Thanks for coming down Tim. Nice to meet you and to listen to the Melody AN300B. It has impressive bass punch, and good transparency due to the huge transformers. Beautiful construction. Rolling tubes would be fun with this amp. Glad you made it home OK. That's a lot of driving!
Yes, the speakers functioned adequately for the meet, but they still need more tuning. I'm considering various options ranging from mild to radical, while I rest and lick my wounds. They sound nice with my Manley's, which is what counts to me, but they'll improve as I have time to experiment with more adventurous horn damping experiments.
I also brought out some corner bass trapping that proved too much once the room was filled with people so ditched those.
Steve brought a lot of equipment. Fortunately we got to listen to all of it. He also brought chips and delicious cheesecake!
Thanks Steve. Rick Craig came over with a batch of Thai curry chicken and noodles which tasted awesome. The eastern heat contrasted nicely with the western heat of my wife's mild chile. Thanks Rick, for the dish and for the advice about the speakers.
There were several DACs that we played. psoeidensvoice's Buff32 with Hynes regs, Shane's Antelope Zodiac Gold with Voldemort PS, Tim's Onix DAC, and my dooDAC. I liked the dooDAC the best. It had the most natural treble, and I felt the most resolution too. These Jensen transformers are simply unbelievable. But the Zodiac seems more solid in bass and midrange, but less natural upper mid through treble. Some people preferred the more intense treble. I liked the relaxed effortless openness of the transformers. The Onix sounded good too. I don't remember much about it except that it was a hell of a low price for how good it sounded.
Shane also brought JPS digital SC3 cable. Tonight I compared it to my Black Cat Veloce running between Sonos ZP-90 and my DAC. The SC3 gave the usual improvement in clarity and dynamic impact, more intense. Same exact characteristics as their SC3 analog cables. The Veloce was smoother, softer edges, initially sounded easier to take, but the SC3 brings more resolution and control so it is the winner. Big surprise!
I am happy with the black cat for now. It is very sweet and loveable, like a fat tabby. The overall feeling of the music with the cat was solid and authoritative like the SC3, but with less resolution. The smoothness was not objectionable, it was warm and sunny so I can see how people might prefer the cat's smoothness and ease of listening to the intensity and truth of the JPS. If you like general microtexture on your tone, the SC3 digital is worth thinking about, and get transformers on your DAC! haha
We played Sol's latest i15 integrated amplifier, everybody liked it. Extremely low distortion, clean and inoffensive. This little amp has balls in the bass and very pure treble.
People brought CDs so they spun what they brung, and played some stuff off my Sonos too, while we swapped in gear occasionally. First the ref 3 replaced the Ref1 with vt100, then AN300B, then Manleys, finally Phono5 with the Concept TT. Sol, Steve and I closed the place down at midnight, with a full belly of vinyl satisfaction. Steve brought some Seals and Croft, Loggins and Messina, and BST. I played some Red Garland trio, Miles 'Round Midnight, Basie at Birdland. We ignored a brief lightning storm outside because it all sounded just too good to turn off.
Thanks to everyone who came over. I had a lot of fun. Pics: