PetRat HiFi

[petrat]

Nice move Peter ..

I must invite myself to Northampton to hear it! (oops I just did ...).

Whoops, sorry Tom, just re-ead this ... yes, you're always welcome!

[Parkie37]

Peter
I have finally heard a top notch Tannoy setup like yours. A friend of mine is a new reviewer for an online magazine (Part Time Audiophile) and he invited me along to a listening weekend at a long time reviewer's house (Positive Feedback), about 450 miles to the south of us. We grabbed some records, red wine and sandwiches to go and hit the road. 5-6 hours later we arrived and the guys that are fellow music lovers and audiophiles, that live nearby, were there and already enjoying some music.

We listened to a vintage McIntosh MX-110 tuner preamp hooked up to a pair of MC-30 monoblocks, driving a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royal SEs. The source was an Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 with two Schick tonearms. Each had an SPU mounted on them, one mono and one stereo. From what I can tell, this is probably the finest version of a Garrard 301 on the market today.

You need a pretty big room to let these speakers perform at their best. Here I am standing next to them!

image.jpg

However, when you get them setup properly, they are staggeringly musical and resolving. This system is one of the ten best that I have heard in my life. He has performed some upgrades to the crossovers and to the amps and the preamp. One of the fellows there is an audio designer and he brought along his 'Woody SPU' tonearm. We mounted the stereo SPU cartridge on it, installed that on the Garrard and played the same music that we had just heard. Holy ****! Big improvement in resolution and sense of recording space. It was like this wooden tonearm had no sound of its own. And yet it became even more musical.

I can certainly see why you like your Garrard/SPU/Shindo/Leben/Tannoy setup. If I wasn't enjoying my Audio Note system so much, I would be testing out big Tannoys

[petrat]

I know already

http://jeffsplace.me/wordpress/?p=9130

I've been a follower of Jeff's blog for years. I would love a pair of those Westminsters ... and a room to match. In the UK, it is often low ceilings that really limit the potential ime. Jeff's space looks ideal for them.

Good to hear that you rate the 'woody' arm. I was wondering if it was maybe a bit 'hyped', but clearly not! Must get in touch with Pete and get a price for one, shipped here. Import taxes may make it a bit pricey ... maybe a trip to the Pacific north-west to collect in person?

http://www.vtaf.com/id102.html

How did the VOTT speakers sound to you, Don? The 'Stokowski' ones certainly look lovely, for sure.

[Parkie37]

I know already

http://jeffsplace.me/wordpress/?p=9130

I've been a follower of Jeff's blog for years. I would love a pair of those Westminsters ... and a room to match. In the UK, it is often low ceilings that really limit the potential ime. Jeff's space looks ideal for them.

Good to hear that you rate the 'woody' arm. I was wondering if it was maybe a bit 'hyped', but clearly not! Must get in touch with Pete and get a price for one, shipped here. Import taxes may make it a bit pricey ... maybe a trip to the Pacific north-west to collect in person?

http://www.vtaf.com/id102.html

How did the VOTT speakers sound to you, Don? The 'Stokowski' ones certainly look lovely, for sure.

Hahaha! You are too sharp Peter!

You are right about the size of the room that is required. Jeff has a three bedroom bungalow, so it's not a huge house (it's a normal sized house at roughly 2000 square feet I think), but his main living room area connects to the eating area and kitchen. That allows him to have the proper room to drive the Westminsters. He simply gives up having a normal living room (I would do the same in his shoes!). The ceiling is a bit higher as you suggest.

The woody arm has to be matched properly to the cartridge. But....it really impressed me! It was much better than the Schick - it wasn't a subtle difference. That is saying a lot! The standard version is US $1900 and the SPU version is US $2000. Pete is a gentleman! He will get he details of what you would like to use and in what system and build it to the correct specifications. I mention this because his tonearm didn't match Jeffs mono SPU quite as well sound wise and apparently it was a weight/counterweight mismatch, so that is why the stereo outperformed it. We needed a bigger and heavier counterweight.

The VOTTs are very nice. More similar than dissimilar in sound to the Tannoys. It is another quite large speaker and needs a large room. I couldn't get over the natural ease coming from them - and the imaging! The imaging wasn't as good as a pair of mini monitors, but way better than they look capable of. We heard the VOTTs at Petes with a humble DAC (older Musical Fidelity VDac) and a good but not great tube pre/power. They felt as though they would sound better and better as you upgraded your system. Pete has a collection of used turntables, including some used TD124s and Garrard 301s that are awaiting refurbishing. No, he wouldn't sell me one : (

The Stokowskies are in a small bedroom and powered by solid state and yet they sounded really good! Who knew?

[NeilNZ]

The Stokowskies are in a small bedroom and powered by solid state and yet they sounded really good! Who knew?

Just goes to show that a big room isn't necessarily required for big speakers! My Petite Latours are in a smallish room and they sound magnificent! A lot of the Japanese dudes have big speakers in smaller rooms to great effect as well.
I saw a few pics of Rafe's up on FB, looks like a good time was had!

[The Black Adder]

I've heard Westies in a good sized room with low/normal height ceilings and they were spot on. I too would love to give some a go but my room isn't big enough.

Jeffs place is a lovely space. He has some nice equipment too! Always a good read.

[Parkie37]

Hahaha! You are too sharp Peter!

You are right about the size of the room that is required. Jeff has a three bedroom bungalow, so it's not a huge house (it's a normal sized house at roughly 2000 square feet I think), but his main living room area connects to the eating area and kitchen. That allows him to have the proper room to drive the Westminsters. He simply gives up having a normal living room (I would do the same in his shoes!). The ceiling is a bit higher as you suggest.

The woody arm has to be matched properly to the cartridge. But....it really impressed me! It was much better than the Schick - it wasn't a subtle difference. That is saying a lot! The standard version is US $1900 and the SPU version is US $2000. Pete is a gentleman! He will get he details of what you would like to use and in what system and build it to the correct specifications. I mention this because his tonearm didn't match Jeffs mono SPU quite as well sound wise and apparently it was a weight/counterweight mismatch, so that is why the stereo outperformed it. We needed a bigger and heavier counterweight.

The VOTTs are very nice. More similar than dissimilar in sound to the Tannoys. It is another quite large speaker and needs a large room. I couldn't get over the natural ease coming from them - and the imaging! The imaging wasn't as good as a pair of mini monitors, but way better than they look capable of. We heard the VOTTs at Petes with a humble DAC (older Musical Fidelity VDac) and a good but not great tube pre/power. They felt as though they would sound better and better as you upgraded your system. Pete has a collection of used turntables, including some used TD124s and Garrard 301s that are awaiting refurbishing. No, he wouldn't sell me one : (

The Stokowskies are in a small bedroom and powered by solid state and yet they sounded really good! Who knew?

I should mention that the Stokowskies are fed by a top of the line Speck integrated, which is about $9k. It was much like wearing top notch headphones, but yes, they sounded good. There is no way that they should work...but they do!

[petrat]

Been a few items passed through my hands in the last 6 months.

In the living room system, I tried a Rega combo of Brio R and Apollo R in harness with the regular Harbeth P3ESRs. Top marks for ease of use (remote!) and value for money, but ultimately I knew the Harbs were being held back a wee bit, and were capable of more. Next I tried a Trafomatic Experience Two. This is a lovely 300b SET integrated, which gave a huge soundstage, lovely tone and detail, and quite decent 'poke' through the 83dB P3s (but in a smallish room to be fair). So, I was quite happy with that, until the opportunity came up to go back to my beloved EL34s, in the shape of a swap for a Sophia Electric integrated. I was a bit in two minds tbh, as the Trafo is a superb amp (fantastic transformers and beautifully built), but it turned out that the Sophia is a perfect match for the speakers ... thank goodness! Having said that, one of the 6U8A valves started playing up today, but at least it's cheap to replace.

In the main system, the big change has been getting hold of a beautifully preserved Fidelity Research FR-64S arm, which has replaced the SME M2-12R. It's a fantastic match with the SPU A95, which has now become my 'end game' for the Platine.



The Brinkmann is getting the best out of an Audio Note IQ1 mm at the moment. I've been playing it direct into the mm input of the Monbrison, while the (2 ohm) A95 is fed through the mc input, with its built-in 30dB Lundahl SUTs designed for vintage SPUs. All very nice, with a flick of a switch being all that's needed to swap between carts/arms.

[Firebottle]

The best of both worlds eh,

[AlfaGTV]

What a lovely turntable/arms/carts combination! Im convinced it sounds absolutely smashing!