Bottlehead open house March 24th 12-4, featuring Blumenstein Orcas and sub

[Doc B.]

Come by Bottleheadquarters on Bainbridge Island Sunday March 24th 12-4 to check out our new Bottlehead/Blumenstein system. We have Orcas and a Blumenstein subwoofer driven by a Stereomour amp (hopefully we'll have a S.E.X. amp ready to demo by then too). Our Amarra based server will be offering up the tunes.

This is a superb small high end system for real world living rooms, apartments, offices and near field monitor applications.

[Doc B.]

The system is breaking in nicely and we tuned it in the room a bit yesterday. Response of the Orcas is just amazingly flat from the midrange through upper bass region, where one would typically expect some really nasty baffle step problems from such a tiny cabinet. We're running the system 24 hours a day and it should be sounding even nicer on Sunday. Think I might even bring the Nagra downstairs and roll some tape.

[Grainger49]

Oh to be in the neighborhood!

[Doc B.]

Would appreciate a potential head count so we can plan for the day. Who might be coming?

[richardl]

I think that we will be there around 2pm.      Look forward to seeing you and Eileen.     Richard

[Hank Murrow]

I've been looking for a report on the new Blumestein/BH system in Eileen's office. Will check again tomorrow.

Cheers, Hank

[Doc B.]

We had a nice group of people come through yesterday. I think the total was about 13 by day's end. I brought the older DAC prototype down from the upstairs system and we used an ipad to remote control the mini/Amarra setup from the listening chair. The orca/stereomour/ sub setup was stock with the exception of a mullard cv4024 in place of the stock 12at7. The system was running all day and night for a few days, and though I think it will need a bit more run in it was starting to settle in very nicely. Lots of nice comments about the great image the system creates. Hopefully others will offer their observations.

[vladimirwolfe]

While I wasn't at the open house on Sunday I did get to spend some time on the Friday before with the good Dr. and the Orcas. First a couple of caveats. The source was my ipod coming out of the headphone jack. Not ideal I know and very limited in volume, but it was music I know well. Second, the Orcas were still breaking in. Now all that said, the Orcas were wonderful. I mostly listed to small group acoustic jazz but also tried a bit of rock and some modern orchestral music. Imaging and timbres were fantastic with a real sense of the space of the recording venue. The only thing missing was the visceral impact of the orchestral music I get from my Straight 8's and I suspect this has more to do with the caveats I mentioned before than anything else.

One thing that doesn't get mentioned very often about the Orca's is their fit and finish which is absolutely first rate. They easily compare with fine furniture and custom instrument finishes.

Well done Clark & Molly (Doc & Eileen too!). I'm saving my pennies for a near-field system for my computer station.

Doug

[Doc B.]

Thanks Doug, it was great having you stop buy to check out the toy selection (Doug has a gorgeous Eastman jazz guitar that he brought along to test drive a couple different Tode amps with).

We've been working toward having a bit of everything around here to demo and hopefully more people will be interested in stopping by to see and hear an item they may be thinking about building.

As of now we have Tape Project albums playing thru a Tube Repro, the best vinyl rig I've ever had, including a Haniwa cart playing thru an Eros, a prototype of our DAC being fed by a Mac Mini using Amarra, all playing thru a BeePre and Paramounts into my custom three way speaker system.

Our other system is the Orca/BUF sub setup, being run by a Stereomour - and soon a S.E.X. will be available to try too. We have another Amarra based player in that system, tied to our main music library.

And we have a Tode amp ready to try out. If you can't bring your own axe, I currently have a Gibson ES-335 standing by.

I hope to have a headphone listening station integrated with the Orca system by next month, where we will have both S.E.X. and Crack amps to listen to with Sennheiser HD800s and AKG K1000s.

[vladimirwolfe]

Thank YOU Doc! I really enjoyed our visit and would have wasted more of your time if I could. I'd encourage anyone in the area to stop and partake. The big rig upstairs playing the master copies of the Tape Project titles is really something you have to hear. Now when are you going to start working on an amplifier for my double bass?

Doug

[Hank Murrow]

Well done Clark & Molly (Doc & Eileen too!). I'm saving my pennies for a near-field system for my computer station.

Dear Doug; With a normal source, the Orcas will play very loud indeed, and seem to thrive on it. Don't be surprised if you find yourself moving them into your main system 'just for a listen'.

Cheers, Hank