AudioNervosa
General Hospital => Special Events => Topic started by: Triode Pete on August 05, 2015, 01:03:44 PM
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Triode Wire Labs is very pleased to be heading back to the Capital AudioFest, August 28-30, http://www.capitalaudiofest.com (http://www.capitalaudiofest.com)
We'll be in both Rooms 315 (Triode Wire Labs partnering with BorderPatrol Audio) and in Room 405 (Triode Wire Labs / Sound Insight).
In Room 315, we'll have my entire TWL cable loom with Gary Dews BorderPatrol (http://www.borderpatrol.net/ (http://www.borderpatrol.net/)) gear consisting of;
BorderPatrol tube amplifier(s) and preamp (Gary's not sure exactly which amp(s) to bring - either P21 with integral volume control, P20 / S20 Dual mono with integral volume control, or
P20 Dual Mono...)
BorderPatrol USB DAC with a BP tube PSU, and
Living Voice OBX-RW loudspeakers.
In Room 405, we'll have the entire TWL cable loom with Sound Insight (http://www.sound-insight.com/index.html (http://www.sound-insight.com/index.html)) gear consisting of;
World Premier of the SI 300 Open Baffle servo subs
BG Radia FS880 Planar Speakers
Pass Labs XA60.8 Class A monoblock amplifiers
Coincident Line Stage preamp (with Psvane exact replica WE 101D DHT's)
Esoteric K01X SACD player.
PI Audio UberBUSSes to be employed in both rooms, cleaning-up the nasty hotel power...
As always, libations will be served! Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Pete
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Congrats and good luck, Pete! :thumb:
Unfortunately, this will make two years in a row that I will miss the CAF due to prior commitments. :(
I'm sure you guys will be rocking' the house down as usual!
:dj:
SN
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Hi Pete,
Looking forward to seeing you and Steve there.
I will be across the hall in 404 showing my GTA 2.5 planars driven by electronics from Paradox Pulse.
http://www.gtaudioworks.com/
http://www.paradoxpulse.com/
Greg
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Awesome Pete!!! You are da man!
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I will be teaming up with Pete and Steve providing clean power with our Uberbuss line.
Bring your CD's and hear them again maybe for the first time through the Esoteric K-01x CDP, oh my.
BTW wear a jockstrap for the debut of the new Innnersound servo open baffle subs with dedicated Rhythmic amps.
Get comfy in the TWL-Border Patrol room with 300B love.See ya there.
charles
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I will be teaming up with Pete and Steve providing clean power with our Uberbuss line.
Bring your CD's and hear them again maybe for the first time through the Esoteric K-01x CDP, oh my.
BTW wear a jockstrap for the debut of the new Innnersound servo open baffle subs with dedicated Rhythmic amps.
Get comfy in the TWL-Border Patrol room with 300B love.See ya there.
charles
Hi Charles, Hope you bring some select jazz lp's like last time.
Greg
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Triode Wire Labs will now be in a 3rd room @ CAF, August 28-30...
Greg Roberts at Volti Audio has decided to participate in the Capital AudioFest at the end of this month and Triode Wire Labs is pleased & proud to have the entire TWL Loom with Greg's Volti Vittora's! Please stop by Room 401 for a musical treat! I believe Greg will be trying to mate his Vittora's with McIntosh gear... should be a dynamic great time!
Cheers,
Pete
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Triode Wire Labs will now be in a 3rd room @ CAF, August 28-30...
Greg Roberts at Volti Audio has decided to participate in the Capital AudioFest at the end of this month and Triode Wire Labs is pleased & proud to have the entire TWL Loom with Greg's Volti Vittora's! Please stop by Room 401 for a musical treat! I believe Greg will be trying to mate his Vittora's with McIntosh gear... should be a dynamic great time!
Cheers,
Pete
Holy Crap! At the Brooklyn show last year you guys nearly blew out the windows driving the Vittora's with a flea power SET amp. :shock:
The SPLs produced by a Mac amp producing double digit watts will have to be measured in Richter instead of db. :rofl:
Ladies and Gentlemen the Captain has turned on the Fasten Your Seatbelts sign...............
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Some recent feedback from the Capital Audiofest...
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2015/09/08/caf-2015-volti-audio-and-triode-wire-labs/ (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2015/09/08/caf-2015-volti-audio-and-triode-wire-labs/)
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/volti-2-3.jpg?w=860&h=573)
CAF 2015: VOLTI AUDIO AND TRIODE WIRE LABS
Some last-minute wrangling saw Greg Roberts of Volti Audio decide to make the trek to this year’s Capital Audiofest down from Benton, Maine — and this year, he brought some tube-gear from McIntosh Labs to the party.
Overall, I think this room was one-of-the-better presentations I’ve heard from Volti. The focus was a little soft, and the detail-retrieval a little light, but the forgiving sound that I heard was big, strong and muscular. I’m a big fan of the blue-dials/exposed chrome+tubes of the McIntosh gear, and this experience lines up with what I’ve come to expect from that brand.
Aligned along the long-wall, Mac gear drove the three-unit speaker Vittora system (two “mains” + sub) to generate fulsome, lush music “at” those of us lined up opposite, with a now-common and completely spectacular coherence and panic-inducing jump-factor.
I’ve written about these speakers so many times that I feel like I’m repeating myself here — so I’ll save you some time and just confess that I love ’em. They’re $25k for the set, and as Art Dudley of Stereophile has mentioned every time these speakers have come up: they’re heirloom pieces. Big, bold, and incredible space hogs, to be sure. But if you have the space, your grand-kids are going to come to blows over who gets ’em. If I had a different listening room (and a bag full o’ cash), or more control over my living room (and a bag full o’ cash), I’d have bought a set of these several years ago. Oh boy howdy, do I want my very own set. I’m getting all Gollum, just thinking about them. Preciousss!
Greg teamed up with Triode Pete of Triode Wire Labs to wire the kit up. I’ll come back to TWL shortly, but I will offer that Pete has had several opportunities to dramatically raise his prices and has refused. I love that. I also love the fact that his wiring loom is really quite remarkable — and those power cords are the best value in cabling today. No, $550 isn’t cheap, but I’d take a fistful of Seven+ over just about every other vendor out there, regardless of price, and yes, I’m looking squarely at the $5k-and-up segment as I type that. I call that value.
Some additional feedback from EnjoyTheMusic.com...
This time from Room 405, The Triode Wire Labs - Sound Insight Room
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/Part1b.htm (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/Part1b.htm)
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2372.jpg)
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2385.jpg)
Sound Insight And Triode Wire Labs
Hosted by Steven Rabitz of Sound Insight, Charlie Rollo, SI Ditributor and Pete Grzybowski (a.k.a. Triode Pete) of Triode Wire Labs hailed the debut of the SI-300 Open Baffle Servo Subwoofers $7900/pr. Modeled after a GR Research design, the SI-300s have 3 12" drivers designed for open baffle loading, a spec built Rythmik servo plate amp, and a heavy duty, lined with NoRez double thick cabinet. All you planar owners (Magnepan, Quad, ET, and ESL) who can't get a sub to integrate with your panels, here is your solution. The servo action quickens the return of the cone after a transient and prevents boom and overhang, thus allowing the bass character to match the planar. The radiating pattern of these OB subs also matches the planar lending to less room irregularities and seamless integration, you're welcome. There was a lot of supporting equipment from various brands, Esoteric K-01X SACD $21,000, Coincident RC preamp $5999, a pair of Pass Labs XA60.8 monos $12,800/pr driving BG Radia FS 880 planar magnetic speakers $35,000/pr. The entire rig was wired with TWL, HP Digital American power cord $699, Seven Plus PC $549, Spirit XLR Interconnects $449 ($349 for RCA), American Speaker Cable $699. Triode Pete's cables greatly contributed to the overall cohesiveness of the system, they are true bargains. Nothing at the show had more bass impact, and power down low than the SI-300s, while integrating invisibly with the panels. A couple of people not familiar with the Kodo drum track were startled and a little frightened when the first huge whack exploded into the room, the Sheffield Drum Record was so fun we listened to both Ron Tutt and Jim Keltner, the system put the drum kit in the room, very realistic. On one of my many trips to this room, Lyn Stanley came in and sang live in the room to her newest release "Interludes", available soon in SACD and CD formats, giving us a live versus Memorex moment to Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love". Sensational!
Also, Stereophile (Art Dudley & Herb Reichert) has some blog entries...
(http://cdn.stereophile.com/images/083115-Volti-600.jpg)
Herb Reichert - Stereophile
As many of you know, I used to love horns. I loved them because when the stars lined up just right, the world's best horns could play waaaaaay closer to real life-both dynamically and scale-wise-than any audiophile speaker at any price. Jump factor pinned the needles. Unfortunately, I gave up on them years ago. Why? Because full-range horns were never truly coherent and they made solo singers and musicians appear too big. (On the good side, because they played big, horns could do opera better any little boxes.) And then, a few weeks ago I heard a giant horn system designed by Jeffrey Jackson of EMIA and (incredulously) it seemed perfect in every way-but it cost $350,000! Today at CAF I played a couple of my own CDs through the Volti Audio Vittora horns and they seemed perfect too-and a pair of Volti Vittoras costs only $25,000! The Voltis (reviewed by Art Dudley in September 2013) played my Bach Goldberg Variations (with Ito Ema at the keyboard) with a gentle liquid smoothness that exceeded any liquid smoothness I have heard before. Piano sound was among the most realistic I have ever experienced from a loudspeaker. I wrote in my listening notes that I think I could live with these for the rest of my life! Bravo Volti! (and Triode Wire Labs!)
(http://cdn.stereophile.com/images/083015-Border%20Patrol-600.jpg)
Art Dudley - Stereophile
The gorgeous tone of Johnny Hodges' alto saxophone handily survived the trip through a pair of Living Voice Avatar OBX-RW loudspeakers ($11,850/pair), driven by a BorderPatrol P21 amplifier and USB NOS DAC ($9750 and $1250, respectively, with all cables and AC cords from Triode Wire Labs.
... and finally, some insightful feedback from Jonathan Janusz on TWL's Rooms at CAF...
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136944.msg1456904#msg1456904 (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136944.msg1456904#msg1456904)
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136944.msg1456908#msg1456908 (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136944.msg1456908#msg1456908)
Cheers,
Pete
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Congrats, buddy! Well deserved kudos! :thumb:
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".....and those power cords are the best value in cabling today. No, $550 isn’t cheap, but I’d take a fistful of Seven+ over just about every other vendor out there, regardless of price, and yes, I’m looking squarely at the $5k-and-up segment as I type that. I call that value."
It's nice to see that the audiophile press is finally catching on to what we here at AN have know for years. :thumb:
Well deserved praise my friend. 8)
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Blonde above is laughing at the forward sub on the ground.. :rofl:
Congratz, you are in with some nice stuff like the Living Voice. :thumb:
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It was a treat and eye opening experience when Lyn Stanley who performed Saturday evening for the show graced our room . As Lynn sang along with her CD on our system she stated" This is the only room at the show where I sound just like myself live"
It was a pleasure meeting Lynn and just thrilled by her comment. I asked her if she was just being kind with her comment put it in print she said I'll back up every word. :thumb:
charles
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It was a treat and eye opening experience when Lyn Stanley who performed Saturday evening for the show graced our room . As Lynn sang along with her CD on our system she stated" This is the only room at the show where I sound just like myself live"
It was a pleasure meeting Lynn and just thrilled by her comment. I asked her if she was just being kind with her comment put it in print she said I'll back up every word. :thumb:
charles
:thumb:
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Blonde above is laughing at the forward sub on the ground.. :rofl:
Congratz, you are in with some nice stuff like the Living Voice. :thumb:
Dipoles baby servo controlled diploes that is. He who has the last laugh laughs the best. :rofl:
charles
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Hey, we earned a Best Sound at Show award, a Gold Award, from AVShow Reports! Thanks Peter Breuninger!
See the video award here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxHTlY9-M4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxHTlY9-M4)
Cheers,
Pete
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A bit more Press Feedback today from EnjoyTheMusic.com...
Thanks, Kemper!
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2241.jpg)
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2239.jpg)
Border Patrol, Triode Wire Labs, And Living Voice
Local manufacturer Border Patrol, had a very quiet room, I mean a black background from which small details sprung forth revealing musical info missed by other systems. Gary Dews, designer for BP should be nick named power supply Czar. Gary's amps and preamps have giant outboard power units relaying his opinion on just how important a p/s is to the sonics of a design. For 2015 CAF Gary dispensed with a preamp and ran a MacMini into a Border Patrol USB NOS DAC $1,250 with tube rectified power supply as used here, add $750. Speaking of power supplies, the BP S20 amp from $13,750, (the silver knob on the amp is a volume control), has 2 mono p/s units to let this 18 watt parallel single-ended 300B based amp sound much bigger than the ratings suggest, and I don't think any other 300B amp has the frequency extension at both ends of the spectrum as the S20 does. We all gush over the SET mids, but this amp is wide band and has good bass slam and clear highs. A pair of Living Voice Avatar OBX-RW speakers $11,850 were connected with Triode Wire Labs American Speaker Cables Bi-Wire version $1,099/pr, with TWL Spirit ICs $349/pr and a TWL Silver Statement power cord $1,199 , and a few Digital American cords $499 ( $699 for HP version) were used throughout the system. The system had a very interesting ability to draw you in to the music, nothing jumping out, but instruments and voices sounding just right. Surprising to me was the drum kit impact, and the slew of small details flowing easily into the room. Only the soundstage seemed a bit small, but the room contributed to that aspect. Everything else was superb, violin and guitar tones were spot on, voices tightly focused and clear, sax sounded raw and powerfully dynamic, and Michael Hedges' "Rickover's Dream" had the immediacy and explosiveness to be exciting and live. Another room using TWL cables that was neutral balanced, low noise floor, and just a wee bit sweet on top, in a marketplace that can be wildly priced, Pete's cables are a real value.
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2301.jpg)
(http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Capital_Audiofest_2015/photos/DSC2300.jpg)
Volti, Triode Wire Labs, And McIntosh Labs
Every time I see these horns, the exquisite craftsmanship and woodworking skills to make these blows me away, and then I wonder how great they'd look in my family room. Greg Roberts drove down from Benton, Maine bringing with him the Volti Audio Vittora System $25,000 for the three-piece set that includes the two main Vittora speakers and an Extended Low Frequency cabinet. McIntosh supplied a C22 Preamplifier $6,000 and a pair of MC75 Mono amps $7,500/pr. displayed on canted Volti stands. Triode Pete seems to be everywhere this show, especially in great sounding rooms. TWL cables were on the amps, Seven Plus P/C $499, Ten Plus $349 on the preamp, Digital American P/C $499 on the CD/SACD player, and TWL ICs and Speaker cables connected everything else. I have heard enough systems with TWL cables to appreciate their neutrality and lack of a sonic signature; they just get out of the way of the music and allow it to spring from a black low noise background. I had Greg play "New York City Serenade" from Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, and the piano intro was stunning in it's realism and not bettered in any room at the show. Details of the beginning of percussion instruments strikes was lightening quick, and the dynamics were very wide. My cut from Michael Hedges' "Rickover's Dream" was explosive and live sounding, great string detail and the sense of the wooden bodied guitar was evident. Saturday night Vinnie Rossi brought down his LIO integrated amp and hooked it up to the Vittoras, what a synergistic combination. The lower noise floor helped maximize the Vittora's strengths, especially revealing low level information clearly while other instruments are playing much louder.
Cheers,
Pete
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Pete:
I love your your stuff and am really happy that there is recognition for your hard work and hope to have more of it in the future. Question is: does anybody notice or comment on the little black Uber sittin over there conspicuously in the corner all by it's lonesome?
Don
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With these great reviews I'm sure your cables will be a big hit at Rocky Mountain again this year. Keep up the good work Pete.
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Pete:
I love your your stuff and am really happy that there is recognition for your hard work and hope to have more of it in the future. Question is: does anybody notice or comment on the little black Uber sittin over there conspicuously in the corner all by it's lonesome?
Don
Hey Don,
There were FOUR Pi Audio Group UberBUSSes in three of the rooms my cables were in;
- BorderPatrol / TWL / Living Voice - my personal SuperDuper Uber
- Volti / TWL / McIntosh - Greg's (Volti) personal Uber
- Sound Insight / TWL - Sir Charles Rollo's Two personal Ubers
No doubt they contributed to the great sound in these rooms!
Cheers,
Pete
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Good Going Pete!
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Hey, we earned a Best Sound at Show award, a Gold Award, from AVShow Reports! Thanks Peter Breuninger!
See the video award here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxHTlY9-M4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxHTlY9-M4)
Cheers,
Pete
Congrats again, Pete - TWL rules! :thumb:
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Oh, boy, another review... This is probably the last of the Capital AudioFest feedback, published by Part Time Audiophile. Thanks, Scot!!! :thumb:
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2015/09/18/caf-2015-borderpatrol-triode-wire-labs-and-living-voice/ (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2015/09/18/caf-2015-borderpatrol-triode-wire-labs-and-living-voice/)
CAF 2015: BORDERPATROL, TRIODE WIRE LABS AND LIVING VOICE RECREATE HOME
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borderpatrol-1.jpg?w=860&h=587)
There is always a risk, covering an audio show. A risk that someone will say something. Not mean, nasty or cutting — just something interesting. Or they’ll do something likewise interesting. Doesn’t sound so horrible, unless you’re an easily distractible fellow and you completely forget what you’re about and assume somewhere along the way that you’ve already accomplished your task. Like take photos of a given room, say. Whoops. Thankfully, Paul Elliott was able to pick up my slack.
The problem with the BorderPatrol room? I have this room at home. Well, near enough. I do own a pair of Living Voice Avatar OBX-RW loudspeakers ($11850/pair — special wood finish may be extra). There’s something very special about these speakers, something that caught my ear way back at the very first Capital Audiofest; it’s something that’s haunted me ever since. I can’t even really put my finger on exactly what “it” is — they just do something very right. Way back at that first CAF, I remember being extremely annoyed at how good that BorderPatrol room sounded — annoyed, because I’d just spent my entire budget on other gear. Well, time flies like a banana and all that, and now, I’ve corrected that error. Finally.
The amplifier anchoring this system was a scaled-down version of my reference; this one was an integrated BorderPatrol P21 ($9,750), a push-pull stereo job leveraging a pair of 300b tubes per channel to create a whopping 20 watt/channel. I joke, because that amp has brassy ones big enough to clank together like a pair of Big Bens. There was zero issues with level, dynamics or punch. The P21 is the single PSU version of the push-pull design — the P20 ($13,750 — and one of my reference power amps) uses two. There are a small set of upgrades they make available, including a massive pair of super-duper external power supplies which throws the prices well past $20k for a new amp. The upshot here is that this is a 300b-based tube amp that does things no 300b-based tube amp should be able to do (according to Conventional Wisdom). Specifically? Real, solid, hammering bass. Extended, shimmering, delicate and sweet treble. If you’re not familiar with the 300b, and how it usually gets implemented, that’s really weird. Add to that the “traditional” immersiveness that a 300b “typically” throws at you, and you’ve got yourself a cobra, hypnotic and lethal.
The sneaky bit, and worth calling out again, was the new BorderPatrol USB NOS DAC ($2,000 w/ external tube power supply), here tucked surreptitiously into a pair of bamboo boxes. That DAC, which “only” handles Redbook files, is the best-sounding DAC I’ve heard under (to pick a completely arbitrary number out of the air) $5k, and is one of the very best-sounding DACs I’ve ever heard, regardless of price. Sound like a bit of hyperbole? Fine. I was a doubter too. Once. But while there are DACs that are smoother, more rounded and more silken, this DAC is openopenopen with nothing between you and the music. Maybe I should just save the rest for the coming review ….
Nah.
See, I’m not precisely sure why the DAC sounds this good. I seem to recall some DAC designer claiming that “the chip matters”, but that its contribution to the overall sound was lower than you’d think, maybe something like 15%. I have no idea if that’s true or accurate, but the chip here is used in a decidedly minimalist way, without upsampling or oversampling or buffering. Arguably more important to that other designer was the USB input/transceiver chipset and the power supply. Again, no idea about that weighting, but that latter bit is where BorderPatrol just happens to shine. The power supply here is a choke-input filter design, an oddity for digital gear, but one designer Gary Dews is rather notorious for — and its the same design he uses in those massive silver-box power supplies that he wires up to his amps (with variations-on-a-theme for everything else, for that matter). This DAC offers an off-box tube rectified supply, too (like the amps), and it’s not an option. Well, it is but not really — just get it and say “thanks!”
Triode Pete was showing off his excellent and affordable cable loom as well — including his new balls-out “Silver Statement” power cord (starting at $1,199), using solid silver (not plated) connectors with carbon-fiber connector shells coupled to his proprietary blend in those big 7awg conductors. I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but I think that Triode Wire Labs is offering some of the best bang-for-the-buck currently available in today’s audio market. Obviously, you’re free to use zip cord if you’d rather bang your head on a wall, but the TWL power cords especially are some of my personal favorites — I have a half-dozen or so that I use almost constantly. Pete also offers a full loom of RCA interconnects and speaker cables that are on my to-do list. More on those anon.
I’m over budget on sheer wordiness (typical), so let me summarize. For less than $25k, this was one of the best-sounding rooms at Capital Audiofest this year — just as it was at that very first CAF, six years ago. I’m just as impressed now as then, which is probably why I now have this stuff at home.
Dews is a wizard. Full stop.
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borderpatrol-2.jpg?w=860&h=590)
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borderpatrol-3-2.jpg?w=860&h=573)
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borderpatrol-4-2.jpg?w=860&h=609)
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borderpatrol-2095.jpg?w=860&h=573)
Cheers,
Pete
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Some very recent video feedback from AVshowreports, on Dave Slagle's Emia Room... Great Sound again... TWL provided the power cabling!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj8z52tUkI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj8z52tUkI)
Cheers,
Pete