PEBO (aka Pelaw Bake Off aka mini NEBO 5.1)

[_D_S_J_R_]

Yeah, 440MLa will take off a bit with grotty vinyl. I think these track at less than 1.5g too - my AT120E offers perfect stable tracing/tracking at 1.4g. The stock Techie shell (with better/posher wires) may offer a mass/stability advantage too. Apologies, 'turntable consultant' coming out again..

Enjoy tonight :D

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Nice cup of Yorkshire tea then a report and pics please.

[brit-pop]

As promised chaps here's a write up and some pics from last night... Posted here first as I know Richard will be particularly keen to know how the A40s and LS5 performed on the night. Overall, a great little get together with a few of the North East clan and a couple of new faces too. Sadly some car trouble on the way down meant that the Scottish Mafia who were due to attend ended up being towed back to Jockland with their kit and I was absolutely gutted for them having made such an effort to come and bring their kit only to be thwarted at the last hurdle. This threw a bit of a spanner in the works as we were really looking forward to hearing the kit they were due to bring, Edingdale speakers, Firebottle phono stage and OTL amps. As such we had to improvise a bit and make do with the kit we'd brought already which saw my amps and speakers being used for much of the night.

Arriving at 5pm and not yet realising the trouble our Scots pals were having onroute we set up an inital system in the narrow end of the room with the intention of leaving the larger end of the room clear for them and their large speakers.










This system comprised my Rega RS5 speakers, NVA A40 monoblocks, Icon Audio passive pre, Technics SL1210, Croft Micro Basic Phono and NVA cables. Additional sources came in the form of Alan's Musical Fidelity CD Player and Graeme's Rega RP6. Alan also provided a mains conditioning block and some DIY main's cables which we ran everything but the amps through. From the off with the CD player this made a wonderful sound in that corner of the room, just right for the space and the pillar you may see in the pics didn't have much of an effect at all on the soundstage. We enjoyed some WT Feaster blues on CD and some ZZ Top on the Technics to get us going. All agreed this was sounding fine. Graeme was keen to see how his RP6 with an Ortofon 2M Blue fared against the modified Techie and Alan provided an excellent Carole Kidd LP on the Linn Jazz label to allow us to undertake the comparison as we listened to a side on each deck using the Croft (with upgraded valves) as the phono stage. The Technics had it for me with the Rega sounding like it was struggling a bit with some of the dynamics in the recording. We thought this was as much down to the choice of cartridge as much as anything and having heard the Rega deck in a full Rega system I'd say synergy also had a part to play here. The Techie and Croft had it, the Rega didn't in this system.

It was at this point that I got a call from Don McCorleone to say it was unlikely they were going to make it with the ongoing car trouble and we resolved to make the best of it and gradually migrated to the wider end of the room where Progmeister Steve had set up a reserve pair speakers, Mission 752 and vintage valve man Mick had set up his Vertik monoblocks (10w I think), a cheap and very cheerful Yaqin integrated with RIAA stage (think he said cost £90 ) and Promethius TVC with Steve's Tascam R2R as a source. We enjoyed a diverse mix of music Steve had recorded from his vinyl collection for the session via this source which featured everything from The Who to New Order and some hugely entertaining politically incorrect folk music Steve will need to remind me what this was as it made me chuckle.





Sadly the background noise increased a bit in the venue as Friday night punters began to arrive regarded us as if Martians had arrived in the club and seemed disappointed the bingo wasn't getting called... (Note to self, print out some 'Private Function' notices for any future events to keep the buggers away ). Anyway with the noise increasing it became apparent the valve setup was running out of steam when turning the wick up a bit so we brought the NVA amps up to this end of the room, with some more power to our elbows we were able to get on with the session. As a side note we found again the Croft as a pre into Mick's valve amps was way too loud, obviously this isn't really an issue for me as I use it as phono stage only into a passive which gives lots of attenuation. I can't imagine which power amps would suit the Croft as a pre with this much gain. Unfortunately with our Scots pals now headed back in the opposite direction it was the only phono stage on offer as Steve had forgot to bring his Phono2 with him so we never got to hear it. Having put the passive back into the loop we had a bit more vinyl going via the two turntables on offer, Genesis and the excellent My Baby (a Dutch Gospel/Blues 3 piece I've recently become obsessed with).





Then onto some digital jiggery pokery with Gordon's Benchmark DAC/Pre feeding the NVA amps and Alan's Musical Fidelity CD player providing the 1s and 0s. This made for a lovely sound and with the system firing on all cylinders now really dug deep into Jeff Beck's live guitar, found the gravel at the bottom of Joe Cocker's voice and all the air in an excellent Devin Townsend close miked acoustic recording. I cant remember what the latter album was but this made for a outstanding sound with bags of musical involvement. The amps never once lost their grip with anything we threw at them and it was remarks were made as to how fast and agile they were, staying on top of every note.



Finally we rounded off the night with a 'cheap as chips' moment as I connected up my laptop to a very inexpensive USB DAC (40quid) and filled the room with some Peter Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra and a bit of primal scream. Time was getting on now and just before last orders we began packing up and gave the room back to the bemused punters. Rather encouragingly a random punter came into the room and stood transfixed at the back for a while before saying he'd never heard anything which sounded like it... I think we made his night lol.

So, a massive thanks to all who were able to make it and whilst we missed our Scots brethren enormously we made do with what we had and all had an enjoyable night I hope. Here's a pic of some of the gang from earlier in the evening.



Roll on NEBO 6!

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Ta!

You should have locked the doors, bloody cricketers

From what I could read there only MM carts available so Progs Phono2 is set for MC, so would have been redundant anyway.

Loved to see the Tascam as I was product manager for them and TEAC back in the mid to late 70's. Lovely things, slight character due to head design which was true of all TEAC/Tascam decks which tended to make them a bit valvey, so not as accurate as the Revox/Studer heads, but very musical. I wish I had room and time for one, but unless you need it for recording they are a real faff. But just as an Hi-Fi nutcase ornament they are great.

[_D_S_J_R_]

When using the Croft as a phono stage, did you use the Tape outs?

The input sensitivity of power amps has changed over the years and matching is all over the shop. Amps I have that are supposedly lower sensitivity than NVA, still work just fine with a passive preamp and 1m of interconnect for example, the only difference being 10 degrees or so on the volume control!

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

That is all the difference there should be. The worry is not that, it is the clip point for people who want to use hi-fi amps for home PA or disco volume levels. With a passive an NVA amp will cope with the mild clipping at pretty much full volume, with an active preamp the amp will overheat and fry.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

OK you lot, look at how much fun this is, organise one and you too can get a room full of fat middle aged men drinking beer

But seeing as most of us are fat middle aged or old git men, what the hell.

Selby - can you see any of them kicking off, the local casualty would run out of defibrillators

[Progmeister]

Then we would have to defibrillate them!

[jammy395]

Ta for the pics & report BP, its a pity about the car breaking down right enough.
Looked to be a bloody good evenings entertainment.
Beer n Music.

[selby]

OK you lot, look at how much fun this is, organise one and you too can get a room full of fat middle aged men drinking beer

But seeing as most of us are fat middle aged or old git men, what the hell.

Selby - can you see any of them kicking off, the local casualty would run out of defibrillators

I bet if that plonker Marco was there it would have...