November 2017 SAC Meeting
Our November club meeting is the last Sydney Audio Club for the calendar year. (We’ll be back January 21st 2018!)
For November, we are very pleased to have Cameron Pope of Krispy Audio ( http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/pages/About-Us.html ) present. Cameron has presented to the Sydney Audio Club a few times before, each time bringing in something different and very musical. This time Cameron is bringing in another superb system based on the unusual and stylistic looking Oswald Mills Audio speakers and the Esoteric Grandioso K1 SACD/CD player.
Details of the system….
Oswalds Mill Audio Minis. From Eastern Pennsylvania USA – a good read at the OMA story. Taken from Oswald Mill’s website… “The OMA Mini is a unique two way horn based speaker with the performance of speakers much larger. The OMA Mini enclosure is a 14 cube, and the speaker stands 57".
More info at http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/products/Oswalds-Mill-Audo-Mini-.html and
https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/mini
Esoteric Grandioso K1 SACD player. Taken from Esoteric’s website… “The supreme Super Audio CD player reigning over all other single chassis models”. Features … VRDS-NEO VMK-3.5-20S; VS-DD* Spindle Servo Driver and Proprietary Toroidal Power Supply; Newly Designed Integrated Dual Monaural D/A Converters for the Ultimate in Quality; 35-bit D/A Processing for Outstanding Powers of Musical Expression; Esoteric-HCLD*1: Esoteric's Proprietary Current-Enhancing Output Buffer Circuit; USB Support for 11.2 MHz DSD, 384 kHz/32-bit PCM, and Asynchronous Transmission; High-Precision VCXO Clock.
More info at http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/products/Esoteric-K1-Grandioso-SACD-player.html and
http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/k1/indexe.html
Bespoke Audio passive preamplifier. Taken from a review at MonoAndStereo … “The Bespoke Audio Company’s first product, their TVC based passive preamplifier, shows in a striking manner what can be achieved with this approach - in the ultimate sense. The sound it produces illuminates the depths of every recording that crosses its path, removing all veils and adding no sonic imprint whatsoever. Add to that the extremely elegant visual aesthetics, a variety of available custom finishes, aided by the top notch build quality and a first rate customer support and you get a product that in my opinion deserves to join the elite company of Mono & Stereo Upper Echelon award.”
More info at http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/products/The-Bespoke-Audio-Co.-Preamplifier.html
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/05/the-bespoke-audio-company-preamplifier.html and
http://www.thebespokeaudiocompany.com
Manley Labs Neo-Classic 300B amplifier. Recently underwent 6 months of intensive re-engineering. Now ships with the Electro-Harmonix Russian 300B tubes.
More info at http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/products/Manley-Neo%2dClassic-SE{47}PP-300B-monoblock-amplifiers.html and
http://www.manley.com/products/view/nsepp
Shunyata Research cabling.
More info at http://www.krispyaudio.com.au/categories/Cables/ and http://shunyata.com
The second half of the music sessions will be our popular BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD/SACD (sorry, no vinyl again this month!). All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
Venue: Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park
Address: 26 Stanley Road, Epping
When: Sunday 19th November 2017
Doors open 1pm
Meeting starts at 2pm
Best regards,
Tom Waters
President
Sydney Audio Club
W: www.sydneyaudioclub.org.au
FB: https://www.facebook.com/sydneyaudioclub
E: [email protected]
Follow up Report
Our last club meeting for the calendar year yielded a wonderful day with lots of great food, great music, a superb system, great company and fun. A good way to end the year!
Our BBQ started at 1:00 but was really ramping up to full steam by around 1:30 – we had many people that were enjoying the best value BBQ in town – sausages, buns, cooked onions, salads, nibbles, chips, nuts, beer, wine, soft drinks – all for only $5.00 per person. No, the club doesn’t make money, but that isn’t the point or the purpose. The purpose is to bring people together for an enjoyable day.
We wrapped up our BBQ just after 2:00 and everyone converged into the hall. We then had our AGM, as we usually do at our November club meeting. This was a short affair whereby George dissolved the committee and then read out all the nominations for the Committee roles. All were voted in one by one. Our bank financial statement for the year ending June 30th 2017 was also approved. For the record, the Committee has Andrew Baldwin (no official title), David Minarik as our Public Officer, George Davidson as Vice- President, Keith Morris as Treasurer, Stephanos Eliades as Secretary, Steven Polley as Events Coordinator and me Tom Waters as President. We are also ably supported by Paul Bryant who looks after our Facebook site, and Ray Eade who looks after our website.
Our presenter, Cameron Pope of Krispy Audio, was then introduced (not that he really needed it as everyone knows him!), and got the floor around 2:15. Cameron explained the system components, divulged the pricing when people asked, and then played us some music. Cameron brought in another great system – this time based on the imaginative Oswald Mills Audio speakers from Pennsylvania USA. These were fairly tall speakers with bass cabinets made out of bamboo (see photos below). They are very unusual bespoke speakers that exude quality and uniqueness. They mated quite well with our room – we can experience bass issues in our room, but such issues didn’t surface with these speakers much to our surprise and joy. All the components were top-notch (and quite expensive!) and the result was very good sound.
I did a head count when our meeting opened – we had 52 people which is a gratifying outcome. We had quite a few guests as well, and two new members were introduced to the audience. Thanks all for your continued support..!!
Here is some feedback lifted from our Feedback forms. Note that the speakers and the Esoteric SACD/CD player were quite expensive, which was reflected in some of the comments:
"Good effort. Thank you."
"Thank you for end of year BBQ and social."
"Horns had a very pleasant sound. Need more bass."
"Lovely system. Pity about the price. Thanks Cameron."
"Thanks for another enjoyable get together. Liked system very much. Very well matched."
"Good balance for the room."
"Beer, sausages and salad good. System expensive."
"Good way to finish off this year."
"The system was good."
"Very friendly and enjoyable meeting."
"Great looking system."