Soon to be new deck

[Peter Stockwell]

Indeed - and they deserve respect for that much

The rest are either full of computer/AV shit, ...

Earth is the centre of the universe, then is it ?

[Marco]

Griffo,

I still remain a bit non-plussed about valves, although recently got to hear a very nice Croft pre-amp which I was very impressed with. It made a significant change to the sound of the system it was in but then it was replacing an MF pre-amp so I'm not too surprised it made a positive difference.

Valve gear is like anything else in hi-fi - you can only judge what you hear, and if what you've heard is nothing special then it will obviously influence your opinion accordingly.

The trouble is that most commercially produced valve equipment is vastly overpriced for what it is, and often too over-complicated for its own good. The advantage of Croft gear (which you know I use with my Charisma-X preamp) is that it's based on simple hard-wired, shortest signal path circuits which offer superb sound quality and the designs are sold at realistic prices. Glenn wouldn't have it any other way as he hates the high-end marketing bullshit part of hi-fi as much as I do.

But it's not only Croft valve equipment which offers this; World Designs gear is equally as good, as is most equipment from smaller bespoke manufacturers such as Tube Distinctions, Icon Audio, Puresound, and many others who have no desire to be an 'aspirational' brand in the audiophile rip-off sense and sell their souls to the devil in the process. *This* is where it's at with valves if you are seeking top-notch performance at realistic prices.

If you wish to have your opinion changed and are in any way intrigued by valves, you should check out some of the stuff above. Personally, knowing now what valve equipment does when performing correctly and properly implemented synergistically into a system, I would never go back to transistor amps. Nothing in hi-fi is perfect but in my experience valves done well get far more right than they do wrong, and as a result quite simply get you closer to the music.

As such a self-confessed T/T and vinyl nut, you're doing yourself an injustice not hearing your deck through a valve preamp and phono stage (with high quality MC step-up transformers). Trust me, done correctly; it'll take you on a musical journey you've never experienced before...

I used to really enjoy Hifi World but find it's just too off the mark for my tastes in Hifi nowadays. Having said that, if it wasn't for Hifi World, back when Noel Keywood was the Editor, then I would never have gotten in to turntables.

I guess that it's personal taste. I find that HFW pretty much ticks all the boxes for me. If it had as good a music section as Hi-fi Plush it'd be perfect

Marco.

[Marco]

Earth is the centre of the universe, then is it ?

They're just not things that turn me on, Peter. Each to his or her own and all that

Marco.

[Peter Stockwell]

They're just not things that turn me on, Peter. Each to his or her own and all that

Marco.

I was just joshing ya!!

[Marco]

Hehe...

Marco.

[griffo104]

But it's not only Croft valve equipment which offers this; World Designs gear is equally as good, as is most equipment from smaller bespoke manufacturers such as Tube Distinctions, Icon Audio, Puresound, and many others who have no desire to be an 'aspirational' brand in the audiophile rip-off sense and sell their souls to the devil in the process. *This* is where it's at with valves if you are seeking top-notch performance at realistic prices.

Marco,
a little story for you. A couple of years ago I attended a bake off at a Wammers place. I went down with my Orbe. The guy had 2 rooms, in the front was primarily a cd based setup and in the back room we setup my orbe. One of the guys had a load of WAD stuff, amp and phono and psu.

In the afternoon we set the Orbe driving all the WAD stuff with a pair of Revolver speakers, srtandmounts and not too expensive.

In my opinion, this completely blew away the cd based system in the other room, which had Art audio speakers on the end of the amps. We weren;'t just listening to a track but whole sides of LPs. The sound was wonderful, detailed, natural. Ok it's a bit of flat earth way of thinking, expensive source with very reasonably proced electronics and speakers on the end - not sure what Howard would think of this - but it was sublime in every possible way.

In the front room was the Prima Luna amp which all were raving about. It sounded pretty dire, tbh. Initially the frotn toom system had the WAD amp and listening to Cut Chemist was very poor, it lacked everything dance music should have. the cd owner blamed the amp but later when it was hooked up with the Orbe and Revlovers it was completely different.

My point ? sometimes it's just too difficult to comprehend what a SYSTEM will do. I know a ot of people on another forum firmly believe that you buy the best speakers and work your way back. I disagree with that. the whole picture has be together - source, amp, speakers. the cost of the indicidual components isn't import, but being of a flat earth liking obviously I beleive the source has to be a decent level for all else to work well but that doesn't mean the source HAS to be expensive. It doesn't.

Sotry no.2 A couple of years ago I'm walking around the hifi show. this is when the Chester group and Hifi News decided to have shows on the same day. My 2 mates had stayed over at the Hifi News show for the AV demos. I hate AV. I went over to the other show.

Very late on, the last room I visited, had a Kuzma Stabi S/Rega/Goldring feeding a prototype phone with the Puresound amp (poorly named Bewithced at the time I think. On the end were one of the cheaper pairs of of Focal speakers - no flashy berylium tweeters here.

I was in the room for about 15 mins listening on my own, really enjoying the blues record, I started chatting to the representative about tube amps, simple questions but nice replies. Apart from two uber expensive systems this was by far the most enjoyable and complete sound I heard that day. The person turned out to be a very nice 'Guy' as I later found out when reporting on the Wam.

Again i stand by my comments here. Was it purely the tube amp that put the smile on my face and enjoyed this very affordable system compared to so much of the glitzy expensive ones blaming the room for the shite sound.

I think, again, that getting a decent balanced system is the most important thing. Regardless of the technology (excepting cd of course).

[scoobs]

I've found another Sony curio. I belt driven 1210 clone no less, notice the platter, pitch slider, strobe light and buttons etc. Bonkers!

[Marco]

Aye, but it uses a bloody elastic band!

Howz that 103 sound now it's been 'sapphire'd'?

Marco.

P.S Griffo, I'll come back to you later.

[scoobs]

Marco, I'm expecting it tomorrow or saturday...cant wait! It has taken ages. I get the impression that Expert Stylus are a Father & son outfit and they cant knock em' out quick enough to the US market apparently.

I'm home alone this weekend, so I'm gonna max out on vinyl after 2 months of analogue drought. I would love to go to Richard Dunn's DD turntable fest/bakeoff at the end of the month to compare decks and 103's but North London is just too far at this time.

I'll be back in a day or so with some early impressions.

[Marco]

Ah, so it's imminent. You'll be like a kid in a sweet shop wondering what tunes to play!

We expect a full write-up when you get a good listen...

Do you know if a KAB-1210 will be represented at the D/D bake-off? I rate the Pioneers in terms of the mechanisms and PSUs used but I'm not sure about how good the plinths are in terms of effective isolation.

No doubt we'll hear all about it on pfm!

Marco.