Bottlehead.com

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"the beautifully designed Bottlehead Smack WOT (with output transformers) headphone amplifier kit...I listened to it, too. I neglected to take notes because I was too busy following Piper Payne around, but I remember thinking that the music had natural highs and a clean, clear midrange.

"Dan "Doc B." Schmalle and the Bottlehead crew visited CanJam for the first time and boy am I glad they came...The Crack sounded fabulous to me. I'll be building one soon."

"For me the standout, and a real game changer for me personally, was the high-current Crack with the Sennheiser HD-800s and the BH dac -- in fact this was one of the highlights of the show for me. I had never heard a headphone system sound so musical, so right, and so impressive! This system did full justice to the music, but also had plenty of those audiophile trimmings like thunderous, tight and deep bass, dynamics to die for, tone, resolution, balance, and also a soundstage and imaging that truly was approaching that of a very well setup speaker system, and better than many poorly configured systems...Good going Bottlehead and company -- you guys make some fine, serious audio gear that us mere mortals can afford, have a blast building and modifying, and which in the end, just play music nicely, which is where it all comes out."

"As a first-timer... I stood, rather shy, in front of the Bottlehead table with my AKG K601 headphones. Doc noticed me and said, "Come on down! Have a seat." in the most welcoming way -- like a 60's talk show host or something. The other listeners at my sides were very friendly. Doc took his time answering all our questions and was very knowledgable.

With my K601s, the S.E.X. sounded great and I was happy enough right there, my K601s never sounded better. But then I listened to the new Smack -- Doc set it to the 128 ohm setting to match my cans -- and the difference between it and the S.E.X. was: I could turn up the volume more with the Smack and, rather than getting louder and more piercing, the soundscape got bigger, more lush and enthralling. Once my budget allows, I'll be placing my order for the Smack. Thanks Doc for making the meet a great experience for me :)

P.S. The tape rig was awesome; Doc looked like a film projectionist when changing the reels! And the K1000s through the Paramounts was the best sounding set-up I've ever had the pleasure of hearing."

Head-Fi member larcenasb, on the Head-Fi forum

"The big news here, though, was the tapes via The Tape Project.
Dan Schmalle, Managing Director of The Tape Project, brought down a 1/2" Otari MTR-20 with Bottlehead Tube Repro (Schmalle is also President of Bottlehead). I had heard of The Tape Project, some crazy guys who were releasing classic albums on reel-to-reel, duplicated directly from the original studio masters, but I hadn't experienced it myself. I was happy to find that the reports of this being the best sounding medium in the world are not overstated."

" shockingly reminiscent of my reference ARC Ref Phono 2...It's not much to look at--kind of like a Dynakit--but it certainly sounded fantastic... To be fair, all three phonostages sounded great. The Bottlehead one, in this application (using the high-ouput Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement), just sounded a bit more alive and transparent. "

RMAF 2010 - Robert Harley’s Best of Show
Best Sound–Cost-No-Object

"It’s always hard to pick a single “best sound” because the selection of source material can influence one’s judgment. But I will say that I had a startling experience with the Magico Q5s; I opened my eyes at the conclusion of (The Tape project's) Nojima Plays Liszt, played on a one-to-one open-reel copy of the original master (on the Bottlehead Nagra T/Tube Repro), and was momentarily startled to find myself in a small hotel room with a pair of speakers in front of me."

"Two rooms stood out: the first was the Magico Q5 room, where a (Bottlehead modified) Nagra T audio tape machine spun a staggering rendition of the justly famous Nojima performance of Liszt (TP-019). The transparency, dynamics, and low noise floor were spellbinding"

"Might as well spill the beans right here. The aluminum-boxed $60k Magico Q5 multiway floorstander (with beryllium tweeter) was, IMO, the best speaker at RMAF. Its sound was astoundingly beautiful and natural on a Tape Project tape of Nojima Plays Liszt (played back through Dan Schmalle’s smashingly good—and extremely rare—Nagra reel-to-reel tape deck). In fact, next to Robert Silverman playing Mozart on a real grand piano in the Marriott lobby, it was the most realistic grand piano I’ve heard at a trade show."

"I can't really capture everything I heard but I wanted to mention the various excellent sounds coming from the Bottlehead room. This was my first time hearing the AKG K-1000's and simultaneously hearing them coming off of a pair of beautiful 300B monoblocks (the Bottlehead Paramounts, I think Doc said). This combo should definitely get into the Hall of Fame. For those of you wondering about the new Crack amplifier, this is also very sweet and enticing set up. I think I heard the version with the extra add-on circuit. That was lovely with a variety of headphones, including the HD-800s. Ahhh."

Dan Schmalle and Queen Eileen: The Crack is amazing. I'm sure someone would have tackled me at the door, but I really wanted to just run out the door with it and keep it for my own. I'm sure your mega tape system had a lot to do with the great sounds I was hearing. Never mind. The Crack is seriously good for not serious money. Well done!

the HD800. To my ears, they are the most speaker like and the soundstage was absolutely huge. I had the pleasure of listening to them on the Doc's tape rig coming out the heavily modded S.E.X and damn! I can now hear why analog has such a strong hold within the audiophile community. HeadFi member alphaphoenix

The MOT's that came this time had some amazing gear. Doc B is a Rock Star...There was a line forever trying to listen to Doc B's gear. HeadFi member Big Poppa

"I've heard some great systems (used to be in the High End business in the UK). I am humbled by what I hear now. I used to think that you could only get to a certain level in DIY. You could always accept the compromise with saying to yourself "Hey I built it all myself". Well that's out the window now.
thx again guys

"The Repro, and one must allow at several hours of being powered on and/or playing music before critical listening, is extremely quiet and transparent, allowing one to resolve the minutest music details on The Tape Project tapes. (the tape deck too benefits from a couple of hours being on before playing.) Through the Repro/Technics combination, The Tape Project tapes display a soundstage limited only by the associated equipment and software. Instruments and singers have a much more realistic sense of body and realism. Strings are as sweet as sugar, if not gently rounded, without tipping over into euphonic territory. One can literally hear the violin bow changing direction and feel the pressure of the bow on the strings. Low frequencies are very dynamic..."

"I didn't listen to everything but the Bottlehead rigs were far and away the most impressive to me. That killer tape rig probably had a lot to do with it.

Here are my impressions from the Bottlehead forum:

Best sound of show (IMO). Big Nagra rig with Tape Project Tapes + Tube Repro Head amp.

K1000's driven by Paramounts. (AMAZING)
HD600(650?) by sex upgraded iron (Very engaging)
HD800's by Professional Headphone amp (Hard to peel me away from this)
Quickie's for sale and for listen with Sennheisers (no Sex amp but still great)

Best, and thank you so much for coming,

Chris"

Doc with Tape Project recording artist Jacqui Naylor and his Nagra T Audio with Bottlehead Tube Repro preamp.

"I think the only room that I went nuts over was the Bottlehead room, which had a beautifully reconditioned Technics 1500 tape deck feeding Bottlehead amps and crossovers driving direct radiator speakers arranged in a line source. I think the amps were 300B. (yup, they were stock Paramounts, Pete) The midrange driver was a good sounding but fairly inefficient 4 ohm 5 inch unit driven by four power amps in series, each with the output transformer connected to drive one ohm. One power amp per woofer. One power amp per tweeter. Electronic plus passive crossover. Four six inch ported woofers per side. Each speaker module used a small and narrow Parts Express cabinet laid on its side, driver centered. Cabinets were stacked. Four woofer cabinets, one midrange cabinet, one tweeter cabinet. Felt applied to front of cabinets. Woofer modules vented. It was pretty wonderful. Huge sound with a lot of nuance, air, inner detail, soundstage, and imaging. Bill (Van Winkle) and I were gaga over this system."

"The Doc schooled us all in setting up a room once again. All I could say is wow.... how the hell he got all of that designed and assembled in a couple weeks is beyond me. Sound? Damn impressive and one you won't fully appreciate unless you have done something like this before."

"Well, certainly the Bottlehead room with the Wall O' Amps was a standout. I don't know why Doc's solderin' arm wasn't in a sling."

"Folks, I've heard some mighty fine stereo systems over the years...But fed by the (Tape Project/Bottlehead) Technics tape deck and those Japanese oddball electronics from BA Labo, the Magico Model 6s reached a level of realism from full orchestra to solo voice that I've simply never heard matched."

"If we were going by the usual "Best Sound of Show" standards and concentrated purely on the sound rather than attributes like impact, displacement, soundstaging, scale and weight which require free-air in-room speakers, Doc B. would have won, hands-down and with no possible disagreements." Srajan Ebaen, Sixmoons.com

"Doc B. showed off his new foray into the world of serious headphone listening with a prototype amplifier being fed by a Nagra tape unit. Really cool, but not for the faint of heart. The presentation left little to find fault with—the music was just there!" Dave and Carol Clark, Positive Feedback Online

"Best Sound in the Show" Dave Glackin, Positive Feedback Online

"Doc B.'s room (Bottlehead/MagneQuest/Progressive Engineering/Paul Stubblebine Mastering) was in an awful lot of ways the best of the show....The Doc has got some exceptional SET designs going these days… gorgeous to see, wonderful to hear. Quite a lot of work went into his setup, it's clear." David Robinson, Positive Feedback Online

"And finally, we come to the Bottlehead room. I don't care what they said at the Digital Shoot-off, the best source at the show was (the) Ampex 350 tubed, open reel tape deck." Rod Morris, Audio Asylum


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RMAF 2010 - Robert Harley’s Best of Show Best Sound–Cost-No-Object

RMAF 2010 - Robert Harley’s Best of Show
Best Sound–Cost-No-Object