Help. Wife says Teres 340 Is too bright.

Hi Art,

I missed any reference to your using step-up trannies. Which ones are you using? Step-up ratio (or alternatively, dB of gain)?

So, if your cartridge is seeing a 42R load (and assuming you are loading the secondary of your step-up trannie), this would mean that there's a loading resistor in the 4K7 to 5K range.

You might try a higher quality resistor. Some of my customers report pretty good results. Loading the secondary however (the side of the trannie that "talks" to the phono stage) is less affected by resistor quality than is loading the primary (different values would be used for the primary, btw).

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I'm familiar with two of George Wright's phono stages - both of which were derived from your model. One of them is the phono stage in the WPP100c and the other was a stand-alone model - the number which escapes me at the moment.

Both of them had very high gain for an MM but not quite enough for a low output MC. I'd say that they were ideal with a medium o/p cartridge - say in the 1 to 1.5 mv range. On both of these units, he had a pot to adjust the gain, but frankly, it was too twitchy. At the price point, George was trying to anticipate too wide a range of cartridges - an impossible task - to try to be all things to all people (cartridges). I think he was facing resistance to step-up trannies and trying to deliver an honest product at a price point (which he did).

George put out a great value product for the money - not in the class of even a Hagerman Coronet-I, but still an honest and musical product.

Rest in peace, George ... you were one of the good guys and we all miss you.

I still suspect a new phono stage is in your future ;-)

Cheers,
Thom

Some things can put this obsession into a proper perspective.
You have lost much.
Best wishes.

Sam

I'm sorry for your loss, Art. Hang in there. Ultimately, time heals.

Back from funeral and some progress made.
First, I took the loading resistors out which raised the load to 470ohms. This didn't make much difference. Then I replaced the silver cables with inexpensive Wireworld Ic's. This made some difference but there was a loss of resolution. I then removed the WW cables and replaced them with the Signal Cables silver signature. I previously had three different cable brands in the chain. This helped some. But what made a major change was in resetting the VTA. I don't know how it got so far off, but the tail was dragging a lot. I think what happenned was that I lowered it some to ry to alleviate the brightness and then when I set it back to the previous setting, I turned it the wrong way. Now the wife likes it but I would still like to tame the highs a little better. This is not on every album for many sound great. And I just made the changes yesterday. So i haven't listened to very many albums yet. I think the somewhat bright highs are a result of bad pressings as much as anything. Its not a full time thing nor is it unlistenable of fatigueing. So i may be overblowing the problem.
On another not, I have been looking at phono preamps and tube amps.
I've considered the JLTI but would really like to stay with tubes. However this pre gets lots of good reviews. I've also looked at ARC PH3se but have heard that it is not a good match for very LOMC such as mine which is only .23mv output
I've also considered some tube amps. I may pickup a Wright 300B since it is somewhat inexpensive and it would give me a sense of what tubes might sound like.
I can't nor should I spend much tweaking the system now since my wife has reaffirmed her desire for me to build a listening room. She'd like to have her living room back.
Thanks for your kind words about my loss and your help with the problem. 'm still open to ideas about the phono pres mentioned or other observations