New Jersey GTG

[Animo]

Jun 14, 2010 12:21:54 GMT -5 Wideawake said:

Anybody else have an issue with July 24th?

I was scheduled to be in Atlantic City that weekend, but it is not set in stone. The weekend of Aug 5-8, I am definitely booked.

[soulrider4ever]

I set it up with my wife for the 17th, I'll have to check with her regarding the 24th.

[barrynj]

I have prior family obligations for the 24th that can't be altered, but It's OK, you can't accommodate everyone.

[soulrider4ever]

24th is OK for me thus far.

[Wideawake]

Ok. July 24th it is.

Barry, sorry you can't make it and I'm sorry for the mixup in dates. I was looking forward to seeing you again. :-)

So far, we have Animo, Nick, JD, Leo1 and Mr & Mrs Soulrider who are expected to show up.

[barrynj]

Have fun folks!!!

[Animo]

What about MrBen?

[Wideawake]

Ben will be coming too. Received his confirmation after I made my previous post.

[soulrider4ever]

So Ben, you up for bringing the Aleph down??

[Mr. Ben]

Jul 2, 2010 7:06:04 GMT -5 soulrider4ever said:

So Ben, you up for bringing the Aleph down??

I don't think so - I had to assemble my equipment rack around the Aleph, and it's not possible for me to get it back out without taking down a few pieces and then unbolting everything. I'd much rather you bring yours :-). Either way, we should figure out a way to carpool.

[Wideawake]

Ok! I'm going a little crazy today. I sent out my contact info for the NJ GTG and put the wrong dates in the subject and body of the message. I corrected the subject but clicked on send instead of preview and as a result the date in the body of the message is still wrong!!!

Sorry for any confusion but just to confirm the GTG is on July 24th.

[soulrider4ever]

Jul 2, 2010 12:47:49 GMT -5 Mr. Ben said:

Jul 2, 2010 7:06:04 GMT -5 soulrider4ever said:

So Ben, you up for bringing the Aleph down??

I don't think so - I had to assemble my equipment rack around the Aleph, and it's not possible for me to get it back out without taking down a few pieces and then unbolting everything. I'd much rather you bring yours :-). Either way, we should figure out a way to carpool.

OK. I'll think about bringing it

I'm planning on driving my 2 seater convertible (weather permitting), so don't think that'll work out. If however the weather is predicted to be a strong chance of rain early enough we can reconsider the idea.

Saw an Aleph 2 go recently on agon. I wouldn't mind picking that up one day

[Animo]

JD,

sent you a pm.
Be at my place 12 noon on Saturday.
Call me if there are any problems.

[Animo]

Jedinite24

check your PMs and email
give me a call about car pooling!!!
Leaving here tomorrow around 12 noon.

[Animo]

Got home late from Wideawake's GTG so I will post more later, as I am about to leave for a community group breakfast in a few minutes.
No rest for the weary!!!!

[Wideawake]

Thank you Ben, Animo, Leo1 and Nicholas322. Nick brought his girlfriend along. She showed a lot of patience as we discussed various audio equipment and companies. Nick is a lucky guy.

Leo brought his Bel Canto Monoblocks (REF 150s?). We all loved them. I did not expect class D amps to sound this good.

Ben brought his amazing DAC-in-a-cigar-box along, giving more definition to everything we heard.

Animo brought his Oppo 83, which we used as a transport for music and BR (Incredible Hulk).

The other equipment consisted of my usual setup LMC-1, IPS-1, PS3 (used until we replaced it with the Oppo) and my OBs with the DBX 260 external xover.

Animo took a few pictures and I'm sure he'll post them here when he gets the chance.

I had a ball.

[Animo]

Just got back from my community group breakfast. It is so dam hot it's ridiculous. My ac is on it's last legs and with extra fans blowing in my apartment, it's only down to 84 degrees. I might go to sleep in the bath tub. Will post pictures later. BTW it was Nick's Oppo, not mine.

[oregonbill]

Where are the Pics? We demand pics!!

We want pics!! We want pics!! We want pics!! ;D

[Mr. Ben]

I had a great time - thanks to Wideawake and everyone else who came. A few things that I took away:

The DIY speakers sounded great. I had expected the dipole design to have some issues with nulls due to cancellations between the front and backward facing sound waves, but this was not the case. Moving around the room caused some big bass swings, but this is expected in any room. They don't break up even at very loud volumes, maybe because the energy from the back of the drivers gets reflected off the walls and into the room, rather than absorbed by a cabinet. I know that Wideawake likes it loud, so he certainly built the right speakers for his tastes! I feel that my B&W's are more suited to my own tastes, which tends to be quieter with more emphasis on a crisp top end and a holographic midrange.

I thought that the Bel-Cantos did a slightly better job powering the midrange drivers compared to the IPS amp. It thought the differences weren't that big, but since I'm not as familiar with the sound of this setup as Wideawake, he's a better authority than I am on this.

I also swapped in a pair of RCA interconnects that I brought along between the active crossover and midrange amp channels. I thought they smoothed it out a bit, which was a good thing.

[leo1]

Wideawake, thank you so much for the invite! It was great to meet everyone!

The DIY speakers were quite impressive. Coming from my Escalante Design Fremonts, I can say that the speakers we heard on Saturday weren't that far off. maybe a little bit too shy in the bass, but they did disappear and they imaged very, very well.
Ben's DAC was defintely smoking!...Everything sounded like they're tubes in the system...i was very impressed with it...

Thank you for allowing to plug in the BelCanto's monoblocks (300M)...indeed the midrange/highs sounded better than with the Emotiva amp...

Overall, a great afternoon! Bem, thank you for the cookies!