Me and my mate trundled down to Firebottle's place to pick up my gear after the latest round of modifications. Alan further modded my Croft pre-amp and Sondex S100 power amp. In a nut shell the croft now has better power regulation and is specifically modded to run with 5691 valves and variants. The Sondex had a re-biasing, a hum problem sorted and a radical recap and replacement resistors (where needed). The system now sounds fine and is in the process of opening up. I've already started to notice a minutiae of detail that was previously hidden away. Things should improve with another 75-100 hours on the clock. All in all I'm a very happy bunny. Now I have to make an announcement. I really really hate Alan. BUT!!!!! In a very very nice way. The bugger has an amazing pair of Quad ESL57's hanging from his ceiling with supertweeters and an amazing phonostage (the Vivant). WOW!!! What an amazing spacious sound stage with plenty of space between the instruments, an amazing mid band, fantastic full bodied instruments. A very immersive soundstage with amazing timbral decay. A really really fantastic experience. Now, the reason for hating Alan is that I'm now probably, more than likely going to go down another bloody rabbit hole with Quad ESL 57's, super tweeters, Lyra cartridges and Vivant phonostages. I own a pair of 57's and I'm now seriously thinking of having my listening room's ceiling modified to accommodate my 57's (thanks mate)!!!

Seriously, Alan is a talented guy. Very pleasant to deal with, patient (the Radford amp), and very hospitable with his time and coffee. All in all a credit to AOS. Many thanks, now where's my single malt.....