And GerardA ... similarly the same counts here too, just because of two Gerard's being here, while both you and our other Gerard were there. Very nice talking to you, and I must say, time was too short or didn't permit extensive talking.
What I learned from it (but also hoped in advance) is that such a "being together" is a kind of priceless. I mean, at talking to eachother, helping eachother, creating something together for already quite some years now, it is so nice to see some faces behind this and talk to eachother in person. And never forget, you are indeed helping me and everyone, me coincidentally doing the coding here and there.
I think we should arrange for some more of this, and then indeed in a well prepared fashion. It can be just about listening to music, but merely a showoff of how things really can be. Just for a reference and what can be achieved. Bert and I talked about this a while back already (that we both will arrange for this), and this "session" came in between as something which looked like an opportunity. Well ... haha;
I'm sure that many of you ever visited Bert's place and left there with a WOW, while quite as many ending up with a pair of his speakers. I can assure you once more, this hasn't changed, but the conditions must be there to do it. For those who vistited my place (not so many) the same WOW was there. Different speakers but also from Bert, this time combined with some DAC from my hand.
You will see both types of combination in the future, and although the last this post is meant for is to be commercial, it will show you how far we are with audio, and that it is something different from what you know. That *is* a promise.
Of course there is the problem "where to do it", and while Bert's place is too small and I theoretically have the space to house some 10 or a few more visitors at a time, I'd still have to arrange for a comfortable listening place for that many. The options are sufficiently enough there though, and maybe always better than dragging the lot to some hotel room where it *still* all may not workout.
For those who visited me ... there was my living/listening room which will not be comfortable enough for 10 or more people (although they will easily fit there), but there's some 300m2 space in the basement (generally 3 areas of 14 x 6 meters) and there's also an upstairs space of again 14 x 6. So, maybe we go as far as decorating one of these spaces for audio and just as a showcase for how far we are and have some nice meets in the mean time. We'll see.
Lastly, and this may be a kind of commercial talk indeed ... supposed such a set brings you this WOW and you are unsure whether you can create it the same in your home, it always has been my idea to kind of guarantee it will workout (if the room allows for it to begin with, which in normal cases always is so, of course). I mean, the whole lot you will be listening to is from our own hands from start to finish. This is software, D/A converter, amplifiers, speakers (the latter varying from horns via normal to open baffle). So, this will be quite a unique "guarantee" of which you can be 100% sure all matches and should be able to sound the same at your home. It then has become unimportant whether you actually like tubes, because when you say WOW to this, well, who cares.
By the time this really happens I better quit one of my of my other jobs ...
Peter