Session at Montesquieu Manor

[MartinT]

Four of us descended on Tom's place last Sunday for a wonderful afternoon's session of listening to classical music on his system. Jerry from AoS was there, as well as three Wammers Phil, James & James!

Tom's system is based on 15" Tannoy Golds in bespoke and rather good looking cabinets, driven by a Puresound integrated valve amp, Thorens TD124 turntable with Jelco 750D arm, a Nick Lurcher built valve phono stage, Audio Note CD transport and DAC.

Some interesting cartridges were available for trial including a wonderful Audio Note Io and a pair of unusual mono and stereo Miyajimas. I brought my Choir Audio (Hashimoto HM-7) SUT along at Tom's request, to compare with his Audio Note AN-S6 SUT.

Tom's classical collection is wide and deep, putting mine to shame, while Jerry appeared to have brought along a goodly truck load himself. I spent a lot of time loving the experience of hearing new recordings. Tom's system throws a large soundstage and sounds big and effortless. We had a good time swapping cartridges and SUTs in an attempt to help Tom with his perfect coupling quandary. I'll leave him to describe his feelings as we learned quite a lot from swapping and changing cartridge loads.

Thank you for your hospitality, Tom, not to mention your excellent barbecued chicken!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

[montesquieu]

Four of us descended on Tom's place last Sunday for a wonderful afternoon's session of listening to classical music on his system. Jerry from AoS was there, as well as three Wammers Phil, James & James!

Tom's system is based on 15" Tannoy Golds in bespoke and rather good looking cabinets, driven by a Puresound integrated valve amp, Thorens TD124 turntable with Jelco 750D arm, a Nick Lurcher built valve phono stage, Audio Note CD transport and DAC.

Some interesting cartridges were available for trial including a wonderful Audio Note Io and a pair of unusual mono and stereo Miyabis. I brought my Choir Audio (Hashimoto HM-7) SUT along at Tom's request, to compare with his Audio Note AN-S6 SUT.

Tom's classical collection is wide and deep, putting mine to shame, while Jerry appeared to have brought along a goodly truck load himself. I spent a lot of time loving the experience of hearing new recordings. Tom's system throws a large soundstage and sounds big and effortless. We had a good time swapping cartridges and SUTs in an attempt to help Tom with his perfect coupling quandary. I'll leave him to describe his feelings as we learned quite a lot from swapping and changing cartridge loads.

Thank you for your hospitality, Tom, not to mention your excellent barbecued chicken!

[photo to come when Flickr starts behaving]

Thanks Martin. Yes this is an interesting conundrum. My main cartridge for the last two years has been an Audio Note Io - this is the heavy Kondo-era original (gunmetal sides) rebuilt to Io 2 spec at AN-UK. It's seen off impressive company including top end SPUs, Lyras, Shelters and Dynavectors. It's a very neutral cartridge - superbly detailed and musical at the same time - which unlike a lot of supposedly high-end stuff also manages to be properly fleshed out as well, not thin, skeletal or 'hifi'. Great partner for Tannoys and valves and (I think) absolutely gorgeous into Nick's moving magnet phono stage. The whole thing really came into its own when I got a Kondo-era AN-S6 step-up transformer to use with it - 1, 3 and 40 ohm settings (approx 10, 30 and 400 ohm internal).

At the same time I've had quite a number of mono cartridges through including a Denon 102, various AT monos, mono SPUs, and a couple of Miyajima monos (Kotetu and Spirit). The latter impressed me so much that when their top of the line Premium BE MkII showed up ex-dem, I had to nab it. This is an absolute cracker, different presentation to the Io but fills the space with an absolute wall of mono sound, front to back depth on good recordings is astonishing and you really feel you miss nothing from the absence of left-right information. At 6 ohms internal and a healthy 0.7mv output it works pretty well with the AN step-up on the 3 ohm setting, if not quite perfectly trimmed. Sounded excellent on Martin's Choir Audio on the low (2-7 ohm) setting.

On the basis of this, I currently have for demo a Miyajima Waza. This is a similar cartridge to the more well known Shilabe (different tip and different wood body - rosewood rather than ebony) but the characteristics are similar to the Premium - a big, exciting, full sound, perhaps slightly less detailed than the Io but perhaps with a touch more energy. The Io is undoubtedly a more refined performer but there's something about the Waza that quite appeals ...

It's a funny bugger to match though, at 16 ohms internal (so needing loading of I would guess around 160-200 ideally) but only 0.23mV output - normally low output cartridges like this are much lower internal impedance.

Anyway it sounded pretty rubbish with the Kondo SUT - flat and uninvolving - better (rather surprisingly) with a pair of Ortofon T-5 bullets, these gave it more depth. On the low setting of Martin's Choir Audio it wasn't much better than on the Kondo, but on the 7-40 ohm setting (I'm guessing a loading of probably somewhere around 200-250 ohm) it really came to life - while still with those 'big, bold' characteristics, detail and expression improved and it became a genuine Io rival.

So a quandary ... In an ideal world I'd have both Io + ANS6 and Miyajima + Choir Audio with its Hashimoto HM-7s. But I can only afford one. Inertia (and the hassle factor in buying and selling) suggests I'll keep the Io as the 'safe' option but I wonder if the Miyajima will grow on me as much as its mono sibling has ... it's barely broken in I would guess with less than 20 hours on the clock. It's a pretty cool design (if you bear with the Engrish on the website):

http://www.miyajima-lab.com/e-stereo.html

[MartinT]

I had misheard you as saying Miyabi, whose cartridges are rare enough, but Miyajima are completely new to me. The Waza certainly came to life with the higher load setting and sounded like a real contender to me.

[User211]

I nearly went for that Choir Audio HM7 but the import charges put me off. If the Miyajima/HM7 is a match for the IO/S6 we heard at Kev's Tom, the HM7 really must be great VFM even with the import charges.

[montesquieu]

I nearly went for that Choir Audio HM7 but the import charges put me off. If the Miyajima/HM7 is a match for the IO/S6 we heard at Kev's Tom, the HM7 really must be great VFM even with the import charges.

Not with the Io - with it 1 ohm - but used in the correct impedance range I would put the Choir Audio in or very close to the same bracket as the S6. It's the second time I've heard it (previously it comprehensively blew away the Ortofon ST80SE and an AN (UK) S3, which was a big reason for wanting to hear it back to back with the Kondo S6.)

[jandl100]

Yes, a very enjoyable and interesting afternoon at Tom's place.

His classical recording collection is indeed amazing. I've got a few recordings myself, but I know when to doff my hat to a guy with a bigger one. Ooo - did I mean to say that?

Re: the cartridge shoot-out; to be honest, I don't think there was a lot to choose between the Waza / Choir at its best and the superb Io / S6 in terms of absolute sound quality. A bit surprising, that. They were interestingly different; both were excellent.

I did miss your old pimped Quad 57 stats, though, Tom.

[jandl100]

Four of us descended on Tom's place last Sunday for a wonderful afternoon's session of listening to classical music on his system. Jerry from AoS was there, as well as three Wammers Phil, James & James!

btw - Phil's an AOSer as well ... http://theartofsound.net/forum/searc...searchid=95002

[montesquieu]

I did miss your old pimped Quad 57 stats, though, Tom.

that makes two of us, though the wife hated them .... the tiny sweet spot spoiled them for her. That's one thing about the Tannoys, they fill the whole room and you get a decent sound sitting almost anywhere.

[MartinT]

btw - Phil's an AOSer as well ... http://theartofsound.net/forum/searc...searchid=95002

That search gives me no results, Jerry. What's Phil's AoS name?