Thinking of modding my 834p, or should I move on?

Hi Zanth

I guess labor needs to be paid for, but it does seem steep. I have never modded an EAR, but in my experience biggest improvement (by far) come when changing the coupling caps to better units. Looking at Skushino’s post, those are C1 and C7.

You may want to crack open the ear and have a look and see if you can replace them yourself. Practice soldering for a little on a wires/clips before to get yourself comfortable with the soldering iron, and then make the mod. Do one mod at a time (on both channels) and test after each mod. That way if anything goes awry, you know where.

The nice thing about going it yourself is that you can do it step by step and hear the effect of each mod. This will allow you to choose components that really suit your tastes. And the satisfaction of modding the gear yourself is almost as good as listening.

I like Mudorfs, but prefer V-Caps for coupling caps (when finances allow). Less expensive caps which also sound fantastic are Dynamicaps.

Resistors in the signal path I generally go for AN Tantulums.

Anyway, best of luck with the EAR. I believe they are very good once modded.

Regards
Paul

After reading hundreds of posts about which caps,resistors,and tubes to use I have decided that there is no right or wrong way to mod. the 834p. You can tune it to you liking. I used Hovland couplng caps,Blackgate power caps,fast recovery diodes, and vishay metal film resitors.
I love the way it sounds in my system. This is a great way to get your feet wet with DIY.

Tim

I can't but second all the modders' -- go ahead & pick up the soldering iron. Skushino & Pauly in particular give excellent directions. I strongly suggest you follow Thorsten Loesch. Do print out Loesch's instructions and follow them carefully. I have myself referred to Thorsten's proposed mods about a year ago in this forum but can't find the reference. I think I was linking to "Romy the cat's" ("goodsoundclub.com") but am not sure.

I suggest you keep the original step-up trannies though -- or replace with Lundahl (better). The S&B Skushino's using and the Bent unit is using are superior by far, of course, but extremely expensive. Buy some music with the extra savings:)

Thank you for all the encouragement guys! I have a bit of soldering experience and did fix one of my aging Melos amps year back. Maybe I should give it a try! As for the Lundahls, are there any that could be swapped into the chassis for a straight one for one switch?

Hi,

I did a quick scan of (used) phono stages currently for sale on Audiogon, around $2000 (your pricing breakpoint). A partial list includes:

Klyne 7PX, Thor TA3000, Whest, Canary Audio, Herron VTPH1mc, Joule Electra OPS2, Pass Labs Ono, Art Audio Vinyl One ($2400), Klimo VIV, and Pass Labs XONO.

This is a surprisingly varied assortment of phono amps, including both tube and SS products, and different circuits. There are of course, many more for sale at less than $2000. Additionally, you mentioned the EAR 324. I don't see these for sale as often, but if memory serves me, they could be had around $2k.

If I was in your shoes, the wide variety of choices wouldn't make my decision any easier. UNLESS I first clarified what I wanted in a phono stage, and then found one that met my needs. For instance, Dan_ed mentioned a preference for a FET mc stage over a tube stage. This would narrow the field considerably to units like the Herron. On the other hand, I once owned an ARC SP-9, which has a FET input, and couldn't take it. Implementation has a huge impact in this price range, because these units are NOT cost-no-object designs. bty, I would love to listen to Dan_ed's Doshi phono stage because a friend, with similar sonic preferences to mine, has and loves his. bty, the same friend has (had) and loved the EAR 834P after mods and the Wright phono stage. He and I tend to value ability to convey emotion over absolute resolution of detail.

Unless you have the means and perserverance to obtain many phono stages to compare yourself, I suggest choosing one or two that interest you, listen yourself, then pick a winner and sell the other.

And I really don't want to advocate someone else buying gear just because it happens to be in my system. In fact, I myself probably would not invest $2k in the EAR. I have about $750 total in mine (the unit itself plus parts for the mod) and I'm content until (or if) I decided to pull the trigger on something in the $4k - $5k range, where I would expect significant improvements. IMO.

Cheers,
Scott