Owston Park Lodge

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September 2009

A return to Owston and a two dayer again. Bill Bryson once famously wrote that living in England was rather like living inside Tupperware, and Saturday morning was just such a day. But we weren’t here for the weather outside, this is an indoor pursuit.

Most were already there by the time I arrived, though I was just in time to see Dave finally put his skootleplank to good use for a change.

Inside there was various setting-up going on, as well as some last minute DIY by Anthony, overseen by his Dad, to try to repair the damaged caused earlier in the week when one of the family hamsters had chewed through wiring leading to a transformer going up in smoke…

Looking around the room there was lots of interesting kit waiting in the wings, even if not set up ready to go.

Finally we were underway, kicking off with Will at the bottom end of the room.

Speakers are his baffles with Eminence 15 Alpha bass driver, field coil mid and Visaton supertweeter on top.

Turntable is a Garrard 401 in a triple decker slate plinth with DIYed Schroeder-type arm. Unfortunaly Will had a little accident with his Coral cartridge the day before so had to substitute a ? instead.

Amps are 3 stage DHTs – 801 driving 801A, with a 210LF pre stage. Phono is Steve Bench inspired. We know what Will’s stuff sounds like, and it’s jolly good indeed.

Next up was Andrew Ivimey with his all-in-one Denon unit as a source, through his Ongaku-clone (“The best amp in the world”!) and then small Fostex 85 MLTLs.

Audience enjoying the show…

The Ongaku doesn’t need any description, but the small Fostex were new and are very interesting. Lightning fast and visceral with the right music, they’re obviously limited with busy, complex material. Our resident speaker guru, Scott, suggested the cabinets should either be tiny bookshelf jobs, or twice the height!

Here’s a shot of the Ongaku supported on a very expensive Shun Mook-type tray…

And another shot just because I can…

Before moving on to the next system we had a small interlude heading back to the end of the room to hear Neal’s Pioneer and Sumiko through Nick’s ECC88 and JFET phono and Will’s amps and speakers.

Back to the room, and next up was Colin.

Colin had brought three speakers – the two Martin King designed horn speakers using Mark Audio Alpair Fullrange 10 drivers, in addition to Dave Dlugos’s (Planet 10) Fonken167 floorstanders with T90A supertweeters. First though, Colin used the MJK backloaded horns, the inner most pair. Colin's build is here. Amps are 5687-300B SETs with regulated power supply. This is a Nick Gorham design, first seen at Simon C’s birthday bash, and Colin rather likes it - his build is here (from post 18). Pre is a unity gain buffer stage, also of Nick’s design (quite a bit of info here).

The speakers had a remarkably full bass, especially for the driver size. Indeed the bass might be a little too full for some, though we’re nitpicking perhaps. From experience we know that speakers don’t always work across the room, and the bass can honk a little. Martin generally designs his speakers for solid state amps rather than the valve amps we prefer so the 300Bs probably don’t have an ideal damping factor. Nevertheless, these are speakers that would seriously embarrass most commercial speakers

Up to the top end of the room and Steve Cresswell’s system – the first time without any digital music. Steve had finally made his peace with vinyl.

The turntable is a Lenco GL 78 in a plinth made from some kitchen worktop with some old storage heater blocks glued to the underside to give mass. Apparently these are very heavy… Note the rear corner of the plinth has been cut out to allow his Origin Live TB251 to be mounted.

Amp is a variation on his old 46 Monkey amp. Unfortunately one of the 46s died prematurely so Steve redesigned going back to 2A3s, keeping the same C3g driver, and the same great sound. Also debuting was Steve’s DHT phono stage. This is a design by Dmitry Nizhegorodov and uses DCC90 triodes. A very interesting design and one I’d like to hear more closely sometime.

Philip was next, just before lunch.

Phil was using his NEC CD drive with Hong Kong ebay DAC using Cirrus Logic chips, WD pre 3, his only-just-completed GM70 amps, and Dave the Bass’ Subaros.

Sadly we didn’t really listen before lunch, and I had to disappear immediately after so I never did get to hear the GM70s.

Fortunately, from here on for the rest of the day Dave the Bass took over photographer duties in my absence. Unfortunately my descriptions will inevitably become even briefer now.

Next up was Steve Shiels down at the bottom end of the room again with his new speakers.

CD was his trusty old DVD player, and the amp was his PX25 globes again.

But the speakers were his latest incarnation…

18” Fanes at the bottom, a 15” and 12” above, then Vitavox horn midrange, with Fostex T900 supertweeters on top. Apparently they were effortless, as you’d expect from such an efficient driver line up. These are big speakers make no mistake, with a big sound to match.

And now Little Eddy’s system, which I think is an Audionote Kit 1.2 DAC, a KT88 Rocky amp and Zigmali speakers.

Back to the top of the room and Anthony’s recently repaired 2A3 PP amp through Steve’s baffles.

Back to Andrew, and his big 15” boxes with Heil tweeters this time.

Back to Philip, this time his PT15 amps.

Now Max with his 211PP.

This first board is (I think!) a 6SN7 phase splitter…

Next stage 45 PP…

And finally 211 PP.

Back to Colin, but I’m not sure which speaker was being used. MJK front firing horn on the left, Fonken167s on the right obscuring MJK’s rear firing horn.

Finally for Saturday’s photos, a couple of GM70 shots. I think Dave rather likes them…

Sunday dawned a sunny day for the select few there (spot your car gents).

I missed the early fun with Max’s 211PP and Phil’s GM70, just as I’d missed the late night turntable comparisons the previous day. But when I arrived Simon C’s little Fostex FE103 Vampyrs were playing on the end of Andrew’s Ongaku. The speakers are a Scott design, these having a V baffle.

Then back to Colin for the Fonken167s.

Dave set up a little candid of us all, then went to take centre of attention…

On to Philip, this time his SS Mosfet amps, through Dave’s Subarus.

At first I wondered if Dave was making a comment about being a big tit, but then I realised they were meant to be “super tweeters”. Easy mistake to make I guess.

Close-ups of the SS amps

A quick diversion outside to the back of Steve Shiel’s car for a selection of largely 12” drivers that are surplus to his requirements

Back inside and Andrew’s large 15” cabs were dishing out some Hammond organ.

Musician that he is, Dave couldn’t help but join in…

Back to the top of the room and a spot of Monkey comparison – Dave’s Thorsten Full Monkey (5842 – 2A3) and Steve Cresswell’s C3g – 2A3 Monkey. Both were excellent albeit with only a couple of watts or so they struggled to really drive the size of the room.

Dave’s Monkey on its modular boards below…

As numbers started to thin out with folks making their way home we were left with Steve’s rather large baffles/horns and his PX25 amp. This was my first hearing of these speakers and they’re certainly effortless with loads of headroom, even in a room this size.

Then we plugged in Simon C’s balanced DAC. This is another Hong Kong ebay Cirrus Logic job, like Philip's, but with a 6N6P SRPP Lampizator replacement of the output stage.

Simon has the SRPP wired up so he can switch the cathode bypass caps in and out. I couldn’t hear much difference but switching the caps in decreased volume a touch, and perhaps lost a little clarity. Perhaps. I’d need a lot longer listening to it to really know what was going on. The DAC sounded rather good though, and might be another worthwhile project sometime.

And finally, the one system we didn’t listen to all weekend – the disco rig. Don’t know what we’re all messing about with – this is the proper stuff!