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

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

Zanth

Bumping this forward as I ran across an interesting capacitor shootout at http://www.vhaudio.com/21capacitorshootout.pdf . It is on Chris's website, but is an english translation of a Chinese hifi mag article i.e. non biased.

Regard
Paul

Hi Pauly! Thanks for the link. My phono stage is still dead and every once in a while I'll hear a small chirp from my TT begging to be played. I really need to get my phono stage taken care of. I'll read through the link you provided and hopefully it can get me thinking more. I believe I will at least repair the RCA's so that I have the unit functioning, I'm leaning more towards Steve at EAR to mod the unit, cheaper and he knows the EAR inside and out, as he well should. I just hate shipping internationally hence my inclination to send straight to Parts Connexion who does fabulous work and whom with I have experience.

Skushino did

a quick scan of (used) phono stages currently for sale

Holy Shmoly (or is it schmoly). Come on, Zanth, solder those rca's and buy one of the used phonos there. Really. The few I know are really good (Klimo, Ayre, Xono) and,

I myself probably would not invest $2k in the EAR

. Agreed, good as this unit is.
Sorry to be insistent -- but you're an audiophile brother after all!