Lowtherhaus and Lowenbraü April 16th

Blackmore · « **Reply #60 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 05:02 am »

Here's a couple of pics.

dwarfed centipede, bside and KenSeger listening to the Lowthers in the main room.

JoeK, Sturgus and MerRev on the couch. We may have been playing Montrose at that point. Don't know what Sturgus was signalling for, too loud to hear him.

Just for you, Scott; we ran the Lowthers on the output of the Yamamoto headphone amp. Can you say 900 milliwatts? A whole new meaning of deep triode.

I had a blast. We played Deep Purple, Montrose and Tenacious D for the crowd using the M12. It got ugly quick.

Had some fun with the little Lejonklou phono preamp that Jim brought and Din bought a PS audio phono pre on the way from Carbondale. It was pretty nice sounding, too.

After-hours listening with Hebrew Hammer and gooberdude was spent swapping amps. The Yamamoto has been plagued with a brightness that I haven't been able to tame. So we added the little 2A3 amp (Black Knight) and it was so smooth. Then we tried the Sophia Baby and it was fun, but not as nice as the Black Knight. And, of course, the Yammie headphone amp sounded great.

Not even a full watt of power and it sounded good. So I decided to swap out the 300B tubes in the big Yamamoto. Brightness tamed. Damn, sure wish I would have swapped out those tubes about 11 hours ago. Apologies to all who endured the Yammie "snap" when we got it loud.

Other fun notes from Lowtherhaus East...Din's Tranquility DAC was very nice. It does sound different and there is something special going on in the mids. Hard to put my finger on it when you're listening with lots of people in the house. Maybe Randy can bring gooberdude's DAC over for some listening.

Thanks to Jim Pendelton who provided some vinyl cleaning solutions and for mixing up a special "Mark's Spinning Solution". I'll try it soon.

Coolest thing of the day....my McIntosh app on the iPad. I now have blue meters to watch when i listen.

Got eclein's headphone mods in, but never got to listen to them yet. Bob in St. Louis and I were going to listen, but got sidetracked with talking about what a great driver Ed is on GT5 on the PS3.

Again, thanks to everyone who spent gas $$ getting all the way out west to join the audio crawl. I had fun seeing everyone again and talking speakers, tubes, etc.

Blackmore · « **Reply #61 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 05:06 am »

I forgot..my favorite line from Lowtherhaus came from Bob in St. Louis. I treated him to Tenacious D's Kielbasa Sausage. "I believe I'm offended" I don't think it was the lyrics as much as the decibels coming off the M12.

I forget just how stupid loud those things can play with 40 watts of tube power.

My favorite sounds of the day were from Sturgus' recording of Bags Groove on vinyl. That is a great album and it sounded sweet on the table.

gooberdude · « **Reply #62 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 06:26 am »

Thanks again to Randy & Mark & your significant others. I just got home!! You two should really consider moving to St Louis at some point

Both rooms sounded great. Marks house is Disney World for a gear head. Last time I experienced that much swapping 2 chicks got pregnant!

Seriously, it was great to meet everyone - even Bob in StL

Scott F. · « **Reply #63 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 12:13 pm »

Boy, I wish I would have been able to make it

Fortunate for you guys I didn't otherwise I'd have given everybody my cold

I was really looking forward to hearing Randy's speakers. Would have loved to hear the Yammie headphone amp driving the Lowthers

So was the Lowenbrau any good? I didn't keep one for tasting.

Blackmore · « **Reply #64 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 12:56 pm »

Yeah Scott, you need to hear the Lowthers driven by a pair of WE408a

Here's a few more pics;

Matt and Rafi doing some listening. I think that might have been during the Bill Evans lp.

This is the little Lejonklou Kinki 3 phono pre. Nice little unit, but we should have used the Blackbird instead of the AQ 404i. The Kinki is designed for MM and the medium output AQ didn't have enough juice to do the Kinki justice.

Bryan was giving out some great acoustic tips to Ken.

Here's a partial list of tunes we spun. ( I have temporary memory loss after the Consonance M12s

)
Natalie Merchant "Tiger Lily"
Bill Evans "Sunday at the Village Vanguard"
Buddy Guy
Tenacious D "Kielbasa Sausage"
Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"
Beethoven String Quartets Alban Berg Quartet
Sufjan Stevens "Illinois"
Joanna Newsome "Ys"
Norah Jones "Live from Austin TX"
The Best of Julie London (thanks Kent)
Brian Bromberg "Wood"
Patricia Barber "Live from Paris"

and then I can't remember.

BPT · « **Reply #65 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 01:02 pm »

Sorry I missed it guys (had to work). Sounds like it was a blast. Have to make it out to Randy's to hear his latest setup.
Chris H.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #66 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 02:18 pm »

First off, I'd like to give a BIG thanks to the wives that endured us.

Thank you very much for allowing us to come. I had a GREAT time.

I've got a bunch of photos, but uploading is going slow. Can only do a couple at a time.

Here's the first batch from Randy's house:
{sorry for the short post. had so much more to say, more later....gotta go}..........

Scott F. · « **Reply #67 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 02:26 pm »

Quote from: Blackmore on 17 Apr 2011, 12:56 pm

Here's a partial list of tunes we spun. ( I have temporary memory loss after the Consonance M12s )

What, no Maggot Brain ?

bpape · « **Reply #68 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 02:32 pm »

Many thanks to Mark and Randy for the great hospitality. Great tunes, great friends, great food, what else can you ask for. Both places were sounding very good yesterday.

Bryan

Hebrew Hammer · « **Reply #69 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 02:38 pm »

I had a blast guys and thanks to all who came.... I think I have more fun talking to everybody during any of these functions then listening...lol

But we need to do this more often...

And I need to get going on making the racks to clean up the wire mess... yuck!!!!

P.S. Chris and Scott, just let me know if and when you want to make it out...

Blackmore · « **Reply #70 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 02:51 pm »

No Maggot Brain..........sort of makes the event incomplete. I'll go spin it now to make up. Bpape, great to see you again. It has been WAY too long. Sturgus, too. I think it's been about 4 years since Sturgus has made the trip. (of course, it's been that long since I've been to his house, too.

)

Now that we have things rolling let's keep up the hosting. The audio crawl worked out better than I expected. Maybe we could try something similar in town. Set up a few places and let people sort of roll in when they can and hear some new material. That's my only regret, I didn't get to hear too many new songs. We need to spend more time digging out new/old material that might be new to others. I think Ken brought two cases of tunes and we never even broke them open.

The greatest thing about yesterday was seeing everybody. Din and Rafi from 3 hours away in Southern Illinois, Ken and Joe finally made it out west. MerRev, let me know when you want to slap that crossover into the mix at your house. I had such a great time meeting some new guys and hanging with all the GAS diehards.

bside123 · « **Reply #71 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 03:22 pm »

Hey Everybody! Here's a big thanks to Mark and Randy from me and Rafi. We really enjoyed ourselves... and the drive from Southern IL as well. On the way up to STL (I mean Kansas), it was rainy and cold, but the tunes and good company blew away the dark clouds. The ride back was sunny and gorgeous.

This was the first time that I got to hear full-range drivers like the Lowthers. For me, the sound of the Lowthers is completely different than any of my previous listening experiences. Here's another thing I love about "Audio," there's so many different styles and textures to listening to music.

Randy's "garage work" is absolutely incredible. The system in the new sound room was sounding really good. Buddy Guy was playing when we showed up via a Tranquility DAC and Mac Mini. Randy has a real eye for art and an ear for sound.

Over at Marks on the hand... we'll what can I say? Mark's house is an "audio adventure mysterioso extravaganza." Mark even provided "cots" downstairs for guys to rest when they got listening fatigue to LOUD music. Mark... don't deny it. Deep Purple was your fault... though I know I did egg you on.

Some of the other music and memories I had about the day was:

Neil Young "Tonight's The Night"
Cassandra Wilson "Silver Pony"
Oliver Nelson "Blues In The Abstract Truth"
Alban Berg Quartet Playing Beetoven

Randy's Dad's Merrill turntable sounded really good. The Tranquility SE DAC sounded okay... I think it would take just a little time to dial-in the DAC to Mark's system in it's current configuration with the Lowthers to get it just right. Nonetheless, the Tranquility was able to show off some of it's potential particularly in the mid range. The Consonance speakers made me want to slap somebody and made me happy that Mark won them. I would really love to spend more time with the Yamamoto gear. It seemed pretty special to me.

Thanks again to everybody... especially enjoyed the warm feeling of friendship. We are looking forward to hosting another even here and having everybody back down to the farm sometime soon. Thanks again to Mark and Randy for your hospitality. Best regards, Din

Here's a picture of Captain Blackmore surveying his Audio Ship.

Scott F. · « **Reply #72 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 03:26 pm »

Quote from: Blackmore on 17 Apr 2011, 02:51 pm

Now that we have things rolling let's keep up the hosting. The audio crawl worked out better than I expected. Maybe we could try something similar in town. Set up a few places and let people sort of roll in when they can and hear some new material.

I couldn't agree more. Catastrofe mentioned that he was considering a preamp party maybe next month. Maybe that's the time to try the next audio crawl

Since he is doing something in May, I'll be more than happy to push mine to June. Quite frankly, I could use some more time as I've run into a couple of extra things I want to build into the basement remodel that are going to take a few extra weeks (I only get weekends to work on this thing).

So no feedback on the Lowenbrau? Did anybody get a pic of the banner and beer together?

bside123 · « **Reply #73 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 03:37 pm »

Hey Scott! Here's a shout. We all missed you. Get better soon. I am sure that if you had been there, we woulda' had "Maggot Brain."

KenSeger · « **Reply #74 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 04:07 pm »

A big thank you to Randy and Mark, and well worth the drive. I always learn so much about acoustics and gear, now if I can just remember it all!

Mark you are only about a 45 minute drive from my house, maybe we can get together some time afer I finish all the various house projects and honey-do's and explore some old vinyl.

Ken

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #75 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 06:09 pm »

Quote from: Scott F. on 17 Apr 2011, 03:26 pm

So no feedback on the Lowenbrau? Did anybody get a pic of the banner and beer together?

That was the first Lowenbray I'd ever had. Very nice, very smooth. Thanks for thak Mark. yummy.
No pictures though. I didn't see the banner until it was being rolled up.

Here's some more pics at Randy's house:

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #76 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 06:14 pm »

And some at Mark's house;

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #77 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 08:16 pm »

By the way Mak, did you ever fire up the Grado 'phones?

Blackmore · « **Reply #78 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 11:51 pm »

I did do some listening with the Grados today and I really like them. The extended shells become a circular "U cabinet". That gives a bit of warmth that is nice and the bass is better. Maybe the dynamat helps reduce frame vibrations?

To be honest I haven't used these cans for some time because I never found them that engaging and had moved on to newer phones. But after hearing them this morning, I find them very lively and open sounding. I expect to use them on a regular basis now, it's that much better. Very cool upgrade.

vhiner · « **Reply #79 on:** 17 Apr 2011, 11:58 pm »

Looks like I missed a killer shindig! Thanks for all the great pics.

I'll take my thrills where I can get them, even if they're only vicarious. I've heard catastrophe's Salks and we're in for a treat if he can host next month.