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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