A visit to RJS, aka mixing it with the big boys.

[Firebottle]

Rob is a member on here but not very active. He is quite local and Lee suggested we get together, this is the second visit.

Without beating around the bush Rob has the best system I have heard to date. Scale, clarity, slam, imaging, you name it there is bucket loads on offer.
A quick run down of the system and you should see why.

Speakers - hORNS FP-15. Polish origin, new to me, STUNNING A horn loaded compression driver for the treble end of things and a whopper 15 inch for bass duties, all in a 90 litre cabinet.

Rob tells me that whatever improvements he makes downstream the hORNS just lap it up and spit it out even better than before.



Amplifiers - These are a loan pair of humongous Ming Da class A monoblocks, and I mean humoungous, each psu case is 50Kg.
Model MC998A and needless to say I think they could drive anything. With the sensitivity of the hORNS the Ming Da's are just about ticking over

Preamp - now this gets interesting as you might be able to tell from the photographs. Usually a Townshend Allegri passive autoformer fulfils this role but a different pre was in circuit.

DAC - This could probably be described as the beating heart of the system, a fabulous LampizatOr Golden Gate.

Never heard of it? It's the ultimate LampizatOr, it's the Big 7 on steroids, everything but everything taken to the ultimate. Boy what a performer, hi-res, direct DSD, the lot.


How does it sound you ask. Insert superlatives here: .................................................. ................................
It's got expression, it's got soul, it's got grab you by the goolies and make you listen presence.

Everything that was played sounded sublime. Quite a few different jazz tracks, including a favourite test track of Rob's by Fink.
Elvis Presley from DSD, never heard so good, no, magically good!

Tears for Fears featuring (don't you hate the 'feat' abbreviation) Oleta Adams: effortless effortless voice.

Dave Brubeck Take five, when it started the realism just overtook me.

A couple of tracks from a recent S/H CD purchase 'Two Rooms - Celebrating the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin'.
Kate Bush - Rocket Man, with a reggae beat, fabulous, Rob rather liked this one.
Joe Cocker - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. What can you say about Joe's voice, an absolute favourite, and the sax on this track is sublime.

A different perspective:




Now to the preamp. Rob has had the Firebottle KIN on loan and has requested to keep it. Giving more detail and a better balanced presentation was the report.
To say I was aiming high with the new design and now achieving it has rather put a spring in my step

We didn't finish there, I had also taken the 'ugly duckling' around (thanks for the description Gordon), my SE EL84 jobbie just for an experiment.
It was hooked in and didn't disgrace itself:



It turned out that Rob is a fan of the humble EL84. With the FP-15's as a load it was fairly rocking along. Oodles of clarity in the mids and the treble but just a smidgen lacking at the bottom, no surprise given the (relatively) small output tranformers. All in all class A just works, big or small

So a fabulous mornings listening, I'm already looking forward to the next time.
Thanks for the invite Rob.

Alan