Squeezeboxes and DIY transmission lines

Yesterday myself, bottleneck, Lilolee and Dev all congregated in julian2002's living room to listen to some music and check out his new DIY transmisison lines (see here).

After some major issues getting to Julian's place (all trains from London to Bedford having been cancelled due to a fire at Cricklewood) I did eventually get there (via Bletchley ).

It was the first time I'd heard Julian's system so I couldn't compare it to what he had before but those IPL S5TLs sounded very impressive indeed. Great bass extension and impact, good soundstaging and depth and very fast and dynamic. Their appearance apart they could easily hold their own with commercial speakers of much greater cost.

It was also the first time I'd ever heard any Naim gear for any decent length of time and err....what's all this "Naim Sound" thing then? Julian has a NAC202 pre (I think) and a NAP250 power with various external PSUs (all of 'olive' vintage) and there was nothing especially different about the sound that I hadn't heard before. It all sounded rather good .

I'd brought my little NOS DAC along and we compare it to Julian's Audio Synthesis DAX (can't remember the full model details). Well, the difference wasn't night and day but the general consensus seemed to be that the NOS DAC sounded somewhat more natural but was a bit less controllled in the bass. It wasn't a very scientific comparison though .

Most impressive for me though was the Squeezebox. Not so much the sound (that's really down to the DAC) but just how convenient and easy to use it is. It's a very compelling solution indeed. So much so that I'll be investigating it sometime in the near future

Thanks to Julian for a very interesting afternoon and to Lee for providing some unfeasibly large muffins to eat . It was good to finally meet Chris (bottleneck) and Dev. Thanks to Chris for a lift to Milton Keynes station, making my journey back to London considerably quicker (I missed the 18:19 but that was actually fortunate as the 18:35 Virgin Trains non-stop service I got arrived in London 20 minutes ahead of it ).

Of course it goes without saying that we mostly just listened to a load of good music, which I'm afraid I can't be bothered to list...sorry

Michael.

 

Yup thanks Julian

I agree with the above .. except to say I thought the NOS sounded more in control, and the Audio Synthesis more warm and fruity. Horses for courses and system dependant Im sure.

I'll try and list some of the music.. please add to it if you remember!

The propellorheads - cant remember track titles/album
Curtis Mayfield - mighty mighty - move on up
FSOL papua new guinea - accelerator
Radiohead - pyramid song, sardines - Amnesiac
Queens of the stone age - Type R

God thats lame, thats only about 10% of it.

 

micheal,
you're more than welcome. I had a lot of fun and made some interesting additions to my music collection - really liked the oi va voi and the 'tango' stuff you brought along.
the preamp is actually a nac 82 with 2 hicaps. as to the sound, well most people seem to think my stuff is the least naim sounding naim kit they've heard. probably because i don;t run naim speaker cable or speakers. i also connect the power amp directly to the pre rather than the usual naim recommended way of connecting it via a hi-cap.
i think you sum up the nos dac vs a/s dax-2 pretty well, as you say we didn;t conduct the tests that scientifically although we did make an attempt at level matching even so i thought there was perhaps a tad more sparkle in the top end with the a/s but the nos had the mid band down a treat. i think if you were to believe the stereotypes about amplification i'd characterise the nos as being 'valve' and the a/s being 'solid state'. for some reason i thought the a/s a tad louder than the nos even though the levels were roughly the same but that could be down to the measuring equipment used.
glad you got back to the smoke ok. those muffins did look tasty.


propellerheads was - on her majestys secret service and spybreak for deckanddrumsandrockandroll

cheers


julian

 

And thanks to Dev we did listen to Stairway to Heaven (2 different versions) about 20 times .

The CD's I brought a long were:

Oi Va Voi "Laughter Through Tears" - thanks to merlin for the recommendation.

Ojos de Brujo "Bari" - thanks to Bub for the recommendation.

Bajofondo Tango Club - if you like Gotan Project then you'll like this. Unlike Gotan Project these guys are the real deal Argentinian, not French

Also listened to a bit of DJ DangerMouse "The Grey Album" (a remix of Jay Z's Black Album with all backing music provided by the Beatles' "White Album") - unfortunately it's a poor quality MP3 which I found on SoulSeek as the album was banned for silly copyright reasons

Michael.

 

"Unfeasibly Large Muffins" sounds like something out of Viz.

If I had the time, money and opportunity I'd love to get down there to hear the IPLs.

 

You realise I now have to seriously consider the NOS DAC thingy as well as the A/S

 

tom,
if you get a chance i'd seriously recommend having a listen to one of the nos dacs. there are quite a few of them floating about commercial designs from audio note, scott nixon and 47 labs as well as less professional (although from what i saw of michaels example not in quality) ones on e-bay.
my only concern with the one i heard and knowing you prefer naim kit would be the slight lack of bass control however there are versions out there with active output stages which i believe may cure the 'issue' if it even is an issue for you.
i don;t mean this to sound like i'm damning with faint praise, if i didn;t already have a dac i was happy with and if i was looking i'd buy one in a heartbeat and be done with it at 140 quid all in it's just a no brainer and if i wanted to try adding active output stages or a better psu then i know a man who can or if i was feeling particularly brave there are numerous websites out there showing just how you can screw it up yourself.
cheers


julian

 

I must confess I'm tempted because I'm looking to match my P9 in texture if not quality. Not an easy ideal but I'm sure you get my drift.

 

Yes Julian, many thanks for a great afternoon, it was a pleasure to meet you guys and listen to some great music. I hate you even more now because I'm going to spend money and get a Squeezebox. I just cannot recommend it highly enough, it's brilliant. Also time to upgrade my PC with more HDD and of course more CDs.

Julian, Just a gentle reminder about PM'ing me the details of a certain CD

I think this is a very good summary. Julian's DAC had better controlled bass but otherwise I could live with either DAC. I can see why Michael think it was his best bargain.

Thanks again Julian.

 

Michael, just be grateful that Julian does not have a CDP, otherwise you might have heard a lot of Def Leppard

 

I never had you down as a metalhead Dev...especially not with "pipe & slippers" Tannoy speakers

Michael.

 

OUCH! That's definitely below the belt After all, even the big man himself likes them a bit.

 

interesting thread, though URL takes me on tour of Julian's speaker build project.

 

that would be because the DIY speakers are transmision line

 

that would be it then ...

 

Here what did he say????

 

Frank Zappa - The Muffin Man

The muffin man is seated at the table in the laboratory of the utility muffin
Research kitchen... reaching for an oversized chrome spoon he gathers an
Intimate quantity of dried muffin remnants and brushing his scapular aside
Procceds to dump these inside of his shirt...
He turns to us and speaks:

Some people like cupcakes better. I for one care less for them!

Arrogantly twisting the sterile canvas snoot of a fully charged icing
Anointment utensil he poots forths a quarter-ounce green rosette (oh ah yuk
Yuk... let's try that again...!) he poots forth a quarter-ounce green rosette
Near the summit of a dense but radiant muffin of his own design.
Later he says:

Some people... some people like cupcakes exclusively, while myself, I say
There is naught nor ought there be nothing so exalted on the face of god's grey
Earth as that prince of foods... the muffin!

Girl you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
He hung around till you found
That he didn't know nuthin'

Girl you thought he was a man
But he only was a-puffin'
No cries is heard in the night
As a result of him stuffin'

 

Tom

If you're happy messing with a soldering iron the sound flavor (if not absolute quality) of one of these minimalist nonOS dacs can be tuned almost infinitely by swapping the coupling caps, decoupling caps and I/V resistors.

 

My soldering skills are minimal to put it mildly, I get flux everywhere.

I've just ordered the Chibi Saru & 3Xdc PSU from Scott Nixon and will report back when it comes. (That's a pre-made NOS DacKit)

 

I've read many fine comments about the Scott Nixons. What made you decide on the Chibi Saru as opposed to the TubeDac?

Dex