MC Phono Stage Bake-off

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Bit more than an arse. I am not going anywhere, I am still running a temperature.

[SteveTheShadow]

I would have loved to have gone, but can't make it sadly.
I'm no longer a member of AT but sincerely hope to keep in touch with some of the guys on there, who I've been my friends for ten years. Whether that'll be possible?... I hope so.
I do hope that some pics and commentary get posted... somewhere anyway.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well Greg tried to get me to leave - failed, tried to get you to leave - succeeded, but not enough for him so tried to get Nick to leave - sort of succeeded but Nick banned him, now we just have to pursued Nick to stay as owner of the forum.

[Thermionic Idler]

Will anyone from here be there? Greg made an arse of himself over the Docs absence and got the red card.

I'm heading out there in about half an hour or so, just need to shower and grab the Whest off the rack.

[wiicrackpot]

Enjoy Thermo, even if it ends 3,4,5 attendees, there' still some good stages there to discover,
have your camera phone ready.

It's a shame how the meet arrangements has descended, think someone posted earlier on thread,
''at the end of the day, it's folks sitting down and listening to music, whats not to like?'' or something to that effect.

[antonio66]

Enjoy the day Thermionic, sadly I can't be there but hope you post the general feelings of the stages under demo.

[Classicrock]

So no NVA at the bake off?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

No, I am ill I couldn't drive for 8 hours today.

[Thermionic Idler]

Hi all - well I for one had a great time, definitely a worthwhile day out. Any excuse to sit around listening to music. It's quite late so just some initial thoughts (also posted at AT):

So the phonostages we had were as follows:

1) Furutech GT40A
2) Steve Shiel's EAR834P plus vintage Kiseki (?) SUT
3) Alan's Firebottle KIN
4) My Whest PS30-RDT
5) Nick's Music First Audio Reference

The frond end was provided by Northwest Analogue - Garrard 401 with Dominic's cartridge and I think it was an "Audiomods" arm? Had a rather wonderful VTA adjuster on I have to say. Oh there was also an Alberry stage but it didn't work, possibly cos the batteries had gone flat.

So how did they all sound? Well, each one turned in a really excellent performance to these ears, but there were no huge revelations and no giants were killed - to me, the difference between each one pretty accurately reflected their various price points (the above is price low - high) with each representing good value. As you went further up the price range, the more the stages seemed to 'get out of the way' and let the music through, with Nick's reference stage being exquisite as you'd expect.

Actually the biggest surprise to me today was the EAR834P with the Kiseki SUT - I had an EAR834P years ago and always thought it sounded dull and sludgy - this one, although still coloured in its presentation, definitely wasn't, I actually really liked the sound of it. Steve has put vintage Telefunken valves in it, those and the Kiseki SUT just seemed to really wake it up. And yeah, I'm no lover of SUT's either as some here will know.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Where abouts are you?