[SWG255]

Thanks to those who came by my place last night to hear the Blue Circle BC-202 we originally auditioned in Woodsyi's system last Saturday. This time the amp was driving the RM40s full-range whereas at Woodsyi's it was driving the ribbons only.

I believe the consensus was that the amp is very, very good, but not up to the Extreme Hurricanes in ease of presentation.  With Woodsyi's reference CDs, sibilence was not as well controlled. Woodsyi made the excellent point that in his system the vocals sound more like the live un-amplified performance of opera in a hall, whereas with the BC-202 there might be more detail, but at the expense of hearing those sibilent sounds, which to his ears, are unwanted when trying to reproduce music as he hears it live.

In my system, with the Romeo and Juliette disc, we had to raise the volume almost to the maximum to get satisfying playback levels throughout the disc, and i was worried about the consequences of leaving the volume there when the final movement and climax arrived. We didn't leave the disc in that long, as it is a week night and we all wanted to get to some different material to evaluate the BC-202. I've come to the conclusion that the BC-202 is too insensative to use in my system with my current component mix. I believe this should be taken into account by anyone considering this amplifier with passive preamplification. The amp needs 2.66 volts for full output, and with my modified SCD-1, that's apparently a challenge with some very quiet material or with discs with very wide dynamic range.

I also want to thank Doug and Woodsyi for increasing the toe-in of my RM40s, this did improve the imaging, in the sweet spot and off-axis. I hope I still like the new speakers position when I reluctantly put the Carver ZR-1600 back in my system Saturday.

The BC-202 is a very musical amplifier with many more strengths than one might suppose from reading this post. I hope to get some time to write my final thoughts on it in the Critics Circle before I send it back to Phil.

Thanks again to Rim, Doug, Bill and Scott for a very enjoyable and enlightening evening. Thanks also to Phil at Sonic Spirits for graciously lending us the BC-202 for the week so we could give it a good listen. I'm only sorry I couldn't sell it for you, Phil.  

[woodsyi]

I want to thank Stan for having us over at his place on a "school" night.  It was a pleasure.  I also want to thank Phil for lending us the BC202 to have all this fun with.  It truely is a fine amp and brought out some impressive sound in Stan's RM40s.  When we played Skip, Hop and Wobble CD Doug brought, there was not a loose note anywhere.  The amp delievered fast and accurate plucked notes with just the right pace of decay on acoustic bass strings.  It also has a wonderful tonal balance.  

The only area where I had trouble with it was with sibilence on female voice.  I want to clarify that I am not talking about a display of strident shrills that raises your hackles.  It's just just a little overemphasis on the esses that I pick up on.  I also think I am more aware of it because my native language, Korean, makes extensive use of hard consonants where degree of "hardness" connote different emotive value. Eva Cassidy's Fields of Gold is a good one to test sibilence.  I also heard it at John Casler's apartment through his RM30s powered by Son of Ampzilla amp.  In  both cases I heard more emphasis on the esses than on my system.  On my Opera CD which features collection of Ileana Cortrubas arias, every track was recorded live -- each were previously released on a complete opera that were recorded live at the Met.  With BC202, her voices were heard with a bit of sibilence and a smidgen of metalic sheen as she reached for those high notes.  Her voice is more natural (like hearing at the opera where there are no amplification) in my system.  

Having said all this, I really do want to emphasize that BC202 is a great amp that does everyting really well.  It's short coming was only in comparison to an amp that is twice it's price and in one particular area at that.  Thanks again Phil for the opportunity for us to audition this amp.