#32 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by simon »

Thanks Ant, I appreciate (constructive) feedback. Not least because it's probably about things that aren't immediately obvious to me but might be after long term listening. You know, the sort of stuff that eventually really gets on your wick.

The 208s are an interesting case in point. I suspect I've become tolerant to their "peakiness" over the years, but you and Mark have both identified it, and no doubt others who haven't commented.

How much of this might have been due to the infernal low high-pass filter of the supertweeters I don't know but needs investigating.

Both you and Chris picked up on something with the H baffles too, so that is also food for thought.

At home the volume is much lower in a much smaller room so they do perform slightly differently. But the views expressed in this thread alone have reconfirmed that we all hear some things quite differently.
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#33 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by simon »

izzy wizzy wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:49 am And at home it's lost the ability for me to just sit down and enjoy the music following up on what Ed and Steve said.
And there's the rub of comparing kit. :-(
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#34 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by izzy wizzy »

simon wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:10 pm
izzy wizzy wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:49 am And at home it's lost the ability for me to just sit down and enjoy the music following up on what Ed and Steve said.
And there's the rub of comparing kit. :-(
Can be a bit dangerous ;)

It was something I was grappling with since I got the amps quiet some weeks ago. Owsters just confirmed that. Plus I had recapped the Tannoy crossovers 2 days before and that was another magnifying glass that was exposing the issue. It was a big rush to get everything ready so no time to figure out where the goodness had gone.

I'm tempted to bring the Acoustat electrostatics next year as well, all 8ft tall of them :)

Cheers,
Stephen
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#35 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by pre65 »

izzy wizzy wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:27 pm
I'm tempted to bring the Acoustat electrostatics next year as well, all 8ft tall of them :)

Cheers,
Stephen
One benefit of coming up in a van. :)

I hope to bring a full system next time, and 833a amps if they are finished .
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#36 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by ed »

thanks Ant, the fiver is in the post.

After all the nice things people have said I'm having second thoughts about stripping the breadboard and putting the James traffos on ebay. Maybe I should have a re-think and put it all in a much bigger aluminium case...or maybe not, after all I brought it to Owston to highlight how much progress had been made since 2006/9, and to my mind progress has been made....

the sv572/811 is hamstrung the way it is by the gain limitations of the aikido vas(40 ish), which is hardly tickling the Svetlanas. Looking at the notes, I tried a lot of front ends at the time, some much meatier, but the aikido did sound the best to me....oh well

life is short enough, don't want to go backwards, as I was reminded when having another tidy up/clear out the other day:

http://www.vitalstates.org/diy/misc/sib.wma
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#37 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by Cressy Snr »

IslandPink wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:16 am
I didn't think what you played was low-fi. There was plenty of vocal and instrument tone. This is often the case with 60's or 50's recordings. It may be that 70's/80's has a quieter background or a bit more treble detail, but they are not necessarily better.
One of the reasons I liked your system was the very good tone on vocals and instruments.
ps. the flamenco record i had on later was from 1958.
You’re quite right Mark. What I played during my spot was not lo-fi, but the Northern Soul track I played whilst setting up certainly was. The point I was making was that both the lo-fi and the hi-fi are able to live alongside each other in my own system.
It is a quest I’ve been boring people with for years and I think largely succeeded, both in boring people and in enabling lo and hi-fi to work together. Getting the vocal and instrumental tone right, is an absolute must, if low and hi-fi recordings are to be able to be enjoyed on the same system. It is a mammoth task to set oneself and not easy to accomplish.
IslandPink wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:21 am
Hi-efficiency speakers and low powered valve amps in a big space are a recipe for it and it always happens
Sorry to pick on you again Steve :)
It doesn't always happen. Your amps and speakers weren't shrill - they were engaging and very listenable.
Thomas's OB's were also excellent, again driven by a low power valve amp. It was just a shame everyone became obsessed by some missing low-bass, because the efforts to put them nearer the wall or the 'Edingdale wall' just degraded the excellent midrange tone.
Yes I’ll have to back pedal on the shrillness thing. I’ve managed largely to get rid of it on my own system, but over the years, shrillness has certainly been a difficult part of the low powered amp/high-efficiency single driver scene a lot of us used to subscribe to. Both the Fane 12-250TC and the 15-300TC seem to have gone a long way towards exorcising this particular demon. Having said that, shrillness did rear its head once or twice during the day. The piccolos and flutes on Quincy Jones Soul Bossa Nova, on axis to my speakers were a case in point....Yeeeeeech.
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#38 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by IslandPink »

Cressy Snr wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 3:00 pm Getting the vocal and instrumental tone right, is an absolute must, if low and hi-fi recordings are to be able to be enjoyed on the same system.
A seemingly simple statement that hits the nail on the head !
Took me a few years to realise this.
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#39 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by IslandPink »

Stephen, are your Tannoys anything like the ones Troels G tested here ?
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/tannoyMG15.htm
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#40 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by izzy wizzy »

IslandPink wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:33 pm Stephen, are your Tannoys anything like the ones Troels G tested here ?
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/tannoyMG15.htm
Apart from a few mistakes which cause some issues for measuring the low pass, yes that's them. They're original 15in monitor golds not HPDs which are different but can sometimes be called the same.

Cheers,
Stephen
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#41 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by JohnG »

I would happily put two of my Eminence Beta 15's in a Baffle to be used with the 57's at the next Owston.
It would be nice if any electronic requirements were catered for by somebody with a interest in this, as I'm lost on the most simple of ideas.
If Steve can post the Next Date, as I think it might clash with a date I have in mind.
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#42 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by steve s »

John and all, the next Owston is booked for 30+31 may next year
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#43 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by IslandPink »

Nice - that means I can definitely get there :)
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#44 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by vinylnvalves »

That gives me a target to aim for to get my latest speakers finished for the next show. Hopefully showing how AMT’s can handle rock music as well horns. ( They could be horn-loaded mid range AMT’s. - if need to add some tone :) )
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#45 Re: Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions

Post by JohnG »

Those Dates work for me at present :)
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