great Dixie Bottlehead BBQ in Knoxville last Sunday

[Ken L]

Great Dixie Bottlehead BBQ in Knoxville on Sunday

Many thanks to Phil and Tina Sieg for being such excellent hosts in Knoxville.

There was quite a turnout and everyone really had a great time. We heard some great sounds.

pRC had Il monstro there doing some final debugging. Andy Holt had some seriously modded Bottlehead items, and I didn't write everything down like I usually do, so some others are going to have to chime in and help me remember names and equipment.

We listened to everything on Phil's Classic Audio Reproductions speakers. I think sometimes people bring stuff just to hear how it sounds on the on his TAD driven system.

The shock of the day (for this dyed in the wool tube guy, anyway) was a germanium (vintage) transistor amp that was built by frequent attendee Larry Yeatts (sp?).

I believe everybody there would have grinned from ear to ear if Larry had said they could take that amp home with them - It was stunning and questionably the best SS amp most of us had ever heard - That amp will only be bested by the very best of tube amps. I would not have believed that it could be done, but hearing Larry's amp would make any audiophile sit back and get lost in the music. Every now and then I would think " oh yeah, this isn't tubes??" I kept asking if they had switched over to a tube amp but nope, we were still listening to Larry's

You can't call it a _sand amp_ either because germanium is a metal.

Larry did use one tube in his preamp, a 417 if I remember correctly, so it wasn't total heresy.

It really was a nice day and Andy sent me pics of the meeting and il monstro which I'm going to have to figure out how to post.

Dixie Bottlehead meetings always make me think of the word camaraderie, there is always such a nice bunch of folks.

The pic attached shows pRC with not quite 1/2 of il Monstro, his 4 chassis boat anchor amp showing in the pic. Not for those with bad backs and weak flooring _big grin_



Later

Ken L