Woodstock Rhythm and Blues Festival

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Summer time's coming and music festivals are everywhere. As I write Glastonbury is next weekend and my children have been checking out where they might go for their first festival this summer. So I was delighted to hear about a featival more for me!

I bumped into a long lost friend last week passing through City airport and Harry is now involved in promoting Woodstock. Not that Woodstock though, Woodstock Road in East Belfast has a Rhythm and Blues Festival in August, 8th-12th.

The venues are mostly local pubs although the Black Box is playing host to the headline act Chris Farlowe. Farlowe has been a leading blues and soul singer for over 40 years and can still belt them out, including his early recordings/hits such as 'Out of Time' and  'paint it black'.

 Other great local bands you should hear include Ronnie Greer , Rab McCullough and Grainne Duffy. Ronnie has Ken Haddock playing with him and that is a treat, Ken has great voice

Ronnie also has an album out, his first studio album , and it is so good that everyone into any form of jazz and blues should buy it. £12 well spent! I have some in Lyric if you're passing or you can order it direct from Ronnie's website at http://ronniegreer.com/

To check out the Woodstock gig guide click the link below and find a good night out with live music for not much outlay. Treat yourself, see you at one of the gigs!

http://www.woodstockbelfast.co.uk/gig_guide.html

Life in the old cd yet?

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So it's 9pm and I'm setting up a demo for tomorrow and there is a new cardboard box winking at me. It contains a Rega Isis, their 'no holds barred' , ultimate, forget the budget cd player, and I can't resist a listen. First of all it's heavy! 19kg, and that's over 40lbs in old money. Struggle to the dem room and carefully unpack it, it's gorgeous. You have to appreciate the engineering first of all. It's a top loader with a black chrome lid on top of an anodised aluminium case. And every movement and button feels solid and superb.

Let's check this baby's playing out. Linn silver interconnects into the Majik DSM I have just hooked up into Kef R300s. Not enough I hear you cry, but wait. First of all this system is plenty revealing to see how good the Rega is, and secondly I've just spent the past 45 minutes rearranging gear, hooking it up, adjusting the speaker positions and spikes until it's all just singing and I'm not about to rip that out when it's there ready for a demonstration tomorrow morning!! Anyway if I want to compare this to a DS then this is a great starting place

First music to hand is the Jacqueline Du Pre/Barbirolli Elgar Cello Concerto. A classic from 1965. She can wrench emotion from a cello like no-one else. Eat your heart out Lloyd Webber. Her playing dips and soars and carries you away, and boy does it on this Rega. So good I let it play through the whole symphony, 30 minutes of bliss. Let's get this rocking a bit with another old favourite. Tom Waits' Heart Attack and Vine. The title track is a crunching rhythm, and while I love the raw feeling of Jersey Girl, On the Nickel, and Ruby's arms let's move on to my favourite. Mr Siegal is raw, rude, punchy, and a delight. The Rega Isis gives you emotion, dynamics, kick, and tears all in the space of one album.

Next up is some female vocal. Christine Collis ter's plaintiff voice is amazing on this system. Her albums with guitarist Clive Gregson are fantastic. Check out Mischief, 'We're not over yet' and Home and Away 'Chasing the Dragon' Awesome!

That's enou gh for tonight, tomorrow I want to play a streamed source through it's USB input to check out what that does.

For now I can tell you that this is one of the best value cd players ever made. It's a bargain, even at £ 6125

What to do? Confused music fan

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Had an interesting series of emails back and forth over the past week from a guy with a complex, but not unusual problem. He has a decent hifi system built up over 10 years plus. Arcam cd, Naim amplifier, Castle speakers, Rega turntable, and over the past 2-3 years he has also been using an ipod through the system and also burning some of his downloaded music on to cd, which his Arcam plays. Not all cd players do. 

The Naim and Castle are both old, replace? Servicing the Rega or buy a new one? He has around 80 lps and over 150 cds built up over the years and also 40/50 albums on itunes.

He realises that the ipod/MP3 quality is not as good as proper cds, noticeably so, and wants to update and improve his system to make it easier to use. 

Where to start, let's sort the turntable first. A 20 year old Rega Planar 3 will still sound good after a good service and a new cartridge. Many old cartridges have worn out stylii and the rubber suspension is dozed so best just replace the cartridge. A Rega Bias £69 or Elys £119 will be miles better than the old one. New belt, I'll check the oil/pulley and fit the cartridge, total £ 100 to £ 150 and off you go. The new option is still a Rega... RP3/Elys is great value for £ 549, but unless you particularly want a new one save your money for the rest of the system.

Speakers next. Old Castles were great, but not by today 's standards. This man had small floorstanders that were £ 500-600 15 years ago. The straight replacement is a Kef R500 at £ 1499, or go for a smaller speaker on a stand for £ 1000-1200, or an upgrade to £ 2-2500

The reason for taking the speakers before the amplifier/streaming solution is simple. Once I know what speakers you like then there is a smaller choice of matching electronics. This makes sense as speakers are easily narrowed down by looks, finish, and where they have to sit before you even lis ten to them!

Still to do the listening on this but from the measurements and finishes the Kef R500 at £ 1499 look favourite.

The next decision is for cd vs streaming, or both. While £ 1650 gets you the good one box solution of a Naim UnitiLite there may be room in the budget to go a level better. The UnitiLite has a cd player, amplifier, and streamer all in one slim box. 

But moving up to a Linn Sneaky DSM (£1750) or Majik DSM (£2965) raises the performance another level, as would a Naim SuperUniti (£ 3350). Neither of these has a CD player, so you can then keep the existing Arcam one as cds give way to streaming from a hard drive. We can rip 150cds onto a drive and you have your music collection all ready to go.

A curve ball was then thrown into this by a question about blu ray through the system, and also Spotify. After some explaining what Airplay is the result is a dem coming up next week of Majik DSM with R 500s which will have no problem coping with Sky, X-box, PS3, Spotify, and even YouTube

The demonstration is booked for late next week, more to follow after the dem to see what the solution is

Linn Majik DSM/109/Isobariks

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May is Majik month!

Or so it seems when we have orders for 3 Majik DSMs, 2 pairs of Majik 109 speakers and a pair of Majik Isobariks aktiv all in the past 2 weeks, as well as a cool Akurate system.

Here is a silver Majik DSM with 109s in black

The beauty of the Majik range is fantastic performance at an almost reasonable price. For £ 2985 the Majik DSM replaces your cd player, amplifier, and radio tuner while sounding much better than either your old system or anything else at the price. Matched with the 109s this system really sings. Technically the Linn 2K array of tweeter and super tweeter gives amazing vocal clarity while the compact cabinet provides better bass than anyone expects from the size. The Majik Isobarik is also a very clever design. The top and mid are identical to the 109s and then you have 2 internal bass units playing vertically and providing really deep bass weight. To make them even better you can have a deal on an Aktiv amplifier package with the speakers. The speakers are £ 3500 for the pair, an extra power amplifier and crossover costs another £ 1765, but buy them toget her for £ 5075, saving £ 190. In this set-up the extra power amplifier drives the bass units while the majik DSM drives the mid, tweeter, and super-tweeter. Two compact electronic boxes and a pair of slim floorstanding speakers providing a mighty sound, but retaining real delicacy.

This pic has the Majik Isos left of the Klimax 350s to show how small they are

And that's my Molly showing off!

The picture below shows Majik 109 in cherry with DSM in black

Linn are a little behind with supplies so get your order in early, allow 2 weeks delivery!