K & K phono pre compasison

Someone else told me that he had hum problems with the Asr when used in the single ended mode. Mine is the quietest one I have ever had. They have a dip switch which selects balanced or unbalanced operation, I have wondered if it was set in the wrong position, the manual mentions the possibility of this causing hum but is not the clearest written one I have seen and I overlooked it myself and didn't change mine to single ended when I first got it. I still had no hum so whatever the cause it must be system dependent. Cumbersome? Just because it is a 52lb power supply attached to a 20lb phono stage? Remember, this is the company that gave us a 400lb integrated amp in 4 boxes. Makes my MF M3 [95lb in two boxes] seem downright petit.

Hi,

I adjusted the dip switches. Yes, I believe the hum was system-dependent and know it was mysterious. But it was unique to this component of all components I've ever had in my system, so what am I supposed to think? I went out of my way above to qualify it as uncharacteristic of the ASR as far as I know, as well as to bestow kudos on it by reputation. I have no animus against it. Seems it's size works well for you. It didn't for me. Enjoy!

The only phono pre that I have heard that betters the maxed out is Kevin's 3 stage differential design still in beta release only. For all you maxed out owners there is a mod you can do to the PS that will improve the performance at no cost. Just rewire the PS choke as shown on the Lundahl data sheet for better common mode rejection (diagram at bottom of sheet). This will involve cutting a trace on circuit board and adding a second twisted pair from the choke to the CB. I've done this to both my diff. K&K phono pre and a friend's SE K&K. Quieter backgrounds and better sense of flow.

Thanks for the info. This is just the kind of stuff I'm looking for. It appears that Kevin's maxxed out pre with mods is terrific. We're only talking about electronics, here, not voodoo. How do you get better? This is actually a question. You can only go so far, right?

Kevin told me in a phone conversation that the day he stops learning new tricks is the day he dies. I'm sure in a few years we can look back and say that the "old" maxed out wasn't even close to "maxed".