Hello all,
Thank you to all your responses. In response to various contirbutions above:
Nickt: The Cary PH301mkII unit has 62dB of gain. With the XV1s/Cary and my linestage (TRL Plat. Reference tube dual mono), I was having to turn the volume knobs to about 2-3 o'clock positions to get it somewhat loud. Is this normal or is it telling me something?
Rauliruegas: I was thinking that maybe the Linn Ittok II arm is not the best match, and that probably goes for the deck. With the weight of the XV1s, I could not seem to get enough antiskate on the arm using the dial. At maximum, the needle would pull hard towards the centre of the spinning record. I set up the XV1s nulling the points at 67mm and 112mm(?) - can't remeber off the top of my head. I do have plans to upgrade the deck and arm. I have had my desires set on the SPJ LaLuce/SPJ Lyla arm for some time. But with several new discoveries recently such as Raven Acustic and arms such as the DaVinci 12", I might be having second thoughts. This upgrade would still be a while away as I have MC problem that needs to be sorted out first.
Thom_mackris: I tend to disagree with the stepup transfomer method of getting good sounding results from a descent MC too. The Cary 301mkII phono had Jensen (I think) step up transformers used in them, and I know many other "world best" designs that also follow this path. Davinci Audio, Audio Note Kondo are two that I can think of now. I have Cary 300B CAD-300se tube mono blocks fitted with WE 300B tubes driving the mid on BW DM6's and I love how they sound. To me they don't sound dark and shut in - but then again, I have not had much chance to compare with others. I use the Audion 300B Golden Nights fitted with Sophia Globe Meshplate to drive the treble, and that gives a lot of detail and HF extension that I appreciate. Using the Audio on the mid gave me results that were too glarey and revieling and fatiguing to listen to. Maybe telling me somehthing about my setup? With regards to the LP12 setup, I think it's pretty good. I did it myself - took a long time - but I feel I have got the suspension up-down-only. A technician is only human as well and there is no magic in adjustment of the suspension. They might be quicker - but the end result I feel is not much difference. With regards to the tracking force, I will have to get a stylus guage first. With my previous experience with the more modest Linn K18II, I had always used the dial on the Linn arm. I could hear differences between 0.5g using the dial, but have never thought going down to 0.1g would be necessary. Looks like MC setup is a winding path - which I am currently experiencing. I have read about the 2.5g + tracking force on the XV1s, but I have never done that for the safety of the XV1s. I did however set it to the maximum 2.2g (or there abouts as I was only using the dial) and found the heavier setting was preferrable to 1.8/2.0 as a very very crude generalisation. Where I live, there is no demo of such units that you mention unless I buy first. New Zealand does not have a big market for high-end audio. I don't plan on reverting back to the XV1s at current as I am loving the Kondo M7 with the modest Linn K18II. Am looking at selling the Cary unit to help with back account dilemas after the purchase of the M7.
sirspeedy70680@earthlink.net: Tube related? Maybe, but the Audio Note Kondo M7 sounds every bit better than the Cary ever did when I had the Linn K18II MM cartridge running through that too!
Cipherjuris: I picked up the XV1s from a fellow Agon'er with 50 hours on the MC. Now I'm guessing maybe 150 hours as a rough ball park as I don't monitor my listing hours - I tend to enjoy the music without paperwork. I'm pretty sure that the MC is not faulty and the seller seemed pretty genuine and that the reason for his sale was not enough gain on his Hovland preamp system.
As for step up transformer hunting, has anyone had any experiece with the Davinci Audio Stepups? I know they exist, but I only hear aobut their arms. Also, Bent Audio Mu Silver's, will they be a good match for the M7. I thought of keeping to the silver with the analgoue front end. The Bent Audio Mu's are a lot cheaper than the matching Kondo Sfz, but how much different in sound quality? Likewise with the Davinci Audio Stepups - don't even know how much THEY cost.
Thanks all.
Regards
David
