2. analog
  3. 150881-90127

Ceramic insulator cone under phono stage shocker!

I have used small ceramic insulator cones underneath my phono stage for quite some time.
Previous phono was a Gold note ph10 and it did not make ANY audible difference I could detect which way up the cones were so I had left them cone upwards.

When I changed my phono to a Manley Chinook I just left the cones same way.
This afternoon I decided to flip them over so cone down just to see.

I honestly could not and cannot believe the difference!
I may have lost a smidge of low bass but everywhere else is improved in spades.
Much more detail, resolution, air, imaging, dynamics.
Just completely shocking how much better a small change has made.

But I am perplexed why such a huge change on the Chinook where I noted nothing on the ph10?

Any theories here?
128x128uberwaltz
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@bdp24  Those Townshend Seismic Corners look great but wow they are expensive!
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bdp24
9,897 posts
 
tep, shoot an email to John at selecthi-fi on ebay. He'll give you "best price" on all things Townshend.
pryso
1,943 posts
 
uber, I may have missed this but I’ll ask.

When you conducted Al’s test and didn’t hear noise while tapping on the tubes, were your cones still in the downward position? If so and the cones are more effective that way, possibly that masked a bad tube? I’d reverse the cones and try the tapping test again. If any one tube is noisier than the others then replace it. If the difference in one or more tubes is marginal that may be obscured by vibrations.

Then with the replaced tube(s) if you turn the cones downward again you may have even less background interference and increased detail, resolution, etc.

I’m not certain of this but should be worth a try.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Pryso.
I did indeed perform the test with cones down.
However I also knew there were a couple of well used Amperex tubes in it as well.
So I then decided to replace all 4 tubes with brand new Electro Harmonic tubes and test again but still with cones down.
Since discovering the better SQ I have not inverted the cones again.
At this time I am very happy with the SQ, I was more curious as to why not much effect with the ss phono and I think that has been answered.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
Looking around on the BDR webpage (bdrsound.com) I saw their following recommendation when using cones - which I found interesting:

*If you are using BDR Pyramid Cones with a BDR Shelf, invert the cones, so that the flat face is on the Shelf and the component is resting on the rounded tip.

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