A great afternoon

[Floyddroid]

Sadly Marco, we were far too busy listening to music and mixing things around, drinking strong tea and going to the toilet we didn't have chance to take any.

Marco.

[Gazjam]

Yes a very enjoyable afternoon had catching up with Steve outside of our normal NEBO meets.

As well as catching up with Steve I was dead keen to hear his Avondale voyager monoblocks and preamp built especially for him by the most affable Mr Les Wolstenholme himself. They certainly didn't disappoint and delivered all the verve and musical excitement I've come to associate with Les's work. Having heard AlanT's voyagers at the last NEBO it was interesting to see how Les's implementation of the design worked. Given it was a while ago since I heard Alan's I am going off memory but Steve's amps had more 'edge' and seemed to voiced to be more exciting. Loads of power and ruthless insight but at the beginning the sound was a little hard for my tastes. The cable was definitely playing a role here... more on this in a bit.

To start with we enjoyed some Thomas Dolby playing via Steve's Lenco into his VTL phono stage. Steve describes this as a big American type of sound and I wouldn't fault that. I really enjoyed hearing this phono stage it's really something special but I preferred it's MM presentation than the MC after we'd opened the case and changed a couple of loading settings. For me it seemed more balanced with MM than MC and partnered well with my Technics which has eally starting to come on song now. My AT440mla cart has broken in now and I was more than happy with how it sounded via the VTL.

Time to try some other cables though, Steve had been using some Witchhat Audio cables with his voyagers to his speakers. To be honest I'm not a fan of these, they seemed to deliver loads of headroom and ultra high sparkle to the system but switching to the pair of Vandamme HiFi cables that Qwin had kindly loaned me at our last meet made a huge improvement for me. The soundstage seemed not as big but overall more balanced much sweeter in the treble and upper mids. If I were Steve I think I'd be flogging the Witchhat stuff and buying some of these. They made the the system less edgy and chilled things out a bit which is really a matter of taste I guess.

We enjoyed some CDs by Younger Brother - Vaccine, King Crimson - Discipline, and Fleet Foxes. The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in Amercia is great test CD for me. They're a band who play live and record with an 'everything on' kind of sound reminiscent of the E Street Band at their best but with a punky vocal and attitude. I love this band and as the music is so busy it can easily wrongfoot a less able system I find. Pleased to say Steve's system passed this test for me and produced it warts and all despite their noisy production values.

Then onto some more vinyl, we had some of Beck's wonderful Morning Phase album which is quite lo-fi and a bit squashed sounding anyway. The system brought out the ethereal vocals and subtle banjo and mandolin tracks which sit quite far back in the mix and put them centre stage. Nice!

Steve then let his Lenco rip with some Propellerheads and Goldfrapp via the Firebottle phono stage. The propellerheads track had the sofa shaking with the bass, Steve must have some very understanding neighbours The Goldfrapp, whilst never one of my favourite artists was big highlight for me. Luscious vocals and moody backing tracks coming across well.

I'd brought along my little NVA A40mk2 monoblocks to see how they held up against against the mighty voyagers and they certainly didn't disappoint. For me they were clear and open sounding, if not as 'exciting' as the Avondales they were very musical indeed and both Steve and I described them as honest sounding. They more than held their own and partnered beautifully with the Avondale preamp. It will be interesting to create this setup again at a future NEBO and get Les's take on this pairing. I'm sure the owner of NVA would prefer his own designed passive with these but there was something special in this match, indeed I'd go as far as saying I'd happily live with this combination with a Firebottle handling vinyl duties.

To finish the day we brought out Steve's Ruarks, much beloved of the NEBO faithfull, to hear them with this pairing. Also excellent if nowhere near the the scale of the big Tannoys, and we enjoyed some of Elbow's live at Jodrell Bank and some live Pink Floyd. I did say to Steve that if I were him I'd probably only ever listen to live material on his system, such is the concert scale it provides...

A real treat to hear the Firebottle2 phono stage also, a smashing bit of kit which gave all the gain and tube warmth I like in my vinyl sound but did it's job and shone in particular through the NVA and Avondale combo.

So much more I could say but I'd be rambling and my thumbs are tiring from writing this on a tablet so I'll quit now. All that remains is to thank Steve again for the hospitality, the excellent leaf tea (builder's strength) and biccies. Look forward to having you at my place to hear my kit in situ when I have my RPi and Dac running by then.

Roll on NEBO6!

Rich,
Top taste in music mate.
Listening to Last Days of Gravity by Younger Brother right now actually.
My favourite album of theirs.

Sounds like you all had a great sesh and what its all about.

[RichB]

Rich,
Top taste in music mate.
Listening to Last Days of Gravity by Younger Brother right now actually.
My favourite album of theirs.

Sounds like you all had a great sesh and what its all about.

Ribbon on a branch is one of my favourite tracks. I always put that on when listening to new kit.

[Ali Tait]

Just on MC with Steve's Lenco I'd say I preferred the firebottle. They're chalk and cheese I think Ali both do different things well. The VTL sounds bigger, much bigger in fact and more revealing. However the firebottle had more warmth and balance so if in this set up I'd pick the firebottle. That said, if I had to choose between the VTL on MM settings with my deck and my NVA and Croft I'd have the VTL. It's an impressive bit of kit.

Cheers Rich, like to hear the VTL sometime.

[Floyddroid]

If you want me to i'll bring the VTL along to the next NEBO?

Cheers Rich, like to hear the VTL sometime.

[Ali Tait]

Aye, please.

[Floyddroid]

Please note that i have removed reference to the NVA amps from my original post as the nothing but positive comments about them seem to have upset the designer/manufacturer. Something that would certainly put me off owning anything by the company as good as the products are.

Yes a very enjoyable afternoon had catching up with Steve outside of our normal NEBO meets.

As well as catching up with Steve I was dead keen to hear his Avondale voyager monoblocks and preamp built especially for him by the most affable Mr Les Wolstenholme himself. They certainly didn't disappoint and delivered all the verve and musical excitement I've come to associate with Les's work. Having heard AlanT's voyagers at the last NEBO it was interesting to see how Les's implementation of the design worked. Given it was a while ago since I heard Alan's I am going off memory but Steve's amps had more 'edge' and seemed to voiced to be more exciting. Loads of power and ruthless insight but at the beginning the sound was a little hard for my tastes. The cable was definitely playing a role here... more on this in a bit.

To start with we enjoyed some Thomas Dolby playing via Steve's Lenco into his VTL phono stage. Steve describes this as a big American type of sound and I wouldn't fault that. I really enjoyed hearing this phono stage it's really something special but I preferred it's MM presentation than the MC after we'd opened the case and changed a couple of loading settings. For me it seemed more balanced with MM than MC and partnered well with my Technics which has eally starting to come on song now. My AT440mla cart has broken in now and I was more than happy with how it sounded via the VTL.

Time to try some other cables though, Steve had been using some Witchhat Audio cables with his voyagers to his speakers. To be honest I'm not a fan of these, they seemed to deliver loads of headroom and ultra high sparkle to the system but switching to the pair of Vandamme HiFi cables that Qwin had kindly loaned me at our last meet made a huge improvement for me. The soundstage seemed not as big but overall more balanced much sweeter in the treble and upper mids. If I were Steve I think I'd be flogging the Witchhat stuff and buying some of these. They made the the system less edgy and chilled things out a bit which is really a matter of taste I guess.

We enjoyed some CDs by Younger Brother - Vaccine, King Crimson - Discipline, and Fleet Foxes. The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in Amercia is great test CD for me. They're a band who play live and record with an 'everything on' kind of sound reminiscent of the E Street Band at their best but with a punky vocal and attitude. I love this band and as the music is so busy it can easily wrongfoot a less able system I find. Pleased to say Steve's system passed this test for me and produced it warts and all despite their noisy production values.

Then onto some more vinyl, we had some of Beck's wonderful Morning Phase album which is quite lo-fi and a bit squashed sounding anyway. The system brought out the ethereal vocals and subtle banjo and mandolin tracks which sit quite far back in the mix and put them centre stage. Nice!

Steve then let his Lenco rip with some Propellerheads and Goldfrapp via the Firebottle phono stage. The propellerheads track had the sofa shaking with the bass, Steve must have some very understanding neighbours The Goldfrapp, whilst never one of my favourite artists was big highlight for me. Luscious vocals and moody backing tracks coming across well.

I'd brought along my little NVA A40mk2 monoblocks to see how they held up against against the mighty voyagers and they certainly didn't disappoint. For me they were clear and open sounding, if not as 'exciting' as the Avondales they were very musical indeed and both Steve and I described them as honest sounding. They more than held their own and partnered beautifully with the Avondale preamp. It will be interesting to create this setup again at a future NEBO and get Les's take on this pairing. I'm sure the owner of NVA would prefer his own designed passive with these but there was something special in this match, indeed I'd go as far as saying I'd happily live with this combination with a Firebottle handling vinyl duties.

To finish the day we brought out Steve's Ruarks, much beloved of the NEBO faithfull, to hear them with this pairing. Also excellent if nowhere near the the scale of the big Tannoys, and we enjoyed some of Elbow's live at Jodrell Bank and some live Pink Floyd. I did say to Steve that if I were him I'd probably only ever listen to live material on his system, such is the concert scale it provides...

A real treat to hear the Firebottle2 phono stage also, a smashing bit of kit which gave all the gain and tube warmth I like in my vinyl sound but did it's job and shone in particular through the NVA and Avondale combo.

So much more I could say but I'd be rambling and my thumbs are tiring from writing this on a tablet so I'll quit now. All that remains is to thank Steve again for the hospitality, the excellent leaf tea (builder's strength) and biccies. Look forward to having you at my place to hear my kit in situ when I have my RPi and Dac running by then.

Roll on NEBO6!

[Firebottle]

It's got to be said:

[struth]

Had a great afternoon mixing it up with fellow AOS member Richie yesterday, A full Saturday afternoon of great music and tinkering. Having said that, It's going to cost me a fortune because Richie brought with him some great CD's and LP's which i am going to have to track down. Not least was an album by Younger Brother called Vaccine, brilliant. The highlight of the afternoon for me though was listening to Elbow live at Joderal Bank. That's already been ordered. We spent the afternoon swapping things in and out and i was pleased that Richie brought along his Techie with upgraded power supply as i am in the middle of such a project with mine. It sounded absolutely great. We slotted my old Ruark Crusader III's in for a while to give them an easier time and they just took everything we could through at them. Cracking amps for silly money.
The biggest surprise is when we swapped speaker cables. Swapping my Witch Hat audio cable for Mark Grant's new hi fi cable filled out the sound and brought some warmth to the party. This was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day and i may just have a punt.
A big thanks to Richie for an entertaining afternoon and for being kind enough to bring with him some great things to play with.

which ones are the new mark grant speaker cables?

[DSJR]

Please note that i have removed reference to the NVA amps from my original post as the nothing but positive comments about them seem to have upset the designer/manufacturer. Something that would certainly put me off owning anything by the company as good as the products are.

As said many times before, so I feel I can say it again..

There is a potential issue with using (another) line buffer before the power amps as the latter have a high sensitivity and suitable input impedance so a PASSIVE preamp can be used with no issues. Rich uses an Icon Audio which should be perfect to the task. I think it's all been sorted out via PM's anyway, but I just wanted to respectfully add please, that NVA stuff is more of an integrated system, from input cables to speaker cables (I reserve judgement on Cubes etc. until I've heard them ). 'Just' taking a set of NVA power amps and 'plonking' them into a system of alternative bits and pieces isn't really going to give you the whole story and THAT is what upset the man behind them I think, as so much product was discussed it could all get muddled by some people and the amps aren't designed to just be plonked into any old setup without careful consideration of speaker cables etc. Glad you liked them anyway and it's all sorted now

Forgive the butt-in, but I thought I should respectfully point the above out if I may.