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!