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Holy cow - 750 posts - where did I ever find the time?? BTW - note the speaker cables in the picture - finally got the Van der Hulls connected.... Whoever says cables dont make a difference can come over anytime. Of course the jury is still out on whether I prefer this rather more laid back presentation - certainly parts of it are better - just not sure about the whole as yet. Biggest change is to the highs - listening to Maria Callas sing an aria brought a tear to my eye and it hasnt done that in a long time!! Just not sure about those mids - they seem to have slowed and lost a little of their impact. Anyway I have them for a week so who knows - maybe in a few days I will be writing about cable run in.

Hi Indi, Yep - back with a vengence for the time being.. True I didnt say which speakers - if I told you that was deliberate I think you can guess why... With a bit of luck that should clear the question up - but dont tell anyone!!

I think it is certainly worth trying the speakers against the wall - if you dont like the effect you can always move them back. Basically if there is one thing I have picked up from my time in this audio playpen is that almost anything is worth trying in these zero cost areas. Everything I have heard to date talks about speakers being a good distance from the wall, and even from the side walls. All I can tell you is that it works for me to have them agains the wall - and I really never expected it to...

Frankly I read Ray's Story some time ago and decided not to enter. I couldnt imagine any story more moving and deserving of the said KHorns and havent read anything since that changed my mind. Congrats to the winners, but what were the judges thinking???

Seems each time I go away for a short while all hell breaks loose here somehow, although I am sure the 2 events are unrelated.. Anyway been kinda busy of late and not had too much time to get online aside from flying visits and certainly no time to write anything of note. In an effort to put some of that right I have lots of minor news as follows; My much anticipated Cantate Domino Proprius recording finally arrived and certainly near mint if not actually mint condition. For those not in the know this is the ultimate recording of Christian Music performed and recorded in various skandinavian churches with lots of choral and organ stuff. The main interest is in its astounding sound staging and depth although the music itself is pretty sublime. Seems to be standard fare amongst Greek audiophiles if not elsewhere. Tony seems to be nearing completion of his "most neutral system in the world". Briefly it comprises Quad 989's driven by the Accuphase E407 integrated amp connected via the Accuphase card slot phono stage directly to the modified Rega 250 arm supporting the Shelter 901 cartridge on his Acoustic Solid TT. His only pending upgrade that is obvious is the speaker cabling as he is not happy with the current set (Synergistic silver cables). I have only heard it briefly. It was cold both in that he didnt allow the components any time to warm up and in the sound. The only thing he has in his collection in common with my own is the Wild Child Butler direct to disk 180 gramme recording. I much prefer the sound of that on my own system but I have promised to give his another go with it warm just to check. As it was it came across as blues performed by surgeons rather than bluesmen. A truely sterile environment. MY own system has undergone a number of minor changes. Kelly will be pleased to know the speaker placement has changed dramatically. Basically the wife has removed the cabinets to another room and the speakers ran for a time on the floor. This had a duel effect of improving the voice of the system whilst totally removing the soundstage depth. After a lot of playing around I have mounted them temporarily on a pair of octagonal wooden units we had spare (and stuffed with bottles of booze). This height seems to work well in that the new found voicing is intact whilst the vast majority of the soundstage has reappeared. I had the owner of a local audiophile shop round for a listen and to provide some input. He reckons the cabling is wrong for the speakers and has lent me a pair of van der Hull D352 cables to try out. Of course it turns out the ends suplied dont fit into the back of the damn speakers so I will have to go back tomorow for him to change them. One interesting piece of input that he had that seems to have worked brilliantly was with the speaker positions. He pointed out that my speakers are monitors with front firing ports and as such are designed to work up against the wall as opposed to the 2 feet or so away that I had placed them. Placing them against the wall really seems to have reinforced their sound and further improved the soundstage. You've heard the term "speakers disappearing" no doubt but how about a wall disappearing sonically?? Anyway that will probably do for now. I'll get back soon with more updates and hard to believe stories from the land of olives, wine and sun soon. Oh one more thing and it is a piece of bad news for me anyway. Vinyl prices are definitely starting to climb here. MY local supplier who was charging $6 a disk is suddenly asking $20 a disk (although he is limiting my costs to $12 as I am such a good customer). That is still a 100% increase and does not bode well!!! OK that's it and remember - DONT FEED THE TROLLS!!

Funny thing Jim, My amps are also 45 wpc and my pre also has 2 volume controls and I experience much the same volume jump as you do, but with less sensitive (and unmentionable) speakers. Actually the same was true for the Heresies and I can mention those I think. I dont know what preamp you are discussing but mine has 2 settings for matching to different amps - a high output setting and a low output setting. Despite the volume issues I prefer to run with the high output setting as it never seems to take off on the lower setting...

Congrats Allan, It is one fabulous car - goes like stink and handles a dream. I have only been in one once with a friend hurtling round the backstreets of london at an ungodly hour. Real scarey stuff and way too quick to be wasted on the road. Find yourself a race track with lots of twisty bits and have a ball....

Well I am one of those who can no longer face a Big Mac or any other of their burgers come to that. There was a time when I was a student that I lived on these things but now I feel so ill after one that I have stayed away for the last couple of years or so. I have no idea what is in a McDonalds burger, or even if it is any worse or better than any other fast food, but I do know that to me it seems at though the container would make a more natural snack than the contents. It just tastes like a chemical smoorgasbord to me...

Pink Floyd / Roger Waters fan here. I have 15 PF albums on vinyl and several of Roger's own issues including the Amused to Death Album which I would rate as one of the best Ablums ever made. I also own a fair amount of Queen, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Eurythmics, Chris-de-burgh, Suzanne Vega, Jacintha, 10cc, Chicago, Beetles, Rolling Stones, The Who, UB40, Genesis and Dire Straits that spring to mind immediately. Then there is the classical stuff. Mainly large orchestral and Operatic works. Currenty listening to Verdi's Aida on a simply sublime recording...

Josh, I think I am about 8 months ahead of you on the vinyl thing, and 500+ albums!! Warning : Vinyl is addictive and tends to lead a need for loft storage space for long ignored CD's. As for my speakers I am currently running the Sansui's almost permanently now. I have a cunning plan for the Heresy's however, which will mean I dont have to give them up completely. More on this after the Xmas / New Year festivities...

Kelly, I dont want to be picky here but I didnt read any of Dean's postngs as a review - more as an interesting story as to how you can get sidelinned whilst attempting to review one thing into another. Were Dean presenting a detaled review entitled as such then I would agree that a wider range of material would be essential. As it happens in this case I read Deans account of proceedings as merely his attempts to satisfy his own questions. Therefore my comments stand - its his system and his music and he can choose on the basis of whatever selection of music he feels matches his listening habits and the nrecount the proceedings here. Any review I have ever made has been in the light of this personal bent. I might argue that my own listening apears to be a litte more broadly based than Dean's and indeed different from, if not greater than, your own. Therefore I would assess a component on the basis of its performance less with Jazz (about 3% of my listening) and more with Opera (about 40% of my listening), Pink Floyd, Soul, Reggae, various rock greats, large orchestral works, a few string quartets and a couple of piano concerto's. All of this would make my evaluation effectively useless for anyone ho listened to Indy, for example, solely.

You werent kidding with the confusion were you Dean. Say what??? OK - now repeat the whole exercise with the Heresy's and report back. At least there is no confusion over biwiring with Heresy's!! As for the music choice - whatever lights your fire. I do agree, however, that performing valid assessments of any system absolutely requires the use of music and recordings you are totally familiar with. Other than that I just try to make sure it is music that reflects my tastes as far as possible. Aint no point buying a system that plays classical perfectly if you never listen to classical ...

Josh, Just listened again to the Amused to Death album and I can tell you that the surround sound effect is maintained even at much lower volumes (84 dB at my listening position). If anything it actually works better at these volume levels and the speaking voices (as opposed to the singing voices) now appear to be coming out of a rear centre channel. Nos, Tony rips CD's on a dedicated CD recorder from Sony. I cant remember the model number but it is the one down from the top of their range (as was when he bought it). Generally we have found that it produces far better copies of CD's than computer based units (for example my Plextor 40/12/40 unit with the Nero burning rom software). We havent tried the computer for burning copies of albums - maybe that is the next step...

I am no longer sure if the Music halls are just badged Pro-jects or not as they seem to be made in the same factories.... AS it is most people seem to think either are a good step into vinyl (look what the RPM 4 Pro-ject did for me...). I think you might also want to check out the Pro-ject debut and debut phono (with built in phono stage to work with any inpt on your amp/pre-amp). Other than that I think they both represent very good value for money...

Well Josh - LOUD!!! I dont know the dB rating but it was as loud as I have ever played anything whilst listening on my own. I usually have the volume pots at 2 clicks above silent, ocasionally 4 clicks (which is starting to get loud). This was 8 clicks!! I have no idea if the effect works at lower volume levels - will try it out and report back but I have a feeling it will still work, although maybe without the startle effect.

Well Fini, Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation you are summarizing there. I got a computer at home after the physical side took a nose-dive and got into audio similarly late. You think I would rather spend all day talking about tubes and vinyl than get laid?????? If only the choice was mine...

Wolfram, Havent made any progress on the 300B's as yet. Apparently they are ready but I have just been too busy on other things to arrange it. As I am off to the UK on Sunday there aint much point now anyway - till after the new year. As it happens I have been buyng a lot of vinyl - which some of my posts have hinted at. Found some amazing things at very varying prices from obscenely expensive to downright giveaway. Will update you on the classical megastore of 20,000 classical recordings at some point..promise Indiv... Can understand the confusion if you aint seen it before. I am just too lazy to type dark side of the moon every time...

Well if my wife and I ever decide to try that sordid business again I will be sure to let you all know, not sure about the pictures though .... I think the last time we tried it we got a daughter...

No comments?? Nothing at all? was it something I said?

I wont mention mats as we dont want Kelly getting all hot under the collar again, however on the subject of clamps... The Project comes with one. I tried it with. I tried it without. Precious little difference to my ears except where the record is very warped and the clamp helps to fix it down better. As it is I never really use the clamp - too lazy. It only goes on to make things look neat and tidy when I am not playing the TT...

I dont believe this - a greek copy of DSOTM on ebay in the UK... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=929869420 I would ask that no-one bids against Dubai on this one - he did ask for it eons ago and I have drawn a blank so far...

I seem to remember reading that various groups are working on producing surround sound via 2 channels some time ago. I think that I have just found out that this is amazingly possible. After 3 months of searching I finaly located myself a copy of Roger Waters Amused to Death double album (on vinyl of course). This morning I found myself alone with my system at home (working from home at the moment) and thought I would take advantage for a quick listen. That was about 2 hours ago so the morning kinda got away from me. Anyway I pumped up the volume a bit and let this album rip. It definitely rates as one of the best recorded albums I own, but, it has this amazing facility to pump out the speaking voices as if they are coming out of a left rear speaker. As I dont own a left rear speaker this is most impressive!! I should add that this album is the most expensive I ever bought at $100, but I stll rate it as the best buy I have made to date in software. FWIW - just try to find a copy on the net!!! I found one going on ebay a few weeks ago but the price was at $180 with 5 days left. That was the same copy I have - the limited edition version with the booklet. Last night Tony ripped it to CD but it doesnt realy come off - all the impact disappears, as is ever the case ith CD I suppose... Anyway - just thought I would share. At some point I will post a list of some of my recent classical finds, some of which are simply sublime.

Glad you like them Dean... Confession time. I still haven't sold mine, despite 2 offers at the price I had said to myself I would take. Will be interested to read what you think after some longer term listening. My bias tells me that they will be less wearing on you than the RF7's if you are listening for extended periods, but that is my bias talking. As soon as you have your own sorted out please let me know.

Bloody hell Kelly you must have photographic memory. I cant even remember my own posts let alone the many and varied discussions we have all had on here over the years. I for one rather like this forum, even with the repetitive bits. I just find that it waxes and wanes from time to time as most things do. On the subject of 2 channel..I just got a new computer - TADA!!! I am now the proud owner of a very cryptic HP Omnibook xe4500 - my frst ever portable computer (that I have owned myself that is). Certainly makes me old Pentium 3 / 500 Mhz desktop look a bit sick. Notice I said cryptic...this XP nonsence is quite bizzare, doesnt let you actually do anything for yourself - does everything for you - its like an apple (computer, not fruit). Still - very jazzy...

I like C&S - he is even freakier than me!!! That is one wild idea - an audiophile theme park - tubieland presumably...