Category: Music

Goodbye McCoy

I hate saying goodbye. However, that’s life and it’s sad to see the great people jump on the next bus. I was very young when I first heard McCoy Tyner. I was learning saxophone when obviously Coltrane took me to him and his piano. Unique style, complex tempo and chords made Coltrane explore the deep end. That Coltrane Quartet was magic.

He did a lot for music indeed. More importantly he made a big difference to a few individuals on the planet, including me. Probably my love for music and thrive for innovation was due to him and Trane.

Many moons back went to see Mingus Big Band in New York. On the table next to us, McCoy sat down with Mingus’ wife. We were crazy about his presence but didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable. We had a nice brief conversation and enjoyed the music as equal audience members. Still, his presence next to me disturbed my mind.

I will spin a Love Supreme and My Favourite things on vinyl tonight. Have a good trip McCoy, I will continue to enjoy your magic…

ETF.18 DHT Preamps Lecture

ETF.18 has been an emotional journey. I moved house literarily when I got back from ETF so my life has been more than hectic over the past few weeks.

I promise I will do a write-up of this amazing experience. There’s a lot of people out there who would love to attend so is my duty to reflect and share as much as I can.

In the meantime, I wanted to share the lecture I gave at ETF on DHT preamps. It was a challenge on its own but went really well. This was my first ETF and without knowing the audience I had to guess the level of detail, entertainment and expectations of an unknown audience. I knew a fair bit of the ETF folks, but audience was big and wide.

I struggled to find the time to prepare this lecture I have to confess. Between moving house, house building works, my second daughter’s arrival , weekly work travel and everything else, I seemed not to find the time to get this done. Thank you Morgan Jones and Rod Coleman for proof-reading and making this an easier task.

I hope you enjoy it. There are some notes on the slides I put together for the people who didn’t attend ETF. Otherwise the slides aren’t of much use on their own.

I’m writing this blog entry whilst enjoying the lovely Bourbon that Pete Millett gave me on the way back. Thanks Pete!

ETF Lecture on DHT Preamps (with notes):

DHT-Preamps-ETF2018-final-notes

ETF Lecture on DHT Preamps (slides):

DHT-Preamps-ETF2018-final

Tuning the system for ETF

This year I entered the shootout competition and will bring my DHT system to the European Triode Festival in France. It’s comprised of the ER801a stage plus the 01a (if extra gain is needed) and the 4P1L PSE output stage

I will have to swap out the amorphous OPT for the Monolith Magnetic ones as the speaker load is 5R.

It’s going to be interesting!

DHT Audio Shootout @ London

Here’s the summary of the shootout day we had yesterday at my place with  Tony Rees and Andy Evans

Test Music

For testing the pre-amps Andy suggested the following 2 tracks:

  1.  Ravel Feria (Cleveland/Boulez)
  2. Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen Act 3 Scene 7 “A vixen’s running through the woods” Prague Theatre/Gregor


The Ravel is orchestrated for a large orchestra and percussion, and listening was particularly for the timbre of strings, brass and woodwind and the clarity of the percussion. The Janacek is for several different voices and chorus, and listening was for the tone and character of the voices and how well they were differentiated from each other. In both cases the overall clarity, life and crispness was considered.

Andy Evans

Although I wasn’t familiarised enough with these 2 tracks myself, I found them to be an excellent choice and a reflection of Andy’s musical experience and knowledge as musician. 

Continue reading “DHT Audio Shootout @ London”

Welcome baby Sofia

 

On Sunday 19th our lovely baby girl Sofia arrived in St George’s Hospital in London. Both mum and  baby girl are doing fine and we are trying to adjust to the new lifestyle.

SofiaShe’s a musical baby. In fact, back in the operations theatre room I sung to her “Rocky Racoon” to sooth her once the medical team gave it to me for the first time. We used to play the Beatles’ white album frequently during her pregnancy and am sure she recognised the tune.

She loves “Ella Fitzgerald” and it’s one of my favourite records to play on at 2 or 3 in the morning to get her back to sleep

I’m still enjoying playing the valve amps whilst it last. It will be probably for another 4 months so best to get the most out of them

I’m a happy dad…

Ale

01a Preamp Gen2 finished!

01a preamp gen2 finishedFirst build of 2015, just after the New Year. I’m pleased to listen to the 01a preamp gen2 finished. It’s a beauty, only the warm sound of the 01a thoriated tungsten filaments can provide. A perfect match to the Starlight CD player that was lacking of a bit of gain.

It’s dead quiet, the frequency response is superb and the dynamics are there. Very good bass that improves what I was getting out of the discrete DAC. I love listening to this preamp. A great pleasure. Thumbs up to the return of the 01a. My best Sylvania globe valves are now in use, yay!

Will soon write a proper blog entry for this ultimate preamp.

 

Merry Christmas!

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It is so great to have another Christmas. It gives us an opportunity to wind down and spend proper time with our loves ones. The ones who are physically with us, and remember the ones who are no longer here, but still very present in our memories.

In fact, we all look forward to the holiday period to crack on with our projects. We all have a pile of endless projects and ideas and no better time than Christmas to start working on them.

Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”