[Berndt]

Next Saturday there will be an event at the Randall museum in their auditorium.
A pre amp shoot out with the randall museum going up against the John Atwoods Artemis pre.
John Atwood will also be in attendance.
Our preamp class is taking a field trip for the day to hear this.
I believe it begins at noon.
Regards, Bill

[Berndt]

News Flash.... John Atwood will be at this meeting


Now to the usual meeting email:

 
WHO:  You

Where:  Randall Museum

WHEN:  1:00PM to 5:00PM, Saturday, 16 February 2008

WHAT:  A meeting of the TUBE AUDIO GROUP

WHY:  To compare John's LA-1 to Edwin's Line Amp. and

             to compare John's PH-1 to Alex's Phono Pre Amp.

If you have music CD's that you like we may have time to play them.
If you have Phonograph records you like we may have time to play them.

Please forward this email to anyone you think may be interested.

[GBB]

Bill,
This looks like fun. 
What's the best way to get to the Randall Museum?  I'll probably be driving up 280. 
---Gary

[Berndt]

The Randall is a tough one to give directions to.
http://www.randallmuseum.org/Default.aspx?tabid=95
Call me if you need extra guidance.
I'll pm you my #.
Regards, Bill

[Alex T]

I missed the "tasting notes" at the end.  Was there a concensus?  My brother and I agreed that Edwin kicked ass in the vinyl contest, but that it was hard call a winner for the CD portion.  Everything sounded awesome to me, especially the Oscar Peterson cut.  I'd love to hear what everyone else thought.

[Berndt]

Alex, after a few cuts in the intro my tinitus kicked in.
When my ears start to ring, the details get lost in the hash.
Thought the class pre was good, albiet the Artemis had more inner detail.
That is as good as I can do.
The eastern electric was not a stinker in this mix either.
Depending on the input it held it's own quite well.

[GBB]

I missed the "tasting notes" at the end.  Was there a concensus?  My brother and I agreed that Edwin kicked ass in the vinyl contest, but that it was hard call a winner for the CD portion.  Everything sounded awesome to me, especially the Oscar Peterson cut.  I'd love to hear what everyone else thought.

I stayed almost until the end of the vinyl listening session but then had to leave so I missed any final wrap up.

Here's what I heard.  During the CD listening session, the Artemis LA-1 line stage was clearly superior to Edwin's preamp or the Eastern Electric.  It had a bigger soundstage and did a better job conveying the micro and macro dynamics and decay of instruments.  By comparison, Edwin's preamp sounded slightly rolled off.  Another problem with the system was that the DRD amplifiers seemed a bit underpowered for the very big listening space, so peaks could get a bit congested as the system was driven too hard.  But for some reason this was less noticeable with the Artemis.

During the phono session, I agree that the Artemis phono and line stage sounded a bit too bright.  I was sitting next to John Atwood during this part of the meeting and his view was that the brightness was coming from the amps and speakers and the Artemis was just showing their flaws.
Edwin's phono stage and the other one using 6C45P tubes both did sound better with fuller bass that was more enjoyable.  Both phono stages were being played through Edwin's preamp.  Atwood told me he thought the roll off of Edwin's preamp helped tame the brightness from the speaker/amps and that's why the sound was better with that combo.  It's all about synergy and the weaknesses of the speaker/amps matched well with the weakness of Edwin's phono stage, netting a better overall sound.
Of course this doesn't explain why the same thing wasn't true via CD.  So there's a bit of a mystery here.  I know a lot of people who think the Artemis phono is superb but in this case it didn't do too well. 

---Gary

[Alex T]

Bill, did you agree with the commenter who thought the music was too loud (I ask because of your comment about tinitus).

Gary, thanks for sharing your thoughts.  As a novice audiophile, I must confess I didn't hear the larger soundstage on the LA-1.  This is a good thing, since I'm building the unit with the deficient soundstage (Edwin's).  I think it would be easier to evaluate if they used 30 second segments -- I found it difficult to remember how a particular passage sounded on the previous system(s).  Experience probably helps with this, as you learn what to listen for and develop points of reference for sound reproduction.

[Berndt]

My tinitus is not directly connected to loudness, or brightness.
It is kind of like a dog whistle thing, at some threshold my nerves call it quits and start my ears ringing.
I must agree with Gary's summation of the pre shoot out though.
Glad to see you Gary.
Bill

[GBB]

I must agree with Gary's summation of the pre shoot out though.
Glad to see you Gary.

Bill,
Good to see you as well.

I hope I didn't come across as too negative about the Randall class preamp.  I actually thought that all 3 preamps were pretty good and definitely better than most standard audiophile stuff out there.  But somehow the Artemis did even more of what I like than the others.  The manual for the Artemis is available for download on the web and it even includes a simplified schematic:
http://www.artemislabs.com/docs/LA1_Manual_1.pdf

It's got a good regulated power supply, it's got a choke loaded tube gain stage so it's really linear, and it has just a touch of negative feedback to make it less sensitive to cable loading.  Which is exactly what John Atwood talked about during his lecture.

---Gary

[Berndt]

Alex, I certainly don't want to give you undue new prejudices.
As Edwin told you, you gotta hear a bunch of systems to build your data base.
Klipsch Choruses were my first big step into audio, followed by an NAD 100w amp.
It was the first stereo that only took me one song for the neighbors to start banging on the door.
Still love to have you over, bring your bro'.
Think of as a science project, surrender the ego, (that's my personal mantra, FWIW)

[Alex T]

The most fantastic thing about the event last saturday was the fact that everything sounded great to me.  I came away thinking that if I manage to get into this type of audio on any kind of level I'll be in audio bliss.  The Klipsch Choruses sounded wonderful, and finding out that they're affordable was a revelation.  The, uh, form factor, is a bit of an issue in my lil apt., but space might be a reasonable sacrifice for enormous detailed sound like that.  There is a science project aspect to all of this, which i enjoy.  I actually made a crystal radio when I was a kid, using books written for boys of the cold war space age era (there was a wealth of such books at my local public library -- wonder if they're still there).  But this is science in the service of art. 

Gary, thanks for your detailed comments.  Your thoughts help to put my perceptions into perspective.  Also very cool to get the inside line on John Atwood's thoughts.

Bill, I would love to listen and hang out soon.  Was very happy to read Edwin's email and learn that we'll be firing up some linestages tomorrow.  Your copper creation will be among them I'm sure.  See you then.

Regards,

Alex