lewm:
Hi hope all is well. Concerning groove wall noise, it simply sounds like the stylus is touching a part of the wall where there is no encoding of infomration and I get a steady sound of dragging. As I stated previously, its more on some albums but some are new albums so it is not do to groove damage.
alucard19:
The Whest sound is not my cup of tea. It is very very solid state sounding. I think I mentioned above that I have decided to part with the London Reference as the Epoch 3 seems to do everything and more than the London. I have decided to send my DartZeel NHB-18NS back to the company for updating and to add a second phonostage (now revision 8 for the phonostage). So, I will have three phonostages between the AMR PH 77 and the Dart. The DartZeel phonostage is very impressive and it surprised me. I did not expect to like it, let alone be surprised by just how great it sounds. It is exceptional!
lewm:
Honestly, I know what I hear, I have not to my knowledge had a piece of gear color my impressions of another piece of gear. A piece outperforms another or it does not. I know you are not one of those psycho-babble tin eared sods who thinks no one can hear the difference of anything, and that they only prefer a piece because that is the piece they want to own for whatever reason. I don't ever respond to those types. I just figure they have a tin ear and actually believe everyone hears just as poorly.
I actually listend to the stages by two’s. For instance, I would listen to the Stellar for a week or two and then I would bring in the iPhono 3BL for comparisons. I did that untill I had a really good handle on just where the iPhono outperfomed the Stellar. In this case it was the iP3’s ability to actually involve me in the musical event:). So at that point the Stellar has lost and is on the sidelines, next up was the Teac, it too lost to iP3. The Phonos and the iP3 took some time, but ulitmately the Phonos prevaled in depth of field and clarity (if I recall correctly). It was close, but the Phonos was better. The SW1X LPU III Balanced is just in another league and at its cost, it very well should be the best. Cost, obviously does not alwyas dictate what is best but that tubed unit sounded impressively big and bold with the London. Again, if my Epoch3 with the AMR or DartZeel didn’t already do what the London and SW1X did, I would have most likely purchased the SW1X. Man, I wish that unit had a better name :)
I believe he has made some additional updates to the SW1X. The SW1X did make a little bit of physicall noise (like transformer hum) when powered up but nothing too bad. I realize I am a bit spoiled as the AMR and Dart are flat out dead quiet. Actually all of the units were very quiet including the Phonos. I recall the first Phonos I ever had in house, a dealer demo, was noisy. I now know that it probably had some kind of issue because the one I just recenly purchased (didn’t keep it) was super quiet.