No love for SPL? I just bought a Phonos a few weeks ago and I'm mightily impressed with it.
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Like prebs I am using the Parasound JC3 Jr. with the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cartridge, but mine is on a Clearaudio Performance DC Wood with the Tracer tonearm. The Jr. sounds quite good and is so quiet that I must place my head up inside the horn of a 106 dB sensitivity speaker to hear any noise and then it is barely audible. |
One cartridge is an Experion for quite a while now, but there are many others. Phone stage is a Conrad Johnson TEA 1, series 3, most often with a Consolidated Silver SUT, which is external, although the cj also has an internal SUT on one input that is also used often, mostly with a VAS mono cartridge that I like. I also like the Ortofon 2M mono moving magnet, which is based on the 2M Black and works well on many older 1950-1960 jazz/blues records. I also have other SUTs and other phono stages, but the above are the ones in heavy rotation these days. |
@gakerty BTW, you meant Tesla E83CC, correct? |
@gakerty +1. I also love my Andros Deluxe 2, the best among my several phono stages. Excellent description. Thanks for the tube rolling tips. Agree, should have 30k and 47k MC loading options. |
I have a Zestos Andros Deluxe 2. To my ears it is fantastic, being richer in texture, more extended in treble and all around just better sounding than the Pass XP15 that preceded it (The Pass was no slouch). Despite the tubes, the Zestos is very quiet, seeming to add no noise of its own beyond my other tube equipment. Those who think tubed phono stages are noisy really hear the Zestos! For gain, I'm running a Benz LPS at 68dB (which seems high, but it sounds better this way). The "low" gain option is 62dB. I've done a fair amount of tube rolling and settled on Tesla E88CC for the 12AX7, and GE 12DW7 for the 12DW7 position (apparently the 12DW7 drives the output transformers), which the designer George Counnas himself recommends. To be honest, I don't hear much difference in the 12DW7 swapping, but quite a bit with the 12ax7. Long story short, I love this phono amp. I would prefer 47K loading as an option for MC carts, but the Zestos is limited to 1K max, which I have the Benz LPS running at. Still, it all sounds great. I'm liking Zestos tube work so much I'm thinking about my next power amp. That Zesto Audio Bia 120 is looking mighty fine. : ) |
First night listening to the Herron VTPH-2AE in the system. Everyone told me that I needed to add a phono preamp to the system and now I know why. Amazing separation of all the instruments! I'm hearing things that I've missed before. All I can say is wow! It's going to be a blast listening to all of my albums again. Listening to Led Zeppelin III UK first pressing at the moment. Zeppelin isn't known for quality recording of their music, at least the early albums. The Herron really improves this album! |
@vinylvalet, @larsman, @vinylzone, thanks guys, I really appreciate it! Since resurrecting my stereo from a 15-year hibernation three years ago, I’ve had the joy of a 14-year-old kid with his first stereo! It’s been a crazy ride with constant upgrading of all components in my system. With the Herron, my feet touched the bottom of the rabbit hole and I can finally climb out. Later this month I’ll be putting in NAT Audio Generator monoblocks, a Symmetrical line stage, and of course the Herron. I’ll finally have enough quality hardware to power the Magico A3s to reveal the potential I heard while auditioning them. I’m looking forward to relaxing and listening to quality vinyl!
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@vuch You're one lucky guy. Enjoy! |
@vuch - Congrats! 👍 I got a phono preamp and a line stage preamp from Keith a couple years ago, and I couldn't be happier with them! |
@vinylvalet, Thanks! I’m really excited to get a new unit directly from Keith! Keith knew that I’ve wanted one since last year. He called me Wednesday and said that he found some spare parts in his inventory and if I was interested, he could make me one. Of course, I said YES Please! |
@vuch Congrats on the Herron, another outstanding phono stage. This product is no longer produced. Where did you find a new one? |
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@pesky_wabbit, initially I had no idea what it was. I was interested in bidding on a Denon DP-62L turntable and the cartridge wasn't mentioned in the listing. I messaged the seller who told me it was an F-9. I found out about it when I looked it up. My high bid accounted for both TT, cart, and some wiggle room. My winning bid was half the value, essentially I either got the TT or cart for free. It's one of my best eBay purchases ever. Obviously, I had no idea how old the original stylus was so I ordered the Soundsmith replacement. I bought a record through Discogs and Michael Fremer happened to be the seller. He told me that I was wise to pair it with the Soundsmith nude Ruby OCL stylus. He said he has the exact same setup. I've been extremely pleased with it. Now it's time to see what the Herron VTPH-2A will add. |
I’m running my Soundsmith Paua2 es into a Modwright PH 9.0X (set to 470 ohms) with Valvo E88cc NOS tubes from 1964. These tubes have proven to be the absolute best with some close runner ups, such as the NOS Bel/India 6922 made by Philips, Siemens NOS E88cc and Amperex JAN 6922 NOS in that order. All of the above proved a bit better than the Amperex PQ Holland 7308 NOS tubes and all of them are much better than every current production tube that I tried. Some of the above tubes sound better with Herbies RX or Halo tube dampers, and some without. I can’t imagine it getting any better than this, ime. |
@bkeske I would agree it sounds surprisingly good with the wall wart and if you're stock tubes are working well, probably leave those alone too. Mine no matter what order I placed the 4x 12ax7 tubes, I had a balance issue so I ordered up matched gold lions and this sorted it right out. The lions are really starting to shape up. I will have an opportunity to AB against my friends with stock tubes April 24. We both use the SBooster supply, thus in theory any noticeable difference will likely be in the tubes assuming we have similar break-in and ignoring any production variance (not a likely contributor). |
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@mbzmeister I tried it, and took it out. The LPS I had was getting too hot to my comfort level, (not the Trumpet), so removed it. Perhaps a bad match for whatever reason, and perhaps the SBooster is simply a better product for the Trumpet, and I could consider that. To be honest, after re-hooking up the Trumpet LPS wall wart, it sounded just fine anyway in comparison. So many things can come into play with these things. One thing is for sure, I think the Hagerman Trumpet is a very good pre for the money, and per the reaction and comparisons to other users previous or existing higher cost equipment, it seems to be ’punching well above its weight’. |
I use an Austin Audio Works Black Swan. Detail, resolution, low noise, but two extras I found useful. Cartridge loading from the front panel so I can change in while listening, has continuous R and step[ed C. My Koetsu got better when loaded up at about 500 ohms. I guess all the timbre stuff is true Also the MC input is balanced but uses standard RCA wiring. They say, and I found that, my SME arm is wired balanced all the time I have had it. Properly loads the whole thing. I operate using a direct balanced feed from my Swan to my amplifier and use the Gain control on the Swan to set the level. Sounds like vinyl should. |
Have a Soundsmith Sussurro mk ll that I ran into a Parasound JC-3 that sounded very good overall but lacked that last bit of tracing prowess that should be inherent at this level. Currently have a Benz-Micro Wood SL on a Thales Easy tonearm running into a Sutherland Little Loco that has beat all comers so far. Synergy is everything especially in phono playback... |
@bekeske Jim's response makes sense and compares well with my contact. He of course recommended checking with Jim to be sure. His thoughts were it should be okay. The tubes would likely run a bit hotter and thus might cut tube life a little shorter but this would likely depend on the tube design itself (some are more sensitive to running hotter than others). Ran my system a good amount this weekend since it was rainy outside and the Trumpet is really starting to shine. I think it's pulled up along side my other setup that I'm very fond of. It may even be better in detail, settling on the right amount of warmth. The depth/width of soundstage is what I've been waiting for which is where my IA Tele combo really excelled. Sound stage on that combo is very good. Once I get some a little more time on the Trumpet, I'll A/B them. Currently, I'm not running dampers on the tubes. I think I like them off for now. These tubes seem fairly low in microphony for now at least. I suppose that could change and I'm told a little pinch of microphony is not necessarily a bad thing. |
"Did you get the 15-16V unit?" |