NEBO 6 set for November 2015

[Macca]

I am also in the recovery stage. Only had a bottle of wine, must be getting old.

Best NEBO yet. Massive thanks again to Steve 'Progmeister' Petch for organising this and doing the whole 'Jools Holland' thing. If you imagine these events as solemn and sombre affairs you couldn't be more wrong. It is more like a really good stag night with great music and hi-fi. Good to see everyone again and to meet Brian, Gaz, Jezz and Colin for the first time.

Not sure I can recall everything at the moment but I agree with Jezz the highlight was the open baffle active system using no less then 4 Benchmark DACS and 2 massive Nakamichi 7 channel power amps.

'You can never get a hi-fi system to approach the dynamics of a live performance' is something you often hear said. (You'll have to imagine the adenoid-laden voice). Well, think again! Add on to that a truly holographic soundstage (which would probably have been even better given a more optimal set up than the room allowed). You recall the Hair Bair Bunch and their invisible motorcycle? This was like an invisible band playing right in front of you.

Absolutely not pipe and slippers, though, This was a very uncompromising system. If you heard some of the crappy-sounding but mega-expensive systems at the Cranage Hall show in the summer well this system is what they should have sounded like - but at a fraction of the cost.

Colin Topps showed his new Norge stand mount speakers with a system comprising A Nick Gorham transformer passive, Conrad Johnson valve power amp and one of those Dutch valve cd players. Y'all know I am not keen on small speakers or valves being in CD players but it was a quality and involving sound. We also had a listen to the same system with his much larger Edingdale speakers which had no problems filling the very large room with excellent sounds, although I think that was later.

Ken (Qwin) showed a work in progress which is his active Yamaha NS1000M system, again powered by one of the big Nakamichi 7 channel amps. No-one told me that the Nakamichi logo on these things lights up white and red when powered up or I would have bought one when they were knocking them out at 400 quid. It is so cool. I thought Ken was getting a really good sound but he is even fussier than me and reckons more tweaking is needed.

Rich B brought along his beautifully restored JBL monitors - the cabs on these speakers are so well restored it is breathtaking. We just couldn't get these speakers to sound like they should, I suspect due to a variety of contributing factors, but we did not really have time to do the extensive hands-on work with them that I think would have sorted it. He also brought along the NVA Cubettes (?) which are little semi-omnis about the size of a Wharfedale Diamond. These were pretty impressive even playing some sort of K-Tel 'All Our Yesterdays' compilation (no-one seemed to know who put that on). Out of the box sound and very easy to listen to.

Passive pre-amp bake off = this sort of got going spontaneously (it is that sort of event) using the Edingdale Speakers and the Conrad-Johnson power amp - I think the source was a Squeezebox Touch. I'd rather we had used a more neutral power amp than the CJ which although it is lovely sounding is a touch 'valvey'. There were so many passives involved I'm not sure I can recall all of them but none of them failed to impress nor did any suffer from the lack of 'attack' 'slam' 'drive' 'balls' 'grip' (perm any 3 from 5) but for me the power amp made it impossible to spot any differences that existed, as they were subtle at best.

Gaz had brought along his enormous Nick Gorham single ended valve power amp but we had issues with it motorboating = apparently due to the mains which at tea-time had dipped down to 180 volts. Someone at National Grid obviously needs a kick up the arse. When it was briefly working (through the Edingdales and with a Densen active pre) - it sounded amazing - we tried it much later when the mains had recovered and it again proved its worth although it could not drive the speakers loud enough in the huge room for some of the crowd - I thought it was fine but obviously I listen at whisper levels compared to these folk - no names!

The best part of these events is late on when the all star system gets assembled (after a little trial and error) and the vinyl comes out. Turntable was Steve's Pioneer PL71 with I think a Denon DL103 MC, Ali's 2 box Firebottle Phono and Denon head amp and Slagle transformer passive pre into the Radford STA15 and the Edingdales. I've heard the Radford before and this only confirmed my opinion that it has to be the best sounding power amp on the planet, albeit a little power-limited at 15 wpc. Loads of good music got played including Steve's 'special interest' selection.

That is all I can recall for now, I'm going for a lie down - Absolutely top-draw day out.