HFV members day with Ravindra Desai's Equipment's and Few other equipment's

Beginner_N

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2014
Messages
349
Points
63
Location
Pune
Attendees:
@Ravindra Desai and his friend
@dpdcp
@dheerajin
@jmascreen
@Fiftyfifty
@Madhu1199
@Arita
@amit

First let me apologies for long delay in writing this review. Thank you all for joining this session it was pleasure meeting you all, never ever felt that I was meeting you all 1st time. Best part was no one tried forcing ones own agenda, which is important as we had limited time and too many combinations to listen.

Our day was suppose to start at 9AM, it did start at 9 thanks to Kishore for arriving on time. He helped me unload stuff from my car. Slowly all others joined.
Let me list down all the equipment that were used.

My Set up:
Shaan's Peeceebee V4.
B&W 602 S3
Panasonic Blu ray DMP BDT 500

Amit's:
a) Tube Buffer
--> YAQIN CD3 6N8P/6SN7
Tubes were the chinese ones delivered with the product - Tubes are 68NP model
https://www.amazon.com/YAQIN-Stereo-Upgrade-Buffer-Processor/dp/B00DYHU0G0


b) NOS DAC (optical IN)
--> Muse Mini DAC 4X TDA1543 + DIR9001
Analog OUT - 4 chips of philips brand - TDA1543
https://www.amazon.com/Tda1543x4-DIR9001-TDA1543-Parallel-Connect/dp/B0095NSFJQ

c) Multibit DAC (optical IN)
Schiit MODI Multibit DAC
https://www.headphonezone.in/products/schiit-modi-multibit

d) Transport (Wifi transport via Apple Airplay)
--> Apple Airport Express Model M9470LL/A
This is the oldest model of 2004, called as the 1st generation model
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-AirPort-Express-Tunes-M9470LL/dp/B0002GDIII

e) Source player and files
Ipad Mini with standard app for palying music
https://www.amazon.in/Apple-Ipad-Black-Wi-Fi-Cellular/dp/B01AHVGR1W
Files - MP3 and FLAC (Alac in Apple)

f) Others
- Wifi Router (Dlink)
- Optical cable (Blue Rigger)

Ravindra's:
a) Complete home theatre set up: Amplifier with DSP, 5 speakers and 2 subs (8" and 12")
b) DSP
c) Power amplifier 80W pc / 8 Ohms

Too big list right ;)

We started our listen at around 11:30 AM i guess. 1st to go was Home theater for which quite few were interested including me. Its a unique way of watching movie, most of us are use to listening to 5.1 set up. This was 3 and 1 :D, it has only center, surround and sub. I wont hesitate to 2nd what @tuff
mentioned in his review, it is a different experience. He has constructed his algorithm very well, vocal and surrounds where nicely separated. Since we lost lot of time in the morning we had time constrain. But its worth listening again and would like love to audition them with my speakers. Good thing is he is ready to customize the receivers. Since I have active sub, he can add pre out. I am sure all others will add there comments. Important USP: s absolutely short circuit proof....yes we saw it with our own eyes. Dialogues where clear.

Now, stereo set up :p too many combinations to cover I will try to cover just 2-3. Started in close room of club house which was too big and echoing a lot, so we all decided to do some room correction my taking out room from equation :D and we had unique listening session in open air, just next to swimming pool. again i would like to appreciate all members, as none complaint about it and equally enjoyed it. Meantime food arrived special thanks to Amit for home made dhokalas and missed Ravindra's kolhapuri pudachi wadi.

Coming back to setup, 1st combination was Ravindra's power amp, DSP and B&W speakers. We used predominantly 2 songs for listening to most combinations, 1. Papa kehete hain - QSQT, 2. Mera kutch saman - Ijaazat. There were many others songs played, but for review I will stick to these 2 songs. I will have special mention of one Jazz song. Since these 2 songs are so familiar to my ear and i can distinguish if anything is missing. With Ravindra's amp and DSP I felt like something is missing, to be precise, i wasnt able to get side rhythms that clear and vocals missing something. Then played same songs on V4 and DSP of ravindra, and I could clearly distinguish the difference. Again its personal opinion. As I am use to certain kind of texture to music.

Then we added tube buffer to V4 and DSP and Ravindra amp and DSP, and what i was hearing was completely amazing. It was my 1st experience of listening to anything with valve. I convinced that there is magic in tube valve. Whatever I add will be subjective but trust me it was different.

Special mention of Jazz, Take five by Dave Brubeck - It has drum solo with piano in back ground. On DSP, piano sounded little on high note and drum wasnt overpowering. Actual track has piano lying low. Again this was due to way DSP is designed and as he mentioned it can be customized, he can work on tuning it to Jazz flavor as well.

Listening session is always from individuals perspective and lot more subjective. And I am not an expert to comment on anything. I admire Ravindra's design and efforts put in to come up with such a simplistic design for home theatre and his willingness to change and improve. I would definitely recommend to give him opportunity to showcase his equipment. And would love to discuss more on DSP as preamp for my Peeceebee V4H power amp.

Regards
 
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Thanks Nishant for your review.
I was worried it would never show up.
Big thanks to you, again, for initiating and hosting this event.

Reviews help me understand my own product and so I request others to also pitch in.

Visits to Thane and Pune made me aware of the demands of Stereophiles or rather 2.0philes and that already has led me to design a new speaker system. A 2.2 system packaged as 2.0!

The Pune visit also initiated my learning into digital audio world also known as USB Audio. So I will explore that area and see how it can be best exploited.

"Adding tube flavor' is also a concept that came up strongly during the meet which needs attention. I am already looking into that using the Korg NuTubes as buffers.

So as you can see, even for me, it was not just about my system.
If you will all agree, all this can only happen if audio buffs like us meet!

Last but not least, thanks to all the others who attended and added experience and flavors to the event.

I hope that the brotherhood of traveling sound system lives long!!

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
Nice write up. I felt after seeing the pictures, the only observation I had was not an optimal location for music reproduction. We always try to rectify our rooms to get an optimal sound, so it probably did not perform to the best, but it is good that efforts were put in. A good lesson for others in the future who may do a get together and listen to music. But I am glad you got to see something unique that Ravindra has created. Thanks.
 
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