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Anyone try the Jasmine LP2.0SE?

I have a Ray Sammuels Nighthawk battery operated phono pre which is a pretty darn good performer. It took me some cartridge and cable juggling and a whole lot of tweaking around, but I managed to achieve a musical synergy with it with one of the amps (a modified Dynaco ST-70) I have on hand.

As good as I can get it to sound with the el34 amp, however, I've been striking out with the battery operated phono pre and a solid state amplifier in the loop (both Firstwatt F1 & F1J) with all else equal.

The Jasmine is pretty much at the same price point and I'm wondering whether anyone can offer any feedback on it. Someone who has steered me very right in the past with speakers and amplification dubbed it a giant killer and claims it killed a Manley Steelhead in his own rig--yet there is little info on it out there...

The things I really like about the NH are its transparency, dynamics, dead quiet (so long as placed away from noisy electronics) and versatility. What I wouldn't mind improving on are harmonic density and centering the balance a bit which might be tipped northward a tad.

FWIW I'm using a Well Tempered Reference and Zu 103 cart (after much juggling the low compliance high mass Zu is doing me well in this position--I also have a 103D in a box).

Can anyone offer feedback on it? If its such a great performer why has it gone unnoticed?
gopher
gopher OP
499 posts
 
Interesting feedback, thank you. I would be swapping the stock PC anyway, but are you saying it is not on the NH's level without the cable upgrades?

Also, the delicate/refined treble is appealing to me, but I'm concerned by the 'slightly lean' midrange you speak of. I gave up a good bit of midrange body/extension going to the NH from a tubed phono stage (EE Minimax).

Should I be expecting the Jasmine to be leaner still? If so, that gives me pause...
kcc123
38 posts
 
Hi,

When I compared the Jasmine with the Nighthawk, the Jasmine had already been modified by me. So it was not in stock form but I can tell you the sound is far from lean at all as I am using silver cables to make it slightly lean according to my personal taste.
As far as I can remember the stock Jasmine was very good indeed and did not shame itself against the FM 122 and Era Gold V phono stages in comparison.
gopher OP
499 posts
 
Thanks for the feedback. I ordered one today so I can compare for myself. The jasmine will have its work cut out for it to better the night hawk in with my. Tube amp in the mix, but if it succeeds it will probably be the heaviest hitter anywhere near this price range.
franklin
26 posts
 
I have a nighthawk which I like a lot-I look forward to your comparison of these two
redglobe
223 posts
 
An Audiogoner recommended replacing the 1.0 uf stock output capacitors with Jantzen Superior Z-Caps. I performed the upgrade on my unit.

Before the modification, the Jasmine was very clean. However, after the upgrade, the whole sound spectrum became crisp and clear. Absolutely, a stunning improvement on an already very good phono stage.
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