NEWAS met in the Milwaukee area for our third meeting on December 18, 2004. John Barlow, aka "loki1957," hosted the main gathering and Lou Balch, aka "audiodoc," opened his home in Port Washington for some listening afterward.

The meeting was generally informal; we were moving between chattering in the kitchen and listening to loki's Jadis/Cabasse rig in a purpose-built tunable room designed by Michael Green. The system allows one to tune the wall and floor panels by turning a key in exposed holes in each panel. For those of you that know guitars, it's a bit like adjusting a truss rod. Very cool!

I personally tend to listen better when there are fewer people in the room, so while some of the NEWASses were off in another room talking, and after familiarizing myself with the VPI TNT turntable (Nrchy wasn't helping things by standing next to me saying "Careful! Don't break it! You're doing it wrong!!" Smartypants ), I took the opportunity to spin some familiar vinyl including Portishead's Dummy and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. My friend Dan, who had joined me on the trip down, tried some Sean Lennon, Neko Case, and we even snuck in some Atmosphere--after all, how often does hip hop really get played on Cabasse rigs?? John's wife also introduced us to Four Tet's Rounds, a vinyl I was not familiar with but really enjoyed!

To my ears, the room was bright and lively; the system was transparent and fast, filling up the room in a profound way. The Jadis amps were works of art as were the Cabasse, and the sources were superb. John has an enviable music collection and even sent some of us home with interesting miscellaneous vinyl!

Thanks to John and his wife for the hospitality, top notch beer and coffee, and for sharing your system with us ruffians!


After Departing from Bayside, several of us headed up to Port Washington to check out Lou's pad. Doc fixed us up with some good beer and sandwiches which definitely hit the spot, and we settled in for a listen to his Blue Circle/Maggie rig.

Lou started us with one of my favorites, Ani Difranco's Reckoning/Reveling, and I must say there were some great sounds coming out of those tweaked MG-12s--you have to dig the big, open planar sound! Doc has taken good care in setting up and tweaking his rig, and with the Conrad preamp, RSA cable, and Blue Circle amp, the system was warm and smooth. The entire rack was actually on a solid door supported by casters, and could be pulled into the room for access to the rear of the rack--"why didn't I think of that!?"

Thanks for the food, drink, fun times and good sounds, Lou!


It was a great day, and I hope to catch everyone at the next meeting!

-Brian (Dirtyragamuffin)

Thanks to Brian for the above report. I just have a couple of comments to add:

I too found Loki’s system a real eye opener. It must be extremely rewarding to have so much effort come together in the form of a world class system. I was disappointed not to have had more time in the sweet-spot, but that was my fault, the lure of the excellent bourbon that Loki served us was just too great.

The music that I did hear was a few cut’s from a Steve Green Trio CD that I brought along, and a track from a vinyl ‘Dead Can Dance’ that Loki had on hand.

The DCD track had me looking behind the listening seat wondering what type of surround speakers Loki had in his system. The sound field was deep and 3 dimensional, totally enveloping the listener. Images were tight but not etched in any way. ‘Natural’ is the best way I can describe it in simple terms. Natural in a way that I’ve only ever heard from tubes.

And so thanks to Loki and his wife Linda for opening up their home to us and making us feel so welcome.

I also enjoyed time spent at Doc’s house, and enjoyed meeting John Bettenbender (Phoenix) very much. Hearing Doc’s system inspired me to continue with my Maggie’s and the quest for a warmer sounding, more musical amp. Doc’s system is extremely musical and sounds very ‘together’, in the sense of good synergy between components.

Thanks to both hosts for a fun day out!