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Thread: The Pi bake off

  1. #21
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    I'm just trying to get you curious.

    Go on nice drive in the Brabus.

  2. #22
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

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    Lol... Indeed, it would help run it in!

    No reason why not, but it would have to be later in the year when I've got less on. Steve's system looks great, and I'm sure sounds it, but if it were mine I'd need some 'big boy' speakers... Couldn't live with small stand-mounts, long term.

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

    Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

    Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


    Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!

    Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!


  3. #23
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    Room is small listening is near field huge Tannoys etc are no go.

    Sleep time more tomoz.

  4. #24
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by User211 View Post
    Room is small listening is near field huge Tannoys etc are no go.
    Why?

    My Cheviots are pretty big and work fine in my 11ft by 10ft den.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  5. #25
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

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    Coolio...

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

    Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

    Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


    Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!

    Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!


  6. #26
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    Why?

    My Cheviots are pretty big and work fine in my 11ft by 10ft den.
    Just not necessary or required in there. Would take up too much real estate. Unlikely to produce a better result.

    Suspended floor acts as a sub and the level of bass in there is more than I have heard from Raidho C1s at shows.

    My speakers would be a disaster. Some large Tannoys I have known I feel sure would not be good/better than the Raidho's.

  7. #27
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    Anyway, here are some thoughts on the system.

    1) The little Raidho C1.1 I have heard many times at shows. They are usually placed in free space well away from rear walls. They aren't that close to the rear wall at Steve's place, but they are in a much smaller room than is usual at shows, and live on a suspended floor.

    They also live atop of bouncy stands. Touch the speaker and it sways back and forth. The speakers are superbly finished and look expensive - probably because they are.

    I have heard larger Raidho's, but I am not sure how much better they'd do in this room. Bass levels, as I discussed with Steve, seem quite generous. I'd rather have a little too much bass than not enough, personally, so this is no bad thing. It may be that because the speakers is only quoted to 50Hz, the bass has been hyped a bit to give it the impression of having some This is a typical thing to do with small speakers.

    Generally, the extension seems OK. The one obvious giveaway was Yello's The Expert, from Touch. There's a synth bass that drops in frequency for quite a long time. I only heard about what seemed like a third of it. This confirmed to me the speaker really doesn't go low. However, if you didn't know it was there I guess you wouldn't miss it, and the rest of the track sounded fantastic, as that album generally seems to on most systems. I'm not sure what gear Yello use but they are definitely to my mind using some sort of DSP.

    2) The Raidho seems very free from sounding hard with anything that is played. This makes it very, very easy to listen too. There's a lot of detail presented in a very palatable manner, and it genuinely sounds very, very pleasant in this system across all the genres we tried.

    The speakers form an equilateral triangle with the listening position, and there is a nice degree of separation or "freeness" between instruments in the soundstage. The overall presentation has to be described as warm, and with the Nagras heating up the space warm in certainly was. Mind you is was a hot day anyway.

  8. #28
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    3) Bass level may also seem generous because of the proximity to the rear wall and corners, and the suspended floor, which was definitely joining the party at higher levels. As I said I'd love to get a test mic in there and see what is really going on. The room has both diffusers and absorbers on the front and side walls.

    4) The Nagra amps seem to match the speakers very well. As Steve says they just sound right. I tend to agree. Steve is just using some cheap Shuguang 845s at the moment, but wants to explore other 845s. As I said, the cheap Shuguang 211s are surprisingly good, but do not compete with the likes of NOS Amperex in my system, so tube rolling would definitely be worthwhile I think.

    5) The Modwright 36.5 I believe has stock valves in - a 5AR4 rectifier and some 6H30s. The website says the GZ34 is an upgrade. If I were Steve I'd be rolling these too, but I have no experience of 6H30s or GZ34 so I have no recommendations. I do find valves to be critical in preamps and power amps though so there is a lot of opportunity to be had here to fine tune the system to Steve's taste.

    6) The TT sounded great on Brubeck but we didn't explore much more.

    7) Great system overall. I'd like to hear the Raidho's on non-floppy stands just out of interest. Easy enough to try - I have something that would do the job.

    Thanks Steve for letting me share. Despite the bass comments the system really was VERY enjoyable and definitely "up there". It is certainly a change from mine, being really quite different. The quasi-ribbon tweeter in the Raidho deserves a mention - it must be one of the least objectionable HF reproducers out there. Well worth a listen.
    Last edited by User211; 20-07-2015 at 17:57.

  9. #29
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    Went round to Steve's again yesterday, deaf in one ear due to an ear infection, which is on the mend now.

    Things have changed with Steve now using one of these. Nice.







    Using the one ear, I think I established this cartridge is definitely OK

  10. #30
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Birmingham

    Posts: 6,772
    I'm James.

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    What's that wood stick holding the cartridge?
    Main system : VPI Scout 1.1 / JMW 9T / 2M Black / Croft 25R+ / Croft 7 / Heco Celan GT 702

    Second System : Goldring Lenco GL75 / AT95EX / Pioneer SX590 / Spendor SP2

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