Owston meet, Doncaster, 22&23 Oct 22

[Ray P]

Sorry to hear of you guys with ailments- I hope you feel better soon.

I got home from my Owston trip about an hour ago - another good run, almost totally clear all the way back. I would have liked to stay longer but circumstances being what they are I was very happy to just meet up with you guys again for a good chat and to hear some interesting sounds, both systems and music selections.

Thanks to Nick for the opportunity to demo the Valve DAC with his amps and Quasars.

Also thanks to the guys who positively reacted to hearing both the Valve DAC and RTZ DAC through the little Noir headphone amp - I think the RTZ prototype stood its ground very well and I'll be encouraging the designer to progress the project with an updated board - there was some interest in possibly obtaining one so I'll post in due course.

Chris, can you remind me of the model number of your headphones that we tried.

Finally, a big thankyou to our organiser, Steve, for another great Audio-Talk day - despite your threat during the intro, I hope we can do it again before too long.

[Ant]

Thanks again to steve for organising, great to see folks again
I had a quick listen to the dac through the headphones and it was immediately obvious, and i mean 'immediately' through the beyers that it's abit special

Also through nicks p6s and quasars it was 'right' straight away

I was somewhat distracted by phonecalls and emails through most of the morning so i didnt get to hear everything properly which is a shame, but thanks to everyone who brought their systems and assorted kit.
A lot of variety too, valves, ss, se, se with feedback, pp, vinyl, cd, file based systems, eq, it was all there in the systems

Thanks to all

[Cressy Snr]

Had a good day at Owston, apart from when the leg of a chair I was sitting on whilst listening to Nick’s system snapped and dumped me onto the floor! Thanks to those who rushed to my rescue. I bet it looked like I had keeled over and died on the spot. It frightened the crap out of me.
Great sounds from everyone as usual and it was nice to see the big Mets again, and play my Heretik amp through them courtesy of Dave.

@Ray Those Mission floorstanders are utterly wonderful with the valve amp in my room. Thanks again.

[Ray P]

Should it be of interest, here are the pieces I played:

1. Antonio Lysy, 'Te Amo, Argentina', track 1, 'Graciela y Buenos Aires'

https://www.nativedsd.com/product/te-am ... =dsd-256fs

This might be an interesting comparison

https://amzn.eu/d/3XwyUAi

2. Vanessa Fernandez, 'I Want You', track 1, 'Right On For The Darkness'

https://www.nativedsd.com/product/grv12 ... =dsd-256fs

3. La Folia Barockorchester, Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', Winter, I. Allegro non molto

https://www.nativedsd.com/product/01320 ... y=dsd-64fs

The links are all to DSD files but I'm sure you'll be able to buy PCM versions of the media, like here;

https://amzn.eu/d/guRY3g6

https://amzn.eu/d/8v0dl3a

[Ray P]

@Ray Those Mission floorstanders are utterly wonderful with the valve amp in my room. Thanks again.

You're welcome Steve, they were only cluttering up the place here! PM me your address and I'll send you that vinyl repair paste, which might help to tart them up a bit more.

[IslandPink]

Have fun Poppits, I'm missing being there already but I do intend on coming back again.

Shame not to see you, but you'll be pleased to know that I dedicated a Genesis track to you in your absence.

[lindsayt]

Thanks to Nick for the opportunity to demo the Valve DAC with his amps and Quasars.

How easy would it be for someone to make a clone of your DAC?

[Ray P]

How easy would it be for someone to make a clone of your DAC?

Which one?

They're not commercial designs per se; the designer of both is a very knowledgable and helpful Dutch chap who posted the circuits on DIY Audio

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/thre ... 13.308860/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/thre ... ac.379406/

Neither has any aspects that would preclude them being built by a competent DIYer.

The Valve DAC that I brought to Owston is based on a main board that was procurred via a group buy on DIY Audio - the gerber files for the PCB are available but getting one fabricated represents a key investment as they're large and are four-layers with a custom layer stack (PCBs were ordered from PCBWay). I don't recall the exact numbers but a single PCB would have cost around $400 but with the group buy (of around 20) we got it down to around $60. As far as I can tell only a few from the group buy have actually built the DAC and they occasionally get offered for sale - Dave (Thermionic Idler) is planning a build of the Valve DAC based on a board he bought from a guy in Australia. I actually have a spare PCB, populated with all the smd parts and with a stash of most of the through-hole parts; I've been keeping it for a possible second build with a different filter stage.

The RTZ DAC I bought is the prototype built by the designer - he sent it to me to give it a try and feedback some listening impressions. The prototype has some bug fixes and some tempermental header connections and the power supplies I was using are just standard LM317 modules so the fact that its performance is so close to the Valve DAC is impressive and promising that there may be more to come. Gerber files for the main board are available on DIY Audio but I'm hopeful the designer will produce an updated version with some improvements to include the bug fixes and to make it more practical. At the moment I am planning to try replacing the op-amp based filter/output stage with a valve-based arrangement. I have mentioned running a group buy for boards over on DIY Audio so hopefully revised boards can be made available in the not to distant future.

One thing you should note is both are DSD-only DACs so you need to have native DSD files (as I had yesterday) and/or convert/resample PCM files to DSD (which I do at home with HQ Player).

[Paul Barker]

Ed has made some triangle profile speakers which to my hearing had the best imaging and soundstage of the day. I thought ‘they are like open baffle but better. My favourite sounds to experience are percussion. Eds speakers did that impecably. Eds f2 tranced his 2a3 with now old stock little used chinese 2a3’s.

Second to Ed’s soundstage was Mark’s Purifi monitor, in mono. A pair placed where Ed’s speakers stood (Ed said they sounded same at home) a nice corner spot, would have been speakers of the day for me. Not sure about the tweeter though.

Steve hosts, speakers are just evrerything you need, if I had what hes got I would want for nothing. I heard them at his house that day and they boss Owston equally well as they boss his living room. Placement no bother. They command the performance. I recall asking him at his house the cost of the motion transformers, and decided Best motion transformer intigration with other necessary drivers Ive heard, but not in my price point. I still live in hope a self built plasma tweeter may take that role for me.

I couldnt tell if Nicks perspex OB’s had the magic, the record deck was feeding back the table soundboard. Ray’s digital fixed that, but I didnt hear the magic moments only a few times we heard at eggborough once and once at Owston with James’ Perspex OB’s. I wasnt into the music played on them, so I cant comment on their ability to portray that fluid silky sound. Likewise the music played on a lot of other kit left me stressed fatiqued and unable to evaluate. The amps that come super powerful do nothing for me, sorry. In my trade I select the poundage of the lump hammer according to the task at hand. No point using one that bounces off and makes no forward progress, or one that demolishes a lighter duty. Steves el34 with feedback had potential, and showed character, but Daves PP 300b way outclassed it, maybe it was the correctly weighted lump happer for the task; Im sure at home Steves amp is great.

To reflect on my own inability to settle on speakers, so far best ive achieved is the sigmas with vintage 12” isophon bass helpers is my only set. Maybe I’ll ring those again in a more sane baffle. Maybe the sand filled Briggs?

[lindsayt]

Thanks for your great reply about your DACs Ray.

For me, what makes Owston a great event is being able to see and hear what other enthusiasts have created. Along with the very generous sharing of information and the "we want everyone to win" spirit.

[ed]

Many thanks Steve it was a great day

Everything was top notch to my ears...I wish I could afford a pair of those tweets Mark, they sounded awesome to me.

thanks Nick, once again I have shed envy

[Ray P]

Thanks for your great reply about your DACs Ray.

Tempted?

[Ant]

I agree with paul re eds system, the partnering of the f2 amp and the triangle speakers was just lovely. They just sounded right. In the owston room which we know is abit of a pig and will catch out many a speaker, the combo sounded natural and easy. It just played. With the 2a3 amp it was looser and more forward, less natural, and the differences between the two amps were easy to spot and quantify which to me is the mark of a very good speaker.
I really liked the f2/triangles combo, i could have listened to it all day

[Ant]

Pictures from Saturday

First up, Dave's system. I don't have a pic of the Pete Millett phono stage unfortunately.
Big Mets, fostex 225s (I think) with monacor ribbons

IMG_9755 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

300b push pull monoblocs

IMG_9757 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Next we have Brians system

Eyeballs with 3" Fostex drivers and plenty of eq

IMG_9759 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Macbook source through a Behringer interface and behringer NX10000

IMG_9758 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Chris' speakers with rather impressive cone excursion

IMG_9760 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

massive dustbin lid subs (20"?)

IMG_9761 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

laptop source, eq and crown power amp

IMG_9762 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

[Ant]

Next lot, Steve's system.

Big reds

IMG_9764 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Steve's mofo amp, I think the front end is short path ACP1's, please correct me if I'm wrong

IMG_9765 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

and the TT, 301, I think it is an FFSS arm and rebuilt c4e cart, again please correct me it I'm wrong

IMG_9766 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Next Eds system

The rather lovely triangles (I'll call them that in the absence of a name)

IMG_9767 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

The F2, all 4w of it

IMG_9768 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

The 2a3 alternative amp complete with dust

IMG_9769 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

And the source, laptop into topping e30

IMG_9770 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr