...yesterday to pick up one of these Nelson Pass DCB1 pre-amps that are knocking about at the moment so had a chance to listen to his set up.
I'd already heard his Technics SP10 turntable set up at the bake off in Penkridge back in the summer and was blown away but was keen to hear it in a domestic setting. Also he uses a Krell KSA100 Mk2 and as a fellow Krell user was interested to see how that was sounding.
First music up was Making Movies (Dire Straits). I like this tune even though this album is the only one where Knopfler was not happy with the production values. Oli is using some vintage Pioneer 'Kabuki' speakers with 12'' main driver, 2 mid range cones and a horn tweeter. I have some similar vintage Akai as regular readers will know. Speakers like this get dismissed as 70s tat with too many drivers but if you stick to the top of the line models they have a lot of strengths, a cohesive sound with lots of clarity and tight bass with slam but it doesn't go too deep (they need close wall reinforcement) which Oli can't do with his present room.
But I use a modern set of speakers in a much larger room so I needed a bit of acclimatisation for a few minutes just to get my bearings.
Then we had a listen to Guns and Roses 'Appetite For Destruction' - all of side 2 which was cracking. Felt like I was nineteen again. There's no nasties in the sound of the system, nothing interrupts the music or breaks the spell and ruins it.
I might have missed something out there but next was some audiophile music - a bird singing plaintively with some deep bass. Now this isn't the sort of thing I would ever bother to listen to out of choice but it was interesting from a hi-fi point of view. From the clarity side it could have been a CD we were listening to. Blemish free vinyl playback but with nothing smoothed over and the bass control was perfect. Oli is a musician and he has spent time in studios like I have (although I was mostly just ligging) and I think we both like the same sort of sound.
One issue though is the room is a suspended floor and despite being on stands and with some isolation as well the bass was transmitting into the floor. Concrete slabs under the stands would sort that. Got to say that is something I would have already done, it would distract me long term that.
And we played a classic bit of music, ZZ Top's First Album which I've bored about for ages elsewhere, suffice to say I know it well. I could hear the tape hiss on Oli's set up, can't on mine. (you should be able to hear it btw). This was also a good listen, there's a lot of intensity in the performances on this album, the system grabbed me with that, I didn't have to listen for it.
Result: really excellent system with one proviso (or maybe two). As I said to Oli I think he has got an absolutely killer system there but it isn't all getting out through his current loudspeakers. They are not bad speakers but they are totally outclassed by the rest of his system.
Second proviso: he has 2 garages one of which is about the size of my house and would make a dedicated listening room so perfect even the Pope would be jealous. Ollie man you need to sort that out one day!