thx.. i know @bkeske aka Brian @noromance also a Brian… I haven’t heard Brian K Hagerman but believe he has found a CBS Hytron he loves w variety of carts including a Benz.
Maybe he will weigh in
Welcome to another episode of Life of Brians….
Phono stages: Hagerman and Sun Valley 1616 possible giant killers
In the course of researching phono stages I came across two that if all the comments are true might certainly be giant killers ( defined by yours truly in the 5000 dollar price range ). But alas, so much of what I read in reviews , both professional and audiogon users, doesn't always pan out.
So, has anyone had the opportunity to hear either the Hagerman Trumpet or the Sun Valley 1616? If so, I would be interested in your sonic thoughts.
As always, I appreciate your insights and would appreciate the absence of snark!
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I would definitely give Zesto a look/listen. Never heard but almost went with a Andros II. I have an EAR 834 clone and its warm sounding so maybe the newer EAR like the Classic or 88PB? Warmest I've had was the Tavish Adagio, but its also two box. I have a PH9.0XT and with Reflector and Siemens its pretty good. Probably not as warm as you'd like, but not as clinical as the stock tubes. sorry I couldn't respond via PM |
@mulveling oops. Thanks for the correction. That’s embarrassing. I always assumed Hagerman was a genius for pulling that off without FETs and using 6 tubes instead of the usual 3 in MM amps. Ah well... |
@noromance Clever as Hagerman is, all-tube MC amplification to 70dB+ is simply going to involve a good bit of noise, and lots of stress over tube selection! Aesthetix is the only brand I’ve seen attempt that, and I don’t have experience with them to share. I believe the extra tubes (4x 12AX7) are for balanced circuitry in the RIAA stage. Older Trumpets also had a balanced output stage topology (4x 12au7), and the original Trumpet could be optionally ordered with XLR ins/outs - though very few were made this way, for some reason (probably, there were fewer preamps with XLRs back then!). And no worries I’ve made lots of mistakes and misspeaks over the years - fortunately this is a forum for audio opinions & experiences, not a scientific journal :) Electrostatic "direct drive" headphone amplifiers share a similar need for massive gain - usually 60dB - and most of them have a FET front-end for most of their gain. There are only a couple exceptions. I’ve used this on a vinyl source and it’s kind of mind blowing to think about the 120+ dB of total gain from stylus to headphone stators in these cases, and how it works AT ALL, much less how well it does. |
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