Author Topic: Triangle Audio Society is born  (Read 43292 times)

Offline mdconnelly

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #30 on: November 16, 2007, 07:53:48 PM »
Rollo, if you come, don't forget the Cannoli!

Offline stereofool

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #31 on: November 17, 2007, 08:52:25 PM »
Thanks for another great evening...guys  :D! Rich...you're such a great host!!!

It was nice meeting some new guys, as well as seeing some old friends. To me this turned into more of a social, rather than a pure listening session...which was fine with me.

In the future...we may want to limit auditions to 2-3 pieces max...so we have time to critically listen and form solid opinions. Tonight, there were far too many variables.

My eyelids are about to slam shut...so I'll sign off.
Steve
Have you ever noticed.... Anyone going slower than you is an idiot...and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

Bigfish8

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #32 on: November 18, 2007, 05:37:12 AM »
Rich:

Thank you very much for hosting the G2G and for all of your hospitality.  I had a great time talking about audio gear with the guys.  I have to run out to my moms and will post more later.

I had a lot of fun!

Thanks Again,

Ken

Offline mdconnelly

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #33 on: November 18, 2007, 06:00:42 AM »
I echo Steve and Ken... great to meet everyone and wonderful job pulling it together, Rich.   

It's also great to put a face (and real names) to the AN usernames here.

Mike

Offline Carlman

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #34 on: November 18, 2007, 07:46:53 AM »
A BIG THANK YOU to Rich for hosting and to Bill O'Connell for making the trip from Chicago to demo his new M156 monoblock tube amps. 

Thanks to Shane also for bringing the new Usher BE-718's and JPS cables... It was interesting to hear a different implementation of the 718 from the stock and modified versions I've had.  I wish the tweeter had been implemented more like the 8571 or BE-10/20's... a little more 'organic' and/or a little less 'exciting?' maybe.

Most of the systems I heard far from the listening position.. in the kitchen which is open to Rich's listening area.  So, take the following (and above) with a grain of salt... from the kitchen.. haha..

I only heard Rich's new pine speakers for a minute and I thought they sounded 'pretty good'... not amazing or jaw-dropping... but enjoyable.  I didn't get in the sweet spot but I thought they had a lot of potential.  They were a very nice first draft... can't wait to hear them again after more refinement... and when I have more time to listen critically.

The Eastern Electric amps seemed to be neutral leaning to warm to me... they were just a little 'polite' in my opinion.  I thought they sounded very nice on Mike's Cambridge CD player.  Which model was that?  They had more punch/authority than the source prior to it.  My ears perked up! :)

Just as I was getting interested in the EE M156's Bill had some technical issue with one of his amps which was unfortunate... Some troublehshooting proved it was out for the count.  This was a travelling prototype so I wasn't surprised there was a hiccup... It had survived RMAF and a lot of other stops, playing, moving, etc.  I think Bill has already contacted the designer to ensure there are no problems like the one he had with the prototype...  But I still wish I could've gotten to hear it more last night.

I was attending primarily for the social aspect this time.  I had a week of 5 Mondays.  I was just toast and didn't have the energy to immerse myself technically or be very analytical.  So, I just sat back, talked, and enjoyed some fine tunes.  I hope I didn't distract folks too much.

One thing I've learned with hifi events is that you can only listen critically for so long before you either need a break... think of something.. or want to share something with others.  All the people you like to talk to are in one place at the same time... So, seems natural to discuss audio.  My expectations are that I get to hear 1 or 2 things critically at a meet.  I don't expect much more than that when I'm alone for a 2-3 hour session... So, whether there's 5 different pieces of gear or just 2... I'm only going to absorb a little piece of what's there.  There's no way I would expect to hear every piece of gear in every combination at a group gathering... That'd be a week of listening... hmm.. an 'audio seminar' of sorts..

Knowing all of that... I'm hoping to have a nice divide between the critical listeners and the talkers in the basement where I'll host a meeting or 2 now and again.  I'm targeting late Spring for the first meeting... we'll see how it goes.  That way I don't feel like I'm bothering anyone with my chatter and we can cycle in and out for critical listening... I'll also have a 'staging area' for gear to compare... and a popcorn popper. :)  Man, I just get more psyched about it every day.

Thanks for the fun time... I really enjoyed talking to everyone... Great conversations with wonderful folks.

-Carl


The few photos I took are here...
« Last Edit: November 18, 2007, 08:55:37 AM by Carlman »
I really enjoy listening to music.

Offline richidoo

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #35 on: November 18, 2007, 01:02:06 PM »
Nice pictures, Carl. The visit from Canadian Prime Minister was a nice surprise, eh? haha And he brought some very nice cables too!

I had a blast, it was "fun" meet this time, not as technical or intense, although we did tread into some good critical listening, discussion and comparisons.

Not cooking was a big hit with this host. Thanks for buying the pizza guys. Thanks to Ken's wife Vera for the ooey gooey rich and chewie caramel brownies. Much appreciated by all, as last time. Thanks to Carl for bringing the fine booze. The remainder is safely stowed for our next meet, wherever that might be. Thanks for the Dunkin Donuts, Mr Prime Minister. They were well appreciated, every last one of them.

I was fortunate to be able to listen to EL156, and shoot the shit with Bill almost all day prior to the meet. They sounded great to my ears, Bill and the amps... haha. The amps are smoother and warmer sounding than my Snappers, and that is Bill's preference. The Morningstar Audio house sound is firmly in place with this amp, and the match with my Minimax preamp was excellent. Bill is not just the importer on this one, he say in the planning, design and parts quality decisions, and it shows. It is a much more significant statement than the Minimax, although the simplicity and elegance remains in both appearance and sound. The innards are very well laid out and construction is a work of art. I liked the sound of them on the Usher Be-718's better than the RMAF speakers or my Legacy's. The Usher's extreme detail retrieval pulled the amps a bit more toward my taste and revealed the beautiful tone of these amps. Snappers on the Ushers were a tad distracting with the intense detail, but I think my brain would adapt in time...  :drool:

I loved the Ushers. I had auditioned them the previous week for a couple days and found them to be a lot of fun to listen to. Detail is something that I love as long as tone is good. I strained mightily to find fault with the little ushers - to defend my pride of Legacy ownership, and really only came away with deficiencies in relation to the positives of my big speakers, namely scale and low frequency impact and accuracy. You can only do so much with a 6" driver. But the little Usher makes the best use of small woofer to make big believable bass. The ACI Sapphire also made a good impression on me in the big clean bass dept, but I can't remember it well enough to make a direct comparison. The SP Timepiece also had great bass, but is a much larger speaker. All three are awesome but very different. We are so spoiled and fortunate to be able to hear such great toys.

Sol Sammet, a local electronics designer brought the latest iterations of his integrated amps. The I7, I30, and I60. The I30 (30wpc) made an excellent impression on everybody. Critiques were accepted graciously and he said he knows exactly what to do to address the issues that were raised. He left excited about the suggested improvements, and about bringing the tweaked amps again to the next meet. I myself could not hear the deficiencies until someone else pointed them out, the I30 especially is very close to nailing it. Sol also generously helped Bill with the diagnosis of the tube amp problem - he was able to determine that the issue was minor and easily corrected, thereby alleviating any further worry.

I was glad to get some honest and even some good comments about the Feastrex speakers. That is very encouraging, because I know what these guys ears are used to, and not giving me any slack because of the single driver, especially not at the price, which is same as the new Ushers. Hmm, now that's scary!  We had fun with them. Short on power cords, I first played them with the Cary SLI-80, which I had never done before. ohmygod it sounded terrible. The Snappers improved it dramatically.

We heard Bigfish8's Bolder modified Squeezebox, Bolder modified Elpac power supply, and stock Burson buffer in various combinations with my stock SB, stock Power-One linear power supply, and Altmann battery powered DAC and Minimax preamp, all into Snappers and Legacys. We used a mediocre recording of Tchaikovsky 1812 that became less and less mediocre as we zeroed in on our favorite combination. Thanks for Shane for the JPS SC3 wires that made all sources sound amazing. It was painful to watch the SC3s ICs leave my house... again. My wife was proud, I only bought 3 tube dampers!

mdconnelly was finally able to come to the meet for the first time, after several previous tries, and I enjoyed meeting you Mike. He brought a whole storeful of accessories from Herbie's Audio Labs. We used a bunch of the stuff during the night. It was too chaotic to focus on changes unfortunately. Too much stuff. We will address the next time, and try to do a scientific listening to the Herbie's stuff. The EL156's and the Minimax preamp were fully damped. The Snappers did not use any dampers.

I need to install more and better power outlets - next time.
Rich

Offline mdconnelly

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #36 on: November 18, 2007, 04:53:23 PM »
Carl, the CDP was the Cambridge Audio 840c - the one that Harley raved so much about in TAS.   While Harley stated it was the best CDP he's heard under $5k, that was a bit of an exageration IMHO.  None-the-less, I think it sounds damn good and punches way out of it's price range.  My primary interest ws because it does upsample on digital out making it a great transport feeding the Tact pre.

Rich, to my old ears, hearing differences much less improvements brought out tweaks such as those from Herbies Audio Lab is certainly doable, but nearly impossible when listening with a dozen other folks to equipment you're not totally familiar with.    Be that as it may, it seems the Ultrasonic tube dampers were a hit as were a number of the less expensive isolation devices such as the Grungebuster dots and the Big Fat Dots.  Just a reminder to all that Steve Herbelin (Herbie) has extended a 10% discount to all members of the Triangle Audio Society with no minimum on the order size (normally $200).   

Offline stereofool

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #37 on: November 18, 2007, 06:46:32 PM »
Steve
Have you ever noticed.... Anyone going slower than you is an idiot...and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

Offline Carlman

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #38 on: November 19, 2007, 05:50:26 AM »
Cool! great shots, Steve! I liked the composition, sharpness, color, etc. Greatly appreciated.
Looks like I need to get serious about my diet... ;)  No more brownies!  But how can I resists?!  :shock:

I really enjoy listening to music.

shep

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #39 on: November 19, 2007, 06:41:16 AM »
Nice to put faces to names!

Offline richidoo

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #40 on: November 19, 2007, 07:14:12 AM »
Nice pics Steve! Thanks a lot. 

Offline mdconnelly

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #41 on: November 19, 2007, 08:17:28 AM »
Woohoo!  Glad you had the G2G Saturday night because last night I was busy becoming a Grandpa!   :beer: 

My oldest daughter gave birth to a 6lb, 15oz boy late last night.   While I didn't miss the G2G, I unfortunately did have to pass on my tickets to the Carolina bball game -- ah, what sacrifices us Gramps have to make!   I am so gonna spoil this kid -- gotta make sure he turns out to be a serious audiophile!

Bigfish8

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #42 on: November 19, 2007, 08:39:15 AM »
Woohoo!  Glad you had the G2G Saturday night because last night I was busy becoming a Grandpa!   :beer: 

My oldest daughter gave birth to a 6lb, 15oz boy late last night.   While I didn't miss the G2G, I unfortunately did have to pass on my tickets to the Carolina bball game -- ah, what sacrifices us Gramps have to make!   I am so gonna spoil this kid -- gotta make sure he turns out to be a serious audiophile!

Mike:

Congratulations Grandpa! :beer:

Have a great week and fun Thanksgiving with the family!

Ken

Offline Bill O'Connell

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #43 on: November 19, 2007, 10:21:23 AM »
Congratulations Mike ,what a blessing, you will have plenty to give thanks for this Holiday.

 My heartfelt gratitude to Carl who put me up on Friday night for an overnight stay along with a wonderful sushi dinner with friends.
 To Rich who offered overnight bedding on Saturday along with breakfast on Sunday morning, This was so kind of both of you.You both are very lucky gentleman to have such wonderful wives and children. It was a pleasure meeting them and I will never forget your acts of kindness to a weary traveler. Thank you all so much.

 It was great to put faces to names and to meet everyone  and I have spoken with Alex already about installing a in-rush limiter circuit into the amps before any amps are made. This will eliminate the problem that arose.
 A huge Thank you to Sol Sammet for taking the time and effort to run home for his variac and diagnose what was needed. A simple fix or quirk as he referred to it to never have that happen again.

 It was one heck of a drive home and I ran into a little rain from Indianapolis all the way home but arrived safely last night about 10:30 pm :D

 Have to catch up on a few things so later guys,

It was a blast,
Bill
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Offline richidoo

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Re: Triangle Audio Society is born
« Reply #44 on: November 21, 2007, 03:54:06 PM »
More pics from Bigfish. Thanks Ken, nice shots!!
Rich

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