This was my first Owston since 2019 and it was great to meet up again with old friends. It's been an odd few years on a number of fronts. The pub had now changed to Dario's Ristorante, on old restaurant name in Doncaster from a good few years ago.
The weather over recent days had been very wet thanks to Storm Babet and the local watercourses were as high as I'd seen. Fortunately play got underway shortly after the usual 11am start, though the outfield was rather soggy...
(Some of the photos aren't focused very well. I'd forgotten how difficult it is for my camera to focus in the low light even with flash assistance. A slightly blurry photo is better then no photo though,)
First Steve gave his customary welcome...
...and then a team photo for absent friends.
First to go was Steve (no. 2)
Steve was using his recently built speakers (discussed here from around post 169). The system comprised an Innuos ZEN music server, a Nadja preamp with some DSP, a 6 channel power amp. The speakers have a Beyma TP-150 AMT up top with horn built in to the speaker cabinet, a Beyma 12P80MD midrange (running between 70Hz and 1300Hz with a little DSP help), and two Seas Elroy subwoofers.
I think these were Steve's too, though I didn't hear them
Next was Chris who had put the speakers together that morning at home, pretty impressive really.
The amp was a Powersoft digital amp which has DSP, the source was a laptop running Dante (used in PA work a lot apparently)
The subs were Chris' usual PA-duty speakers - Faital Pro 18XL1800 (I think) in a sealed cabinet, The compression driver behind the horn was a BMS 4592. The horn itself Chris had got cheap and he wasn't too impressed with it. He found lagging the outside with bitumen type car damping panels and the throat with a bit of polyfil tidied things up somewhat.
Mike followed Chris with his EL84 PP amp and old speakers from his dad's old music centre with a replacement 4" full range driver and tweeter.
Music played was:
BØRNS – 10,000 Emerald Pools
Sandy Denny & Thea Gilmore – Sailor
Jay Dee – Strange Funky Games And Things
808 State – Spanish Ice
EL84 amp build thread here
Tony then used Mike's amp and speakers with his RTZ DSD source which comprised his LnP Signature CDPro2 CD player he'd made some years ago, the S/PDIF was passed to his much modified Transporter which he was using to take I2S to the RTZ DAC
Music played was from The Alien Jams by Ajja & Cosmosis
And a very ropey shot of the inside
Next was Steve (no. 1) with PX25 SET and speakers comprising Beyma TP-150 AMTs, Fane 12"s and Fane 18"s
The next double act was Nick and Dave. Nick had brought the latest incarnation of the turntable he's been working on for some years, now with super heavy delrin-skinned platter. Amp was a Luxman, and Dave didn't want to use the speakers he'd brought so they used Steve's.
An Ortofon arm and Denon DL-103R cartridge
1 o'clock brought the lunch interval, after which play resumed with Ray. Ray had travelled up some distance that morning but had brought his small office system with him. A 25W chip amp from abraxalito on DIYAudio and a Noir headphone amp for a touch more gain - the speakers, Ariston, £5 from a carboot, needed a little extra help in this room. This is the only decent photo I got. (The middle box was a passive pre with Muses volume, not used as maximum gain was required.
Music played was;
Peter Gabriel - 'Rhythm of the Heat' from the album 'New Blood'
Christine and the Queens - 'Tilted' from the album 'Chaleur Humaine'
Be-Bop Deluxe - 'Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape' from the album 'Axe Victim'
Chris had another go, this time with his small Fostex speakers and large Crown amp
Then Mike again with different speakers, BBC LS2s his uncle had given him
And that was the end of my day and I left the rest of the team to play on till stumps. Or beyond. A great day and everything sounded really pretty good. Sure there were flavours but everything worked. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to bring stuff.
