The problem with you lot is you are listening to the music and not the gear! As another year drew to a close, it was time once again for the DIY extravaganza.
You know, that general meeting where the handyman types
bring along the finished at two in the morning projects and Dr. Death is
waiting to spring out on the careless members who poke around where fingers
don’t belong. The proud creators stand at the front of the Willis room
patiently explaining what they have accomplished only to have the smoke
pour out, or too much/little treble/bass, or no dynamics, or anything else us
critical audiophiles can complain about. Well, I am happy to report that
this year, we actually had musical sounds playing for most of the program.
First up was Chris Mogford demonstrating a pair of three way speakers
consisting of Vifa mids and tweeters and Seas woofers. This is a further
iteration of the design he demoed a few years ago. He was powering them
with a QUAD 405 clone, a six-channel volume control, and a universal disc
player. In went the first disc, and only one channel played. Chris powered
down and furiously looked for the problem. After a few false starts, Wally
decided to move along with the program.
While Chris was troubleshooting, Ron Newbound introduced his latest
creation. Ron explained that he was looking for an audiophile compromise
in this speaker, good at everything, but excelling only at delivering music.
Nicknamed the Blackburn, it features Vifa/Peerless drivers in a floor standing
folded, tapered quarter wave pipe. Nice looking and nice sounding.
Next up was a pair of two way bass reflex speakers created by Tony
Pickup. Tony chose to use Focal Kevlar drivers in a small box with a minimal
front baffle and non-parallel sides. These were well received; the members
gave them a round of applause.
Jeff Mai played a Pioneer CD player modified with the Elso Kwak DAC
clock. As with all of the other demo’s, a very musical sound. Too bad we
couldn’t have a comparison with an unmodded player.
Chris finally got everything sorted out and after deafening us with a high
frequency blast, treated us to some fine sounds. Different than all of the
others, but enjoyable nevertheless.
Last up was Paul Yates and his complete DIY system consisting of CD
transport, DAC, preamp, amp and large planar speakers. As Paul stated, he
was looking for a synergy in his system and designed it to work as a whole
(a comprehensive report by Paul on his system is printed further on in this
MAN.--ED.). All electronics are balanced and the planars consist of
Maggie Tympani panels and ribbon tweeters. Anyone who thinks that planar
systems can’t rock, well those blues numbers they played certainly didn’t
sound bad!
Andrew Yee
| November 2003 |
|
Newmarket Records |
Gerry Koster from Newmarket Records provided an excellent musical evening
at the November Monthly Meeting. He was to bring some state-ofthe-
art equipment, including a pair of reference monitor speakers but Murphy
reared his ugly head and they did not arrive. Wally, as usual, filled in
with a good quality CD player and integrated amplifier with a pair of not
quite floor standing speakers employing SEAS drivers. It didn’t really matter
as this was designed as a music evening.
Newmarket is a subsidiary of DEX Electronics who have built a solid reputation
over 25 years for their high quality recordings from a well appointed
studio, originally in Spencer Street but now located in McCauley Rd., Ne wmarket.
DEX even own their own CD pressing plant.
Last time Gerry was with us (two years + ago) most of his material was
jazz and most recorded here in Melbourne. He even had two excellent sample
CDs featuring part of the Newmarket catalogue. Over the last few years
Newmarket have diversified, importing a range of top European labels.
Most of the program this time was of the World Music genre with a little
jazz and fewer classical offerings.
There was no shortage of interest from the assembled members. The first
track played was from a Swiss group called The World Quartet. VERY
different. This set the stage for what was a really eclectic evening of music.
Newmarket is very much a one-man-band and Gerry had a great handle on
the type of material he presented. At supper time he was besieged by
members clamoring to buy merchandise and everyone who bought something
was given a sampler CD from Enja records. In fact, he ran out of
many titles before everyone was satisfied.
Another wonderful evening of memorable music and I feel Gerry will be
welcomed back to a Monthly Meeting sometime in the future.
Bob Toll
| October 2003 |
|
MAC SACD Night |
Last month saw our second Annual Members request night, where members
brought along CD's of their choice. The intention was to give us a
night with the emphasis on Music, rather than equipment.
However, when Wally was able to obtain the loan of a Marantz SA-8260 SACD
player (retail $1999), the Committee decided to take advantage of a golden opportunity
to let members hear genuine SACD, albeit 2 channel stereo, rather
than the 5.1 surround sound the system is capable of delivering. A MarantzPM-
8000, stereo amp provides a claimed 2 by 100 watt class A (retail $1,599), was
used to feed a pair of Mordant Short 912 2-way bookshelf speakers (retail
$599), made up the rest of the system. A number of members brought genuine
SACD discs, and we thank them.
We thank the people at Qualifi Audio, (and marvel at their trust (faith?)), for the
loan of this equipment, especially as due to other commitments, they were unable
to send a representative, leaving Wally and Bob Toll (no offence intended),
to present the night's program.
First, President Neville described the idea to compare SACD with red book CD.
Barry Humphrey offered a dual Layer SACD of an RCA warhorse, Arthur Fiedler
and the Boston Pops playing music from the Offenbach suite for Gaite Parisienne.
This original recording was made in the mid 1950's, one of RCA's very
first stereo recordings, and it is still one of the very best classical recordings
ever made. The CD leaflet implied that the SACD version was derived from the
original analogue master tape. It does make you wonder what real progress has
been made in recording techniques during the past 50 years.
We heard a short track from both the standard red book layer, followed by the
same track as genuine SACD. The members present overwhelmingly voted in
favour of the SACD track. Most listeners heard a more relaxed and yet more
dynamic SACD sound, the CD layer sounded much more brash and "in your
face". The subjective effect of the restricted sample rate of 44.1kHz is quite
evident. Distortion at frequencies approaching half the sample rate must increase,
which I think gives the treble a slightly constricted effect. (Has anyone
ever published the results of a 19/20 kHz intermod test on an A to D converter?)
The SACD produced a deeper, better structured image, and the instrumental
harmonics seemed to be better balanced and more natural.
The presumption was expressed that the CD layer on these dual layer discs is
somehow nobbled to enhance the perceived improvement that SACD can bring.
It is a pity the red book CD was not available. I have it, (remastered in 1993),
and even on a standard CD player, it is a stunning recording. My impression on
hearing it again at home is that the CD layer on the SACD disc is rather different
to the RCA living Stereo version, in that the CD layer has been remixed.
This may have been done to take advantage of current CD mastering techniques
which have improved during the last 10 years, but surprisingly, the effect is to
make the CD layer on the 2 layer disc sound more like the SACD layer. I think
the conspiracy jury is still out.
At this point, it was realised that the speakers needed better elevation to cover
the room, and to subdue a rather enthusiastic and ill-defined mid bass, ie they
honked. Lifting the stands on to small tables improved the balance and bass control
considerably. Considering the capabilities of the amp and the player, I think
it was unfortunate that speakers providing a better match to the room were not
available. A trap most demonstrations in this room fall for is that the Willis
Room is very large by domestic standards, and generally small 2-way speakers
are inadequate, however acceptable they may be in the home.
The rest of the evening was given over to members discs, both SACD and standard
CDs, playing a wide variety of music, and covering all tastes from classics
to techno, and as expected SACD provide a higher average standard than conventional
CD. My prejudices are well known, but I thought that the RR recording
of a Suite from Bernstein's Candide using the HDCD coding system,
was as good as anything heard during the evening, and the worst, a SACD of
Bob Dylans track "Long Black Coat". Whatever the virtues (?) of Dylans singing
might be, the over emphasised sibilance and the nasally voice quality disqualified
it for me as a hi-fi recording. As we frequently hear Doug say, the
quality of the original recording sets the limit for what we can achieve in replay.
Our verdict is that SACD shows a lot of promise, and may well be the carrier of
the next decade, but we heard that there is still life in the standard CD. We need
to do this again with a DVD-A player, or better still, the Denon DVD-2900
which can handle both systems, costs £UK850, or approx $A2000, and received
an enthusiastic review in the September HiFi News.
Once again, we thank Qualifi Audio for the loan of the superb Marantz gear,
and the Mordaunt Short speakers, which deserve another hearing in a more appropriate
room.
John Drew
| September 2003 |
|
Livingston Audio |
An intriguing array of equipment supplied by Alex Leong and staff from
Livingston Audio of Blackburn greeted members arriving for the September
meeting. Wooden fronted equipment is not the norm, but the HOLFI units were
quite refreshing, their minimalist approach of using one knob for both volume
and input selection made for an uncluttered appearance. The Vincent integrated
hybrid amps were also novel, with the single tube on display via a porthole in
the front panel. Unfortunately the Melody tube pre and power amps were not
available in time for the meeting.
Whilst the Spendor S6 loudspeakers were traditional in shape and finish, the
locally made Orpheus Tiberius were magnificently finished in gleaming lacquered
woodgrain.
I felt that the recordings chosen to demonstrate the equipment did not do them
justice and there were calls from the gallery for the "Club" CD. Our presenters
dutifully obliged with music from a CD called "The Club" if I recall correctly.
Not quite what some members had in mind but never-the-less a very resourceful
effort.
The overall sound from both systems was acceptably good, if a little lean. My
preference was for the HOLFI/Orpheus system, which lacked the slight boominess
apparent in the Spendors. Neither system showed much bass extension but,
to be fair, the Willis room’s acoustic environment has an almost legendary reputation
as a speaker killer and it’s quite likely these well made units would sound
quite different in an in-home situation.
Alex also presented a product called "Screen Goo" for treating almost any surface
for use as a projection screen. I believe an assessment is currently under
way and hopefully the results will be announced in due course. All considered,
a successful evening and thanks to Alex and crew for giving us their time and
effort.
Bob Field
Martin Wright, co-founder and Managing Director of Melbourne based Move Records gave a very
interesting insight to the local recording scene. Move is now the oldest independent record label in Australia, founded over 35 years ago. It has filled a
worthwhile niche in the classical music area here in Melbourne with a wide range of specialist recordings of
well known Melbourne identities such as Ronald Farren-Price and Douglas Lawrence amongst many others.
Over the past two years a small jazz focus has gained a good following.
The well attended August Meeting at the Willis Room was treated to a capsule history of Move. Martin has progressed
through the digital recording domain with Beta F1 PCM recordings during the early eighties to Hi-Fi type machines later (very sneaky - the main
stereo channels where the picture should be and the two hi-fi sound channels for future use as rear channels in surround) through DAT to hard disc at
88.2/24 bit with post production on Pro-Tools High Definition software. He mainly uses Sennheiser and Shoeps capacitor microphones.
Martin brought a good overview of the Move CD repertoire (and a free CD for everyone present) with him which was demonstrated using a Denon CD player,
Lux C12 power amp and my large bookshelf speakers combining a Response 6.5” carbon fibre cone bass-mid with a Peerless K115 tweeter. As usual, Murphy
reared his ugly head. Before the evening got underway the amplifier went up in a huge cloud of white smoke. Fortunately Peter Huttemeier was able to
slip home to return with an Amber integrated amp, the evening proceeding without a hitch after that.
Members were also able to avail themselves of some reasonably cheap quality CDs and a very good evening was had by all.
Bob Toll
| July 2003 |
|
AVlight - Sound and Vision Spectacular |
Avlight’s Australian G.M. Tony Zhi expertly assisted by one of his senior managers
succeeded in transforming the Willis room into a huge Home Theatre
venue much to the delight of the standing room only audience. Their superbly
finished products together with a large screen that ensured everyone had an unobstructed
view of the visuals made for an entertaining evening.
The front pair of very large floor standers (see photo) required no centre channel
speaker to anchor speech or vocals yet, to the surprise of many, there was a
cleverly placed rear centre speaker to assist with ambience retrieval. Another
talking point was the A.V. processor’s large display with its real time display. I
didn’t have an opportunity to ask Tony whether or not this could be switched off
or muted during movies etc but would assume that equipment of this quality
would have such a feature.
Attention to detail was apparent right from the beginning when Tony and Fred
donned white gloves before touching any of the components they needed to assemble
for their presentation. Needless to say these same substantial, heavy
speakers went back into their boxes in exactly the same pristine condition they
were in when the cartons were first opened.
Sophisticated protection circuitry is a standard feature of Avlight’s speaker design.
Late in the evening this was vividly demonstrated when Tony took the
live input wires from one speaker and shorted them. Although Bob the Builder
was seen to noticeably pale when this happened the other speaker continued
playing normally. The processor’s display noted that protection circuitry had
been activated for the disconnected channel. Truly an impressive demonstration
of a very practical safety feature.
Our thanks to the Avlight team for an enjoyable evening
Neville Keatley
| June 2003 |
|
AGM + David MacArthur and his Trombones |
It is always difficult to organise a presentation to fill out our spare time after the
Club’s Annual General Meeting. The length of time taken for the formal matters
is uncertain. None the less it was arranged that local Melbourne musician,
David MacArthur, would come along and give us the benefit of both his wisdom
about the history of the Trombone, and his playing prowess by demonstrate
some aspects of the instrument.
As Murphy would have it the AGM went on longer than expected with some
spirited discussion on the future of the Club. Consequently David was a bit
later in starting than anticipated. David’s presentation had been honed by talking
first to the Rover Car Club (of which both he and I are members) and a
group from the University of the Third Age. It was punctuated by excerpts of
various orchestral and band pieces David chosen to highlight significant aspects
of the trombone’s history and musical advancements.
Club members got to hear what a true live, unamplified instrument sounded like
in our Willis Room. (no argument, that this was indeed LIVE music – Ed) We
can now compare the sound of playback equipment to this standard. During his
talk David demonstrated 5 different trombones, two wine bottles and a tuba!
Our thanks go to David for a very interesting and musical presentation.
Peter Hüttemeier
| May 2003 |
|
Members DIY Night |
The Willis room was packed to capacity for this event, as we welcomed all the new members who joined the club at the show.
Their introduction to the club, in the form of a DIY night, was to suggest that, far from just sitting around listening to records, a number of
fellow members definitely believe in a ‘hands on’ approach. As was shown, all of the ‘home made’ stuff proved it could stand up comparably to
professional production equipment, highfidelitywise, plus it provides the added satisfaction of knowing that it’s ‘all your own work.’
The evening itself was of a nature to create a wide spectrum of interest, in that, there were many varied pieces of equipment,
all painstakingly made by their enthusiastic creators. Attention to detail, finish and presentation, was commented upon, at great
length by some, of all the pieces on show, and, although Scott’s speakers were not admired for their ‘pristine veneered’ finish, there was
no mistaking the quality of their performance, pointed out by many.
Bob’s amp, as promised, did not blow up. Described, as a "Piece of wire, with gain" is the ultimate compliment that an amp can receive. Pity
about the colour, but it sounded totally uncoloured, and that’s what counts.
If the new members sensed an atmosphere of ‘involvement’ in club activity, then the object of the evening has been achieved.
There was so much interest in all the bits and pieces, after the demo’s, that the second part of the programme did not occur at all. Everyone was
too busy questioning the DIYers about their ‘babies.’
Wally Roche