A Visit to Mik Bhavnani - Unique Audio UK

[spiritofmusic]

And how much waste is there? Or can you confidently order a set weight and use as close as possible to the whole lot?

 

[108CY]

And how much waste is there? Or can you confidently order a set weight and use as close as possible to the whole lot?

There is lots of waste generally plus for wiring one is not using one thickness and the positive and negative will have different thicknesses to avoid clogging of the frequencies just like silver. However most just bunch up the same conductors which causes many issues. It takes a lot of trial and error with silver, gold and platinum to find the correct balance its not easy as you need many different diameters on hand and until one listens there is no way of gauging.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Yes price vary,s greatly depending on thickness a killo un processed is around £22000 compared to silvers £240 a lot goes into having custom diameters and annealing done the same as silver.

That is quite commendable, I do remember the clarity / purity of tone was something else entirely, but its 10 years ago. I did struggle with a certain “sterile” quality back then but never went through the lengths you are to control the material. Hats off. Would be interested trying it again someday as back then it was in a whole different class over even the best silver wire available.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Bill, did you get a proper listen of the Blue Pearl Gem? I remember being obsessed by this tt after that HiFiPlus review, what, 15 yrs ago, my dealer at the time able to procure it. I just loved the exotic looks, hugely positive review, and it's price was extra terrestrial. Nothing like an unobtainable trinket to make you want to obtain it.

Did you hear it much? What did you think?

Hi Marc,

Yes I got to hear the Blue Pearl quite a lot actually. It was a story of transformation - it started off distinctly in last position of the decks (not to mean it wasn’t good but because we are in otherworldly territory) - by the end of the evening something happened that allowed it to literally explode into the room. Mik then told me it had had a brand new cartridge on it so had only had 2 hours. So I was hearing it open up. By the end it was producing a cavernous and plush sound with wet tone - just as I like actually.

 

[108CY]

That is quite commendable, I do remember the clarity / purity of tone was something else entirely, but its 10 years ago. I did struggle with a certain “sterile” quality back then but never went through the lengths you are to control the material. Hats off. Would be interested trying it again someday as back then it was in a whole different class over even the best silver wire available.

Great results can be achieved with silver and mixing can work too but silver needs thicker conductors as much as 4 mm but mixed with many many different satellite conductors its a mine field you can hear the affect of one tiny dialect on just input or out put of a amp its mind boggling the differences. Again annealing is very important I have seen some use a blow torch which simply does not work. Copper is far easier to produce a fuller sound but has hidden grain always but can be musical so easier to use.

 

[marmota]

Impressive report and even more impressive collection, that's the stuff dreams are made of!
I would like to ask @108CY about the sound differences between the CS Port LFT1 and Kodo The Beat, if possible, specially the differences in bass reproduction, resolution and the coherency and naturalness of the sound as a whole.

Both turntables share a common approach (open loop control for the motor, no servos), one being a DD and the other a string drive (kevlar, which is a very strong, unflexible material compared to a "regular belt"), and Mik is probably the only person on earth who has both turntables at home

Anyway, thanks for documenting such an awesome system, hatts off to @108CY!

 

[108CY]

Impressive report and even more impressive collection, that's the stuff dreams are made of!
I would like to ask @108CY about the sound differences between the CS Port LFT1 and Kodo The Beat, if possible, specially the differences in bass reproduction, resolution and the coherency and naturalness of the sound as a whole.

Both turntables share a common approach (open loop control for the motor, no servos), one being a DD and the other a string drive (kevlar, which is a very strong, unflexible material compared to a "regular belt"), and Mik is probably the only person on earth who has both turntables at home

Anyway, thanks for documenting such an awesome system, hatts off to @108CY!

They are both very fine turntables the Kodo takes a bit of time matching the correct arm board material to the chosen tonearm, it is capable of very fine results if one uses a overly neutral tonearm it can sound rather flat and boring. I found with the Shroder Lt and the air tangent reference or the Saec tonearms and the glanz it can have tremendous grip and positivity a sense of stability that is rather special a locked in quality. The Cs port on the other hand is superbly engaging with its superb midrange and projection it jumps out at you in a very special manner the bass hits you in the chest maybe not with the same grip as the kodo but is just so engaging. Cartridge choice like all these things is very important as is cable the CS port seems even fussier regarding tonearm cable.

 

[Audiocrack]

Hi Marc,

Yes I got to hear the Blue Pearl quite a lot actually. It was a story of transformation - it started off distinctly in last position of the decks (not to mean it wasn’t good but because we are in otherworldly territory) - by the end of the evening something happened that allowed it to literally explode into the room. Mik then told me it had had a brand new cartridge on it so had only had 2 hours. So I was hearing it open up. By the end it was producing a cavernous and plush sound with wet tone - just as I like actually.

Hi Bill,

Do I understand you correctly that you (only) listened to the Blue Pearl Jem turntable in combination with a cartridge that was not yet broken in because it had only played a few hours? In other words, the real quality of the Jem turntable in comparison to the various Rockport Sirius tables could not be established?

 

[Folsom]

There is lots of waste generally plus for wiring one is not using one thickness and the positive and negative will have different thicknesses to avoid clogging of the frequencies just like silver.

Really? You have to say stuff like that? Are you trying to bring people in to berate us on severe nonsense charges???

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Hi Bill,

Do I understand you correctly that you (only) listened to the Blue Pearl Jem turntable in combination with a cartridge that was not yet broken in because it had only played a few hours? In other words, the real quality of the Jem turntable in comparison to the various Rockport Sirius tables could not be established?

Yes - unfortunately the cartridge wasn’t broken in. Only had a few hours on it. As I said, it seriously improved through the session. It isn’t a normal Blue Pearl Jem btw - it has been heavily reworked and radically better than it was as stock according to Mik.

I don’t expect that it will be anywhere near the Rockports once broken in but will confirm when I make a return visit sometime.

 

[108CY]

The deck is kind of a Jem but not it uses a lot of parts from the Jem like the bearing, the 50kg stainless/ brass platter, and massive magnets but not using the maxson Dc motor and encoder It uses a large AC motor the power supply is using a bi phased moto to drive the AC motor with two power amps. I have spent a lot of time playing with various components. The plinths are drastically better then the single piece of granite. I tried many materials but found the samarian blue granite sandwiched with sorbothane worked really well. Plus its double isolated. The arm boards are custom made to allow the use of any arm and any length.

 

[morricab]

Hi All,

Just following up on the recent post from Barry regarding his visit to Mik.

I was very fortunate indeed to get the chance this week to finally visit Mik and his incredible audio room.

I realised immediately after entering the audio lair that it really warranted that I write this up more formerly. I have put together a small report with lots of images to salivate over and published it in the online mag Positive Feedback (that I write for).

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/unique-audio-uk/

I hope you enjoy the report - Mik has achieved a truly world class system and is a delightful host. It has been *very* difficult to get all those mighty fine decks out of my head this week lol. I wish to sincerely thank him for his kind hospitality.

Best.

I didn't realize you wrote of PF...so did I!! From about 2001-2006 and from 2015-2017.

 

[morricab]

Hi All,

Just following up on the recent post from Barry regarding his visit to Mik.

I was very fortunate indeed to get the chance this week to finally visit Mik and his incredible audio room.

I realised immediately after entering the audio lair that it really warranted that I write this up more formerly. I have put together a small report with lots of images to salivate over and published it in the online mag Positive Feedback (that I write for).

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/unique-audio-uk/

I hope you enjoy the report - Mik has achieved a truly world class system and is a delightful host. It has been *very* difficult to get all those mighty fine decks out of my head this week lol. I wish to sincerely thank him for his kind hospitality.

Best.

Nice writeup Bill! I was wondering though, in the photo there looks like there are 3 Rockports and in the article you mentioned only 2 Sirius IIIs. Is the other one a Rockport Capella 2? that was a belt drive "budget" version of the big dog.

Interestingly, I didn't see any of the great Japanese players such as the Exclusive P3, Yamaha GT-2000, Micro SX-8000 Mk.II, Nakamichi TX-1000, Kenwood L07 etc. I became a big fan of these old DD TTs after getting my GT-2000 and hearing that it had the refinement of a mass loaded belt drive with the punch of a good idler or multi-motor belter (I had a Voyd with three motors that had amazing drive but kind of rough and tumble sounding).

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Nice writeup Bill! I was wondering though, in the photo there looks like there are 3 Rockports and in the article you mentioned only 2 Sirius IIIs. Is the other one a Rockport Capella 2? that was a belt drive "budget" version of the big dog.

Interestingly, I didn't see any of the great Japanese players such as the Exclusive P3, Yamaha GT-2000, Micro SX-8000 Mk.II, Nakamichi TX-1000, Kenwood L07 etc. I became a big fan of these old DD TTs after getting my GT-2000 and hearing that it had the refinement of a mass loaded belt drive with the punch of a good idler or multi-motor belter (I had a Voyd with three motors that had amazing drive but kind of rough and tumble sounding).

leave it to Brad to find what's missing.

 

[morricab]

Yes but in the morning when Mik gets up he can talk about his views on heavy multiples of silver conductors that he told me was worth exploring if one can’t do platinum - I certainly can’t be shelling on all that platinum but can certainly explore silver.

I am running heavily with silver in my interconnects at least and even some speaker cables...particularly foil types. However, I have found that the best cables for my analog were very fine silver solid core wire in teflon sheath.

 

[morricab]

leave it to Brad to find what's missing.

Don't know if they are missing...just they weren't in the photos...

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Nice writeup Bill! I was wondering though, in the photo there looks like there are 3 Rockports and in the article you mentioned only 2 Sirius IIIs. Is the other one a Rockport Capella 2? that was a belt drive "budget" version of the big dog.

Interestingly, I didn't see any of the great Japanese players such as the Exclusive P3, Yamaha GT-2000, Micro SX-8000 Mk.II, Nakamichi TX-1000, Kenwood L07 etc. I became a big fan of these old DD TTs after getting my GT-2000 and hearing that it had the refinement of a mass loaded belt drive with the punch of a good idler or multi-motor belter (I had a Voyd with three motors that had amazing drive but kind of rough and tumble sounding).

Hi Brad,

There were 3 Rockport Sirius IIIs in the room including the white one but that white one wasn’t set up so I counted only the 2 black ones in the audition. On the side there is a Sirius II and another in the hall way. I think there are more Rockports but Mik will need to confirm.

Pretty certain Mik has a few Micro Seiki 8000s and definitely had a few of the biggest Voyds too...
Hopefully he’ll respond in a while.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

I am running heavily with silver in my interconnects at least and even some speaker cables...particularly foil types. However, I have found that the best cables for my analog were very fine silver solid core wire in teflon sheath.

Mik will have to comment but I know he also likes the foils a lot in certain positions.

 

[108CY]

I do have the Micro seiki 8000 mk1 and 2 plus a Thorens reference plus quite a few more but space is at a premium, there a couple met 927. the Nakamichi TX 1000 pioneer 3a the Kenwood plus more.Together with many many other decks. I have a Kondo ginga still in its crate and a brand new shin do 301 turned up last week.

There are quite a few more Rockport turntables 2 more system 111's and all the versions of the 11 and the capella's in all variations. I don't like like foils without satellite conductors personally.

 

[Folsom]

Is there a deck you don’t have but long for? Something that you’ve just never been able to get your hands on?