June 23 - richidoo's

[hometheaterdoc]

Rich,

I'm iffy and will only be able to stay a short while if I do make it...  I'll be early if I'm coming..... I certainly want to come, but lots of errands have been piling up and someone isn't exactly jumping up and down at the thought of me disappearing for hours and leaving her to look after Ryan....

If I bring amps, can you make arrangements to get them back to me at a later time so folks can have a listen for the entire event?  Or if not, do you want me to bring them at all?

[richidoo]

Sure Shane, I'll bring them back to you, after a while...   You can bring them by if you feel like it. I'm sure they will be a big hit. Or just come and chill without working...

Steve,  thanks for bringing the wires. A set of balanced and a set of SE would be great to add to my 2 SE jps sets. If you have a JPS digital RCA that is better than my black cat, but it's good enough if you don't. That should cover anything. Richard is bringing 3 PCs to add to my 2.

I'll be serving chili and cornbread, salad. Chips, salsa. Coke and Sprite. BYOB and sweets.

[BobM]

Have fun today boys and be sure to post all that goes on, with pictures. Get one of Rich with his birthday hat on!

Enjoy,
Bob

[richidoo]

Thanks Bob. Maybe I'll wear my whole birthday suit?

[rollo]

   Anxious to hear the opinions of the Hypex amp. To date they have been mixed. Some love em, some say to sterile and detailed. Most agree the bass is stellar.
   So "tastes great or less filling" ??? Have fun guys.


charles

[rollo]

Thanks Bob. Maybe I'll wear my whole birthday suit?

    Have fun guys.


charles

[Triode Pete]

Enjoy! Hopefully the weather is as nice in NC as it is in NY right now!

Cheers  ,
Pete

[richidoo]

Thanks guys! Weather is beautiful. Only wish we lived closer so you all could come.

Bill and Gene hit some traffic in VA but they'll be here at 2. On the phone they sound like Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Tappet Brothers, from Car Talk Show.

All set up and things are sounding good.  Rick Craig will be arriving a little early with his curved array speakers. So we'll have 4 speakers to sample, and 5 amps.
Rich

[Carlman]

Wow, what a bonanza!   

I rolled in from the beach a couple of hours ago... Long drive with the family... we're beat and the little one's a little out of sorts... but loving being home.  So, I'm here for the night.

So, sorry I can't make it.  VERY MUCH looking forward to hearing all about today's fun!

-C

[stereofool]

Rich, as always, thank you for opening your home, to a bunch of unruly audiophiles.

Bill & Gene, it was great meeting you, and of course it was great seeing a bunch of familiar faces.

I must confess to doing very little listening...mostly catching-up with friends and chatting with some visitors.

Eyes are about to slam shut...I'll work on pics tomorrow...zzzzzz!

[richidoo]

You got home quick Steve.    Thanks for bringing yourself and some goodies.

Thanks for making the drive Bill and Gene, it was great to meet you guys and shoot the shit. I hope you heard what you wanted to hear and had some fun too.

Thanks to Shane, Rick, Richard, Sol, Jason and Eric for bringing gear over.

The NCores sounded best on my Polks. Nothing else really did it on the Polks. The Cherrys sounded best on the Ewaves and the DTQWTs, they fattened up the sound and added bass. We only listened to Richards M2 on the DTQWT and it was not a good match.

Rick's Game changer curved arrays were impressive sounding with the 6C33 tube amps on the tweeters and Cherry on the woofers. That was probably the peak quality sound of the day and stayed on the longest.

We set up a passive all tube system with AR Ref1 preamp and 6C33 amps to play vinyl. It was nice, but a bit too soft for my taste. Giyan played some Brandi Carlile on that system and it was awesome.

At the very end there was only Sol and Giyan left. I was tired of the soft tubes, so Sol suggested we put in his i30 integrated and that did it for me. My DTQWT-12s finally, FINALLY found the amp that makes them sing. Bass is delicate, controlled, musical, the horn bass did not sound separate from the rest of the music, nor did the treble get too loud, it was just right. I've been using his i60 for a year but it didn't match well with these speakers. So I'm gonna audition the i30 for a while and maybe order one from Sol.

I learned a lot at this G2G, thanks to everyone for coming and for sharing your wisdom and insights.

Pics tomorrow.

[RichardS]

Great time. Great guys (and one lady). Great listening. Great host.

I'd heard Rick's curved arrays before, but they impressed me more this time, especially with Sol's tubes on top and the Cherry on bottom. They provide a wonderfully density of images and really fill up the spaces with music. Also a nice two-person speaker, creating a believable soundstage when listening off-center.

The M2 sounded harsh and congested on the DTQWT, which surprised me as it's quite clear and open on my Peak Consult speakers. On the way home I realized I hadn't adjusted the speaker impedance-matching filter to match the treble of the speaker. It's set to 4-ohms to match my Peaks, which could account for the treble's harshness (though not the veiling through the mids). Rick's right though; not a good match. Sorry I missed Sol's i30 on the DTQWT.

I love what Rich has done with his room, especially the huge ceiling diffuser--looks nice--and the closable wall between the living room and kitchen.

Can't wait till next time...

[lonewolfny42]

A .... ...for Bill and Gene ....I thought they'd "flake out" at the last minute...



What are your thoughts of the comparison of the NCore's to the DAC amp ? Thanks...

[richidoo]

Chris, I liked the NCore for precision, accuracy, merciless grip at all freqs. It doesn't have as violent transients as Spectron or Levinson 53, but still very impressive overall from the audiophile's "absolute sound" perspective. It seemed more musical than those other 2 technical marvels, while also simpler, smaller, lighter cheaper. It did not suffer Rick's older version DEQX pre/processor well, exaggerating the edginess of that pre. Sol thinks it sounded like OP2134 opamps characteristic buzz, he is pretty accurate guessing chips and transistor part numbers by ear.  With my Buffalo DAC there was no edge with NCore, but a few people still felt a trace of class D sizzle form NCore, even with the Buffalo. Eric's DAC amp (original stereo Cherry) reminded me of a clean PP tube amp with massive balls. The adjective most frequently heard among the guys was fat or phat depending on who said it. Fat from those who prefer accuracy and did not like the richening the Cherry added. I thought it was phat because it added flesh to the tone, rounded the edges a little compared to NCore, and seemed to tip bass response up a couple dB. It had a darker, richer sound that I liked better than NCore on the Ewave and especially on the DTQWT, while the Ncore sounded better to me on the Polks (we didn't play that combo at the meet.)  It is weird that the NCore sounded better to me on the Polks than the Cherry, because the general agreement was that the Polks sounded top heavy on all of the other amps. But the NCore made the bass sound so great on the Polks maybe that allowed me to focus less on the highs.

We only listened to Richard's NAD M2, only on the DTQWT, and only after most people had split, and the match was not great. The Cherry blew away the NCore and M2 on the easy load, high efficiency DTQWT speakers, perfect match. I'm not sure we analyzed that combo, but I was playing it at the very beginning when people were first arriving, and even my wife commented how great it sounded. She said what speakers are these? The ones I built last summer... Hmmm. Uh oh! Maybe I just needed a different amp instead of 2 more DIY speakers.     

But Sol's newest version i30, with <1/10 power than Cherry, was pretty much in the same class as Cherry on those speakers. It was a very nice match. Unfortunately we discovered that too late with only me Sol and Giyan still around to hear it. Magic hour came too late! We'll remember it for next time.

There was so much that we didn't get to do, so it will be fun to reassemble these amps again in the near future for a rematch, with better (passive xo) speakers, more flexible schedules and less speaker swapping. Fortunately these amps all live in NC and everyone wants to do it again sometime. Shane and I are about to dive into SEOS builds this summer hopefully one of those will prove a worthy victim of class D abuse. Shane has a true monster speaker planned.

Gene was tired toward the end, but some rare premium Lee Morgan (Take Twelve album) stoked his coals for a few minutes, and Bill hung in there to the bitter end. We all enjoyed their visit, and hope their threats to come again come true. 

I promised some CD copies but the CD-R blanks were not where they are supposed to be, so I will mail those out.

Gene, I didn't even know there was Hampton Inn in Holly Springs, glad you found it on your own. Pics coming...

[richidoo]

Pics