Just back from Harrogate.

Fourlegs

WAVE Digital Cables
Wammer
May 5, 2014
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183
Melton Mowbray
www.wavehighfidelity.com
AKA
Nick
HiFi Trade?
  1. Yes
I had a very enjoyable day at Harrogate with my mate Nigel ( @TheFlash ). I thought the mix of trade and Wammers rooms worked really well.

I liked the venue and also the great Chille Con Carne for lunch in the large dining room just hit the right spot.

There were some great sounds in many of the rooms but my stand out room was g point audio with the AXJET concrete horn speakers. When we asked the nice lady who makes them she said, “My Dad makes them”. She has a clever Dad is all I can say. 

If anyone is wavering and wondering whether to go I would say make the effort and have a look.  

 
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TheFlash

Also available in pink
Wammer
Jun 22, 2013
12,479
8,343
208
Rural Leics [system 1] & Kendal [systems 2 & 3]
AKA
Nigel
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I'm normally a wallflower as you all know but let me suppress my natural shyness and join Nick in thanking everyone for a great day. I too loved the AXJET horns in particular.

It was great to meet the brave and committed Wammers who have made the effort to put on a show in each of their rooms. Fantastic to chat - against the expectedly and deliciously diverse range of music chosen - in slower time than at Scalford due to there being fewer Wam rooms. My personal shout-outs to Harv and Steve for their very different setups which ticked my own boxes big time with, respectively, James Blake's Radio Silence and Fun Lovin' Criminals' Run Daddy Run. Fantastic all round.

As Nick says, this is a fantastic venue; it feels positively spacious compared with Scalford. That's not a criticism of the latter of course, it's just nice to have two such different experiences in two different venues.

Well done everyone!

 
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Sumdumgi

Interstellar Overdriver
Wammer Plus
Jul 4, 2008
6,828
6,454
193
Durham
AKA
Les
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I really enjoyed it.

Another round of applause for fellow Wammers who had brought their kit from all parts of the UK to entertain and I very much enjoyed listening to them all.

The trade rooms - not going to mention them all but a couple of noteworthy things for myself and my son who visited with me.

Code Acoustics - lovely stuff, those small SA1s are very good indeed - a great sound from a small package.  Special mention for the fact that music was at the behest of visitors, an iPad dropped in your lap with Tidal running for you to select your own choice. Nice guy, lovely products, I hope he does well.

LDA (LongDog Audio) - for me definitely the best vinyl audio experience at the show. Wonderful sound, went back twice, so enthralled with the music no idea what kit it was played on !

Little Audio Company - Just loved the Wireless Kef LS50, seemed comfortable with a range of music and could really rock.

GPoint - awesome horns. I would have liked to hear a wider range of music on them, on both occasions we went in it was modern jazz or classical. So saying both the Universum 3 Mk II and the Axjet were quite brilliant in what they did.

HiFiTraders - loved the Tannoys and the Supertweeters really made a difference !

B&O - loved the cinema experience, fantastic surround sound and TV.  Speakers a lot less impressive on musical duties alone.

Venue - nice old creaky hotel. Large enough to make it relaxed and it was a lot less frantic than Scalford can be.  The displays from the local college were good but easy to miss, the photography exhibition was excellent, some great stuff.

As a first effort I thought it was very good. I hope it can go on to be an annual event :^

 

Ceri Thomas

Ceri Thomas (Code Acoustics)
New Wammer
Jul 22, 2017
25
5
0
Woking, England
AKA
Ceri Thomas
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I really enjoyed it.

Code Acoustics - lovely stuff, those small SA1s are very good indeed - a great sound from a small package.  Special mention for the fact that music was at the behest of visitors, an iPad dropped in your lap with Tidal running for you to select your own choice. Nice guy, lovely products, I hope he does well.
Thank you very much, your comments about the little SA1 are very kind :)

Handing the ipad round is definitely the way to go ... I've now got a whole list of great tracks visitors played that I'd never heard before.

I didn't have a chance to listen to much, but the Wammer room 137 with the Lowther's was really interesting. There is just something about a high sensitivity speaker that really brings the excitement. From personal experience, getting a hotel room to sound great, with very little time is tough, so great job!

The G-Point room with the Universum horns and great big valve amplifiers was also excellent, a really effortless sound.

Just wish I could have listened to more, but a great show!

 
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Pete the Feet

Wammer
Wammer
Mar 9, 2010
11,216
5,221
173
Rochdale, , United K
AKA
Mr Feet
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I was glad I made the effort to go as it turned out to be an enjoyable day.

The first room up was the B&O room and the AV set up was quite something. I liked some of the design features like the rotating screen and the sound was quite impressive too.

The next up was those G Point horns but I didn't stay in that room too long as they weren't playing music as such but they sounded interesting. I had a look in later to see if they were playing any proper music as opposed to party tricks but I was unlucky. Some other visitors told me that they had heard them play music and they sounded awesome. Perhaps next time.

The photography exhibition was a must see and the picture that I particularly liked was the one of the Hollies. It just sort of leapt out of the frame to me.

I had the sad misfortune to partially overhear what sounded like a cable debate at one of the stands. Come on give the guy a chance, he's only trying to make a living.

Those speakers in the Acoustic Preference room were a fine work of art with the layers of laminated walnut stands and speakers.

The Tannoy Cheviots sounded very listenable and easy to live with. I could have spent ages in that room just soaking it up. It was a bit on the warm side in there with those amplifiers.

Those tiny little speakers in one room had me looking for the sub but there wasn't one. I can't recall the name of them but they were finished in black and had a driver/port on the side.

The members rooms were really interesting with a real variety of kit on display and there efforts to bring it along when there was nothing in it for them are to be applauded.

With a brief mention of some rooms that I remember are as follows, with apologies to those that I have omitted or mixed up as I should have taken notes.

Tony_J and Ed Howarth had a decent setup with a well integrated sub that you didn't know was there and played some good tunes.

Was it Rob5FT19IN or Bencat who had the TV screen, music server and little Kefs stood on small tables with larger speakers to the side? .it sounded good in there. I remember going in both rooms and enjoying them both but I was getting mixed up by this stage.

Coogie's room was closed on each attempt. He was either on an extended lunch or he saw me coming.

Greybeard's room looked like a sound rig that you would expect to see at a gig. Speakers apart it all looked like pro sound gear and it sounded great through those speakers which |I think he made his self.

Still no sign or should I say sound of Harv. I dropped into a room playing some Carol Kidd with a big band and Harv was in there but was quick to mention it wasn't his sort of thing and spun some heavy bass. I was getting worried he hadn't turned up until I heard this.

Next door his brother had a more conservative setup with Spendor's and his apparent musical taste seemed at polar opposites. However it looked like that they had dug up the same patio as they had matching flags as speaker mounts.

Steve57 had some brilliant speakers and played some top stuff through them. Led Zep and Dave Brubeck. What more could you ask for.

Mr and Mrs Brigadoon had not one but two set ups in their room with the innovative idea of a back to back set up where you turned your chairs 180 degrees to listen to another system. Musical chairs. The Pioneer and Wharfdales sounded good. The Harbeths piqued my interest as I have some and seldom hear them sound well in a demo or at a show but they had it sorted in there. I was admiring the Skylan stands and he said he had built them his self.

The jukebox was a nice touch in the Garden Room.

All in all a great day out and I hope it is repeated in the future.

 
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Brigadoon

Requires Adult Supervision
Wammer
Feb 20, 2015
335
149
0
Stroud
AKA
Barry
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I'm normally a wallflower as you all know but let me suppress my natural shyness and join Nick in thanking everyone for a great day. I too loved the AXJET horns in particular.

It was great to meet the brave and committed Wammers who have made the effort to put on a show in each of their rooms. Fantastic to chat - against the expectedly and deliciously diverse range of music chosen - in slower time than at Scalford due to there being fewer Wam rooms.
It was great to meet both of you and we really enjoyed our highly intellectual discussion about how much foo I had packed into the Kriesler speakers.. :rofl:

Mr and Mrs Brigadoon had not one but two set ups in their room with the innovative idea of a back to back set up where you turned your chairs 180 degrees to listen to another system. Musical chairs. The Pioneer and Wharfdales sounded good. The Harbeths piqued my interest as I have some and seldom hear them sound well in a demo or at a show but they had it sorted in the
It was great to meet a fellow Harbie owner - thanks Pete :^

 
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Pete the Feet

Wammer
Wammer
Mar 9, 2010
11,216
5,221
173
Rochdale, , United K
AKA
Mr Feet
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
It was great to meet a fellow Harbie owner - thanks Pete :^
Walking around the lake today I've been listening to the Sounds of Silence by Disturbed, several times. Never heard it before until you played it yesterday. Brilliant track and version of a great song. I can see what your Mrs said by take care of what track you put on.[emoji106] It's now on my playlist, cheers and many thanks to the both of you.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 
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Fourlegs

WAVE Digital Cables
Wammer
May 5, 2014
6,370
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183
Melton Mowbray
www.wavehighfidelity.com
AKA
Nick
HiFi Trade?
  1. Yes
@TheFlash and I have just had a post Harrogate pint and an evening listening to all the tracks we heard in the pro rooms as well as the wamners. It almost brought tears to our eyes. 

What a great way to discover new music. 

The only thing I will say to the wammers who played it (you know who you are!) this evenings listening reinforced my view that the original 1982 Tin Pan Alley is better than the remixed version. 

The only other other thing to say is that my Amazon cd bill was quite big when I got back  

Great music guys and well done for the two days of exhibiting. Goodness knows how long it will take to recover.

 

harv

Hard working slacker
Wammer Plus
Jan 5, 2006
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163
deepest S.London, ,
AKA
erm... guess
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Still no sign or should I say sound of Harv. I dropped into a room playing some Carol Kidd with a big band and Harv was in there but was quick to mention it wasn't his sort of thing and spun some heavy bass. I was getting worried he hadn't turned up until I heard this.

Next door his brother had a more conservative setup with Spendor's and his apparent musical taste seemed at polar opposites. However it looked like that they had dug up the same patio as they had matching flags as speaker mounts.
Well I do try to please... Actually played a fair bit of non bass obsessed music over the weekend this time... Even played a couple of classical tracks... Yeah I know  :eek:

Well spotted with the paving slabs...  stolen from the mother in law's  :ph34r:

 

orangeart

KJF Audio Ltd
HiFi Trade
Jan 21, 2014
650
247
63
Warwick (ish)
AKA
Stefan
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Walking around the lake today I've been listening to the Sounds of Silence by Disturbed, several times. Never heard it before until you played it yesterday. Brilliant track and version of a great song. I can see what your Mrs said by take care of what track you put on.
emoji106.png
It's now on my playlist, cheers and many thanks to the both of you.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
That really is brilliant. Load up you tube and have a listen to the live version. Obviously not such a good recording, but oh my goodness his voice just makes your skin tingle the who time. I saw an interview somewhere with Paul Simon where he said, 'over the years I've heard loads of covers of our songs and have never been able to really connect with them because I've got Art in my head singing them, now I can only hear the disturbed version' or something like that, high praise indeed.

 

greybeard

Super Wammer
Wammer
Mar 7, 2010
12,022
14,356
208
Cornwall
AKA
Colin
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
The only thing I will say to the wammers who played it (you know who you are!) this evenings listening reinforced my view that the original 1982 Tin Pan Alley is better than the remixed version. 
At least I know what version I have now  :D

 
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Brigadoon

Requires Adult Supervision
Wammer
Feb 20, 2015
335
149
0
Stroud
AKA
Barry
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Walking around the lake today I've been listening to the Sounds of Silence by Disturbed, several times. Never heard it before until you played it yesterday. Brilliant track and version of a great song. I can see what your Mrs said by take care of what track you put on.
emoji106.png
It's now on my playlist, cheers and many thanks to the both of you.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
It was an absolute pleasure - meeting wonderful new people, listening to great music, and sharing the passion for music - heaven! Yes that disturbed version is something quite special - haunting and visceral.  If you want to REALLY sample Disturbed in full flight, listen to "Down with the sickness" :shock: (it's about his abusive mother...)

 

davidf

Newbie
Wammer
Oct 21, 2017
49
55
38
Little Audio Company - Just loved the Wireless Kef LS50, seemed comfortable with a range of music and could really rock. 
Thanks Sumdumgi :)

Loved playing the Infected Mushroom track on them (Astrix On Mushrooms) - I could've left that on repeat all weekend and wondered around the show...

 

Sumdumgi

Interstellar Overdriver
Wammer Plus
Jul 4, 2008
6,828
6,454
193
Durham
AKA
Les
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Thanks Sumdumgi :)

Loved playing the Infected Mushroom track on them (Astrix On Mushrooms) - I could've left that on repeat all weekend and wondered around the show...
I enjoyed that, the Kefs really came alive with it - great demo track now  on one of my Spotify playlists.

 
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lurcher300b

Wammer
New Wammer
Mar 9, 2009
24
0
16
Halifax, , United Ki
LDA (LongDog Audio) - ... no idea what kit it was played on !
Glad you liked it. The kit was:

Prototype Direct Drive Turntable + Ortofon 12" arm + Benz Glider

Music First Step Up TX

Music First Reference Phono Stage (I make them for MFA)

Music First TVC preamp

LDA P6 200W Monoblocks

Graham Audio LS5/9 Speakers

Quadraspire Rack

IsoTek mains conditioner

 

gryphon

Wammer
Wammer
May 18, 2015
119
32
33
Glad you liked it. The kit was:

Prototype Direct Drive Turntable + Ortofon 12" arm + Benz Glider

Music First Step Up TX

Music First Reference Phono Stage (I make them for MFA)

Music First TVC preamp

LDA P6 200W Monoblocks

Graham Audio LS5/9 Speakers

Quadraspire Rack

IsoTek mains conditioner
Are the LDA P6 not for sale anymore?

 

lurcher300b

Wammer
New Wammer
Mar 9, 2009
24
0
16
Halifax, , United Ki
Are the LDA P6 not for sale anymore?
I am only doing them on request only now. They sounded great, but were too big and heavy. So I have taken what’s basically the same circuit and just making the first batch of 100w versions. Electrically the same thing I made for Music First but back under the LDA badge. Target price is £3500  a pair.
 

 

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