A Saturday afternoon of music and hifi daftness.

[Progmeister]

Had a great afternoon mixing it up with fellow Subjectivist hifi nut and more importantly music lover Richie yesterday, A full Saturday afternoon of great music and tinkering. Having said that, It's going to cost me a fortune because Richie brought with him some great CD's and LP's which i am going to have to track down. Not least was an album by Younger Brother called Vaccine, brilliant. The highlight of the afternoon for me though was listening to Elbow live at Jodrell Bank. That's already been ordered. We spent the afternoon swapping things in and out and i was pleased that Richie brought along his Techie with upgraded power supply as i am in the middle of such a project with mine. We slotted my old Ruark Crusader III's in for a while Just for a bit of fun. I still love the Ruark sound and they didn't disappoint even though they didn't have the huge soundstage of the big Tannoy's. The biggest surprise is when we swapped speaker cables. Swapping my Witch Hat audio cable for Mark Grant's new hi fi cable filled out the sound and brought some warmth to the party. This was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day and i may just have a punt.
A big thanks to Richie for an entertaining afternoon and for being kind enough to bring some great bits of kit with him to play with.

[Shevans]

Which Mark Grant speaker cable?

PS loved my A40's when I had a pair.

[Progmeister]

Model: Van Damme 268-506-000-bananas

Which Mark Grant speaker cable?

PS loved my A40's when I had a pair.

[terrybooth]

Indeed, the right speaker cable with the right amplifier is probably better value than an amp upgrade by itself.

(Speaker Cable history with NVA amps: LS2, LS5, LS6, LS7)

[Shevans]

268-506-000

Not tried that version, I am using a pair of VD Blue 4mm and very happy with them.

http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index ... cts_id=399

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Until I am *finally* listened to and NVA designed NVA cable i.e. LS1 to 6 are used, (but in reality to match the system LS3 upward) you really haven't a clue what the amps are capable of. At the moment they are being used out of context.

[brit-pop]

Until I am *finally* listened to and NVA designed NVA cable i.e. LS1 to 6 are used, (but in reality to match the system LS3 upward) you really haven't a clue what the amps are capable of. At the moment they are being used out of context.

Richard you've got the wrong end of the stick mate, we're primarily noting the effect of the vandamme cable with Steve's Avondale kit. Wouldn't doubt that NVA cable gives best results with NVA amps. I took the A40s along to show Steve something I think is special, out of context or not Steve enjoyed hearing them and they were not out of place in system at all.

Here's a copy of a post I made over on AoS.... I hope you'll find it more than fair

very enjoyable afternoon had catching up with Steve outside of our normal NEBO meets.

As well as catching up with Steve I was dead keen to hear his Avondale voyager monoblocks and preamp built especially for him by the most affable Mr Les Wolstenholme himself. They certainly didn't disappoint and delivered all the verve and musical excitement I've come to associate with Les's work. Having heard AlanT's voyagers at the last NEBO it was interesting to see how Les's implementation of the design worked. Given it was a while ago since I heard Alan's I am going off memory but Steve's amps had more 'edge' and seemed to voiced to be more exciting. Loads of power and ruthless insight but at the beginning the sound was a little hard for my tastes. The cable was definitely playing a role here... more on this in a bit.

To start with we enjoyed some Thomas Dolby playing via Steve's Lenco into his VTL phono stage. Steve describes this as a big American type of sound and I wouldn't fault that. I really enjoyed hearing this phono stage it's really something special but I preferred it's MM presentation than the MC after we'd opened the case and changed a couple of loading settings. For me it seemed more balanced with MM than MC and partnered well with my Technics which has eally starting to come on song now. My AT440mla cart has broken in now and I was more than happy with how it sounded via the VTL.

Time to try some other cables though, Steve had been using some Witchhat Audio cables with his voyagers to his speakers. To be honest I'm not a fan of these, they seemed to deliver loads of headroom and ultra high sparkle to the system but switching to the pair of Vandamme HiFi cables that Qwin had kindly loaned me at our last meet made a huge improvement for me. The soundstage seemed not as big but overall more balanced much sweeter in the treble and upper mids. If I were Steve I think I'd be flogging the Witchhat stuff and buying some of these. They made the the system less edgy and chilled things out a bit which is really a matter of taste I guess.

We enjoyed some CDs by Younger Brother - Vaccine, King Crimson - Discipline, and Fleet Foxes. The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in Amercia is great test CD for me. They're a band who play live and record with an 'everything on' kind of sound reminiscent of the E Street Band at their best but with a punky vocal and attitude. I love this band and as the music is so busy it can easily wrongfoot a less able system I find. Pleased to say Steve's system passed this test for me and produced it warts and all despite their noisy production values.

Then onto some more vinyl, we had some of Beck's wonderful Morning Phase album which is quite lo-fi and a bit squashed sounding anyway. The system brought out the ethereal vocals and subtle banjo and mandolin tracks which sit quite far back in the mix and put them centre stage. Nice!

Steve then let his Lenco rip with some Propellerheads and Goldfrapp via the Firebottle phono stage. The propellerheads track had the sofa shaking with the bass, Steve must have some very understanding neighbours The Goldfrapp, whilst never one of my favourite artists was big highlight for me. Luscious vocals and moody backing tracks coming across well.

I'd brought along my little NVA A40mk2 monoblocks to see how they held up against against the mighty voyagers and they certainly didn't disappoint. For me they were clear and open sounding, if not as 'exciting' as the Avondales they were very musical indeed and both Steve and I described them as honest sounding. They more than held their own and partnered beautifully with the Avondale preamp. It will be interesting to create this setup again at a future NEBO and get Les's take on this pairing. I'm sure the owner of NVA would prefer his own designed passive with these but there was something special in this match, indeed I'd go as far as saying I'd happily live with this combination with a Firebottle handling vinyl duties.

To finish the day we brought out Steve's Ruarks, much beloved of the NEBO faithfull, to hear them with this pairing. Also excellent if nowhere near the the scale of the big Tannoys, and we enjoyed some of Elbow's live at Jodrell Bank and some live Pink Floyd. I did say to Steve that if I were him I'd probably only ever listen to live material on his system, such is the concert scale it provides...

A real treat to hear the Firebottle2 phono stage also, a smashing bit of kit which gave all the gain and tube warmth I like in my vinyl sound but did it's job and shone in particular through the NVA and Avondale combo.

So much more I could say but I'd be rambling and my thumbs are tiring from writing this on a tablet so I'll quit now. All that remains is to thank Steve again for the hospitality, the excellent leaf tea (builder's strength) and biccies. Look forward to having you at my place to hear my kit in situ when I have my RPi and Dac running by then.

Roll on NEBO6!

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

FFS this is a mongrel system, it is not NVA. A Firebottle (what ever that is when it is at home) is not a NVA Phono stage, the speaker cable is all wrong, an active pre-amp which will work now with mk2 amps but was not what the power amp was designed for. As I keep saying until the fecking around stops and you actually listen to a NVA system you haven't a clue what it is capable of.

If you want to feck around and mix and match then my advice is sell the NVAs.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Clarification - obviously you can do what you like, you bought it. What I am talking about and sort of objecting to is the amp being defined by being used in a mongrel non NVA system. You may like it but there are so many EEEEEEEEdiots on the forums who will take what you say as definitive. If you are going to publish information about NVA then the least you can do is listen to it the way it was designed to be. If you prefer any other way then you have made that decision from knowledge not conjecture and ignorance. That is why we give a 30 day (more if needed, but you have to put a time in the listing) for you to decide and if unhappy get your money back. For example what the ferk is a Firebottle, I have NEVER heard an outboard phono stage outperform a NVA especially the Phono 2, and I am willing to bet you anything you want that this one wont either (used with the designed pre-amp).

NVA is not a mix and match product, it is a design based on a philosophy and a synergy, and if that synergy is broken you are working with pot luck.

[brit-pop]

A mongrel system! You have a way with words don't you

To coin a phrase 'FFS' Richard, whoever said this was an NVA system or bake off?

Here's the story put in terms I hope you'll get...

Bloke takes amps to another blokes house, blokes listen to each others amps. Both blokes liked both amps with a variety of music and sources and found things to like. That's the story really.

You're always going on about people talking crap about NVA and not mentioning it on various forums. Fact is that people do want to hear NVA amps and when they do they like them but you don't make it easy on us who'd like to show and share our experiences of NVA kit with others.

Tell you what, how about I just don't bother and you can go back to the default setting that nobody talks anything good about NVA. I give up....