LURCHES South Coast Summer Bake-off, Sunday August 14th PO19.

GLB

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Oct 4, 2015
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Chris Schwar
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Had a great time as always , all kit was great fell in love with the arc ref 3 , jesses kit as always sounded very good her pre and ps1 combined together is top notch and the wad was i thought epic on the zens i was very pleased with all the results , great to meet up with Jon (rockchild) he made both journeys feel a lot easier and was a great travelling companion so thanks for that , also a few new faces fitted in as always brilliantly , as well as the usual southcoast crew , and the great bond of friendship and hobby we all share lives on for many new memories .
 

Rockchild

Formerly Radiant Red 🎶
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Jonathan
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Had a great time as always , all kit was great fell in love with the arc ref 3 , jesses kit as always sounded very good her pre and ps1 combined together is top notch and the wad was i thought epic on the zens i was very pleased with all the results , great to meet up with Jon (rockchild) he made both journeys feel a lot easier and was a great travelling companion so thanks for that , also a few new faces fitted in as always brilliantly , as well as the usual southcoast crew , and the great bond of friendship and hobby we all share lives on for many new memories .
Not forgetting the view we got at the Petrol station on the way home too Chris 😂
 
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Jules_S

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Big thanks again to John for hosting another great south-coast bake-off. Lovely to see all the usual faces and to meet others whom I've only spoken to online before yesterday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, chips and all! The only slight disappointment was that we didn't really get to try out a digital front-end - I only brought CDs this time so was unable to assault enthral you all with my sensational musical tastes 😁

Hope to catch up with some of you before the show!
 
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Jessica_k

Girl and her Valves
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Apr 27, 2019
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Jessica
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Another great day out at Lurch Towers, thank you John. It was good to see new faces too.

I have a few pics taken with my phone, the lighting was difficult for the first as I have tried to get the dark grey speakers to show up.
73099911-1704-4700-84FA-7913F832A51E.jpeg

The kit in use there was my A2D pre and phono stage (now in its new orange clothes) driven by Brooks lovely NA space acoustics turntable, with output power supplied a WAD kat 6550, sound created by Chris's Acoustic Zen speakers and mains conditioned by Puritan.
B426311E-9EA2-4B88-8FEE-804A3A01D729.jpeg

F6B70A0E-4122-4857-BFAC-D881A998FB46.jpeg
Later Brooks, big bottle and Robin's ARC pre. was substituted for the A2D combo

EFF2B786-A50F-45E9-9FF7-CC152D7AEE79.jpeg

This is where my photos run out.

The WAD and ARC pre was then replaced by Jules's ARC integrated that did a great job on its own, but I think worked best when used as a power amp and combined with the ARC pre.

A neurochrome modulus-286 power amp was then added, interesting comments where made when it was thought to be a class D, such as it sounded unlike any D heard. Later it was discovered it was a class AB. It did a good job but personally I did not think it was in the same class as the ARC or WAD.

A lot of further combinations of the kit where made, and I think there were two brilliant combinations that really sang in the playroom
A2D combo of pre and phono with the WAD and the BB3 and ARC combo, though any combination produced great sound and with more listening time and software it is open for debate.

The constants throughout the day; The Acoustic Zens did a brilliant job and improved over the day, the long trip from Cornwall not helping and they needed time to settle and the NA front end that would proud any system.

Jessica xx
 

Speedracer

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Brook
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Yet another great day at Lurch Towers, with a big turnout it was the hottest bake off I have ever attended, so much so a bunch of us decide,d to spend most of the chatting outside & taking advantage of John & Jack's hard work getting lots of chairs & parasols on the patio area. Something I wish in hindsight I had done more of, but for a combination of reasons that didn't happen, mainly the CDP that was promised didn't show, & I did a hasty arm swap the night before & Jack noticed the back of the arm was tail up, which I was going to leave but of course once that comment had been around my head a few times I had to change it. This had the knock on effect of the arm lift not raising the arm off the record so I decided to take charge of the disc playing to prevent any damage to my records. With all the valves that were in attendance in the playroom boy was it hot!

The slight disagreement Jack mentioned upstream about competition was resolved amicably, we are mates & we are allowed to have different points of view! I understand Jack's, & think it has merits, at the last bake off we attended we did exactly that, as it was an exercise in evaluating equipment that one of our number wanted to sell & wanted to accurately describe its merits, absolutely no problem with that, but for me a bake off is a relaxed affair, in particular the South Coast Possy, who are an established group who have formed strong friendships over the years, although new guests are always welcome, & the social side of things, the banter, the food etc plays a huge part in the day. John's front room is the dedicated "Play Room", where we all bring bring bits of our equipment & cobble together a base system & swap bits in & out throughout the day, & listening to the same 2 or 3 tracks over & over again is just not my thing, it isn't hard to hear what a particular amp/phono stage/pre etc does once inserted, rather than say "Chris's speakers are much better than Paul's". I think that is irrelevant, they might sound "better" in that room with that kit, but what matters is what it does in the owner's system, in their room.
In the event, we did get to hear a few of the same tracks with different combinations, partly because I forgot to take a large selection of records I had put to one side, so everyone was happy (?)

Next up on the bake off train is a visit to Snoop Dogs (Steve), with some really top notch stuff to listen to, bring it on. I don't have to worry about forgetting my records this time though, I am not sure if Steve knows what they are.
:D
 

Jessica_k

Girl and her Valves
Wammer
Apr 27, 2019
281
346
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Clanfield Hampsure
AKA
Jessica
HiFi Trade?
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Yet another great day at Lurch Towers, with a big turnout it was the hottest bake off I have ever attended, so much so a bunch of us decide,d to spend most of the chatting outside & taking advantage of John & Jack's hard work getting lots of chairs & parasols on the patio area. Something I wish in hindsight I had done more of, but for a combination of reasons that didn't happen, mainly the CDP that was promised didn't show, & I did a hasty arm swap the night before & Jack noticed the back of the arm was tail up, which I was going to leave but of course once that comment had been around my head a few times I had to change it. This had the knock on effect of the arm lift not raising the arm off the record so I decided to take charge of the disc playing to prevent any damage to my records. With all the valves that were in attendance in the playroom boy was it hot!

The slight disagreement Jack mentioned upstream about competition was resolved amicably, we are mates & we are allowed to have different points of view! I understand Jack's, & think it has merits, at the last bake off we attended we did exactly that, as it was an exercise in evaluating equipment that one of our number wanted to sell & wanted to accurately describe its merits, absolutely no problem with that, but for me a bake off is a relaxed affair, in particular the South Coast Possy, who are an established group who have formed strong friendships over the years, although new guests are always welcome, & the social side of things, the banter, the food etc plays a huge part in the day. John's front room is the dedicated "Play Room", where we all bring bring bits of our equipment & cobble together a base system & swap bits in & out throughout the day, & listening to the same 2 or 3 tracks over & over again is just not my thing, it isn't hard to hear what a particular amp/phono stage/pre etc does once inserted, rather than say "Chris's speakers are much better than Paul's". I think that is irrelevant, they might sound "better" in that room with that kit, but what matters is what it does in the owner's system, in their room.
In the event, we did get to hear a few of the same tracks with different combinations, partly because I forgot to take a large selection of records I had put to one side, so everyone was happy (?)

Next up on the bake off train is a visit to Snoop Dogs (Steve), with some really top notch stuff to listen to, bring it on. I don't have to worry about forgetting my records this time though, I am not sure if Steve knows what they are.
:D
Oh there will be a vinly system there. Steve has requested my phono/pre/and VP12, though John is interrested in the 401 being present; ether way a TT will be there so may need your records LOL

Jessica xx
 
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It Cost How Much!?!

Twisted
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Oct 27, 2008
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Bob
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Another great day out at Lurch Towers, thank you John. It was good to see new faces too.

I have a few pics taken with my phone, the lighting was difficult for the first as I have tried to get the dark grey speakers to show up.
73099911-1704-4700-84FA-7913F832A51E.jpeg

The kit in use there was my A2D pre and phono stage (now in its new orange clothes) driven by Brooks lovely NA space acoustics turntable, with output power supplied a WAD kat 6550, sound created by Chris's Acoustic Zen speakers and mains conditioned by Puritan.
B426311E-9EA2-4B88-8FEE-804A3A01D729.jpeg

F6B70A0E-4122-4857-BFAC-D881A998FB46.jpeg
Later Brooks, big bottle and Robin's ARC pre. was substituted for the A2D combo

EFF2B786-A50F-45E9-9FF7-CC152D7AEE79.jpeg

This is where my photos run out.

The WAD and ARC pre was then replaced by Jules's ARC integrated that did a great job on its own, but I think worked best when used as a power amp and combined with the ARC pre.

A neurochrome modulus-286 power amp was then added, interesting comments where made when it was thought to be a class D, such as it sounded unlike any D heard. Later it was discovered it was a class AB. It did a good job but personally I did not think it was in the same class as the ARC or WAD.

A lot of further combinations of the kit where made, and I think there were two brilliant combinations that really sang in the playroom
A2D combo of pre and phono with the WAD and the BB3 and ARC combo, though any combination produced great sound and with more listening time and software it is open for debate.

The constants throughout the day; The Acoustic Zens did a brilliant job and improved over the day, the long trip from Cornwall not helping and they needed time to settle and the NA front end that would proud any system.

Jessica xx
I do like the orange phono stage, very fetching.
 

Lurch

Piss-taker & Gobshite Par Excelle'nce
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Sep 17, 2016
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Pleased you all had a great day, would love to make it to one of these south coast bake-off's, the 250 mile journey is just too far.
Come down on the Saturday and return on the Monday, happy to sort you a camp-bed.
 

antonio66

Well-Known Wammer
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Aug 12, 2018
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David
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Very kind of you to make that offer John, at my age though I'd be lucky if I could walk the next morning after sleeping on a camp bed. I'm sure a hotel could be found, and like you say, make a weekend of it.
 
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