ModWright Phono

Hi Kevin
My current experience with the ModWright SWP seems to mirror yours - very favourable. The things which stand out about the unit are :

a) unusual clarity and low level detail
b) excellent musical separation
c) very punchy tight bass lines, which leads to
d) excellent sense of PRaT

I think I've only got about 10 hours on the unit and it already sounds this good!

Trust me.. it'll get a lot better. Re-reading my comment, you'd get the impression I thought the Whest was close. It's really not. The Modwright is leagues above it. The separation of instruments will expand and the tonal quality will be fuller, more resolving, definable, richer. It sounds like it should.. more analog. I wouldn't at all call it polite or hifi-ish. No hint of processed, 2 dimensional CD sound unless the record was recorded that way.
I probably am still under 200 hours on the phono, and there were days that it didn't sound quite as magical, but those days were few and it is seeming to stabilize.

So Cmk, looks like you ended up buying it. I agree with Jamnperry, that the unit gets better the longer it is on.
Jamnperry, have you tried any tube rolling?
I was surprised at how much better the unit sounded after I put in the NOS Mullard. I highly recommend you try one if you can.
I also noticed that the unit has a wider, bigger soundstage when used in the high gain mc selection. Although my preamp has a lot of gain and I could go with it in the mm mode, there is a difference in the presentation between the two.

Yes, I forgot to mention that I have a NOS Mullard 5AR4. It really does make a nice difference. I haven't rolled any other tubes but did try the Herbie's damper on it. Didn't like it but may try experiment more with position again. I do however like the Herbie ring on the Tung Sol's.
Thanks for the tip on the gain. I'll try it sometime.

Just an update on the unit:

I've been travelling a bit, so time spent listening has been patchy, but recently I've managed to squeeze in more time. Also since the full function preamp was available to me, I decided to try that out.

The full preamp has the advantage in that you can easily switch between MM and MC with the toggle switch at the back. Loading though requires you to open the cover to access the dip switches inside. I also like the idea of having the tube rectified power supply in a separate box from the main preamp. The supplied cord is high quality, thick guage and well shielded.

Overall, the thing that catches my attention is that its very, very quiet. Sometimes even after the stylus has gone into the grooves, I wonder if I have switched on the correct input, or if the mute was on. Music is very dynamic. This unit almost sounds like a SS unit, its hard to believe it has so many tubes in it.

From the my previous post, the sound has gotten slightly sweet and still shows all the detail and soundstaging capabilities.

Now the interesting part was the comparison with my Herron phono. The Herron is a fantastic unit, I have high regard for its music making abilities. The Modwright when loaded at 47k ohms sounds very similar, perhaps a touch leaner and slightly less gain, but marginally more quiet. Both units are very neutral, perhaps leaning ever so slightly to the warm side, but never euphonic.

I also put in some time listening to the line stage via my Denon universal player. I was amazed that while listening to the Water Music performed by Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1971), the soundstage was tremendously precise, instruments were placed precisely and in the correct scale to each other. So "real" was the performance I felt transported to Kingsway Hall. Playing other Cds just further re-enforces the sense of live performances happening right in front of me.

Highly recommended.