Rigger checking in ... [Archive] - The Art of Sound Forum

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rigger67

18-02-2016, 14:20

Hey
I'm Rigger, from Southampton.
Long-time reader, first-time poster on this forum.

I'm 49 and a freelance writer, though I worked on and off for twenty years in music retail. I now have a regular music and movies column in a local entertainment magazine called The And Guide. I'm also a DJ, playing mainly soul, funk, hip hop and jazz.

I'm into just about every genre - you can't work in record shops that long and not find something to enjoy - but still don't like folk :confused:

These days, I mainly listen to jazz and soul, with a bit of country and prog and a dash of classical from time to time.

Favourite artists include Lewis Taylor, Prince, Bowie, Yes, Bill Evans, Ella, The Duke, Earth, Wind and Fire, ELO and The Smiths.
I also like blues and have Susan Tedeschi's signature tattooed on my arm - we met at BB King's in Memphis a long time ago and I fell in love on the spot :drool:

I think I've settled on a system at long last and haven't actually changed anything in it for a few months now, having got the bug back about a year ago after my Linn was serviced by the excellent Simon at The Audio Files in Crowthorne, near Farnborough.
That kind of opened the flood-gates for me and I started upgrading again after years of listening through an AV amp.
I now have two systems in my living room - one dedicated audio and one surround, running through an Onkyo receiver - another surround set-up in my bedroom based on the Panasonic AV amp I was using before and a retro set-up in my study for my PC. I make digital mixes on it using VirtualDJ and like the phat sound of my old KEFs.

I'm really happy with the Missions in my main system, having originally bought them back in 1994.
I don't think I ever got the best out of them till now, having read a thread somewhere on this very forum about the need to be seeing the top of the boxes to hear them at their finest. Bang up against the back wall on solid stands they now sound really tight with great imaging and separation and surprisingly good bass. I've actually got a beefy Eltax sub wired up to the Meridians as well as the AV amp but don't feel the need to use it anymore when listening to audio, though I do like annoying the neighbours when watching a movie :brickwall:

Enough rambling - here's some photos :

http://s24.postimg.org/t61gw2sr8/IMG_20160218_130754.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/3n4j5bjtg/IMG_20160218_130516.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/uh01d29lg/IMG_20160218_130541.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/pxse5ah3o/IMG_20160218_130623.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/gsk1bfdp0/IMG_20160218_130611.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/4rylap6ac/IMG_20160218_130603.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/jvkressno/IMG_20160218_130554.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/vjet9chsk/IMG_20160218_130708.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/98vjn49w4/IMG_20160218_130719.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/oex00baj8/IMG_20160218_130651.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/ipgrg04d0/IMG_20160218_130729.jpg

I also have a DJ set-up, based around two mid-range KAM direct-drive decks (nice and heavy with super-fast torque, up there with 1210s) :

http://s24.postimg.org/ss04wh8no/IMG_20160218_130741.jpg
http://s24.postimg.org/o9xu4dslw/IMG_20160218_130808.jpg

Bedroom surround front-end :

http://s24.postimg.org/twu71uv4k/IMG_20160218_130837.jpg

PC sound system :

http://s24.postimg.org/m7xcq4ums/IMG_20160218_130916.jpg

MAIN :
Linn Sondek LP12, Ittok, P77
NAD 1000 pre-amp
2 x Meridian 205 monoblock power amps
Sony CDP-XE520 CD Player
SMSL Sanskrit DAC
Teac T-R650 DAB tuner
Mission 780SE speakers

archiesdad

18-02-2016, 20:20

Hi and welcome to AoS, as a poster? At least, interesting set up.

jollyfix

18-02-2016, 20:43

Hi Paul,welcome to AOS. Great first post, thanks for the photos, enjoy the forum.

walpurgis

18-02-2016, 21:39

Hi Rigger. Welcome to AOS.

Interesting system you have there. Those little Missions are great speakers (wish I'd kept mine :)).

If you have any plans for system changes, we'd like to hear what you have in mind.

Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

rigger67

18-02-2016, 21:57

Thanks for the welcome :thumbsup:

As for upgrading .. I don't know. I keep looking - you never know what people might be selling, so GumTree and eBay are always on the radar.

I did have the KEF Calindas on the main system for a while and was happy till I gave the Missions a chance on the end of those Meridians - they weren't exactly singing with the Panasonic AV receiver I used before. The NAD needs barely to reach 8 o'clock on phono to blow me away so it would seem they get better with stronger amplification.
I always loved small box speakers and back in the day wanted a pair of Kans or Tablettes, having heard both in my early 20s.
I had a pair of Mark IV Kans but they were shockingly bad - no life whatsoever, completely different to the original.
The Proacs are still the ultimate for me, but the Missions actually sound similar now.

Funnily enough, when I had the Linn serviced last year Simon played it through a pair of homemade speakers.
They were tiny - like half a shoebox, but upright - and made by a friend of his who apparently is a bit "out there".
There's only two pairs on the planet and he's currently got both as his mate has disappeared for a while .. :mental:
Anyway, they were super-fast and projected the music brilliantly, like the instruments were in the room - quite bright and tight, which is just how I like 'em :D
(the speakers, I'm talkin' about the speakers !!)

So I'm happy with the speakers - for now - and the power, and I've tried three pre-amps (Quad and Audiolab were the others) and the Linn sounds better than ever.
I guess a better cartridge would be in order at some point, maybe a moving coil, but the P77 is fine, although replacement styli are rarer than hens' teeth.
I used to have a Rega CD player - the original Planet - and loved it but it was so unreliable I switched back to Sony. The DAC sounds good, and I sometimes run my laptop through it. The DJ decks are wired directly into the NAD too and they're good fun.

So .. er .. rambling .. maybe a cart, maybe a pre-, possibly speakers if the right ones become available.

Let's see if I can last six months with this line-up though, eh ?

That would be a first for a while .. :hmm:

Puffin

19-02-2016, 09:57

Hi Paul, yea the little Missions are a great speaker. I had a pair of 760is and 780SEs, sound far better than they have any right to. I like your taste in music. I grew up on a diet of Funk and Soul with a little bit of Jazz thrown in. It was the early 70s and I had 1500 45s and many LPs. Me and a mate used to do discos 5 nights a week on the riverboats that went up and down the Thames from Westminster Pier. My faves at the time was stuff like Ohio Players (Sweet Sticky Thing being one of may all time best), Kool and The Gang (before the days of the dire Ladies Night crap), Lonnie Liston Smith, Grover W etc etc. Jazz-Funk has always been the stuff that lights my fire and during the 70's and 80's being it's heyday. These days I swing more towards what I would call unusual jazzy/ambient/Dub style stuff like Lemongrass, Gotan Project, Tokyo Tower, Alien Chatter and the more unusual Nils Petter Molvaer, Wolfgang Haffner, Lars Dannielson and other ECM artists. Dub - anything really, the new Bill Laswell album is a goodie IMO. Be good to hear what you are currently listening to.

rigger67

19-02-2016, 10:10

Superb taste, mate ! Just like mine :lol:

Lonnie's got a new album out and it got four stars in the Guardian - http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/18/dr-lonnie-smith-evolution-review-aptly-named-return-for-the-fusion-pioneer

Love Gotan and Bajofondo, Bebel Gilberto, etc - anything latin.
I DJed a Latin/Salsa night for a while, which was always great fun for lots of reasons. My gf is Spanish and generally I'm attracted to foreign women .. she's a big jazz fan too and we're seeing Wynton Marsalis on Saturday night at The Barbican.
I saw Roy Ayers last month and later this month both Lee Perry and - :eek::eek::eek: - Mad Professor are playing in town too (Southampton).

One tip : Lewis Taylor.
My favourite artist of all time.
If you don't know him, buy his eponymous debut - it's the finest record I have ever heard ..

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516IsH8FsKL.jpg

AlfaGTV

19-02-2016, 11:24

Welcome Rigger67!
Nice setup! However i can only see one image from your original post!?!
Atb Mike

rigger67

19-02-2016, 13:19

Welcome Rigger67!
Nice setup! However i can only see one image from your original post!?!
Atb Mike

Thanks Mike - they're all showing up for me.
What browser are you using ?
I'm on Chrome and it's fine ...

jollyfix

19-02-2016, 14:20

Showing for me too. I am using Safari. Some great music being mentioned on this thread BTW.

Today ,i have been spinning-

The Soul Children - Who is she, and what is she to you,
The Dramatics - Get up, and get down.
Gyedu Blay Amboiley - Take am so,
Wolfgang maus - Testimony,
La Compagne Creole - Mi- Yo,
Swamp Doggs - Total Destruction of your mind,
Basa Basa - Black light, any many more.

Puffin

19-02-2016, 15:30

rigger67

19-02-2016, 15:31

Good tunes, Jollyfix !

AlfaGTV

19-02-2016, 15:33

Thanks Mike - they're all showing up for me.
What browser are you using ?
I'm on Chrome and it's fine ...

Strange! I'm using tapatalk on the iPad and still only the LP-12 image is showing?!?
I'll try on a 'puter later!

rigger67

19-02-2016, 15:54

Just giving Lewis Taylor a spin. "Lucky" to me is in the style of Johnnie Taylor/Frederick Knight. Good stuff. One I forgot is Chris Minh Doky - Nomad Diaries, well worth a listen - great production.

Puffin, he's been compared to loads of people - Marvin Gaye, mostly - but actually played guitar in the Edgar Broughton band for years while they were touring in the 80s and 90s.
He's about the same age as me and a bit of an enigma.
The first album (the one above) was critically acclaimed, with Elton John sending him flowers and David Bowie apparently visiting him at his house to talk music :youtheman:

Working in music retail I sold absolutely shed-loads of it just by playing it.
I describe it as "prog soul" .. because it's soul mixed with psychedelic rock, with lots of prog-style layering of both instruments and vocals.
The album didn't sell brilliantly despite universally excellent reviews.
The follow-up - called Lewis II - bombed.
It was actually hastily cobbled together in just a couple of months following the record label's rejection of the album Lewis wanted to put out, saying it wasn't commercial enough nor easy to categorise. He's a bit like Prince in many ways in that you could put his stuff in "Rock", "Soul", "Funk" or "RnB" (I hate the term "urban" but you know what I mean).
That meant marketing went out the window .. and the actual release was completely new material.
Saying that, "II" is still a stonking album and I love it - but with the caveat that both the debut and II are growers. I didn't get it for about ten listens then it suddenly clicked and I couldn't stop playing it .. and still do, twenty-odd years later.

Following being dropped by the label, he put out two further albums under his own steam, available through his now-defunct website and HMV only. They're much more synthetic, poppy and accessible and Robbie Williams scored a number one worldwide hit with one song called Lovelight, taken from the third album. I saw him round about that time at the Jazz Café in Camden.
It turned out to be his penultimate gig ... ever :(

He released a limited edition mini-album of covers through his website in 2004, including Yes' Heart Of The Sunrise, Led Zep's Black Dog, Stylistics' Stop, Look, Listen, Deep Purple's Highway Star and a quite remarkable version of Bee Gees' Night Fever.
Talk about influences ..

He also loves Captain Beefheart.

Most recently, he's changed his name to Andrew Taylor (I think that's his real name anyway, Lewis being his middle name) and has been musical director for Gnarls Barklay, sometimes playing bass in the live band.

You won't find much - if anything - of him on the net as he and his mysterious team remove everything they find.
He really wants to disappear.
There were rumours of mental health issues, definite disgruntlement with the industry itself and he's quite literally turned his back on the past.

You may know his voice from the Lock Stock OST as he recorded 18 With A Bullet with Carleen Anderson for the movie and it was a minor hit.

By now you've probably guessed I think he's a genius.
He's got one of the most unique voices I've ever heard, able to sing in falsetto and an earthy soul "normal" voice - check out his superlative cover of Jeff Buckley's Everybody Here Wants You on the II album. I don't like Buckley but I love that song now, purely because of LT.
He's also a virtuoso guitarist - when he lets go he's up there with Prince, SRV and anyone else you care to mention - and a multi-instrumentalist, typically playing everything on his albums.

His greatest song is called Damn and he always ended gigs with it.

I am so glad to have caught him before he retired from the limelight, but it's such a waste ..

Essential purchases are LEWIS TAYLOR - LEWIS TAYLOR and LEWIS TAYLOR - LEWIS II.
Recommended is LEWIS TAYLOR - STONED, Part One.

The fourth album - Stoned, Part Two - is the weakest but still better than most stuff out there.

Then there's the mysterious "Lost Album", which is actually the real second album that was never released which finally saw the light of day in the US.
You can get all of them on eBay/Discogs and some of them on Amazon from time to time, but you won't find anything in the high street chains.

I think I'll shut up now.
Maybe I should've posted this in the music section ?? :scratch::eek::lol:

Puffin

19-02-2016, 18:59

I read it all Paul. Fascinating. There was a guy called Ephraim Lewis who released only one album (Skin) before he jumped from a hotel window.

"The family of a British soul singer who died in mysterious circumstances in the United States have called for a full investigation into his death. Ephraim Lewis, 26, was being groomed for success by his record giants company, Elektra when He plunged to his fell death from the sixth-floor balcony of a plush Hollywood apartment block. Los Angeles police said claim Lewis, the musician, from Wolverhampton, jumped to his death but relatives claim police caused his fall by using a taser.

Ephraim Lewis who had performed with artists like such as UB40 and whose first album, Skin, was highly acclaimed in the US, had just finished recording his a second album and was due to fly home"

If you can get a listen it is well worth it, a bit like Seal I think.

rigger67

19-02-2016, 19:34

I know the name but I never knew the story - thanks !
I'll check it out :)

Floyddroid

20-02-2016, 06:38

A massive welcome. What an interesting set up you have and an even more interesting, colourful and vibrant gaff. Great to have you here.

rigger67

20-02-2016, 09:22

A massive welcome. What an interesting set up you have and an even more interesting, colourful and vibrant gaff. Great to have you here.

Thanks Floyd - Roger Waters lives up the road in Romsey, btw.

You haven't seen my Subbuteo collection yet, either .. ;)

RichB

20-02-2016, 10:37

Hi and welcome to AoS Paul.

Great pics, looks like a great collection of kit you have and varied music tastes too. I think you'll do quite well on this forum so look forward to seeing you on the threads.

I have a pair of Mission 760se which have been my companions for the last 25 years or so and still do good service in my office system. I've modified mine slightly having ripped out all the wedding and lined the insides witg 4mm thick steel plate. You wouldn't want to drop one on your foot! Next step is to make them crossover less with driver doping when I get an afternoon spare to fiddle. Work and band activities seem to take up most of my time at the minute.

Enjoy the forum, there's some good folks here. :)

Barry

24-02-2016, 19:19

Sorry - arrived late to the party. Welcome to AoS Paul.

Looks like you have settled in nicely, and with your background, your posts will be followed with interest.

Welcome again

Barry