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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Live from Berlin : ETF 2014 - Part 20

Hi!

The Eruopean Triodefestival 2014 is coming to it's end. Systems are dismantled and loaded into cars. This is my last report of the event. As I already announced in a post in October, my friend Frank and myself did a demo of 78 rpm Shellac records.




Frank brought his Thorens turntable, equipped with two arms from Thomas Schick:




One of the arms is equipped with a vintage Ortofon mono cartridge with 65um needle for Shellacs:




This was connected to a variable EQ phono stage which I made. A 6AH4 preamp served as line stage.




Hoger and Oliver set up one of the JBL 4355 with an amp for us to complete the set up:




Frank did the demo with a beautiful selection of Jazz records ranging from as early as 1917 and spanning 30 years to 1947. Here he is seen during an initial test of the set up before the demo started:




Frank shared his amazing knowledge about Jazz and had many interesting stories and facts to tell. And he had lots of fun himself:




A highlight was the Polydor electric gramophone which he brought as well:




A beautifully made piece of furniture. When you open the lid it gets even better:




The tonearm is nick named the bear paw, because of it's shape.



The tonearm is equipped with a steel needle.




The needle lasts exactly for one record. That's why these needles were sold in packs of 100 or even more. The tonearm tracks with about 70grams of force and thus plays virtually without surface noise. It has a high output level and is connected directly to the line stage.




Here another clip:




This was a great festival with a lot of interesting stuff. I think this year there was more diversity in systems, amps, preamps and turntables than ever.

Many thanks to the Berlin team for the organisation of this great event. Next year the ETF will be hosted in Denmark, north of Copenhagen.

Looking forward to ETF 2015!

Best regards

Thomas


9 comments:

  1. Thomas, thank you for the live reports. For many of us who aren't on the invite list, we can only dream of being there through these beautiful pictures.

    Regards, R Tan from Singapore

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  2. Another long distance thank-you for sharing the pictures and videos, sounds stellar.

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  3. I always think it's ridiculous to listen to sound systems over youtube on my Smartphone. Even though i think you can get a good impression how awesome these vintage equipment is.
    So thank you for sharing pictures and videos and keeping us informed.

    Best regards Birger

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  4. Does anybody know the actual location "north of Copenhagen" - I last attended ETF-06 in the Netherlands, travelling with the late Allen Wright. I have a sister and mother living in Elsinore/Helsingo'r, so this is an incentive to come?

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  5. Hi Joe,

    it will be in a small town called Tisvildeleje.
    This is the venue:
    http://www.helene.dk/en/home/

    Best regards

    Thomas

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  6. Oh Thomas, I just realised this is your site... :)

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  7. Thanks Thomas. Would love to be there, here in Ozstralia we are working on something big, that will transform the sound of any implementation of delta-sigma DACs. Trust me, this WILL effect us all. We may listen to tubes, but alas, most music sources are digital and R2R/ladder DACs has always struck many of us as fundamentally superior to delta-sigma. YET.., this may may turn the tables on that status. We have been able to convince rusted-on ladder DAC guys that delta-sigma can sound better - quite a feat. What to do will all be revealed. What you need to do is a bit crazy as it breaks one of the oldest 'audiophile' rules, some may say the oldest rule of all.

    You will know more soon. :-)

    BTW, has the date been set?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Joe,
      extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof ;-)
      Heard such claims many times. And the higher the expectations are set the bigger is the disappointment. Bring it to the ETF and lest listen to it.

      The date is November 12-15

      You should get on the triodefest email list to get such updates and to receive invitations.

      Best regards

      Thoma

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