NVA bake-off

[zebbo]

its a bloody shame there's nothing nearer london going on,im itching to hear a phono 2,it seems all the good stuff happens 300 odd miles away

Check out my sig, I'm not 300 miles away.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Slinger is not that far.

[Neilwootton]

One of the biggest surprises of the bake off was the comparison between an Avid Pulsus phono stage a friend of mine recently acquired, I knew it was coming and having warmed up and listened to the phono 2 for a week was keen to compare them. At £1300 the Avid has won superb reviews and is a well made bit of kit although not as stylish as the NVA in my eyes. A thorough A/B was performed and what struck everyone first was how low the Phono 2's noise floor is, not an easy task with a 0.4mv cartridge, a real blackness from which music emanates, the Avid was alot busier in this respect. Through the Living Voice both phono's presented air and attack in spades with the NVA leading (majority opinion) the way. It was most obvious on Nick Drake's pink moon with his guitar just sounding shockingly "real" through the phono 2. It was agreed by everyone the phono 2 was just the best phono used on the day regardless of cost etc.
Neil.

[Neilwootton]

I'm going to buy a phono 1mc Doc for now until I upgrade my A20. I've packed up the phono 2 and will return it with the other items coming tomorrow.
Thanks,
Neil.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

No problems, thank you for your efforts. I have supported it and want you to extend it with the new stuff. As this is almost exactly what I want from a Bake-off, the chance to expose nva to people who have never heard of it. It is changing but it still blocks you off from the market not to have retailers or magazine support (they go hand in hand because of advertising revenue). It would have been nice if the other attendees had written reports for us, do none of them use forums.

What has also been good is it happened at the same time as a bad nva review. I have been waiting for one as it is bound to happen at some point. I get some items returned on the 30 day, I would say about one in fifteen so they would get me bad reviews, but none are forum members that I know of. To be honest my reviews room was getting a bit embarrassing because I said at the beginning I would publish good and bad, and there were no bad, it was starting to look suspicious. So even the bad review has served its purpose to show we are not all the same. I think it is due to lifestyle v nobbly old hobbyist, and as I said I think the AVi is a good product that serves *a* market. As with Lyndsay my only problem is the on-line performance of Ash and JC, which makes us take the piss out of them about it.

[_D_S_J_R_]

Ash has now stated online quite categorically that he is NOW fully retired from AVI as he can be without leaving the area, so I know there'll be perpetual association of himself with the brand, but he's definitely no longer there day-to-day.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It wont stop the bullshit, it is ingrained in his persona. It would be like trying to take away the smut from Marco's persona.

We all have it, for me it is impossible to stop me charging at windmills

[Neilwootton]

Just received the 3 boxes of NVA loan items.
Have these come direct from Darius to me ?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Yes.

[Neilwootton]

I'll email you direct Doc.