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Post by dsjr on Feb 24, 2024 17:27:23 GMT
It's twenty two years since I 'did' a Bristol show and that was when I was on the road and on the exhibitor side of the counter. Anyone here going or gone?
Much talk about little on PFM it seems. Rega doing a new £450 MM cartridge and showing a pre and power (what planet are they on - most geeks are downsizing to the PFM-hated far eastern chip amps and dacs that get excellent tech reviews on AoS).
Harbeth have five rooms showing off their rather odd choice DSP actives at mega dosh it seems. Again, it's only a limited market [far east?] that can take piles of boxes in addition to the speakers these days - I have more info here but nobody here will be interested... Neumann and Genelec are the leading lights in speakers like this, but they're not really interested in courting domestic sales it seems.
A main point of discussion seems to be English Audio which appears to do refurbs on old knackered Leak valve amps for a pretty penny. These are funky things when working but hardly high in fidelity today frankly, as they're so damned limited as is the Croft-rebuilt Quad II pair I'm custodian of. Only thing that interested me (i 'did' restored Stereo 20's thirty years ago...) was a Gyrodek in similar colours to the amp paint...
Oh and talking of the Gyrodek, Michel is apparently now distributed by PMC and prices have reportedly all but doubled I'm told.
PMC are now doing active panels to fit their 20 and 25 range. No idea if the severe response errors these models generally exhibit have been corrected though and no idea of prices as I'm not really that interested. Could be that finally, the elderly mainstream that buys their products these days are becoming aware of the advantages of active... It'll need B&W to do this too before the entire old-school separates market begins to change! Even my local Naim/Kudos/Accuphase audio salon is finally stocking Dynaudio Focus wireless actives...
P.S. Harbeth NLE3 (Nellie 3) and yes you've seen it right, Quad VALVE amps driving them in active form (model II 80s)
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Post by André on Feb 24, 2024 22:18:06 GMT
You mean ENGLISH ACOUSTICS with the LEAK amps. Wonderful they are. LEAK 'STEREO 20' i had that i did a full RATA rebuild on with all ANSAR caps was one of the best power amps id ever had.
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Post by Westie on Feb 25, 2024 1:35:32 GMT
The Bristol show is far too difficult for me to get to. I’m also not really going anywhere I don’t have to since Covid. The only show I ever attended was the Heathrow Penta Show. I’m glad I did that, but the stuff around today just doesn’t interest me. In fact, if I won a lottery Jackpot tomorrow, I wouldn’t buy any bit of kit made in the current century
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Post by André on Feb 25, 2024 2:33:39 GMT
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Post by dsjr on Feb 25, 2024 9:38:31 GMT
Eye Fi for retro tastes and dare I say it, increasingly elderly people as I doubt peeps our kids age would be interested. Sorry Andr'e, I've left that all behind and don't have the money either for such nonsense. Now Glenn Croft's gone, not sure how many honest people there are who could properly restore an original either. Mind you, Radford's are still being recreated and Quad still do theirs now promoted by effin' Harbeth of all people, so all's well in th ehighly lucrative and profit laden far eastern markets which lap this kind of thing up... Me? I reckon one of the latest sub £200 chip amps (Fosi and so on) wouldn't sound any worse if you didn't know what was playing and they'd last around the same amount of time before the valve amp ran its output valves down
P.S. I've just seen the price - you lot is 'avin' a laff at my expense FFS - £7700 for one of the amp models?
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Post by André on Feb 25, 2024 11:42:42 GMT
Do you honestly think Vintage heads buy Hi-Fi for sound Quality? I dont anyway keep saying im done with Hi-Fi years ago regarding sound. you honestly think id be buying 1972 AGFA Cassette tapes for SQ reasons
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Post by dsjr on Feb 25, 2024 12:03:29 GMT
Do you honestly think Vintage heads buy Hi-Fi for sound Quality? I dont anyway keep saying im done with Hi-Fi years ago regarding sound. you honestly think id be buying 1972 AGFA Cassette tapes for SQ reasons Weeeeeeellllllllllll
Reel to reel possibly especially the BASF ones perhaps
Oh believe me, far eastern vintage heads DO buy old stuff original or re-imagined for the perceived sound quality. High price tags are the high end icing on the cake methinks.
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Post by Westie on Feb 25, 2024 13:21:54 GMT
Yeah, the word “imagined” is the most important part of that. The folk in the Far East pay like £1500-£2000 for LS3/5As that are long past their sell by date and look really old-fashioned. The crossovers can’t still be operating to spec after all these years. Even if they were, we’re taking about a B110 and T27 in a tiny box. Is it really conceivable that LS3/5as are somehow orders of magnitude better than all the other old speakers that used these units and are worth a tiny fraction of the price LS3/5As sell for? It’s all about the “sheep factor” again. Same goes with the price that they pay for Naits, although they do at least look cool.
Most of hifi is ego and caring what others think. The majority of us actually see through it eventually, but some carry it to their graves.
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Post by André on Feb 25, 2024 13:56:59 GMT
My AUDIOMASTER 'LS3/5a' are in Singapore & i had a South Korean student that was at Sheffield University came to buy my QUAD '33'/'303' & my old ROGERS 'CADET III' was sent to Hong Kong. I was not happy about them going out there but hey ho.
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Post by dsjr on Feb 25, 2024 23:12:20 GMT
The 33/303 can easily live again in a well chosen smaller system but I disliked the LS3/5A back in '75 and positively loathe them today, quacky screechy things! My local audio salon thinks they're 'detailed' so it must be me then.
My current taste in small box possibilities are a second hand set of Beolab 4000 active 'lozenges' or maybe subject to a listen, Kali Audio actives which seem well sorted now and maybe less 'intense' up top than JBL 306's or whatever. I'm so far out of the loop now it's only guess-work.
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Post by André on Feb 25, 2024 23:20:26 GMT
Tiny speakers will always be popular anyway. The 'Q33'/'FM3'/'303' is iconic anyway & will always be a talking point in a living room. They will sell all day everyday & i still think they can be picked up for reasonable price, more than i can say for other stuff. The high price in no way reflect on ultimate sound quality cos that is not what it's about.
Never liked the 'T27' nor that Bextrene 'B110'. Im lucky i have the paper coned 'B200'
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Post by classicrock on Feb 26, 2024 15:20:52 GMT
It's twenty two years since I 'did' a Bristol show and that was when I was on the road and on the exhibitor side of the counter. Anyone here going or gone? Much talk about little on PFM it seems. Rega doing a new £450 MM cartridge and showing a pre and power (what planet are they on - most geeks are downsizing to the PFM-hated far eastern chip amps and dacs that get excellent tech reviews on AoS). Harbeth have five rooms showing off their rather odd choice DSP actives at mega dosh it seems. Again, it's only a limited market [far east?] that can take piles of boxes in addition to the speakers these days - I have more info here but nobody here will be interested... Neumann and Genelec are the leading lights in speakers like this, but they're not really interested in courting domestic sales it seems.
A main point of discussion seems to be English Audio which appears to do refurbs on old knackered Leak valve amps for a pretty penny. These are funky things when working but hardly high in fidelity today frankly, as they're so damned limited as is the Croft-rebuilt Quad II pair I'm custodian of. Only thing that interested me (i 'did' restored Stereo 20's thirty years ago...) was a Gyrodek in similar colours to the amp paint... Oh and talking of the Gyrodek, Michel is apparently now distributed by PMC and prices have reportedly all but doubled I'm told. PMC are now doing active panels to fit their 20 and 25 range. No idea if the severe response errors these models generally exhibit have been corrected though and no idea of prices as I'm not really that interested. Could be that finally, the elderly mainstream that buys their products these days are becoming aware of the advantages of active... It'll need B&W to do this too before the entire old-school separates market begins to change! Even my local Naim/Kudos/Accuphase audio salon is finally stocking Dynaudio Focus wireless actives... P.S. Harbeth NLE3 (Nellie 3) and yes you've seen it right, Quad VALVE amps driving them in active form (model II 80s)
I spoke to the English Audio guys at the show. The Leak clones are new from ground up with superior components. I don't see how they can justify the £6K asking price however. They sound nice enough and they made a big pair of B&Ws sound decent (might be due to rolled off top end). £450 high end MM cartridges have been around for years now. Maybe this will at least sound decent. The Rega room was too crowded to get a proper listen to their new speakers which seem to be reasonably priced. Too many mega priced products however. Tannoy new models seem to have increased in price by several thousand pounds (again) and they are not UK made any more. The best sound I heard was from ATC. Their big ATC SCM50 special version are expensive but sound great. Also the Pearl Acoustics single driver speakers impressed more than Tannoy or Fyne on the day. By today's standards they are actually reasonable value for around £5K. They are doing a new all UK built valve amp for around £8K. Probably worth the outlay if you can afford it. A lack of standout affordable gear however. IAG were playing the new Super Denton but demo was plagued by issues with the amp cutting out. Does not say much for Audiolab QC? Oh Harbeth had their new non BBC inspired speakers. Didn't catch the price.
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Post by classicrock on Feb 26, 2024 15:28:55 GMT
Do you honestly think Vintage heads buy Hi-Fi for sound Quality? I dont anyway keep saying im done with Hi-Fi years ago regarding sound. you honestly think id be buying 1972 AGFA Cassette tapes for SQ reasons Possibly yes because there are no decent cassette tapes in production today if you are into the format. I must say now cars don't have cassette players there isn't a lot of practical use. I have 3 unused cassette decks BTW.
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Post by dsjr on Feb 26, 2024 16:59:31 GMT
It's twenty two years since I 'did' a Bristol show and that was when I was on the road and on the exhibitor side of the counter. Anyone here going or gone? Much talk about little on PFM it seems. Rega doing a new £450 MM cartridge and showing a pre and power (what planet are they on - most geeks are downsizing to the PFM-hated far eastern chip amps and dacs that get excellent tech reviews on AoS). Harbeth have five rooms showing off their rather odd choice DSP actives at mega dosh it seems. Again, it's only a limited market [far east?] that can take piles of boxes in addition to the speakers these days - I have more info here but nobody here will be interested... Neumann and Genelec are the leading lights in speakers like this, but they're not really interested in courting domestic sales it seems.
A main point of discussion seems to be English Audio which appears to do refurbs on old knackered Leak valve amps for a pretty penny. These are funky things when working but hardly high in fidelity today frankly, as they're so damned limited as is the Croft-rebuilt Quad II pair I'm custodian of. Only thing that interested me (i 'did' restored Stereo 20's thirty years ago...) was a Gyrodek in similar colours to the amp paint... Oh and talking of the Gyrodek, Michel is apparently now distributed by PMC and prices have reportedly all but doubled I'm told. PMC are now doing active panels to fit their 20 and 25 range. No idea if the severe response errors these models generally exhibit have been corrected though and no idea of prices as I'm not really that interested. Could be that finally, the elderly mainstream that buys their products these days are becoming aware of the advantages of active... It'll need B&W to do this too before the entire old-school separates market begins to change! Even my local Naim/Kudos/Accuphase audio salon is finally stocking Dynaudio Focus wireless actives... P.S. Harbeth NLE3 (Nellie 3) and yes you've seen it right, Quad VALVE amps driving them in active form (model II 80s)
I spoke to the English Audio guys at the show. The Leak clones are new from ground up with superior components. I don't see how they can justify the £6K asking price however. They sound nice enough and they made a big pair of B&Ws sound decent (might be due to rolled off top end). £450 high end MM cartridges have been around for years now. Maybe this will at least sound decent. The Rega room was too crowded to get a proper listen to their new speakers which seem to be reasonably priced. Too many mega priced products however. Tannoy new models seem to have increased in price by several thousand pounds (again) and they are not UK made any more. The best sound I heard was from ATC. Their big ATC SCM50 special version are expensive but sound great. Also the Pearl Acoustics single driver speakers impressed more than Tannoy or Fyne on the day. By today's standards they are actually reasonable value for around £5K. They are doing a new all UK built valve amp for around £8K. Probably worth the outlay if you can afford it. A lack of standout affordable gear however. IAG were playing the new Super Denton but demo was plagued by issues with the amp cutting out. Does not say much for Audiolab QC? Oh Harbeth had their new non BBC inspired speakers. Didn't catch the price. Harbeth haven't finalised prices of their Nellie range, but think of a few grand, double it or more and add VAT and it may get you near there.... Well out of my league as are ATC's now. I still revere the ATC 100A but pushing twenty grand for the stand mounted veneered version is daft I feel...
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Post by André on Feb 26, 2024 17:16:08 GMT
Do you honestly think Vintage heads buy Hi-Fi for sound Quality? I dont anyway keep saying im done with Hi-Fi years ago regarding sound. you honestly think id be buying 1972 AGFA Cassette tapes for SQ reasons Possibly yes because there are no decent cassette tapes in production today if you are into the format. I must say now cars don't have cassette players there isn't a lot of practical use. I have 3 unused cassette decks BTW. Yeah obviously but if i was wanting SQ id buy old TDK 'SA' or 'SA-X'
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