14 November Bake-off with RFC

[Reffc]

Just to extend an invite to any AoS member who may be interested in a Raptor demo and general bake-off day to be held with me Saturday week. I have space for one more person, so if interested, please get in touch. There'll be various loudspeakers and amplifiers there, including I think some single ended gems from Colin Wonfor (and the great man himself). First come, first served!

[YNWaN]

I would absolutely love to attend and hear the Raptors, but unfortunately it's just a bit too far for me :(.

[brian2957]

+1 :rolleyes: They look extraordinary . Hope all who can attend have a great time .:)

[Audio Al]

Paul

Can you PM me your post code so I can see how far and how ling it would take me too do the round trip

Cheers :)

[Reffc]

Paul

Can you PM me your post code so I can see how far and how ling it would take me too do the round trip

Cheers :)

PM outbound Al

[Audio Al]

260 miles round trip :eek:
6 hours ( with no traffic jams ) :eek:

Go on then put me down IF you still have a space left :D

[Colin Wonfor]

It looks like a full house Paul, can't wait to see and hear your speakers, just lets not play Dave's Uglymusic please.

[CageyH]

260 miles round trip :eek:
6 hours ( with no traffic jams ) :eek:

Go on then put me down IF you still have a space left :D

Lightweight!

I did a 450 mile round trip (and about 7 hours) for the SWF bake off.

[Audio Al]

Lightweight!

I did a 450 mile round trip (and about 7 hours) for the SWF bake off.

:(

[CageyH]

It was worth it.
I had a great time. I hope you enjoy the day as much as I did.

[Reffc]

It looks like a full house Paul, can't wait to see and hear your speakers, just lets not play Dave's Uglymusic please.

Look forward to seeing your there Col, and I promise, no made up avant-garde jazz/noise/racket/ear pain will be tolerated!:D

[Reffc]

260 miles round trip :eek:
6 hours ( with no traffic jams ) :eek:

Go on then put me down IF you still have a space left :D

Good man. Last space to Al. Look forward to seeing everyone end of next week. Pizza/coffee/cake provided.

[Reffc]

Another space has come free for this bake-off (get well soon Col) so here's opportunity for an additional person who may have been teetering, to now commit to cake, coffee and music in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere!

[Audio Al]

Lets see if Tarzan ( M rAndy sees this ) his Harbeths have just gone POP :ner:

[Reffc]

He needs to get himself over here then Al :eyebrows:

[brian2957]

Lets see if Tarzan ( M rAndy sees this ) his Harbeths have just gone POP :ner:
That sounds painful :rolleyes:

[Reffc]

Anything hifi or bodily related going "pop" us usually painful!

[brian2957]

Agreed Paul . One makes you cry and the other just makes you want to cry :lol:

[Tarzan]

That sounds painful :rolleyes:

Trust me it is,both mentally and physically......:(

l would love to POP over Paul, but maybe working that day Paul... dunno yet.

[Reffc]

Andy's a definite "maybe" (place reserved) but there will still be one additional place left after work commitments calling one of the original attendees away on the day. Please PM me if interested and you'd like to bring something else into the mix.

[Reffc]

Last place now taken!

Should be interesting...we'l have some monster single ended SS amps, the latest from Radfords who will be attending with their new prototype preamp, Raptor speakers, Verity Rienzi's, my own TT's and big valve amp, so plenty of kit to audition/compare.

[Radford Revival]

Preamp will hopefully be done by then, it is currently broken on the bench :D

[brian2957]

Hope you all have a great day Paul . Mind the pictures :D

[Reffc]

Hope you all have a great day Paul . Mind the pictures :D

Thanks Brian

I'll upload pictures to this thread after the event ;)

[brian2957]

Nice one Paul :popcorn:

[Radford Revival]

Preamp nearly finished :) It's actually for Montesquieu/Tom, but the basic design will be very similar in our upcoming preamp.

[Radford Revival]

Well my toys are ready for Saturday, I will be bringing a restored original STA25 and Tom's shiny new preamp.

[brian2957]

This sounds like it will be very interesting :)

[Reffc]

It'll be a busy day. 6 confirmed and one "maybe".

Kit: SECA amps, OTO SE, Radford STA amps, Emille Ki-40L, a few DACs, Apollo-R CDP, Gyro SE, Garrad 401, Zyx and Nagoaka carts, SME & Hadcock arms, several DIY phonostages, Raptor speakers, Verity audio speakers, RFC assorted cabling...and lots of pizza and cake.

[brian2957]

There's a few pieces of kit there which I would like to hear , particularly the Emille amp , the Radford preamp , and the Raptors , and I'm also quite partial to cake and pizza :) . Pauls cables are also excellent . Have a great day guys :D

[Reffc]

OK...I've had a last minute cancellation so, once again am able to offer a space to another AoS member. Anyone tempted, you'd be most welcome, just PM me this evening for directions and bring yourself, some music and if you like, a but of kit for a bake off. Only stipulation is it must be members with a post history of at least 50 (ie well known to AoS).

[Reffc]

Some photos from today's bake-off:

Before the event when the room still looked like it hadn't been nuked!

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/001_zpsitkofhbj.jpg

First amp up: Emille Ki-40L:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/002_zpszetnos9x.jpg

Brumjam (James's) Audionote OTO SE sounding very nice into the Raptors with the Apollo-R as a source

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/011_zps64enj9gi.jpg

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/008_zpsdbqx7rsh.jpg


Garrard 401 in fine fettle:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/010_zpskjxz6wsf.jpg


Radford Revival's Prototype pre-amp driving a restored STA 25 sounded fantastic. Great clarity and grip:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/004_zps2nlboked.jpg


Will from Radford Revival demonstrating how an STA25 sounds better when turned upside down with the bottom cover removed ;)

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/003_zpsdpporufk.jpg

Close up detailing the neatness of Will's fine work:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/002_zpsjnotnu58.jpg

Teacher of the art of "daft pishanto", grand master Audio Al, demonstrates the correct way to listen to anything that isn't Dire Straits :D

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/006_zpsmkz2p7sd.jpg

Close up of the prototype Radford Preamp. No hum or noise even when turned up full whack..a cracking preamp, possibly one of the best actives I've heard to date. Note: Casework will be modified as will switches etc for production models. This is just to get the guts of the amp into a working chassis so it remains work in progress until the new CNC machined cases are ready:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n577/24pacman/005_zps7nchuvcu.jpg

A very enjoyable day in very agreeable company so thank you to everyone who attended.

[DSJR]

Didn't know the HD250 came with a grey? front panel ;)

Re. the STA25. I wish people like this were around when I had mine (1976 - 80). You could barely give the things away back then, let alone get them serviced properly - and mine, a 1966 example, needed it too. I replaced it and its preamp with a Naim CB NAP160/32 - what was I thinking?

[Reffc]

The HD250 preamp front case came as grey or brown as in the example above David (no grey front there). The STA25 as prepared by Radford Revival is the match for ANY valve amplifier of that type at ANY price, and better than most. Viewed in that light, it is a veritable bargain and why they're not flying off the shelves beats the heck out of me. Money does not buy a better sounding or performing modestly rated push pull valve amplifier imho. Low output impedance, plenty of grunt, very low distortion (less than 1% at full output) and neutral sounding with plenty of detail. Does the £6K Emille sound twice as good for being a £6K amp loaded (and I mean absolutely packed internally to the gills) with foo? Nope, no way.

[DSJR]

Thanks, the HD250's and ZD22's I remember selling came in a silvery grey colour. The one that came my way decades later was a bit beat up and I'm not sure about the sonics...

Anyway, glad all hopefully had a great time.

P.S. My SC22/STA25 ended up in Hungary and I agree about the basic design being state of the art back then - there was an HFN test on one and it came out brilliantly, valves or otherwise ;)

[Radford Revival]

Thanks for this Paul, I had a really nice time as did everyone else. It was lovely to meet everyone and it was a pleasure to showcase the new pre-amp design along with one of our restored amps, and it was nice to see they went down well.

Paul's Raptor speakers have a huge non-fatiguing sound and seem to be happy on the end of all kinds of amplifier types - the presentation changing slightly (simply just due to physics) but never falling apart even when driven from anything from a single ended valve amp to a conventional Class-AB transistor amp - implying a nice easy to drive impedance curve. I don't believe I've seen a copy of the curve with the latest revision of the crossovers but as far as I'm aware it's very benign, which explains the fairly relaxed amp requirements.

All is needed is a 10W amp to drive them to satisfying levels for most, having personally witnessed this on Saturday with the Oto, and with some self designed EL84 monoblocks brought up by myself during a previous visit early in the year.

The sound never gets fatiguing due to the quality drive units and careful crossover design, even when driven loud. To be honest you could pretty much just get these and not worry about speakers again, they are happy on the end of most amps, produce deep enough bass for the vast majority of music, treble extends beyond the limits of human hearing and the midrange appears tightly integrated between the woofer and tweeter, there's never an audible disconnect between the two, even when sitting near the speakers.



PS. The HD250 case was already (mostly) empty before I built the preamp into it, no working Radfords were harmed! ;)

[Audio Al]

My turn 2 chip in on the day

I would like 2 thanks Paul for the hosting of the day and the opportunity 2 join in during the day , I was cream crackered when I arrived home , Total of 6 hours driving and 300 miles :)

On arrival Paul had his Emille in the system along the either the Girodeck or the 401 and the Rega CDP all playing through the Raptor speakers all sounding nice

Then some box swapping started , 1st up was the Radford power / pre combination , The power amp is a work of art , The attention 2 detail is very impressive and boy did this combination of pre / power and Raptors sound amazing , The bass grip and control was very impressive , In my opinion the An and the Claymore were no match for my musical taste when compared with the Radford :eyebrows:, The AN Otto was a nice easy listen , non fatiguing as was the Claymore , Each amp was played using the same track from a CD , I can't remember what track it was , This was done for comparison reasons
Again I will say the Radford pre / powers was my preferred combo that suited my type of listening , Others will have their own opinions :)

Meal time was appreciated and consumed by everyone :D

Also nice 2 meet other enthusiasts ;)

Once again thanks everyone

[hifinutt]

well missed this little demo in November but had an audition today of the raptor . HUGE sound from a standmount . I used to have focal diablo and really enjoyed these and some great hospitality from the family

they have tremendous bass and wide soundstage
the stands are exceptional and quite rare , in fact I was extremely taken with the stands


http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=183015

this pair are available for under 2k which is a snip for what they are