The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Room to arrange and discuss bake-offs
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savvypaul
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by savvypaul »

I really like bake-offs. Always learn something...
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Hemmo1969
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by Hemmo1969 »

savvypaul wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 11:36 am 15 is a guess. A few came and went.

'Our' Hemmo1969 was there...
Will post some musings later

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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by John Rackham »

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:38 pm
John Rackham wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:13 pm [Message intended as reply to Dr Bunsen]

Apologies, I did not mean to cause any offence by stating my own preferences.

It is my opinion and therefore a valid one, that there is little to be learned from another person's view of a system that you are not familiar with, in a room different to your own, and from people who's tastes and preferences are another variable and may or may not be aligned with your own. I could not possibly draw any meaningful conclusion under those circumstances, however I fully understand that others might wish to.


It is the reason that I do not subscribe to hifi magazines or read their reviews, as they are in my view interesting at best, but not particularly useful.
Have you been to a bake-off, if not then this is just your subjective opinion, you need to go to some, they are not as you think. It depends on the gear and the set up, this time around it seems differences were not shown. Last year in the equiv event differences were as clear as a bell for everyone, both in phono stages and turntables - so what happened this year?

The process is *nothing* like magazine reviews, same as a user review is nothing like a magazine review, magazine reviews are bollocks to make money from advertisers and get you buying the mag, that is the only purpose.
Repeated post and my previous has disappeared, anyway I will be brief as I can.

Yes I've been to very many bake offs, probably 10 a year so well over a hundred by now. I tend towards those that are focused on sharing music rather than listening to the kit itself.

Agree magazines are worthless and so are their reviews - the process is different from bake offs but the variables between reviewer and reader remain the same.

I have been fortunate to have enough disposable income to buy what I like pretty much, but I always review at home in one of my own systems. That way I can reach my own conclusion, in the appropriate context, sufficient to be able to make a decision on purchase with confidence, based on my findings rather than someone elses.

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savvypaul
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by savvypaul »

I always review at home in one of my own systems

The only way to reach a confident conclusion. Bake offs can be useful research, though.
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

John Rackham wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:41 pm
Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:38 pm
John Rackham wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:13 pm [Message intended as reply to Dr Bunsen]

Apologies, I did not mean to cause any offence by stating my own preferences.

It is my opinion and therefore a valid one, that there is little to be learned from another person's view of a system that you are not familiar with, in a room different to your own, and from people who's tastes and preferences are another variable and may or may not be aligned with your own. I could not possibly draw any meaningful conclusion under those circumstances, however I fully understand that others might wish to.


It is the reason that I do not subscribe to hifi magazines or read their reviews, as they are in my view interesting at best, but not particularly useful.
Have you been to a bake-off, if not then this is just your subjective opinion, you need to go to some, they are not as you think. It depends on the gear and the set up, this time around it seems differences were not shown. Last year in the equiv event differences were as clear as a bell for everyone, both in phono stages and turntables - so what happened this year?

The process is *nothing* like magazine reviews, same as a user review is nothing like a magazine review, magazine reviews are bollocks to make money from advertisers and get you buying the mag, that is the only purpose.
Repeated post and my previous has disappeared, anyway I will be brief as I can.

Yes I've been to very many bake offs, probably 10 a year so well over a hundred by now. I tend towards those that are focused on sharing music rather than listening to the kit itself.

Agree magazines are worthless and so are their reviews - the process is different from bake offs but the variables between reviewer and reader remain the same.

I have been fortunate to have enough disposable income to buy what I like pretty much, but I always review at home in one of my own systems. That way I can reach my own conclusion, in the appropriate context, sufficient to be able to make a decision on purchase with confidence, based on my findings rather than someone elses.
None of your post have been removed.

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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by John Rackham »

Sorry Dr Bunsen, I did not say that posts had been removed, just that it disappeared so must have been my mistake entirely, so apologies for any offence caused.

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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by Hemmo1969 »

I’ve had problems this afternoon with posting, sure I had and now it’s not there??

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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by Hemmo1969 »

I also attended the Yorkshire HIFI Club on Saturday, a short journey for me over to a sunny Huddersfield. A very nice day it was too, as mentioned before good company, decent banter (thankfully for us no whinging bores talking about dress sense or peoples music taste had turned up)
Big thanks to David who offered his premises and his time to us, also putting on an endless supply of tea/coffee, biscuits and nibbles etc much appreciated.

Savvypaul’s excellent review post goes into detail of the equipment etc. used so I won’t rewrite.

Unlike the absent on the day critics who have been less than positive about music choice I didn’t have any qualms with it, you can listen to the radio and never get a string of tracks that are to your liking so what chance do you have at a bake off. To clear things up, after hearing a few of the ‘reference tracks’ David did actually put in place a ‘pic you own’ LP/tracks. One by one people were picking out a record and we listened to a track or two from the album. People choice on the day was entirely up to them so a broad range of styles could be expected, Rob’s Mark Knoffler / Chet Baker LP was one, Savvy’s ‘Let It Bleed’, David’s New Doug Macleod LP and yes the usual Nils Lofgren LIVE (Which I love, watched him in concert at Harrogate this year – fantastic)

I really don’t mind a couple of the old ‘references’ though? I have the Nils Lofgren Live LP at home so I know it as a marker in the sand as to whether I prefer mine at home etc. In fairness we were listening to reference level turntables and equipment so why wouldn’t you (for at least 2 or 3 tracks) use reference level recordings? Get the best from the best.

As for the Phono comparison, well for me the Vivant was open and airy, had a great sense of attack on the front edge of strings, (Nils Lofgren track) decay was also nice instruments sounded like instruments. The problem I heard was on the Doug Macleod track where much more lower bass came in, when it did it was all over the place, sounded like there was almost too much as though there was an artificial boost on the lower end, didn’t sound coherent at all and put me off.

The Docs Phono 2 with additional power supply was second up and (as mentioned in earlier posts) was neck and neck with the Vivant, both sounding just fine until the bass came in and I thought the NVA Phono handled it much better, not bloated, more timely and fitted together better with the music. On the short time we had listening to each Phonos this was all I could hear to distinguish between them.

Finally on to Nick’s MCj3, this I thought was the complete package, to my ears this really did sing, had something more about it IMO, call it finesse or a richness to the music but strings and vocals appeared to flow better, almost effortless to listen to. Again this was my thoughts in the short time I had listening to this particular Phono stage, I had to leave after the third track being played. That said it interested me enough to possibly try the MCj3 on a home demo sometime in the future.

For transparency I have nothing invested in any of the Phono’s listened to, my current Phono stage is the Cyrus Phono Signature with a Psx-r2 power supply feeding a Rega RP10 turntable.

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David Brook
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by David Brook »

Phono stages IMO

JFet first

NVA/Firebottle tie for 2nd
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Re: The Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

How much is the jfet

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