Down By The River

Voce-equipped Audi TT

Down By The River

International software sales recruiter Ricky Mills currently lives close to the River Hamble (almost in it in fact). I say currently as he, his music-loving wife and his two young children are close to moving to another house very soon.

Ricky is in his early forties and is originally from Frimley, about a mile from Lakeside (ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!!!). He has worked in IT related industry since 1997 after defecting from early roles in the motor trade. He began his IT career at Cabletel, which became NTL and then moved to IBM providing technical support before moving into software sales. Seven years ago he was effectively headhunted by IT recruitment specialists Symbiosis Search. Although based in Alton, Hampshire, he works as an international technology headhunter, proactively recruiting professionals for posts throughout Europe and the UK.

I first heard about Ricky when speaking with FOUR MASTER, Accutek who mentioned that he had booked his Golf in for a de-installation of a Hertz and Audison system with the intention of installing it into the replacement vehicle, an Audi TTS. As we have mentioned many times, it is entirely possible and very sensible to do this - one of many compelling arguments in favour of aftermarket car audio. Unlike a manufacturer offering, the equipment can come out when the car is changed at the end of a lease period or when a vehicle upgrade is considered. This alone, made me very interested in following Ricky’s progress in his endeavours. The fact that his equipment included my favourite Audison Voce speakers and one of my favourite all time listens was an Audi TT back in issue III (Immaculate Audio Audi TT) heightened my interest.

I asked Stuey at Accutek to keep in touch regarding the Audi installation and when ready, contacted Ricky directly. Ricky was extremely open to the idea of me going along to have a listen but first, I wanted to extract a top five for a Driving Sounds Club monthly mail-out (not a member yet? Tsch!). Sometimes, a brief list of music that has made an impression is enough to get a feel for the kind of listening people do and this case, I really enjoyed every track which included master pieces from Radiohead, Kate Bush and firm Driving Sounds favourites, London Grammar!

Eventually, we managed to coordinate diaries and I headed down to Southampton with snapper de jour, Andy. Ricky had joked that he was going to have to spend the night cleaning his car. Not sure if he did but it sparkled on his driveway and car-mad Andy was salivating on sight. We like to find an interesting location for the main shot – It is not always possible, but in this case, Ricky came up trumps. He took us to a nearby Marina where we were lucky with both the weather and the relative lack of visitors to spoil the shoot.

While Andy filled up several memory cards with images of the car that we didn't need, Ricky and I spoke about music and his system. Turns out Ricky has been a music-lover since an early age and had his first bedroom music system at the age of six. I would strongly advise new parents to put music in a child’s bedroom rather than other means of electronic-induced ‘hermitry’.

Although Ricky’s parents were not massive music followers they did enjoy Elton John and Cliff Richard (both beautifully produced and prolific). It was his brother who was the main influence on Ricky’s burgeoning interest. Five years Ricky’s senior, big brother has always been a massive music and home hi-fi fan which has very much benefitted Ricky’s development as he always gets first dibs on discarded equipment, including a pair of lovely B&W 604 floor standing speakers.  His house system also features a Marantz amplifier, Pioneer DVD/SACD disc spinner (he actually has some SACD’s in his collection too!), B&W M1 satellite speakers and LCR 600 centre speaker.

Ricky’s early influences originated from 80’s pop music. This was an extremely lively period for music innovation as several genres bumped together. High-energy dance music was invented and sat alongside stadium rock and jazz influences in funk music and many other temptations continued to open everyone’s minds to genres above and beyond national radio station playlists. Ricky sucked it all up and his eclectic collection is testament to his musical open-mindedness. Not a massive gig-goer, Ricky did see Eric Clapton and Elton John share double billing at Wembley in the 90’s. He has also seen every U2 tour since the Zooropa album of a similar period.

Unlike many long-suffering music lovers, Ricky’s wife is as into great sound and music as he is himself (I like her already) and in fact, introduced him to the wonders of U2 and doesn’t seem to mind that the hi-fi system dominates the living room, as long as it sounds great!

The system in the Audi utilises a Hertz HDP 5, five-channel amplifier, an Audison bit Ten, a pair of Audison 165mm component speakers Installed in sound treated plastic enclosures) with matching tweeters running actively and a popular 12” subwoofer of American origin. The Voce woofers are new, as his previous car wouldn't accommodate 165mm woofers. The subwoofer has been re housed into a sealed enclosure. Originally, it was mounted in a ported enclosure but this proved too big for the luggage compartment in the new car. The original OEM source unit feeds the high-level inputs of the bit Ten, where some judicious tuning has been carried out to unscramble the equalisation curve. This bone of contention is exasperating to me. A lot of energy and development time goes into measuring, tweaking and adjusting the sound curve in factory installed head units. The purpose of this is to protect the flimsy speakers from excessive level, particularly in the bass ranges. Not sure why car manufacturers don’t just spend a bit more money on the speakers in the first place and perhaps have a word with the interior designer regarding speaker placement. Having said this, I am happy that they don't, as it means the car audio upgrade aftermarket is currently very buoyant.

I do like the way the head unit display is integrated into the instrument binnacle. This seems to be a sensible way to enable music searches on the move. You even get cover artwork displayed and information is delivered clearly even for my ageing eyes!

As I would expect, Accutek has made a great job of installing the amplifier and processor under the boot floor. There is a handy “depression” in the floor lining that allows the electronics to be secured safely and close together. In typical Accutek fashion, interconnecting cables have been made to measure to avoid coils of excess wire having to be stashed away somewhere. In fact the wiring all looks decidedly OEM but much neater.

The interior of the car has quite a compact feel however, as snapper Andy pointed out, with the system playing the space seems to expand in a Tardis-like fashion.

I wanted to play a mixture of tracks I know well as well as sampling Ricky’s own collection. There is a sizeable selection of very varied music on SD cards in the head unit and also on an iPod connected via USB port. I noticed that despite not being a regular gig-goer, Ricky’s collection includes a fair few live recordings. I have a bit of a problem with these sometimes, as many feature replacement vocals and instrumental solos. I remember being in a studio near Surrey once watching an engineer meticulously replace all the drum beats on a live recording with electronically produced drum sounds – Live? – Hmmm, I remain somewhat cynical. In any case, I believe the one off experience of a gig should remain exactly that. I am driven to distraction by YouTube footage of gigs taken on a mobile phone or even worse, a tablet. If you do this, you are probably guilty of annoying those around you and the resulting footage often makes a special happening look and sound very poor! – Wait for the official DVD to be released or just use your memory recall to relive the moment. Anyway, rant over.

In order to test the magic space growing properties of Ricky’s system, I reached for “Hey Now” by London Grammar. The liberal smothering of luscious reverb on this track can make a Mini Minor feel like a double decker bus if it is rendered properly. I am happy to say that this system renders it perfectly. The image is stable at ear height and plays wide enough. The initial feeling of compactness is completely overcome. However, at 1minute and 23 seconds, the bass line hits. I was quite taken by surprise by the power of the low frequencies. A quick check of the head unit settings confirmed that the bass level control was set fairly high. I reduced it to a level more appropriate for driveway listening and played the track from the beginning again. The forcefulness of bass was still apparent however, as the track continued, I noticed a distinct lack of articulation in the lower reaches. It is unforgiveable to give up on a track like this once started, so I let it play out and thoroughly enjoyed the listen but wanted to investigate the low bass again. My “go to” track for bass articulation and balance is “The Wheel” by SOHN. This somewhat strange track has a three note bass riff. Each note should be of the same level but here the lowest of the three notes was much heavier by some degree. Checking back with Stuey at Accutek, he confirmed that the system had a fairly arbitrary set-up due to time and the need for the new Voce speakers to bed in. Most speakers require 10-15 hours to “run in”. Although not dramatic, their performance will change over this time. Ricky intends to return to Accutek for a bit Tune when time and finances allow – Moving house is currently the priority for the Mills’.

With that out of the way, I selected the acoustic version of “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morisette. This track was on Ricky’s original top five driving sounds list when we featured him in a Driving Sounds Club mail out. The track begins minimally with an acoustic guitar panned left. It sounds absolutely crystal clear and is joined by a very live-sounding drum kit, although only side stick snare and occasional kick drum beats are used at this stage along with a bass guitar note in every other bar and some not very acoustic but beautifully modulated Fender Rhodes piano. The vocal enters at around 24 seconds and is so real I look to see if Alanis has jumped into the car next to me – Sadly, she hasn’t! Everything pauses for a couple of bars at 43 seconds and then Alanis hits the higher registers and the musical accompaniment steps up a gear with the introduction of a second acoustic guitar. At 1:03 the chorus kicks in with busier drum and bass accompaniment but without compromising the acoustic promise. The guitars at this point are strummed rather than picked. This helps the track move along. After the lively and emphatic chorus, the acoustic guitars and other instruments calm down again and peace is restored. This has the effect of emphasizing the lyrical content that talks of the emotional torment of a lost love hooking up with another lady. The profanity during the second verse made me blush in a way that a rapper’s expletive-ridden aggression could never manage! The piano returns during the second pre-chorus although it seems to be an acoustic piano this time. I only mention such details as I can hear them all perfectly and with astonishing clarity. I have to move on now.

Another pick from Ricky’s playlist, “Nocturn” from Before The Dawn (Live) by the stunningly talented Kate Bush. I have not heard this rendition before but the gigs from which it is taken have already achieved legendary status. Notwithstanding my previous comments regarding live recordings, this one does sound like a direct transcript of what happened at the gig. The introduction is in a word, “spooky” with close discordant harmony vocals that seem at complete odds to the sunny harmonious afternoon in Southampton I am enjoying. On this system you can hear Kate’s maturity. The voice is still pure but her subtle vibrato is somehow wiser and more controlled, her articulation flawless as always. You can clearly hear Kate’s slightly soft “r” as well as her naturally heightened sibilance. The instrumentation is all completely clear and easily identifiable and I want to move on but just can’t as the track is totally absorbing. Birds and laughter make me tingle. So real are they that I have failed to notice I am now half way through the next track, “Aerial” – I could easily have listened to the rest of the three-disc set!

I move on and selected Pink Floyd’s “Money” from Ricky’s new top five – I suppose everyone knows that Pink Floyd guitarist, Dave Gilmour was instrumental in breaking Kate Bush into the world of music? Again, clarity is the overwhelming feeling here. I fancied I could actually count the money being thrown in the till at the beginning. This is of course looped and is clearly audible at 35 seconds when it is faded to nothing. When it is reprised at 1:20, it seems to have gained more attack and spits out of the Voce’s like a machine gun! As a relatively early stereo recording, Alan Parson’s mix is expansive with each instrument occupying a clearly defined position and space of its own. Almost mono, standard audio in a car would do this track no justice at all!

In conclusion, I can forgive the hastily tuned sub bass. I am still completely besotted with Voce speakers and the Hertz HDP 5 amplifier treats them very well. D-class amplification as featured in the HDP 5 can get a hard ride from the purists, but the benefits of instantly available power for heavy transients coupled with the size and thermal efficiency of this form of amplification totally justify its selection in this car. I do feel there is more to come from this system, and can’t wait to hear from Ricky once a bit Tune has been carried out. In the meantime, I hope he continues to enjoy a superb system in a beautiful car!

Ricky’s Top Five:

Non Believer – London Grammar

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits

Money – Pink Floyd

The Chain – Fleetwood Mac (Rumours remastered)

Find Me – Kings Of Leon

Ricky’s System:

Audison Voce AV 6.5 – 165mm woofers

Audison Voce AV 1.1 – 28mm silk dome tweeters

12” Subwoofer in Q+ sealed enclosure

Audison bit Ten – Sound processor

Hertz HDP 5 – 5-channel. 4 X 70 Watts RMS + 1 X 380 Watts RMS amplifier

Skinz Sound Treatment