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24 Mar 2018: Manos Kontos

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By Manos Bitsakakis

Monthly Meeting ACA at Manos Kontos

A few days ago, on March 24, 2018, the monthly meeting of our club was held at Manos Kontos. Manos has re-established his system, always based on the outstanding TANNOY GRF but with transistor amplification this time, more specifically the excellent integrated GAMUT Si100 as well as a leading AYON CD5 Cd player. There was a DPS turntable with a Unipivot DPS and a JVC Z1S cart with Jico SAS needle..

The main audition was done with the GAMUT Si100, a machine made of 4 special FETs (one per channel and per phase), but we also auditioned the AUDION 300B tube monoblock amps.

The general (and personal) preference was much plus for GAMUT who brought up the English speakers with great sound and imaging, nice tone and homogeneous speed, dynamism and musicality. and all this in a home non sound-treated place..

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Generally, it was a great night, and Manos rewarded us with nice music. Being superb hosts together with Irini they offered us tasty food, drinks and a nice friendly atmosphere.
Manos system had a big difference bettered than the previous time we had heard it, with big, pleasant and dynamic sound and without falling short in analysis and musicality..

This was an excellent evening, with the known discussions and and the also well-known debates and confrontations about SET and FET, the transformers irons and the kilometers of wire, the tubes and the transistoric imperfections.. all that staff that really defines the term hi-end and its followers, all of us the audiophiles.

I really wonder by lucking such discussions, as much real, serious or comical may be, that concept would have substance.. or even if we would have enjoyed our engagement with that subject so pleasantly..

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Personally, I much enjoy the most of these conversations and controversies.. by capturing sometimes myself participating or even challenging them, I am thinking smiling that the term hi-end is absolutely joined with politics!! hi-end fan is in fact a politician who says what he wants to say, no matter what his ears hear, just because he believes he has to do so to convince others, without himself being convinced at all..

Back to the meeting and the sound of the system, I would say that the combo GAMUT Si100 and AYON CD5 brought Tannoys GRF to another upper level.. GAMUT matched well with the speakers and partnered with AYON made the difference giving us a fairly satisfying sense of how can the extraordinary Tannoys GRF play.

Many thanks to the hosts !!

The Audition System

  • Speakers : TANNOY GRF
  • Amplifiers : GAMUT SI100 integrated & AUDION 300B monoblocks
  • Cd player : AYON CD5
  • Turntable : DPS, UNIPIVOT DPS, JVC Z1S JICO SAS
  • Phono : Bluenote DeMedici (Customized)

The Music Played

Vinyl

  • MILT JACKSON (3000 Miles ago)
  • ELLA FITZGERALD (You are my thrill)

CD

  • RACHMANINOF (Symphonic dances)
  • DIRE STRAITS (You and your friend)
  • MICHEL PORTAL (Dolphy)
  • ARCHIE SHEPP (When things go wrong)
  • STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN (Tin pan Alley)
 
  • MEETING 24 MAR 2018 MANOS KONTOS Vid 01
  • MEETING 24 MAR 2018 MANOS KONTOS Vid 02
  • MEETING 24 MAR 2018 MANOS KONTOS Vid 03

Manos Kontos' Member Page

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