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UK loan programme

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Fatmangolf View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: UK loan programme
    Posted: 09 Oct 2011 at 9:55pm
We will be posting details of the UK loan programme in the next few days, explaining how you can try out a Graham Slee Product in your home. The loan period will be long enough to burn-in the equipment before serious listening and comparisons, after which you will be responsible for posting it back.
 
More details to follow, please watch this topic.
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Fatmangolf View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2011 at 12:33am

Graham has kindly supplied many of the GSP Audio phono preamps, headphone amps, and some Cusat cables so UK members of this forum can borrow them. There are SMPSU and PSU1 mains supplies to accompany them so you can hear a GSP unit at home, and find out how good each one sounds.

You will need to cover the postage each way (I will post the typical costs for each piece of equipment soon) but I have packaging materials that you can re-use to send the equipment back after the loan. The loan in the UK is for a two week trial to allow burn-in and listening in your system.
 
Phono preamps:
Gram Amp 2 Communicator/SMPSU
Gram Amp 2 Special Edition/SMPSU
Gram Amp 3 Fanfare/SMPSU
Elevator XP/PSU1
Reflex M/PSU1
Reflex C/PSU1
 
Headphone amps:
Solo SRGII/PSU1
Solo Ultra-linear/PSU1
Novo/SMPSU
Voyager
Voyager (spatially enhanced)
 
Cables:
Cusat50
 
Please see the main GSPAudio website for more details of the different products. 
 
Please PM me if you are interested and let me know which item of equipment you want to borrow.
 


Edited by Fatmangolf - 11 Oct 2011 at 12:43am
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Cyreg View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cyreg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2011 at 10:16pm
Hi Jon, good action at Vinyl Engine and thanks for the "up" Thumbs Up
-TecnoDec/Mi250/TW/MP110; Cyrus CD8SE; Cyrus FM7> LFD LE Mk3.1/MM> Harbeth C7ES-3
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 6:06pm

To the members who have PM'ed me already, I am checking the postage charges so I can start mailing out next week. You should get a PM about your delivery addresses and Paypal or equivalent arrangements.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Oct 2011 at 4:26pm
The loan arrangements:
  • Please PM me to let me know which item you want to try.
  • I will reply and let you know how soon the loan item will be sent out, or the expected date for you if the item is already out on loan.
  • The loan will be for 2 weeks from it reaching you. You must send it back promptly so other members can also benefit.
  • Please PM me your name and address, I will do the same. Please do not post your name and address or mine on this forum or elsewhere.
  • We will use Royal mail Special Delivery which is £7 each way for most of the items, £9 each way for those with the PSU1. You will need to reimburse me for the outgoing postage by Paypal, online payment or cash.
Please share your experiences of listening to the loan equipment. It may help to describe the music you listened to, how it sounded differently to your existing setup, etc.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamescodway Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Oct 2011 at 7:51pm
Hello all.

"Spatially enhanced Voyager"... can someone elaborate please?

Ta

James
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Graham Slee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Oct 2011 at 8:13pm
Can't use the term cross-feed on a commercial product.... Disapprove
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mrarroyo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 11:39am
Can the user engage/defeat the spatial enhancement?
Miguel
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Graham Slee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 5:54pm
Not at present. It was a last minute thought to do this and send an extra Voyager thus wired. Probably best to send both out for comparison to those who are interested. I tried both before shipping and I must admit to a preference for the spatially enhanced version.

I will need to create the effect a different way as I am told Mr Meier has legal claims to the term "cross-feed" and the circuit techniques published. There is however a way which Mr Meier has not considered and I intend to do some work on this.

As several users have told us the contour switch is of little use to them, I am thinking of replacing the contour circuit with the spatial enhancement circuit and utilising the switch for it. I will have to wait until we have the next batch of cases machined and printed before I can change the switch function labeling.

Having said that I suppose I could label it "enhanced/flat" and offer a contour version or a spatial version because both could be classed as an enhancement? And so the one label could apply to either.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote discrete badger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Oct 2011 at 7:50pm
The Voyager (spatially enhanced) arrived at discrete badger towers today.

I'll give some context and then my first impressions based on an hour or so of listening.

The sound I like:

For me, the music is the thing. I like all types of music from renaissance polyphony to the stuff you hear playing in high street shops. But I have to admit that there are "hifi" aspects with being able to get to the music I like. So I like an clean, open, transparent, nonfatiguing sound that doesn't add any coloration or mess with the music. But I like to hear all the music, and that includes deep bass and high treble, and different elements of the recording not getting confused with others.

I buy "hifi" very rarely, but when I do I extensively research it, listen very carefully, and expect not to have to "improve" on it for many years. 

Components used with:

I already have a standard Voyager which I listen to nearly every day during my commute and at work. I've owned it for several years and am completely happy with it. I use only the internal battery for power and I drive it from the iBasso D10 which is a portable Wolfson DAC + headphone amp. I use only the DAC section of the D10 because I prefer the sound with the Voyager as the amplifier. I drive the iBasso from the optical output of the iRiver H140 running RockBox. For headphones I currently use HD250 Linear II except when at my desk at work where I use SE530 - less conspicuous. The rig is my personal ideal of portable audio nirvana, or very close to it.

I struggle to listen critically - it's too easy to get drawn into the music - although I'll have to force myself in this case. It compares very well to my non-portable rigs at home and of course headphone listening has an advantage in terms of lack of room coloration. 

I never use the Voyager's contour circuit, as my headphones don't need it.


What I did:

The obvious test was to swap the VSE and V back and forth, and listen to a few familiar tracks on the Senns. Both Voyagers were cold, but V has undoubtedly had much more burn-in.

The VSE and V sound very similar in general terms, matching my preferences as I described above. Either I would happily pay for and live with, as the positive aspects of the V have in no way been diluted by the SE additions. But the additions are something very interesting indeed. The width of the sound is exactly the same, but the effect is that there is almost a new third channel positioned exactly in the centre between my ears. It is quite distinct from a compression of the width of the sound image - which uncannily remains as identifiably wide as before. Since this centre spot is often occupied by the main vocalist in a pop/rock recording, the result is great for this type of music, because it brings them very much into focus without sounding artificial or manipulated. 

As a comparison, in my non-portable system I have electrostatics on the L and R channels, and if you listen to a mono or nearly-mono recording you would swear blind that the centre channel speaker is on, so sharply focussed is the centre image. I expect this is due to the coherence of sound from the two channels. The VSE effect is very similar to this.

I noticed that the VSE seems to have a brighter treble than the V. The treble sounds more akin to the treble on the Novo - I would characterise by saying that strings and cymbals sound "silvery". Whether this is an artefact of the change in stereo image (presence instruments/vocalists tending to be panned to the centre?) or a lack-of burn-in effect I don't know. The difference does not affect the listenability of either the VSE of the V to me.

RockBox has a software crossfeed and I spent a while tweaking the various parameters to try to recreate the VSE effect with the V, without success. Either the settings were so mild as to make no difference, or the width of sound became reduced, more confused, and a lot less open. The phantom centre channel did not appear. 

Next:

Give it chance to warm up a little. 

Much more listening.

Two more possible comparisons: In my non-portable system I have two boxes which can also do their own version of crossfeed, both in software - Behringer deq2496 which I use for room correction, and Lavry DA11 as the DAC. I don't normally use headphones (or crossfeed) in that system but the comparison would be interesting. 
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