Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy

@newton_john stated " bearing > power supply > sub-chassis > tonearm > cartridge > phono amp "

I am on board with this sequence, it ties in with my Journey over quirte some years now. 

Bearing - I have began investigation and having works carried on on the Platter Spindle Bearing Housing selected materials and their assembly for many years, this started in the 90's and is still off great interest today, after a few different design for a Bearing redesign being used in a selection of owned TT's.

The outcome with TT's used has been a discernible substantial betterment that has been discovered when compared to the original OEM Bearing, even if the OEM Bearing has been thoroughly cleaned and overhauled, the luxury of owning duplicate Models of TT's enables such investigation.

Power Supply - Since the 90's I have been learning about where there are improvements to be found. It took a change of a ID TT Model to bring in the first Standalone Power Supply / Speed Controller.

The new introduced PC / SC was able to be used on the Prior in use ID TT.

The Standalone PC / SC showed its capabilities at being able to substantially tidy up an End Sound when attached to both TT's. 

The Standalone PC / SC was loaned out for extended periods, which was Instrumental in encouraging others to build their own versions off which a few were not full clones. I have been demo' all new designs v's my own model and can stare there is better than my own that I now know off in relation to the design I own.

A few years past, I was to be demo'd the Prototype Quartz Lock Speed Control that is now the Long Dog Audio Quartz Lock Speed Control.

On another occasion I was loaned the Production LDA Quartz Lock Speed Control, as it was known to the LDA Proprietor I was very interested in Standalone Speed Control Units. The LDA was compared to my own PS / SC and taken to other homes with a version of my own PS / SC in use. The LDA was used with both Garrard 401 and Lenco TT's in a variety of build types.

The LDA proved in all comparisons and agreed by the owners of a PC / SC that the LDA was the one able to make the biggest impression of a betterment to the End Sound.

To get a broader overview the my PTP Solid 9 > PC / SC > LDA was used in a system familiar to myself. There was a Group of 10 Present at the local HiFi Group meet up, where the audio agenda was to assess the SC's and then follow up with a Platter Mat Bake Off.

The LDA was voted the SC to be used for the upcoming Platter Mat demo's

Today - I am a DD TT user with Upgrades to Bearing Housing and to the OEM Speed Control Design, I am no longer experiencing the ID TT's unless requested to bring it along to a meet up, or to give somebody not knowing how they perform a Demo'.   

Sub Chassis - For me I refer to this as a Plinth, even though with Lenco ID TT's a lot was done with the TT's Chassis to improve it as an interface material.

When it comes to Plinths I have tried out a range of materials from Stone in different Masses and constitution ( Natural Formed / Manmade ) - Metal - Metal/ Wood Composite - Wood Board in different compressions for the Wood Board Construction and Different Masses used for the Plinths construction.

Today - I use a Wood Board as a Single 25mm Thick Board produced from a material referred to as a Resin Impregnated Densified Wood Board.

The Densified Wood Brand I use for Plinth Materials is Panzerholz.

I also use Densified Wood as the Brand P'holz and Permali as the Sub Plinth Material.   

Most recently I have a TT Design Produced where the above DD TT is now removed rom its OEM Chassis and is embedded into a P'holz Plinth/Chassis. The TT's on board electronics and off board Power Supply are both new designs incorporated in their own casing.

Tonearm - My Tonearm in use today is a redesign of an Older Generation Tonearm. My version has Modern Materials added to be extremely stable when in use and are able to machined to extremely tight tolerances at interfaces, creating the very very low Coefficient of Friction. Tonearm Wiring is also selected to have the least impact on the Wands Travel across the Album.

I have been instrumental in encouraging further investigations into this Tonearm and today there are changes to be added with ideas proven to be quite effective when a method to employ them has been discovered and thoroughly trialled. 

Cartridge - I have never Spent Big on a MC Cartridge, but today am using a Bespoke Built Cartridge that incorporates parts that belong to much more expensive Cart's in the Brands range of models. In conjunction with this I have a Cantilever and Stylus assed that the Company has no history of having used.

This Cart' has been compared using the same TT > TA > System to more Upper Range and much more expensive Cart's from the Company, than I paid for my Cart' to be produced.

The outcome of Comparisons does not show my Cart' is anything less, but it does behave more like a distant relative, and not owning the Family Sound as an obvious trait when closer related Cart' models are used.

Phonostage - My First Interest in Phon' Quality was manifesting in the 90's, when my first Commission Built Phon' was produced as a SS Phon'.

This Phon' made a profound impact on me an triggered a intention to experience Phon's. To date, I have travelled quite few Thousand Miles by Road and Train to experience Phon's in use. The Qty of Phon's having been auditioned is unknown to me now, bit including the large commercials shows during the 90's and 00's along with visiting dealerships, forum events and homes, I can be up in the 100's.

During this time I have added SS and Valve Phon's and in the very near future a Bespoke Commission Built SS Phon' will be ready for me to receive. 

The Total commission built Phon's to date is Four, being a 90's SS - pre Covid Valve / SS Hybrid - post Covid Vale Input / Output ( Off which I had a influence over the end design for my own - Soon to be supplied SS ( Probably my last spend on a design for a Phon' ) , but mote Phon's will be encountered, it is my thing to do this.

As I get out and about and loan audio equipment, especially the Analogue Source   for short term demo's or extended loans, what does all the above inform me.

In my system in my dedicated listening space and the treatment the Space has ben subjected to, for the intent to improve how sound energy interacts within the space.

I have produced a Analogue Source and Downstream Supporting Ancillary that works very very well for me.

Take the Analogue source to an alternate listening environment and audio system, when in certain homes to my ears the Analogue Source can be recognised as being mediocre as a performer.

The upside being when demo'd in certain homes, the Analogue Source inclusive of certain Phon's has been instrumental in encouraging others to rethink their own set up and shortly after making inroads into mimicking what has been encountered.

Technics SP 10 Mk II's and the SP10 R are now within my local HiFi Group as exchanged TT's.

One system has my Tonearm in use with a Mk II and one System has a version of my Valve Input / Output Phon' in use with a SP 10R.

A owner who received a demo' of my Analogue Source, who owned a SME Model 20 > V Tonearm moved on their set up as well, as the owner decided he was now aware of deficiencies with the set up.    

For me, the most consistent difference between home audio and real life is dynamics. The most convincing demonstration of that was having a sax played live in my listening room, with the musician standing between the speakers. Wow!

@gbmcleod all this comparison with live music is ultimately a fantasy. We all know live is so far in a different realm than reproduced music. Forget live, even a direct from microphone is so much more laden with information and dynamics that most “recordings” don’t have. What’s not in the source material, why ask for it or compare it with imaginary things? Understanding music is a child’s play. Even a kid gets it when music is good and playing good on a system. As audiophiles we get some additional exposure so we can quickly identify unnatural sounds. That’s all. Those who can’t do that, is because they have gone too far into audiophile music audiophile way of listening (dissecting sounds). 

@theophile Coming back to phonostages. I think it is the next most important component after a TT. If the TT is good, a $500 cartridge with a Rega arm into a top class phono will sound superb. But if the phono is poor cheapo, a $5000 cartridge into a $10000 tonearm is gonna sound average. It is after all amplifying the signal at the source by 1000 times. We so easily discard it’s importance

"Understanding music is a child’s play." Please explain what you mean, if you don’t. mind.

And,maybe it’s a fantasy to you, but I don’t see any reason you can’t go to a symphony hall, and listen to music. There must be at least 200 in the United States and nobody is forcing you to go hear amplified music unless you pick the wrong venue, which would mean it’s not a symphony hall. Are there no symphony halls where you live?
As for Harry‘s ‘snobbery,’ you are very far off base. Since Harry’s not aroundm I, one of his friends, will step in for him, given I know the "mission statement" of the magazine.

Harry was quite specific about the records he played for evaluation, why he used them, what could be heard and what was audible, but not totally clear and then the subtleties (aka: the "magiks" of the component). Why would you think that this was snobbery?  That is a writer’s job, not simply to talk about the bass, the midrange, the treble, but also if it reproduced dotted 1/8 notes cleanly or a Baroque "run" without smudging the instruments. Or, can the component separate out the cellos from the double bass if they are playing in the same key.

If I described the Kirov Orchestra and how they sounded in the hall in Carnegie, and how the left side sounded different from the right side and I’m doing that as an evaluation, where’s the snobbery? Do you think that acousticians also didn’t listen to an orchestra in that space while designing???

The point of The Absolute Sound was exactly what the title was: the sound of acoustic instruments in an unamplified acoustic space. And that was put out in issue one, so there was no change in  what the magazine’s mission was, and what the reviewing requirements were. And as far as your statement about all kids knowing when music is good, I don’t see that at all. The places I do see it are cello and piano recitals. But I don’t see that in the general public. I just read about people liking what they like and not paying much attention to the recording quality. 
Live music does sound different than recorded music, but recorded music picks up a hell of a lot of what happened on that stage when they were recording. And that is what we are trying to retrieve. But I will also say that a Yamaha flute being played in the symphony Orchestra sounds like a Yamaha flute, no matter what Hall it’s in, so don’t insist that everything sounds different simply because the hall is different or you’re sitting in a different section. For those of us who go to symphony concerts every month, we know what the hall sounds like, we know where the best acoustics are. (I have often changed my seat at intermission, just to sit somewhere else and hear what the music sounds like at a different point in the Hall). And even then, I’m gonna ask you exactly which halls you’re talking about because I’ve been in a few. I'd like to know which ones you've been to; maybe I'd want to go hear a symphony thgere! And I can always tell when they have a Bosendorfer piano in there, or a Steinway or whatever brand. It’s not hard to differentiate instruments when you play them yourself. The problem is, from what I’ve observed, most people are extremely unknowledgeable about the school of music (and musicians) except for the overproduced stuff that they listen to routinely. What they listen to is usually not acoustic, so they won’t hear as much of what the designed designed into the equipment, since most designers use acoustic music to fine tune their designs.

@pani you say

"Coming back to phonostages. I think it is the next most important component after a TT. If the TT is good, a $500 cartridge with a Rega arm into a top class phono will sound superb. But if the phono is poor cheapo, a $5000 cartridge into a $10000 tonearm is gonna sound average. It is after all amplifying the signal at the source by 1000 times. We so easily discard it’s importance"

If it is to be amplified 1,000 times, it is important to get the source signal right in the first place as any imperfections such as noise, distortion and interference will also be magnified.