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.