The obligatory post-bakeoff thread.

[I-S]

Right...

I think a pretty good time had by all. I certainly enjoyed it. Some good music, good company, and almost cleaned out of unhealthy food!

Participants:

Myself (funny, that)
Will
Wadia-Miester
SCIDB
GAZZ

Additional bits of kit:

Stock superDAC + stock PSU
Wadia 301
Various bits of tweakery a la tone.

Music played:

Train - Train
Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
Howard Tate - Rediscovered
Dr. John - Creole Moon
Peter Gabriel - So
Various - But Officer: Louis Prima - Robin Hood
Various - Blues Here & There: Jimmy Witherspoon - Help me Operator, Nine Below Zero - Checkin' on my Baby
Oasis - What's the Story, Morning Glory
The Cardigans - Gran Turismo
G3 Live
Aretha Franklin - Soul Sister, The Classic Aretha Franklin
Pixies - Best of Pixies, Wave of Mutilation
Placebo - Sleeping with Ghosts
Ray Barretto - Acid/Hard Hands
Various - Hotel Pelirocco: Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb, Add N Tox - Plug me in, Fox - s-s-single bed
Alice in Chains - Unplugged

Also a couple of DVDs were briefly used:

Finding Nemo
Alice in Chains - Unplugged

Thanks to all for coming!

Keep an eye out for the next, coming soon to a listening room near you!

 

[Will]

Yup it was a good day always good to put a face to a name, and meet people with a common interest! Didn't properly realise Dean was a DJ though until I asked Isaac this afternoon, what sort of stuff do you mix? I'm sometimes a bit partial to a bit of breakbeat/D&B myself

Got to say I was mightily impressed with Isaacs setup, definitely makes mine seem deficient - isaacs system goes much lower to the extent that when I tried playing flyswatter by the eels this morning I thought i'd got a different version of the song, because I have nothing like the bass extension or slam , but then I did expect mine to be shown up a lot anyway given how cheap my kit is, and the pretty unconsidered way I went about buying much of it over 2 years ago, so it wasn't a total surprise.

I was shocked at how harsh my standard superdac sounded when put into Isaacs system, subjectively I'd always considered it to be quite far from harsh, indeed subjectively in my system its much less harsh than my cd player (Marantz CD4000). Definitely some room for improvement, made me even keener to get the DAC breathed upon by Isaac now

W-Ms swapping and changing cables did to my ears make a difference, with the power cable to the amp and the speaker cable bringing about the biggest differences to my relatively untrained ears

 

[wadia-miester]

I would to say a big thanks to Isaac for laying on the event & the refreshemnts most pleasant way of spending an afternoon
Nice part of the country to hang your hat in too plus a distinct lack of helmets, a big bouns that on a long drive
Good to tie up with Dean again, and meet Gazz & Will, some cracking Toones played throughout the afternoon, nice differenices between the stock & modded superdacs, gave Will a chance to hear for himself.
Isaac's room is much more conducusive to producing some nice sounds, now his DOB has settled in, the system is better balanced and more rounded, though I do feel the S300 is biased more towards the mid/upper freq's, something to me which was obvious compared to the last listening session with the system.
A nicely balanced and musicaly communicative system Isaac has managed to put together, a great effort there mate
The Nad responded well to A/C input signal line transfer device changes, giving improved bass depth, better detail, more openiness and drive too.
many thanks for a great afternoon guys cheers Wm

 

[tones]

But why was no music played? :duck:

 

[wadia-miester]

I some cracking Toones were played throughout the afternoon

Must be getting blind as well Tones

 

[tones]

Must be getting blind as well Tones

Nope, key words indicative of musical content, such as "Bach", "Beethoven", "Handel", etc. occur nowhere in the playlist.

 

[The Devil]

Hi-Fi people don't play classical: tends to expose flaws.

 

[tones]

Hi-Fi people don't play classical: tends to expose flaws.

In them or the equipment or both? Or shouldn't I ask?

 

[The Devil]

Both, probably.

The thing is, we can all remember very well what acoustic instruments 'sound like'. With electronic bings 'n' bongs, or electric instruments, it's anyone's guess what they should 'sound like', so much safer.

 

[technobear]

The thing is, we can all remember very well what acoustic instruments 'sound like'. With electronic bings 'n' bongs, or electric instruments, it's anyone's guess what they should 'sound like', so much safer.

Well I'm not familiar with all of the music on that list but I know that this one:

Alice in Chains - Unplugged

doesn't feature any "electronic bings 'n' bongs, or electric instruments"

It's one I often use for checking out my system's performance as it is acoustic, live and a good recording. Contains some great tunes too

 

[I-S]

I can only assume that something is lacking in your lives that means you have nothing but derision and belittlement for other people's enjoyment. Sad.

 

[Paul Ranson]

Howard Tate, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Pixies

Seems like there was some music played. And I don't see Joss Stone or Katie Melua on the list. So that's good.

Paul

 

[penance]

I think they may be confusing electronic music with other modern genre's. Its a problem with excessive age, everything sounds the same!

 

[GAZZ]

Firstly a big thanks to Isaac for picking me up from the train station and dropping me off again. Also thank you to Isaac for this hospitality. Nice to meet new faces, I was the first there and had a good chance to hear Isaacs's system. I thought it was very good if only slightly layed back in the midband, this was remedied I was told by sitting forward in the seat, which cured it. For what Isaac has spent on his system it sounded really good and was money well spent, especially on the Nad s300 and the Meadowlarks. I hope when I have saved up some money I can have a system that sounds this good. Dean came with lots of good music; I didn't know any of the cd's he brought but did like most of them. Will brought his Super dac, which was interesting comparing his to Isaac's. Wm brought a suitcase of cables, which certainly improved things. I heard the most improvement on the power cable to the amp plus speaker cables followed by the power cable to the cd transport. Wm also brought a Wadia 301, I was not impressed at first but on the last cd played the Wadia came good and I was very impressed. It was a good day and I will be going to more if invited.

 

[SCIDB]

Hi,

Thanks to Isaac for another good afternoon. Good to meet again Big Tone. Good to meet some new faces, Gazz & Will.

The cable swapping was interesting. Some of the changes were better than others. It did show that you need to try different cables in your system to see if they do it for you.

The dac changes from Will's to Isaac's did show some very good changes. It shows what can be done with a soldering iron & some bits.

The Wadia was a nice sounding player that I can see a numbwer of people would like.


Hi Will,

I have been djing for 15 years. I have covered many styles in the past. These days it is mainly retro & recent dance, pop, hip hop & RnB. I do dabble in others styles at some other gigs. I have made a name for being a good allrounder.

As for the music, Here are the cds I bought along. No joss Stone this time. (I do think it's a good album). No Katie Muela, I don't own any.

Howard Tate - Rediscovered

Here is a cd by a soul legend. Howard cut an album in the 60s that some regard as the best soul album ever. He cut few singles & another album then dropped off the face of the earth. A dj played one of his records on the radio and asked what happened to Howard. A listener bumped into Howard Tate & this lead to the album being made with his original producer. It's a corking album of fine music with top quality soul/blues singing.

Various - But Officier: Louis Prima - Robin Hood

This a album of 50s Rhythm & Blues that was played by the early sound system operators in Jamaica,. These records helped to lay down the roots of Ska. These sounds were uptempo & good to get your toes tapping. Louis Prima was a big hitter on the RnB/jump blues scene & this number was a good rocking number.

Aretha Franklin - Soul Sister, The Classic Aretha Franklin

This is an album by the Queen of Soul. It is from the days before her killer stuff on Atlantic. Her voice style is slighty different but you can still hear the quality. The material was mainly covers of some soul hits. Good to listen to.

Ray Barretto - Acid/Hard Hands

Here is a two albums on one cd from one of the best bongo players. Latin style jazz & funk. Dynamite stuff. Makes you what to go out and buy some bongos.

Various - Hotel Pelirocco: Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb, Add N Tox - Plug me in, Fox - s-s-single bed

One of my favourites at the moment. A £3 Fopp special. Features a wide & eclectic mix of tunes. The 3 tracks features showed this. The Fox track is from 1977 & sounds fresh as a daisy in a catchy, poppy, quirky way.


There were plenty on real instruments and vocals on offer. I like to bring stuff that people attending may not own or be aware of. Also I hope it entertains. On the whole, cds did.

I don't listen to much classical music and only own a few cds. These are magazine freebies. Most of my classical stuff is on vinyl. You don't need classical music to enjoy your listening. A good system will entertain whatever the style of music on offer. Bake offs have been a good place to hear good & different music. All you need is a open mind.


SCIDB

 

[tones]

A good system will entertain whatever the style of music on offer.

Did you really mean that, Dean? So, there's truth after all in Flanders and Swann's "Song of reproduction":

But I never did care for music much!
It's the hi-fe-del-it-tee!

My jousts at noise, er, rock, like the one above, are merely friendly digs at a style of music that rarely gets a listen in our house, but I'm afraid that the system that could make Led Zeppelin entertaining for me (apart from falling down laughing at the people who have made them wealthy men) has not yet been made.

 

[technobear]

...but I'm afraid that the system that could make Led Zeppelin entertaining for me (apart from falling down laughing at the people who have made them wealthy men) has not yet been made.

You're missing out tones! My system makes Led Zepellin hugely entertaining :boogie:

 

[tones]

Tell you what, TB, next time I'm in the UK, you can have a go at entertaining me! Problem is, that doesn't happen too often these days (it means that I have to rely on kind visitors to Swizzieland to supply me with Cadbury's Fruit & Nut and Twinings Queen Mary).

Do we also get to hear whether Monteverdi's Vespers are entertaining?

 

[technobear]

Tell you what, TB, next time I'm in the UK, you can have a go at entertaining me! Problem is, that doesn't happen too often these days (it means that I have to rely on kind visitors to Swizzieland to supply me with Cadbury's Fruit & Nut and Twinings Queen Mary).

Swiss chocolate is better than Cadbury's

Do we also get to hear whether Monteverdi's Vespers are entertaining?

I'm sure they would be. The system is a pretty good all-rounder.

 

[tones]

Swiss chocolate is better than Cadbury's

Perhaps, but I like Noot and Frut! Bit like hi-fi systems when you think of it - whether something is "better" is entirely according to taste, except Led Zeppelin, which is a bl***y awful noise by definition.