Hey Guys,
I recently went to Melbourne to collect my Tannoy Golds from Bryan. I spent a day in Melb, and what a great day that was. The highlight of the day was without doubt Bryans system, but I will come back to that.
My day in Melb began with a visit to an old friend for lunch, followed by demo session to hear some Shindo Autograph boxes fitted with Tannoy Reds owned by David (demmauhong on SNA), thread here:
click (you need to be signed into SNA to view the thread)
David has some amazing gear in his room, genuine top end stuff. His Tannoy Reds in Shindo boxes were driven by a 300B amp, and had a nice relaxed sound, it was very easy to listen to. The Shindos are true monsters in size, just massive, and I could see them shining even more in a larger room.
I then made my way over to Warrandyte to pickup some records, an SNA member had over 200 classical records that had not been used in years, and was giving them away. I just happened to be coming to Melb at the right time, and scored this lot. I'm not overly knowledgable on classical music, but Bryan had a flick through and tells me there are some real gems in the bunch.
Next stop was Bryans. We listened to his system for a little while (back to this later), before heading over to KeithW's.
Keith has a lovely room, with some gorgeous looking gear. Here's a pic......
What we see is plasma tweeters, paired with some smick midrange horns, and subs supporting the bottom end. It's an active system with a Marchand active crossover, the bass units are integrated in using a DEQX, there is Cary valve monoblocks, and also a SGR stereo amp in the mix. This is a very clean sounding system, with loads of detail. It was well thought out, and integrated together nicely. If there was a drawback, I would have liked abit more midbass body/weight, but this is a personal taste thing of mine. It certainly is a great system, and Bryan tells me, was his inspiration.
We went out for some nice Peking Duck, before heading over to Peter Chen's, where I was treated to yet another lovely room and system.
Here's a pic of Peters room.....
As you can see, Peter runs some Apogee Diva ribbons, which are driven by some monster Classe monoblock amps (on the very left, I dont know the models, they're massive). Front end is a Krell cd player into an AudioNote M8 preamp.
I just love ribbons, and these delivered more of what I like from ribbons. Great imaging, and that natural sound that you get from ribbons. During the listening Keith observed that the treble was abit pronounced, I didnt notice it, but it prompted some tweaking. So, Peter proceeded to change the interconnects between player/preamp, and this made a radical night/day difference. The treble was recessed, but now the music lost some real dynamics, it was flat. Amazing the difference 1 pair of interconnects made (both were copper based). So, back went the original interconnects, and then Bryan tweaked the tweeter settings on the Divas. And yep, this seemed to be the best config that I heard at Peters. I didnt feel the top end was out of place earlier, I observed to be silky, but this minor tweak of the tweeters did seem to make a positive difference.
It was another very nice sounding system, that had a different character to Keiths, and different again to Bryans.
Dropped Keith off and listened to a few more tracks on his system, then back to Bryans to top off the night.
What can I say about Bryans system, that hasnt already been said by others??
Well, I can start by describing some changes since earlier reports. He's moved his system into larger room, than when the others heard it on the Melb hifi show weekend. Here is a pic of the current room.....
What has changed on the system since then. Gone is the modified Lightspeed volume control, which was once a must have, but has now been superceded by a DIYHifi Tram2 Linestage preamp.....
http://diyhifisupply.com/catalog/121Bryan is very very happy with this new component in his system, and praised it highly. To the point where he is now quite critical of the Lightspeed. I didnt do any preamp comparisons, but I have to say, I am inspired to give the Tram2 a try.
Bryan has also doubled the number of bass woofers in the system from 4 to 8 , due to the larger room. You can just catch a glimpse of them in the mirror on the left. These 15" woofers are driven by a Jungson amp. The woofers only run from 48Hz and below, and are EQ'd by a Behringer (dcx I think). The Tram2 has 2 sets of outputs, and the bass rig runs off the second set, so the 'sub' bass system is totally out of the signal path of the main horn system.
The 'sub' bass in a word is 'brilliant', it is the best (most musical) low bass I have ever heard. Anyone who says that open baffle bass cant go down into the depths is kidding themselves. What we have here is extremely fast, extremely dynamic, and very low bass that is flat to 24hz and keeps extending lower - all blended very nicely so it doesnt stand out. If there is a reference way of doing musical 'sub' bass very well in a mid sized room, this has got to be it. Very very impressive !!
The front end is the original ScottT dac, the 1st one ever built by Scott I believe? I didnt get a chance to listen to his TT, we were far too busy enjoying the Kdac, that will have to be another time.
So, the overall sound of Bryans system. I havent heard another horn system that is integrated aswell as this one. Most horn systems feel like they are attacking me, slapping me in the face with great dynamics, most horn systems I've heard I struggle to relax. Not true of Bryans.
The plasma tweeters run from 2k upwards, and just sound superb. The realism from these plasmas is on another planet. But it's the dynamics of the overall system that takes my breath away.
The 2 x horns and plasmas all run off a 1 watt tube amp, and are integrated by a hand made passive crossover network. It's hard to believe how much raw power and dynamics this 1 watt amp delivers through this speaker system. Truly breath taking.
But it doesnt attack me. It produces a massive soundstage, that just oozes power. This system makes me feel like I am at a concert, like no other system has made me feel.
I can easily get lost in the music for hours listening to this system, and we did. I didnt feel fatigued. By 2am I had to pull up stumps, knowing I had a long drive back to Sydney the following day. But I had to force myself.
For a reality check, no system is perfect. So, let me balance this report with some minor cons. There were some midrange resonances at times, which I feel were room related. This room is *not* on a slab, and a system that is this dynamic probably needs a slab. This is a minor thing, that I didnt find distracting. Also, some pieces of music where it was a intimate un-amplified recording (eg: Johnny Cash Personal File) became just a little larger than life. Rather than feeling like JC was in the room singing to me, I felt like I was at a gig, with Johnny on stage. This might actually be preferred by many, given the choice, the 'live gig' character was something I really enjoyed.
Again, let me say these observations are just for some balance to the report.
But really, I'd have to say,
this is definetly a reference system that everyone should experience, if you have the chance. If you're in Melb, give Bryan a hoy. As it really is an inspirational system in so many ways.
We got in another hour or so of listening in the morning, before loading up the car for the journey back. I was treated to some more great music, Pink Floyd the Wall and others. Bryan played me a track from this CD, which was a trio from the middle east he had recently seen. Bryan, I've ordered this CD, as I want to hear more.
Bryan, you've done incredibly well on this system. Thanks to David, Keith, Peter and especially Bryan for your hospitality and taking the time out to entertain me. Cheers