Gromit's music centre...

[Sgt.Pepper]

Love the cueing light,great for late night sessions

[Gromit]

Happy Birthday to my PL71 - it's 35 years old this month....



Been having a play with my friend's KaT34 again...(and the camera)...





It sounds very good, although the other afternoon Mrs Gromit and I had an hour of swapping between the WAD amp and just the little NVA A40 mono's (this gave us 32w/ch vs 40w/ch). We both came to the conclusion, fairly quickly actually, that the A40 is a clearly more musical amplifier showing a much greater degree of dynamic inflection and structure.

[Marco]

Looking good as usual, Richard. Are you back to using your 103 again? I've not heard any NVA gear but it must be good to outperform the WAD amp in question, although the EL34 valve-based designs are a different ball game to the KT88 ones, IME.

Good to meet you at the bake-off, btw, in ya shexy leathers!

Marco.

[Gromit]

Looking good as usual, Richard. Are you back to using your 103 again? I've not heard any NVA gear but it must be good to outperform the WAD amp in question, although the EL34 valve-based designs are a different ball game to the KT88 ones, IME.

Good to meet you at the bake-off, btw, in ya shexy leathers!

Marco.

Yup - the 103's nestling in the Pioneer's arm and seems very happy to be doing so. There's simply loads that this cartridge gets wrong but its musical bricks'n'mortar are so entertaining I can forgive the old nail.

I'm still sorely tempted by the SPU though - for me (along with a Decca) it's a piece of kit one should own at least once.

Talking of 88's I've got something in the pipeline there

[pure sound]

Yup - the 103's nestling in the Pioneer's arm and seems very happy to be doing so. There's simply loads that this cartridge gets wrong but its musical bricks'n'mortar are so entertaining I can forgive the old nail.

It's funny what is tolerable and that doesn't corrupt the musical message and what isn't. Pete's Tannoys were another case in point. More flawed & less 'HiFi' in the accepted sense than pretty much any speaker at Scalfold, but despite that, hugely entertaining when simply playing music.

[Marco]

Nice one, Richard. You'll find that KT88-based amps have a totally different musical presentation, probably more like what you're used to with your NVA amps but with the magic of valves

I'm surprised you haven't commented and offered your thoughts on the bake-off thread, btw. Let's have some feedback, dude, good or bad!

Did you enjoy the show - what did you think of the overall standard?

Marco.

P.S You may want to reply on the other thread to keep this one on-topic.

[Beechwoods]

Blimey, your turntable looks amazing. Great pictures too

[Spectral Morn]

I second that...very nice photos..well done.


Regards D S D L----Neil

[Gromit]

It's funny what is tolerable and that doesn't corrupt the musical message and what isn't. Pete's Tannoys were another case in point. More flawed & less 'HiFi' in the accepted sense than pretty much any speaker at Scalfold, but despite that, hugely entertaining when simply playing music.

Guy - couldn't have said it better myself. Robert and I went away from the show and talked about what we'd heard and pretty much came to the same conclusions. Pete's rig had such a sense of occasion and involvement which I've rarely heard from a hifi system. The fact that it was one of the least 'hifi' set-ups I'd heard on the day has such a wonderful sense of irony about it.

If Robert hadn't got to get away I'd have happily whiled away the last hour just sat listening to Pete's set-up.

[Mike]

Talking of 88's I've got something in the pipeline there

Oooh... I wonder what that might be!