Musings Goes Analogue Part 3 - RD11s Build

See Part 1 here
Part 2 here

Having had some experience messing about with set up several times on a Thorens TD160BC MkII with different arms and platter mats (very successfully), and with an LP12 (not so successfully - got it close but ended up at a Linn dealer for a full service and set up), I approached the RD11s reasonably confidently, but also in the knowledge that if set up was a problem I'd just do a bit more research and then go back to it.  This is a project for fun and experience building, not as a serious source for my system.

So here's the starting point, a several decades old plinth, suspension and motor unit, sourced through the classifieds at hifiwigwam.com:

Starting point - an Ariston Audio RD11s

Sitting on the workbench in the garage, I started by giving it a quick clean, which wasn't too hard as its in such great condition and came packed with copious amounts of bubble wrap and with the bearing plugged, inner platter and main platter removed, as it should be.

The underside of the deck has no base plate - its lost this somewhere in its no doubt long and varied life.  Still, I think this could be a good thing on 2 counts - first it means easy access to all the relevant suspension adjustment options, secondly, because it is no longer effectively a box, there should be less chance of resonances building up inside which may affect the sound quality.

First was to check the alignment and fitment of the newly arrived soundsupports.com SME to Rega armboard adapter.

Armboard adapter offered up to the existing SME mount

ISOkinetic (Rega) RB202 tonearm, unpacked from its box. Note the low cost "captive" arm lead to carry the signal to the pre-amp

The RB202 is reasonably well made - its very recognisably part of the Rega RB250 family.  The arm tube is nicely cast, the bearings are super smooth with no discernable play and the cueing mechanism is smoothly damped and feels much more expensive than some I've used.  Looks like the main compromises to save money are the plastic moulded thread counterweight mounting and the basic looking captive signal output lead, which looks to be no better than the kind of freebie interconnects you tend to get inside Japanese hifi component boxes.

Armboard fitted to the three-point mounting with countersunk bolts

In order to reduce stress on the tonearm bearings, once the armboard was mounted to the arm, the cartridge was unpacked and installed to the arm, with the mounting bolts only tightened enough to hold the cartridge in roughly the right place.  The stylus guard and stylus were removed prior to fitting the cartridge body to the arm.  The bolts that came with the cartridge were used for this - they're metal, unlike some budget cartridges that come with very flimsy plastic bolts.  The signal cables were connected too, using the correct colour matching of each cable to the each pin on the back of the cart.

Unboxing the Goldring Elektra Cartridge

Stylus removed from cartridge body prior to mounting

Cart  loosely mounted in the headshell and connected up

Armboard adapter then mounted onto the SME armboard using the 4 supplied countersunk self tapping screws.  Note how the arm sits nicely parallel with the side of the deck.  Despite the optical illusion of the photo, the arm isn't too long for the deck and the lid closes with plenty of clearance

Next up, using ISOkinetic supplied oil, I ensured that all the existing oil was soaked up into kitchen towel and then refilled with the new oil.  Before fitting the inner platter I laid a small amount of kitchen towel around the bearing to catch any overflow - of which there wasn't any.

Having given the inner platter edges, outer platter engagement surface and the spindle a clean with alcohol and then a polish with a dry lint-free cloth, the inner platter was gently lowered into the bearing shaft - being careful not to "drop" it into the hole which could damage the bearing surfaces.  The last few mm of travel took about 10 seconds or so as the oil was pushed out of the way.  No excess oil at this point, so I'll remove it again later and put a little more oil in there.

Inner platter installed

The belt was then installed - fitting around the smaller part of the stepped pulley for 33rpm, then wrapping around the outer edge of the inner platter.  Unlike every belt driven turntable I've worked on / owned in the past which had flat ground belts, the RD11s uses a very narrow (2-3mm) square section belt, which is extremely easy to twist during fitting.  I took care not to touch the belt and inner platter surfaces to avoid getting finger grease in there.  Then on went the outer platter (which weighs around 2.5 kg).

Arm and complete platter installed - note the huge gap between platter and top plate

The outer platter should force the suspension down and allow the platter / bearing / subchassis / armboard / tonearm assembly to "float" freely whilst hanging from the suspension springs.  However, the previous owner had diligently wound up the suspension springs pretty tightly to avoid any movement in transit, so although the assembly did drop a little, it was still a long way up above the top plate of the deck.

Setting up and first play is in Part 4.
Part 3 is here
Part 2 is here
Part 1 is here

Musings Goes Analogue Part 2 - Ariston RD11s Basics

Following on from the first post in this short series.

The first deck up for comparison is an Ariston Audio RD11s.

Do a Google image search for Ariston RD11 and you'll get a lot of pictures of what looks like a Linn Sondek LP12, like this one:

Ariston RD11 with Rega Arm (but judging by the hole in the armboard, its probably had a Linn Ittok fitted at some time - image from www.canuckaudiomart.com)

This is probably because of their shared origins, as explained in articles such as this one (note, I don't know the accuracy of content from external sites, posting here for interest):
Is It An Ariston Or Is It A Linn?

The main difference between the designs seems to pivot around the bearing design (sorry for the pun).  Linn's is a very expensive to make single point design, the Ariston uses a captive ball bearing in much the same way as many many other turntables.

Anyway, I don't have an original RD11.  I have the slightly later (and manufactured in a different factory to the LP12)  RD11s produced by Ariston Audio, rather than Ariston - the s stands for "superior", apparently. See the link above to read a bit of history on the Ariston name /company.  For £140 in very good condition with a nicely kept lid, it fits right into the plan to try a low cost but more credible turntable in the system, with scope to play.

Ariston Audio RD11s

This deck has a kite shaped suspended sub-chassis, three suspension springs, an AC motor, captive ball main bearing and a small circular armboard which is currently cut for the SME style mounting.  The belt is square section and the speed is changed by moving the belt between the stepped pulleys.  It comes with a lightly smoked plastic hinged dust cover and is in remarkable condition for something that is several decades old.

There's no arm so I tracked down a new Rega RB202 which is a low cost, "OEM" version of the RB250.  This was supplied by ISOKinetic who also supplied me with some fresh oil for the turntable bearing.  But then the deck is fitted with an SME armboard, so something needed to change to accommodate the Rega mount arm.

Through the help of the big hifi tent - hifiwigwam.com - I discovered Sound Supports who can supply a SME  to Rega armboard converter.  So this was ordered up and duly arrived.  However, it's designed for the older single post mounting arms, not the 3 point mounting design of the RB202.  I really must say that Sound Supports were absolutely superb in handling this.  They asked for dimensions information and I sent off the pictures below:

Arm and post mount armboard resting in place to show positioning

Along with the pictures I returned the armboard and what came back was this, pre-drilled, threaded armboard complete with the mounting bolts which fits the deck and the arm perfectly:

Drilled / threaded armboard in position on the deck

Arm and board mounted on the deck.  Position is the correct 222mm from the spindle and the arm sits parallel to the side of the deck when parked

Absolutely superb service from Sound Supports - highly recommended.

The next post will deal with the build and set up of the RD11s - Part 3 is here.  Part 4 is here

Musings Goes Analogue - Part One

Regular readers will know that the Musings home system is dominated by streaming, using a Linn Klimax DS as the main source.  Prior to streaming the main sources were a mix of CD using a Meridian 508.20 and vinyl on a Linn Sondek LP12 / Ittok / Dynavector 20HX.  Both of these primary sources were sold to fund the Linn streamer as it offered a far better musical experience than either CD or vinyl.

Linn LP12 on the left and Meridian 508.20 on the right - the peak of vinyl and CD in Musings' home system approx 3 years ago

Current main source - Linn Klimax DS streamer

I then sold the majority of vinyl to fund the purchase of the Majik 140 speakers, but retained a few albums that are either of sentimental value or are part of a small collection which took a while to build.  So a turntable was still required for those very rare occasions when I wanted to play one of those albums, or someone else brought some vinyl along to sample some music.  Besides, any decent system needs a turntable or it just doesn't seem complete to me (now, pass me the pipe and slippers please...).  So a few weeks of browsing on ebay netted a very dusty but fully functional Thorens TD280 MkII which I cleaned up and fitted with a brand new Goldring Elektra MM cartridge.  The cart cost nearly 3 times what I paid for the deck, even though its very much a budget cart!  There's a bit more information on the Thorens in this post.  So Thorens is the current state of vinyl replay in the system.  Its very much a plastic, low cost, functional piece of kit that makes a reasonable sound and nothing more.

Current state of vinyl replay - Thorens TD280 MkII and Goldring Elektra MM cartridge

The Thorens is very much plug and play - you put it on the table, hook up the belt, set up the cartridge and away you go.  It even has auto lift / stop at the end of play.  It looks respectable and descreet, so I suppose it fulfils my needs for a turntable pretty well.  And yet...

Although the streamer is an amazing piece of kit - producing the best SQ I've heard in several systems, once you've spent time (around 18 months of elapsed time in my case) ripping CDs, correcting metadata, sourcing good quality album art etc. etc., its a pretty uninteresting bit of hifi.  There's nothing to mess about with, it just gets on with the job of playing music superbly, and looking pretty (to my eyes at least).  Turntables are more interactive and involving (I mean physically, not necessarily musically).

Here's the premise then:  is there a low cost way to mess about with a "proper" turntable for a while, something that is more in keeping with the rest of the system, that doesn't break the bank and offers the opportunity to "mess about a bit" with it as a piece of kit?  And how will it compare to the super budget priced Thorens?

Some will know about the controversy that surrounds the birth of the Sondek LP12 turntable.  I think there's less doubt that Ivor Tiefenbrun really lead the "source first" campaign in the hifi World in the mid 1970s and his LP12 turntable definitely contributed to that message.  But there is more controversy about how original the LP12 design is, when it looks so conceptually and mechanically similar to the original AR turntable.  And the Thorens turntables.  And the Ariston turntables.  Now I wasn't interested in hifi at the time (I was more interested in riding my bike, playing cops and robbers and avoiding kids who wanted to play football at the time) so I wasn't there and I don't know the whole story, but it adds a bit of context.

What happened next was the availability on the market of a couple of very reasonably priced turntables that just happened to come from the same manufacturer.  Both are suspended sub-chassis designs with precision bearings, a wood plinth and a stainless steel top plate.  Both also have high mass platters and belt drive from an AC motor.  But given that the LP12 retains its value ridiculously well, neither of these turntables are from Linn.  In fact, they are from Ariston Audio.

So I now have an RD11S turntable with no arm, and an RD80SL fitted with a Linn LVX (Basik) tonearm.  I've sourced another 2 new Goldring Elektra cartridges, a Rega RB202 arm and some enthusiasm to build them up and to compare them against the Thorens.

I'll document in posts here about the builds of each turntable, then the comparisons between the 3 decks.

Part 2 here
Part 3 here
Part 4 here

Linn Lounge - Chic

Being in London Village on the same evening of the latest Linn Lounge event gave me the opportunity to listen to an Akurate DSM and Akubariks.  Aided by an England game in the World Football Cup thingummy, a ticket was reasonably easy to obtain. Daft Punk were on the menu.

The Kensington Studio is a long term Loewe and B&O dealership and has just opened a Linn section at the rear of their High Street showroom. The room is a sensible size and is something akin to a decent domestic living room. There is a Linn Majik / 109 system on the back wall and the Akurate system on the other wall, tonight complemented by a TV. A few light snacks were laid on.

I think the soccer ball game had taken its toll. Only 7 attendees.  Hope this doesn't deter them from other events.  The Linn presentation team were delayed at an install, so the shop team took us through the Daft Punk story, interlaced with music and video, including some unreleased promo stuff. Given their lack of rehearsals they did a great job.

Sound wise? I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed.  The first time I heard Akubariks was on the end of (non-Exakt) Klimax electronics about 10 months ago and it was an excellent experience.  The Akurate level DSM isn't expected to be as good, but it didn't wow me in the way I was expecting.   I think the proximity of the speakers to the rear wall wasn't helping - the bass sounding a little less than fleet of foot.

Regular Musings readers will know that I dont get on with Linn's 350 speakers.  Here, again, my view is that the Akubariks are just so much more musical and coherent in comparison.  Unfairly, they particularly upstaged the Exakt 350s that played in a furniture shop in London just a few days earlier.  I say unfairly because I think this was 10% down to the Akubariks and 90% down to the room this time!

Thanks to the Kensington studio and Linn for another musically educational evening.

Linn's Refreshing New Sideline?

Seen in Turkey :-)

Linn Lounge. Nile Rogers and Chic. In A Furniture Shop.

This post was a "live blog" with updates every 5 to 10 minutes, so it probably doesn't flow that well :-)

Kicking off with Daft Punk 'Get Lucky' sounding a bit boomy and lacking in sparkle.  Oh hang on, someone must've just tweaked something as its just changed to something more acceptable...

A brief descriltion of Rogers' early life through to his first professional musician's role touring with Sesame Street. Then the late night studio sessions working out of hours because they couldn't afford the studio fees. Now playing 'Everybody Dance' in Studio Master. Lots of foot tapping going on, lots of chatting too. Its a very informal atmosphere.

Apologies for the sloping floor. Its not a problem with the shop. Might be related to the refreshments on offer though.

We're regaled with the tale of how Rogers and friend were refused back stage entry to a Grace Jones gig, how that lead to the track 'Le Freak' and how the lyrics had to change from the words of the bouncer that inspired the track.

'We Are Family' by Sister Sledge, from the album entirely written by Rogers and Bernard Edwards. They played on all the tracks and produced the album too.

Now 'Good Times' which is sounding a bit forced. Perhaps the system is a bit too loud now. Its a very big space to fill. The room is the full length of the shop and is 2 floors high along half the length. Surfaces are all hard, including the furniture. There's probably around 90 people here.

Learning lots here. Diana Ross's 'Upside Down' now playing. One of my earliest music choices where I stepped out from following my brother's musical path. Wasn't aware of the Chic link, but I've not really been one for pouring through sleeve notes. Another difference between us!

Now we're in the mid eighties with disco popularity waning and alcohol / drugs taking a greater role in Rogers' life. Another collaboration, this time with David Bowie produced the 'Let's Dance' album - the biggest selling album of Bowie's career.

More surprises. Duran Duran's 'The Reflex' playing now.

21 million albums sold. Working with Madonna produced the album 'Like A Virgin'. 'Nuf said.

After 2 years in rehab for Rogers, he and Edwards played together for the last time in 1996 just prior to Edwards' death. Now we're hearing about the sampling legacy. As the basis of hip-hop 'Good Times' was sampled for many tracks. I remember at the time how some artists embraced this, but many treated it as theft and lawsuits were flying.

Rogers is still touring now, with more gigs in 2012 than any previous year in his career. With Daft Punk of course. 'Move Yourself To Dance' is unfortunately demoing the 350's meandering bass though.

System tonight is KEDSM and Exakt 350a

Meanwhile, in the Matt White corner...

This is a better sounding system regardless of digital or vinyl source. Probably due to this corner of the showroom being more like a domestic room.

Interesting evening. So much about the music and the artists. No hifi speak. No tech speak. Just the music, relaxed atmosphere and drinks. Apparently 75% of the customers were from the shop's mailing list.

Thanks to Linn and Vitra for a very enjoyable evening. Now, about that design classic chair over there...

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - General Thoughts

Great way to spend father's day this year. We travelled for an hour by Sunbeam Lotus, spent 4 hours together at the audio show then had a very agreeable lunch at The Crown in Goostrey.  Another blast in the 'beam and we finished the day off back home with the original Pink Panther film and salt n black pepper popcorn.  Best part was the kids agreeing to go along, but then really enjoying themseves too.

I think this is the best commercial show I've been to. The venue has many virtues. Its a great hotel with decent sized rooms, solid floors and walls, polite staff, very sensible tea and biscuit prices, spacious corridors, easy access from the M6 and, selfishly, only an hour from home.

This was the first run for this show.  It was predominantly a dealer based show, with a few small manufacturers.  This meant a good mix of products - dealers are free to choose combinations of systems they think work well whereas manufacturer based rooms are forced to use a one make system where possible and that sometimes means compromise.  I think the lack of the major brands such as Cyrus, Marantz, Arcam, B&W etc., meant a more relaxed atmosphere too.  I don't have anything against those brands but they already have the Bristol Show.  Cranage would do well to court more dealers and the lesser visible brands, like it did today.  Talk around the rooms included the prospects of a re-run next year, maybe as a 2 day event.  Didn't manage to get to all the rooms today, but that was more down to it being Father's day and not wanting to take up the whole day but spend some time doing other stuff as a family too.

Best room for me was ELAC / Electrocompaniet - a combination of good sounds and almost realistic prices.  The rest of the top 4 in no particular order were Systemdek / McIntosh / ART, Brian and Trevor's, and Purite North.  In 5th place will be Audio Note.  Most fun room goes to Soundkaos.

Must mention how well behaved our kids were, and great to get some engagement with them, particularly in 3 of the rooms with HiFi Network (ELAC / Electrocompaniet) selecting the right kind of music to get them hooked, without being asked.

So a good day - lets hope this show is going to be a permanent fixture on the calendar.  Oh, and it was free entry too!

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Linn at Brian and Trevor's

Showcasing the latest iteration of Linn's Exakt digital crossover / room optimisation system with the Akubarik Exact loudspeakers,  These accept an Exakt digital signal, digitally splits this into 5 different frequency bands, corrects for phase and timing distortions between and within each speaker drive unit, corrects for the actual measured manufacturing variances in each driver and then feeds each of the 5 bands to a dedicated power amplifier for each driver.  This is all housed in the aluminium extruded housing down the back of the cabinet.  Connections in the back are just a mains lead and an Exakt Cat 5 cable (its not ethernet, its proprietary). The speakers are reasonably compact and use a pair of isobaric loaded bass drivers facing downwards, helping to make the speakers less room boundary dependent.  They're good looking, but I prefer the darker satin colours to the glossy examples on display today.

The electronics feeding the speakers is the Klimax Exakt DSM - its a streamer and pre-amp with mostly digital inputs.  There is one analogue input which uses a very high quality 32 bit analogue to digital converter, so even the LP12 signal is digitised so the Exakt software can do its stuff with analogue too. By measuring the room dimensions the software can also reduce the appropriate low frequencies in the signal to help reduce boom.

Music was being played using the KEDSM as a streamer and from a top spec LP12 turntable.  All the components were being fed by mains from PS Audio Perfect Wave power regenerators.  These are not conditioners, they take the incoming distorted AC mains, turn it to DC, then regenerate a 240V 50Hz mains output without the distortion.

Left Top Down: LP12, KEDSM, Uphorik Phono Stage, but not sure what's on the lowest shelf.  On the right is a PS Audio Perfect Wave P10 sitting on a PS Audio Power Base

So how did all of this sound?  Very Linn.  Understated, controlled, detailed, musical and very tuneful.  It doesn't leap out at you, but you can listen to it for hours.  Occasionally it was a touch too loud and the LP12 was sounding suprisingly lightweight - very unusual.  When playing at a sensible volume you could hear the benefits of Exakt with excellent imaging and no obvious timing issues.  I did think that it would be a bigger improvement than it seems to deliver over the standard active Akubariks.  This is probably due to the limitations of Akurate level DACs and amps that are somewhere between Majik and Akurate level all built into the back of the speakers.  I'm thinking Klimax Exakt crossovers, external amps and passive Akubariks might bring a better (but even more expensive) result.

Decent sounds here, much better than the Linn sound at the Manchester airport show last year, and in the top 5 of rooms I heard at Cranage.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Soundkaos

This was a fun room.  Lots of unusual stuff in here.  I can imagine those who enjoy a laid back cool jazz tune or the more easy listening end of the spectrum putting their feet up with a glass of wine or perhaps a G n T to chill out at the end of the day. Perhaps Adele or Zero 7?

So a first encounger with the latest Apple Mac with its shiny cylindrical box (surpisingly compact) and the usual very high quality large glossy screen - its a quality looking bit of kit. Here it was running JRiver media player to an optical output which was fed to the very small DAC. This fed to Bakoon amp with separate power supply. A class A/B design, its well made in the style of the Mac Mini.  Looks like it should be a class D design based on its diminutive dimensions. From there the signal goes to the off-board crossovers shown below.

That's Not A Kettle

Then to the speakers themselves. Taking an unusual approach and using instrument grade woods (baffle in spruce in this case) the theory goes that the wood is going to resonate so, rather than try to eliminate this, use known resonances in the design. The drive units and crossovers allow for the resonance so it becomes part of the soind, as designed in. The standard of finish is very high. The baffle even has a 'stone in a pond' ripple effect across the surface, centred on the mid-bass driver.  The stands were not rigidly coupled to the floor. I suspect the boxes themselves are quite lightweight. Place your hand on the cabinet and you can feel it vibrating along with the drivers.

The room hosts really engaged with the kids, allowing them to choose some music. C went for Oh Yeah by Yello which was clearly a bit 'racy' for one of our hosts. It played reasonably well, being tuneful and engaging but I would characterise it as softish on dynamics and lacking the kick this track deserves.

Choosing the Tunes

K selected Ane Brun and settled into a seat centre stage.  She seemed to enjoy the music, later commenting on the lack of low bass and the relaxed nature of the sounds.

Whilst we were in there a gent arrived and assembled an enormous alpine horn.  It must've been about 5 metres long and is made from the same woods as the speakers, clearly drawing the link between each end of the audio chain.  Not sure its that relevant, but then that's not the point, its just part of the fun atmosphere in this room.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Aion

A mix of static displays in one end, including this see-through power amp and cable lifters (yes, really, but if they're any good why weren't they in use?) and a system playing at the other end.

A Trio turntable fed through the Abyssound electronics into the Aion speakers (referred to as "banana speakers" on the Wam).  The speakers are at least an interesting design.  There is just the one driver then a folded horn that goes down behind the front panel, curves around, flairs out and exits on the top panel.  Not sure what you do about getting the bass levels right if your ceiling is too high or too low...

The room host asked how much I thought they were worth.  Well they looked like they might have some silly price like £10k a pair, but sounded like they were worth somewhat less than £1k.  He didn't seem too bothered by this verdict, but was proud to announce that they cost £4.5k but could be bought for £4k on the day.  They were fine with simple music, but anything remotely complex and this system just got in a muddle.  Rather disappointing.

 

 

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Graham Slee

Great range of headphone amps on display in here with 6 or so decent quality headsets, pretty much as you'd expect for a Graham Slee room.  Didn't get the time to try them out.

But in the other end of this fairly small room, there's system showcasing phono stages.  A Technics turntable is playing through some unnamed and unlabelled electronics into some tiny Stirling standmounts.  They look like LS3/5a type designs, but perhaps shallower than I remember.  Each of these was supplemented by what looked like a subwoofer.  Seems a bit strange to do this - why not just have a separate chamber inside a floorstander?  Would be a better result in terms of looks and floorspace - unless there's some theory around separating the mid/treble from the bass vibration.  If that's the case I don't think its worth the effort as there was no bass to notice, no warmth, to me it sounded harsh, grating and unsophisticated.  Could, of course, have been the turntable or amp, but it wasn't showing off the Graham Slee at all.

This was probably my most disappointing room in the show.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - AstinTrew and Tannoy

Had a chat with the guy who runs AstinTrew which turns out to be a British company.  We didn't discuss where the stuff is actually assembled but its certainly designed in the UK.  For such a small company they have a reasonable range and its very well put together.

Apparently the dealer selected the Tannoys in use.  The system produced good imaging but no real depth nor slam to the bass.  If you like the typical Naim sound you'd probably like this combination - its very up front and pushes the music at you.  Coming from the Linn room my 13 year old daughter really got the idea of up front versus more laid back presentations - before this I'd tried to describe the differences between a Linn and Naim system and here she spotted it herself straight away.  We agreed it would become wearing over time.  The guy from AstinTrew agreed and put it down to the Tannoys - he suggested a listen with different speakers would show the electronics in a better light.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Systemdek, Audio Origami, van den Hul, McIntosh, ART

A very high end system in this room with beautifully built and rather industrial looking Systemdek,  Audio Origami arm (does this have its roots in the land of Syrinx PU7 pehaps?), van den Hul Frog cart, Spa 2 phono stage, McIntosh integrated amp and ART speakers.

Steve Miller was playing as we entered and was sounding very crisp, good timing and deep solid bass guitar. Storm effects quite convincing.  We were offered a choice of music and the kids chose London Grammar. The room host engaged with them really well, asking for their favourite track and asking if they'd heard it on vinyl before. They chise Hey Now and Strong.  These both sounded excellent but even on such a new album,  there were the horrible cracks and pops. Very little sign of surface noise though.  A touch bright at times but I think this could be tamed just by turning it down a bit.

outside there was a front baffle on display. From the front it looks like pretty alu trim. However, from behind you can see the sheer solidity of this panel and the milling work that goes into it. Reminded me of  seeing the wing spar machining at Airbus. Very good to see some decent looking engineering. Last time I heard McIntosh and ART the thing was dire, but with a different turntable and in a different room of course.  This room put that right and was in the top 5 of the day.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Sonteer and Quadral

There were 2 systems set up in here - one at each end of a very large space.  The system below was playing at the time we were in there.  Unfortunately I really think that the size of the room was overwhelming these little standmounts.  The sound was very lightweight so we didn't hang around for long.  Probably deserves a more sensible space before making any assessments.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Lampizator, Van de Leur, Tektron Italia, hORNS.pl

OK, lets the get the first thing out of the way.  This is not a visually domestically acceptable system, at least not in our house.  I have a very understanding partner - she likes to hear good sounding music, but without a dedicated music listening room, this wouldn't be given house room by either of us.  The LampizatOr obsession with putting the power button / indicator into the "O" in every word is distinctive but just makes for messy looking equipment - they need to work harder on shaking off the home made origins of the products.

So that's out of the way.

Here we listened to the LampizatOr TranspOrt (which is essentially a tweaked Squeezebox - I'm sure the extent of tweaking is revealed on their www site), the LampizatOr Level 7 DAC, Van de Leur 002 stereo pre-amp and Sicillian made Tektron Italia Reference mono valve power amps and a KBL Sounds mains conditioner.  These played into the industrial strength hORNS.pl speakers you see in the picture, along with their battleship stands.  These were in a gloss black finish which was OK, but not as smooth as some others.  A range of glossy colours are available.

Lots of detail coming through on this system.  Deep well controlled bass.  Plenty of heft and control.  I did wonder what it would be like after several hours of listening though - could get wearing.

At the side of the room they also played some music via bluetooth from a phone into these funky looking little boxes.  There's a valve amp and a pair of single cone speakers.  Very well finished in a variety of bright colours they're a bit of fun for a bedroom, kitchen, study etc.  Sounded OK, but not really very fair to judge, given their tabletop position, speakers close together etc.  Might be worth further investigation if that's the sort of thing that you're considering for non-main system requirements.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Audio Note

Ah, the legend that is Audio Note (at least in some circles, and tents).  Being a bit better organised than previous rooms I've seen with AN, we at least knew what was playing in here, what it was called and how much it cost.  Thanks for dealing with the courtesy of housekeeping Audiocounsel.

So how did this digital / valve system sound?  Well, very reasonable, with some music.  With the right recording / production values it plays music well - its very coherent and flowing, instruments well separated and the bass very tuneful.  However, bass isn't particularly deep and that's OK with some recordings, but play something that's lightweight and it all gets a bit too thin across the board, and less than comfortable to listen to.  Generally I think its a good sound, but its not magical and for me its not to get over excited about.  It is often the case that systems that impress immediately become wearing over time.  Others that don't impress immediately can become your friend when listening to an hour or more of music.  Here, along with previous exposure to Audio Note, that lack of excitement and immediacy feels like it would be rather dull in the long term for me.  And really, at this price the look and finish of the kit should be somewhat more impressive.  A jumble of mis-matched boxes and what look like MDF kit build speakers doesn't cut it for me.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Magnepan and Exposure

Compulsory vigorous dealer foot-tapping in evidence  :-)

 

Great to get a chance to listen to magnaplanar speakers - a new experience for me.  These were being fed by a Primare disc spinner and some very large and substantial looking Exposure amps - stereo pre and 2 mono power amps.  Exposure is something I've heard many times before, but these boxes are much more substantial than the slimmer boxes I'm more used to from them.  They're a bit more professional looking and Exposure of old, but the red illuminated logo was patchy - like they hadn't put enough bulbs in there or something.

We heard 2 pieces of classical music in here - one rather baroque in nature, the other more traditional orchestral stuff.  Harpsichord sound crisp and lilted along nicely.  Large scale orchestra was rather lacking in the scale department - not much heft to it.  Imaging OK horizontally, but not very clear in the vertical.

I suppose what we heard here kind of fits into the planar / electrostatic expectations - from previous experience of Exposure, I don't think the gentle character would be down to the amps.  Would like to have heard somthing more rhythmic and dynamic - got the impression the music was carefully chosen.  Kids bored very quickly in this room, like me.  They were playing the music reasonably quietly, which is fine, but the door really needs to be closed at this kind of show, and particularly with this type of music.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - ELAC and Electrocompaniet

I liked what I heard in the ELAC room at the Bristol Sound and Vision show back in February.  There they were playing a very accomplished sounding standmount.

At Cranage they were playing their very slim, beautifully constructed floorstander, the AIR-X 407, finished in piano gloss black.  This is a fully active (active crossovers, 3 amps per speaker), wired or wireless version of the FS 407.  Today they were connected via balanced interconnects. In the simplest of systems, this was being fed by files stored  on HDD inside an Electrocompaniet ECM2 media player.  Capable of collating all media files found on a network into a single "virtual" library of files, including most audio and video formats, this will take music from an optional internal HDD, via UPnP compatible NAS / PC media library or from USB drives.  It contains a stereo DAC and can output multi-channel signals via HDMI for processing by an external multi-channel processor.  Nice interface too and apparently can be controlled by smartphone apps, but was on the standard remote control today.

Today, in stereo mode with the internal HDD this single box, connected by balanced cables to the pair of active speakers made for a very simple and domestically very acceptable combination.  At approximately Euro 9k it looked like quality and it sounded like quality too.

There's something about active systems when they're done right.  You can hear that the amps have real control over the drivers.  Drivers drive - they start and stop with conviction.  For such narrow cabinets and smallish drivers these things go deep and they do it in a very controlled manner with plenty of slam.  Voices are clear, have substance and nuance.  Treble is very clear, sparkly yet smooth - no nasty edges here.  This system also goes loud without sounding harsh or strained.  Very very musical and great to listen to.

Guess what?  No problems with playing any type of music in this room.  In fact, our host here was very astute with my 13 and 10 year old kids - selecting tracks by Lorde and a band that slips my mind but is very much in the charts at the moment - saying that he'd chosen these for the "future audiophiles" in the room.  What a refreshing change - recognising the needs of the attendees and playing to that.  This made them feel very welcome, a bit special and encouraged them to select some music, with K again choosing Ane Brun as this was her benchmark we'd listen to at home.  This system was giving my home system a run for its money - would be great to get them side by side in the same room!

Going on sound quality and VFM alone this was my top room for the day.  Add in the way that the kids were treated as welcome human beings was the icing on the cake.  Thanks HiFi Network

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Purite North, Pure Sound, Project, Acoustic Energy

Yet another good sounding room here and one that makes it into my top 5 for the day.  A very reasonably priced Project turntable playing through Puresound amplification (pre centre middle shelf and valve power either side of the turntable) and into Acoustic Energy floorstanders.  Sensible looking cables and a nice looking rack.  I'm sure RJC Audio's HUSH... isolation platform was helping the turntable too.

The sound was detailed, musically flowing, not brash, not dull.

 

A feature that's always welcome at the Hifi Wigwam show is labels on the kit - this is what it is, this is what it costs.  Not exactly radical, but something that's bizarrely missing in most rooms at most commercial shows.  Purite North added "Now Playing" labels too.  So simple, so informative.

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CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Brodmann and Belles

 

I understand that the big Brodmann loudspeakers that were playing when we were in the room (in the picture above) retail at around £36k.  Gulp.  I don't know much about the Belles electronics as this is my first encounter, but there are favourable comments on other blogs and forums.  Last time I encountered these speakers was at the Manchester Show in 2013 where I found them to be a mixed bag.

So how did it sound?  Well, proving that musical choice can be very important to some systems, this was a perfect case in point.  In my Bristol Sound and Vision Show report back in February, I noted that the rooms with the best sounding systems tended to be those where they would allow you to select or play your own music - a real sign of confidence.  In this room, even the vendor selected music tripped up this system.  We went in and heard some very gentle female vocals and piano and it sounded inviting, reasonably detailed, expressive and very much inoffensive without being bland, if that makes sense.  Second track was more female vocals but more folk oriented.  Same effect from a sound point of view.

We were just about to leave the room when on came Blues Company's "Dark Day", a perennial system testing track of mine and others.  This track is very much based (no pun intended) on a tuneful and deep bass line which determines both the mood and the pace of the song.  Its very well recorded and with the right system has a massively spacious openness and excellent imaging.  Couple this with the blues vibe and brilliantly clear, sparkly but not harsh, complex cymbals and you have a great track as both a piece of emotional music and a system test.

Well we didn't get very far into this track, maybe 30 seconds or so, to discover just how badly this system was handling the bass.  Muffled in the extreme, notes blurred and slurred into each other, the tune was lost, there was no impact.  The cymbals were there but muted and soft, and when the deep reverberating electronic bass drum came in it was lacking in depth and somewhat apologetic about its presence.  This all in a very spacious room with the speakers well away from any boundaries.  Deeply disappointing I'm afraid.

CRANAGE HALL AUDIO SHOW JUNE 2014 - Roksan, Project, Acoustic Energy

Its easy to say that most audio shows don't feature more sensibly priced kit.  Compared to Curry's then this room didn't either, but it was much more modestly priced than most and thanks to Henley Designs for bringing along something more down to earth.

Unfortunately this system didn't sing when we were in the room.  It was a touch bright and light weight - "thin" according to my daughter.  I would add that it lacked depth and substance which I suppose amounts to the same thing.  Lots of detail though, just not very engaging for me.

CHESHIRE AUDIO SHOW THIS WEEKEND 15 JUNE 2014

Great to have an audio show in the North of England.  It's this weekend in Cheshire and just off the M6.

With Free Entry there's every reason to go along.

Exhibitor list and applications for tickets here:   http://www.audioshow.co.uk/

How Leaky Is A HomePlug Network?

I've been using HomePlugs to feed my Squeezeboxes, TVs, DS etc. for approximately 3 years and they've been completely reliable to date. I use a mix of TP-Link single plugs and Zyxel multi-port units.
Just in the last week I've started to have reliability issues with my network - weird stuff was happening like the wifi recycling every 2 to 3 minutes and having trouble logging into my EE router from my PC. Re-setting the router to factory default seem to resolve the problem for up to half a day or so then everything started going wobbly again.
Then, just yesterday, I did a factory default reset of the router and as I was trying to log into it, the router suddenly flipped from an EE log in page to a Huawei log in page. Weird as I don't have an Huawei router in the house, never mind plugged in. Access to the internet continued OK, but the devices plugged into the HomePlugs were not connecting properly with the network and the DS started doing that fading then coming back thing every couple of minutes which happens only when there's a network problem.
Removing all the HomePlugs and running only on wifi made the whole thing stable, but the hifi very quiet of course. I decided on a process of elimination by plugging in one HomePlug at a time to see which one was causing the problem. But this wasn't consistent - sometimes the problem arose with one device, then with another.
Then, the weirdest thing happened - McAfee on my PC popped up with a warning that I had about 10 devices on my network that "are not protected by McAfee". One of these was a laptop named "CHRIS". A Chris lives over the road from me! This only happened when a HomePlug was connected up - any of them - but not when only running wifi.
A bit of Googling later and I find that the general concensus on "leakage" of HomePlug signals beyond the house circuit breaker box / consumption meter has changed significantly compared to 3 years ago. When I first started with these things, leakage beyond the consumer unit was "extremely unlikely". Now, its reckoned to be virtually certain in an apartment block, and "fairly likely" in houses.
In order to make these devices "plug and play" they all present themselves to a default network grouping of HomePlug devices called "HomePlugAV". So any of these devices that stick with this default name will talk to each other. I think one of my near neighbours must've recently decided to use HomePlugs when they haven't before, and our 2 networks are talking to each other. And because many routers default to the same network IP address, I was getting access to my neighbour's Huawei router. For some reason, that was "over powering" the IP address of my own router.
So not surprising that my HomePlug devices and the rest of the network was getting confused - the DHCP server and default gateway were probably flipping between my own router and that of my neighbour.
So the resolution was to install the HomePlug management software on my PC and rename the network name on all the devices away from HomePlugAV and to something unique to my own house.
Now all seems to be well and stable - across HomePlug and wifi. Will keep an eye on how it goes and I have a list of the MAC addresses of the outsider HomePlugs so I can go and advise whichever neighbour they belong to to secure his/her own network.
So there you go. Take note and make the changes to your own HomePlugs before things start to go a bit wobbly in your network too.TP