It has been a few months since I last visited Oli and as his revolving door has been spinning quicker than ever I thought it would be good to give Oliver a visit to appreciate what he has been up to in the last few months. I have kept an eye open on some of his changes via his blog but as so many things were happening I could not quite keep up and understand where he was going so a listening session was really the only way to make sense of it all!

So I popped round with a few LPs which I managed to salvage from my own massive upheaval having just moved house and no longer in control of my own system which is now a pile of cardboard boxes. On entering Olivers listening room I could see another selection of black and silver boxes which have replaced the previous set of black and silver boxes but what immediately drew my attention was the absolutely beautiful pair of Mordant Short Performance 880 speakers. These look of the highest quality and are superbly built and finished. The photo does not really do justice too them. I will talk about their performance later.

[IMG]P1010537 by J, on Flickr[/IMG]

Oliver ran through the system and the only part that had not changed was the turntable which is his classic Technics SP10 Mk2 although this was now in a new plinth. The Phonemic At1010 mk6 arm had been upgraded and there was the usual Ortofon Kb on the end.

[IMG]P1010538 by Jsy, on Flickr[/IMG]

So to the new stuff. First up not withstanding the speakers was the Neurochrome Modulus 686. Not familiar with this amp? Nor was I. It is I believe a DIY build from America and as Oliver had decided to buy it I though it must be rather good to upstage the Krell KSA50 Beast that he had. The sound and control this power amp had over the system had to be heard and felt to be believed.

It has way more muscle than the Krell and really was an Iron grip in velvet glove. It conveyed all the Macro and micro nuances of the music in a massively dynamic way without sounding shouty or in your face, just beautiful smooth absolute control and total transparency. This amp must be the most transparent power amp I have ever heard and made eve OTL amps sound veiled and thick. It had that magic knack of engaging you and unravelling all the strands of the recording with total ease. Even when recording got complex, loud and with huge dynamics this amp let you make sense of everything you listened too. We used both digital and analogue material and the story was the same.

I have heard some very expensive hight end power amps in my time but this was far the best power amp I have ever heard!! I could not fault it in any area and it has even made me change my mind regarding valve amps. By far its most impressive ability was its transparency which contributed to the overall impression that made Olivers system disappear. You were not listening to a system but simply the music and acoustic space. WOW.

[IMG]
P1010543 by sy, on Flickr[/IMG]

Backed up by the was the Neurochrome Differential preamp. All I can say was it did not have a sound or sonic imprint that I could detect.

[IMG]P1010540 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/162281319@N03/]Jurl], on Flickr[/IMG]

We listened to vinyl via another new piece of kit...Oliver has certainly been busy and this was a Simaudio MoonLP5.3RS phono stage. This vanished too. SimAudio are well know to myself as I have heard a lot of their kit. It is always excellent and very well made so I was not surprised.

[IMG]P1010542 by ssy, on Flickr[/IMG]

Digital was delivered fro a Laptop via the Pecan pi DAC / streamer which is very good and in Oliver's system sounded even better than the RPi3 BOSS. Over the course of the morning swapping back and forth between Vinyl and digital I would say I preferred the vinyl and that is not because I am biased but it just gave a fuller account of the music in more believable way. Most of the music we listened too sounded like it was recorded live in the studio where as digital still sounded slightly processed. That is all I am going to say on that matter.

Getting back to the system. At the end of the session I appreciated just what a fabulous find Oliver has had purchasing the Mordaunt Short speakers. In Oliver's room they produced a wonderful scale to the music and were totally in control. Oliver worried a little about the bass but I though it was way more controlled than his previous Pioneer speakers. These new speakers are total class, smooth, detailed, dynamic and have a seamless integration from top to bottom. Hooked up to the rest of Oliver's new kit was just stunning.


More than once I had the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I was inspired by a system that really sounded exciting and totally musical. The sound Oliver has now is exactly what I like and would seek. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be TRANSPARENCY. His system got out of the way and left you with just the music. It did not sound like you were listening to hifi or recorded music for that matter. You really could believe in the performance with a sense of reality that was sometimes breathtaking.

Oli has certainly moved on but not just by a little bit but by a huge leap.