Leak Troughline 2-Tim de Paravicini stereo decoder
Feb 6, 2005 18:01:23 GMT
Post by Captain on Feb 6, 2005 18:01:23 GMT
I thought I would post a few words in praise of the Leak Troughline 2 Tuner with a Tim de Paravicini design DIY stereo decoder. If you are not aware of this tuner it was made by HJ Leak in the 1950's and was issued in mono with provision for adding a stereo de-multiplexer later. It is a valve tuner consisting of;
2x ECF80/6BL8
ECC84/6CW7,
ECC85/6AQ8, EF80/6BX6,
EM84/6FG6 indicator,
EZ80 rectifier
I have for many years been a radiohead, starting at boarding school were I think it is a bit like prison, radio for entertainment, smoking roll ups and bromide in the porridge. Any way have grown up with radio, and now mostly listen to radio 4 and cherry pick 2 and 3.
I have always dreamed of owning one of the great tuners, and was always looking at some point to buy an Audiolab 8000 T a classic from the 90's (one I salivated a lot over when it came out). So about 7-8 month ago with my new interest in all things headphone I thought I would go and buy one as my main source. While doing an eBay search I came across a Leak tuner with a blue box on the side, read the blah and then went on my mission to seek my holy grail the Audiolab. Nothing turned up and so forgot about it for a while. Then just surfing I came across this web page, www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/featureshtml/timdeparadecoder.html and thought that sounds like some serious Tuner and remembered the eBay Leak tuner and the blue box. Cue Google Cached and search, which helped me track down the old listing, and was pleased to find this was my new desirable tuner, the Leak Troughline 2 with a Tim de Paravicini stereo decoder. It had not sold, and after reading the listing again I found out it had been serviced a year before by One Thing Audio, the acknowledged experts on leak. I contacted the guy we done a privet sale.
Now these tuners need one strong signal to get the most out of them, so included in cost aerial at £40 putting it on the roof at another £75. When I first listened to it boy was I under impressed with the sound, the signal were I am is Shiite, I live in the valley of the river Trent so did I get some hiss. I then phoned up a professional HiFi shop recommend FM tuner person, he told me he would defiantly get me a signal and that I would need a antenna booster total cost would be in the £200 bracket. Bugger that with the mounting cost things started to take unrealistic turn regarding cost and being able to convince the wife. Any way got talking on a tuner forum and was recommended a booster to buy my self at £75 that should sort it out. In the mean time I moved the tuner down stairs form my office and into the living room. That night about 10 o'clock I gave it another go and wow the signal had cleared up, apart from a faint hiss in the back ground on radio 4. I went to radio 3 were they were doing a live studio folk session, boy was I blown away. The amount of detail, clarity, and the realistic fullness of the sound it was mind boggling. There was a real thick richness to the sound that I had never experienced from any source before. It is not like my Benchmark presentation that can be detailed but a bit dry and academic, the sound sort of engulfed you, warmed you up is probably the best way to describe it. Now I went to Radio 2 were their was like a jazzy easy listing thing going on. It was not as good a the session on 3, when you heard the recorded music played, but as soon as the presenter talked you had that incredible sound again. Listing to a few more tracks I realised I was picking up on the quietly of the original recording. This is one brutally honest tuner and decoder. If it is not good when it is sent out by the station the tuner/decoder will let you know it. As soon as you get a quality recording or live BBC session though you will know you have something really special in your system.
Read the page from the link above as I can in no way do that sort of review, I can only give you my impression of some thing I think is truly special. Down side is I can only really get a good signal after about 10 o'clock at night. This in a way is not to much of a hassle for me, as working in a restaurant I tend to not get home much earlier then that any way. I will buy the booster in the next few weeks, and hopefully I will get day time listening and total clarity at night. This will then put the combo up another notch.
One thing I have learnt this tuner is not plug and play HiFi.
2x ECF80/6BL8
ECC84/6CW7,
ECC85/6AQ8, EF80/6BX6,
EM84/6FG6 indicator,
EZ80 rectifier
I have for many years been a radiohead, starting at boarding school were I think it is a bit like prison, radio for entertainment, smoking roll ups and bromide in the porridge. Any way have grown up with radio, and now mostly listen to radio 4 and cherry pick 2 and 3.
I have always dreamed of owning one of the great tuners, and was always looking at some point to buy an Audiolab 8000 T a classic from the 90's (one I salivated a lot over when it came out). So about 7-8 month ago with my new interest in all things headphone I thought I would go and buy one as my main source. While doing an eBay search I came across a Leak tuner with a blue box on the side, read the blah and then went on my mission to seek my holy grail the Audiolab. Nothing turned up and so forgot about it for a while. Then just surfing I came across this web page, www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/featureshtml/timdeparadecoder.html and thought that sounds like some serious Tuner and remembered the eBay Leak tuner and the blue box. Cue Google Cached and search, which helped me track down the old listing, and was pleased to find this was my new desirable tuner, the Leak Troughline 2 with a Tim de Paravicini stereo decoder. It had not sold, and after reading the listing again I found out it had been serviced a year before by One Thing Audio, the acknowledged experts on leak. I contacted the guy we done a privet sale.
Now these tuners need one strong signal to get the most out of them, so included in cost aerial at £40 putting it on the roof at another £75. When I first listened to it boy was I under impressed with the sound, the signal were I am is Shiite, I live in the valley of the river Trent so did I get some hiss. I then phoned up a professional HiFi shop recommend FM tuner person, he told me he would defiantly get me a signal and that I would need a antenna booster total cost would be in the £200 bracket. Bugger that with the mounting cost things started to take unrealistic turn regarding cost and being able to convince the wife. Any way got talking on a tuner forum and was recommended a booster to buy my self at £75 that should sort it out. In the mean time I moved the tuner down stairs form my office and into the living room. That night about 10 o'clock I gave it another go and wow the signal had cleared up, apart from a faint hiss in the back ground on radio 4. I went to radio 3 were they were doing a live studio folk session, boy was I blown away. The amount of detail, clarity, and the realistic fullness of the sound it was mind boggling. There was a real thick richness to the sound that I had never experienced from any source before. It is not like my Benchmark presentation that can be detailed but a bit dry and academic, the sound sort of engulfed you, warmed you up is probably the best way to describe it. Now I went to Radio 2 were their was like a jazzy easy listing thing going on. It was not as good a the session on 3, when you heard the recorded music played, but as soon as the presenter talked you had that incredible sound again. Listing to a few more tracks I realised I was picking up on the quietly of the original recording. This is one brutally honest tuner and decoder. If it is not good when it is sent out by the station the tuner/decoder will let you know it. As soon as you get a quality recording or live BBC session though you will know you have something really special in your system.
Read the page from the link above as I can in no way do that sort of review, I can only give you my impression of some thing I think is truly special. Down side is I can only really get a good signal after about 10 o'clock at night. This in a way is not to much of a hassle for me, as working in a restaurant I tend to not get home much earlier then that any way. I will buy the booster in the next few weeks, and hopefully I will get day time listening and total clarity at night. This will then put the combo up another notch.
One thing I have learnt this tuner is not plug and play HiFi.