mulveling

Please don't be one of those guys that throws nice NOS tubes (e.g. 6H30-DR) at a cheap chinese amp. I do agree that your K1000 is kinda special and will be difficult to replace once sold. It was never my end-all either, but it did sound very very nice out of a friend's Audio Valve RKV Mk II. When I had my pair - this was years ago - I ran them out of some Outlaw M200s. These monos were seriously not up to par, and the mids were fairly grainy as you describe. They should sound much better out of an RKV Mk II, if you can track one down on the used market. You won't even need the impedanzer. However, they still won't have the gorgeous mids of the R10 - or the weight of the L3000 - or the smoothness of the electrostats. That said, I really really like the Qualia, but if you're looking for lush/seductive mids then that's the LAST headphone on earth you should be buying.

$200 a pop "supertubes" in a fucking $200 chinese amp

Happy birthday dude!!

Purk, you are one of the finest fellows I know....maybe the finest. Hope you've have a great birthday!!

Cool man, keep at it! I made a decent living for 6 years right out of college, writing business software in Java (plus the usual web-app ancillaries: Javascript, CSS, etc). Just started picking it up again for handling various tasks that neither my current dev environment nor shell scripting are cut out for (I guess I could look at Python too; I like what I've seen there so far). Still a bit verbose syntactically, but overall it's come along nicely in the last few/several years. There is so...damn...much in there, which is nice once you get past the many basics and just need to use the tools to get your work done. For the engineers at GA Tech, the frosh level Java class (even though introductory, quite basic, and only a semester long) was quite dreaded - hell, some of the Comp Sci students dreaded it.

Thanks guys! Happy you all still remember me. I've been enjoying my lurking here, but work's been dragging me down (nothing too serious) and hadn't felt like posting - or listening - too much in these past months. Also, one of my Kensington's tweeters had developed a mild ringing, and I finally got that fixed - still under warranty Overall things are looking up, and I've had some much needed good times listening these past couple weeks. Had a great day; quit work early to visit my friend Jim who's now got his "man-tiques" & vinyl shop setup to carry hifi equipment (yes - including Tannoys!). Then, it was off to Leigh's for a deliciously prepared meatloaf dinner. She got me a few nice things including (of course) some vinyl, and a cool vintage RCA tube drawer - I'm a sucker for anything with that old RCA logo. For myself, I'll be looking to pick up some warm sounding 12AU7/12AX7/6922 tubes. My room setup doesn't provide the usual amount of low-end gain, and I think it might help to take some heat off the top-end.

I think they look pretty slick, actually. And the stand is far more elegant than those headphile atrocities. Don't get wtf they're going for with the Edition...7, 9, 8, 10, ? series though.

Well I had no interest in them before, but now I kinda almost want to hear them out of morbid curiosity

Tom's got almost 40, I've got 30 tubes in my chain so between us that's almost 70 Good thing we like the cheap(er) EH tubes.

Damn Tom, that's awesome! Did you get a choice of color, and if so which one? On the amps, definitely go for maximum tube power...like the 150s. When a tube amp can swing huge transients and still be well in its clean range, it's a thing of beauty. 150 continuous watts (should be able to do transients much higher) should be ample. The big big tube amp upgrade was the biggest difference I'd heard from electronics. Not quite as fun running them in this Georgia summer, though.

It's been over a week - still addicted to the Koetsu sound. I've gone back and tried each of the Kontra/Benz Ref/Windfeld. Just can't do it anymore. Relatively, they all sound too harsh and bright. My room might well be a contributing factor (lots of hard surfaces) but adding a few more panels did far less than fiddling with cartridges. Maybe it is an expensive tone control, and maybe it isn't The Kensingtons should be a touch warm naturally, so..something was up. Also, let me not discount the fact that my heavy arm (16-22g effective) is a much better match for the low compliance Koetsu. Like I mentioned earlier, Leigh prefers the "sharp, clean" sound of the Windfeld, but she's always listening way way off-axis - sometimes in the other room under a heavy pillow Time to consider selling all the carts and starting an "oh shit" fund to get a replacement/repaired Koetsu and/or play with some other carts/arms at some point.

You guys bring up a good point with the Koetsu. The balance is night-and-day different from the Windfeld. In fact my girlfriend Leigh would agree with you - said she prefers the Windfeld, because it sounds "clearer and sharper" (my friend Cory is almost certainly going to prefer the Windfeld, too). She's absolutely right, but in my system there is just that damn peakiness somewhere up top that's been progressively driving me crazy (some nights more than others). In fact the Jubilee did that too, and both of those top Ortofons do it to a much greater extent than other carts (much more than the Kontrapunkts for sure). I've run the gamut with VTA, loading, and even acoustic treatments to only minor effect. I do have a fairly live room, with lots of hard flat surface (no carpet ). The noise floor on this Koetsu really is shockingly low (it does seem to have a bit more effective output, which obviously helps), and that is a factor. I've also heard the A90 in a similar-ish system (big Tannoy Churchill Widebands with VAC PP tube amps), and the sound is very very reminiscent to the Windfeld, with a bit more resolution. I would like to try the top Dynavectors at some point.

I happened upon a chance to try an old and crusty (yes, actual crust) Koetsu Onyx Platinum in my system this weekend. Very little fussing was done over its setup. Talk about eye opening: So a cart can be warm and have top-level resolution - the Benz Ref 3 also has a nice and warm sound, but it's nothing like the Onyx overall. Perhaps the upper-range Ortofon MC sound is too dry/analytical for my tastes. Maybe that was the wrong road to go down. The Windfeld sounds like boom & sizzle next to the Koetsu. The Windfeld absolutely hits harder in the bass (much tighter and more impactful than any I've heard by far in fact), but you can just swim in the Koetsu's mids. The Onyx really doesn't sear, sizzle, or grate up top, which a nice reprieve. I should've looked again at the cart when additional acoustic treatment didn't help with that. The Onyx has a much lower noise floor than the Windfeld, which in turn has a much lower floor than the Kontra c and the Benz Ref 3. I might just be sold on the whole Koetsu thing. To be fair, the Koetsus are a GREAT match for my heavy-ish arm, on paper. The Onyx will be staying, though I'll have to keep an eye on when it might be time for a rebuild. There was also a nice Koetsu-branded arm (SA-1100D Mk II, made for them by by Jelco) to try, but I don't think it's quite as nice as my Fidelity Research FR64fx. The headshell with the Koetsu script on it looked fucking cool, though.

Amp came back good-as new last week, so vinyl is spinning again The Windfeld has been growing on me, more each day. Possibly still breaking in, since I got it from a friend with very, very low hours. It's phenomenal - a substantial upgrade over the Kontra c. Dynamics, bass impact, resolution, soundstage, and noise floor are all better in a way that's not subtle at all. I reconciled the seemingly hot top-end by toe-ing OUT my speakers. I guess over the last year I'd toe'd them in too much to improve the sense of resolution and top-end extension for the Kontra c. Now they're toe'd to Tannoy's recommended 15 degrees off-axis (as best as I can measure/eyeball the angle with straight edges and a ruler). Once I did this, the balance was nearly perfect and the soundstage opened up to a huge degree! That, and I've been adapting to the Windfeld's presentation. There's no added warmth like with the Kontra c - this was odd at first, but easy to get used to. The Jubilee was much closer to the level of the Kontra c, but still with better top-end extension, and without the added warmth (not sure though, I might still like the warmth in that particular comparison). At this point the Kontra c won't be going back in there, and another local friend found a good match in the Jubilee. Will be selling my Kontra c and/or a - looks like I already have a good local candidate for the Kontra a. And the guy I got the Windfeld from has an MC A90 (from what I've heard the Windfeld isn't too far, but the A90 has even better dynamics). Everybody wins

Fortunately, we with low MC carts will never have such problems. Our problem is always getting enough gain, and the noise issues related to that. Still, I'm wary of that KAB filter since it looks like it's trying to be a 20Hz brickwall. At -18dB/octave slope, it's a 3rd order filter. My speakers' crossovers only use 2nd order filters. I've been told the higher order filters can mess with phase, though I don't currently understand the circuits/math at that level. The KAB also mixes to mono below 140Hz - WTF? Looks like there's way too much going on in there - I just want something as simple as possible to take the subsonic noise down a notch - to assuredly safe levels at loud volumes, no matter the disc. I've considered adding in a first order filter just by putting a pair of film caps in the chain. It would yield an ~6 dB/octave slope, centered at say 20Hz (3dB down there), so that makes: * ~10dB down at 10Hz * 23dB down at 2 Hz So that should do the job with a minimal impact on sound quality. The trick is WHERE to put the caps? Putting them in-line between TT and phono stage would necessitate extremely LARGE quality film caps (~60-80 uF) due to the low 100 ohms loading. It's do-able but I don't really want to deal with caps the size of an apple - expensive too, for the boutique cap brands. Putting them in-line between phono and preamp would be easier since the 50K ohm input would necessitate a very reasonable ~0.16uF cap. However, better would be to open up the stage and replace its output caps with the 0.16uF caps, though that would obviously involve modding the gear in a very non-reusable way and would have to be undone before resale. Or maybe I'll just wait for the Rogue Ares to come out, which will have a reasonable rumble filter, Cinemag stepups, a tube MM stage, and will match my preamp/amp splendidly (it's being voiced on that combo, and with a top Ortofon MC to boot).

I've been trying the Ortofon Jubilee and Windfeld cartridges in my system the past week. Both of these have a good bit more top-end energy than the Kontrapunkt c I've been using the past year. On the other hand, the treble on the Kontra can get a bit spashy and harsh (especially during dynamic peaks), while the Windfeld in particular is superbly clean and smooth. While swapping carts, I've noticed that the Kontra c, on my Fidelity Research arm, has a relative tendency towards exaggerating the low end (lower mids and midbass). Since this had been my reference system for a year, I'd compensated by toe-ing in the speakers quite a bit to bring the top-end energy back in line (which also exacerbated the splashy-ness no doubt). The speaker positioning and toe-in had to be completely re-optimized for the Windfeld. With the Jubilee, I'm still not convinced it's enough of an upgrade over the Kontra c to bother with. The Windfeld is something special, but its balance is very different from the Kontra and I've definitely had to adjust for it. To be honest I've also turned down the treble energy on the Kensington speakers, which shevles 1.1K and up by 1.5dB - and I like it there. Previously I'd always left it on the "flat" settings. Now that I'm finally playing with those settings, they're nice to have. The signal-to-noise from the Windfeld is a revelation. It's significantly better than the Kontra c. Vinyl is just SO damn quiet now. The resolution, spatialization, and tonality of the Windfeld are also clear winners over the other carts I've had in the system. Also, the Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 sounds awesome (much better than the SS stages I've had), but its lack of a subsonic filter is driving me NUTS! I freaking hate seeing my woofers leaping out like that every time there's a record warp of a groove glitch - makes me nervous.

Well, I'll be buying an Ortofon Jubilee in addition to the Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 The Glider L2 I had (which is essentially the Ace L in a different casing) was fairly forgiving with loading, but I'd highly recommend against running it into 47K. I wish I'd tried lower than 1K before I sold it - it would still get a bit screechy (relative to smoother analog setups) up top. I don't know why Benz hard wires their PP-1 stage to 22K at a gain of 62dB - it's not a good match for low MC carts. I've heard others tell me the Glider's optimal load is ~ 120 ohms. That sounds about right - 120 to 240 ohms is in the range of 10x to 20x the coil impedance, which is generally where you want to be. DB Systems still sells a loading kit ($50) that allows you to easily switch in 10, 20, 50, 100, or 200 ohm resistor plugs in parallel to your stage's load. That works well to give you those loading options into a fixed 22K or 47K load, for example. I recommend using radio shack's RCA splitters in place of the kit's cheapo y-cable adapters. Gain-wise, pairing an MM stage with a 0.4mV cart is going to run a very high probability of not being workable. You'd need a high gain headphone amp with efficient headphones to have a shot, and it still might not be able to provide loud volumes. If you're looking at Hagerman, why not consider adding a Piccolo active step-up to your MM stage of choice?

Nate, I thought so too, but you can see the woofers flapping slowly at a large excursion, clear as day. I think that the Merrill suspension and the ET2 arm are just an extremely volatile mix with regards to subsonic issues. The starting amplitude must be so huge that it gets through the standard filtering and RIAA curve. The Rogue Apollo monoblocks I'm using can pass such low frequencies through their output transformers, I believe (and SS amps would likely have the same issue). Hell, I sure didn't notice it until I got the new monoblocks. I know there are other Merrill Heirlooms with the ET2 arm, so I guess it wasn't just the 1-off choice of an oddball There may be more mitigating factors in those cases, like low compliance carts and tube amps that roll off fast below 10Hz. While I think each component is well built and sounds great (even together), I think this issue could be considered a deal breaker for the pairing. Tonight makes 3 phono stages I've tried on this table/arm: GCPH, Benz PP-1, and now a Sonic Frontiers Phono 1. The move to a lower compliance Kontrapunkt "a" cart (from the MC20) helped, but didn't eliminate it. The Benz is the only usable stage at this point, because it does indeed have an additional rumble filter (so say the specs) that kicks in @ 10Hz - even still you can see the flapping, but it's damped down to a non-alarming excursion level at my listening volumes. With the GCPH and Phono 1, it's just ridiculous. Even with the volume turned down somewhat, I can see the woofers start flapping in response to my walking over towards the table (the floor is not close to concrete slab but it's still fairly solid), unless I tiptoe extremely carefully. If the volume was up and the table itself gets bumped, I shudder to think what would happen - those monoblocks can push > 1000 Watt transients. Best to play it safe. On the upside, tonight I auditioned the Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 with the SOTA/FR64fx/Kontrapunkt "c" setup. Honestly it's sounding a lot better than the Benz PP-1 and the GCPH did on that table. With the Phono 1, I can push the loading back up towards 100 ohms and not get that slight trace of harshness I'd been fighting with. I can also bump the VTA level back up a notch and still preserve the natural, neutral tone I want. The result is a wider, more open sound. If it sounds as good the next few nights as it did tonight, then it'll be staying here. Has the handsome gold faceplate too

I should have taken to setting up my own carts a long time ago - very rewarding. Nothing to be scurred of, with good vision and a bit of reading. The Kontrapunkt c on my SOTA Star & FR64fx arm definitely needed some serious dialing in. The VTA was set a few mm too high (cart was riding on its toes too much), the VTF was too low (2.0g when it should be 2.5g), and the anti-skate was wonky (put it to a less crazy setting for now, and will fine tune with a test disk soon). You can really hear the differences. Also have a new wooden headshell to try to save some mass. The Merrill Heirloom/ET2 (linear air bearing arm) setup had a vintage Ortofon MC20 that sounded excellent in the mids up (smoother than the SOTA setup), but had anemic bass and whacked the woofers like crazy at ~ 2 Hz from off-center spindle holes (no record is perfect). The jumpy suspension of the Merill Hierloom doesn't help matters. Turns out the MC20 is an unusual cart with "interesting" specs: * 3dB point is at 5Hz (much lower than most carts and will indeed pickup nasty subsonic noise & warps far better than most) * 0.07 mV output - it takes most of my system's not inconsiderable gain to get it going, and by then any hum/buzz will be a roar * dynamic compliance 25 - This is VERY high for a low output MC cart, and interacts badly with the ET2's high lateral moving mass of 25-35g (depending on counterweight configuration). I noticed something was awry when I noticed the woofers casting a SHADOW over the tweeter horn while playing at loud volumes. MASSIVE excursion at 2Hz, very scary. Fortunately there was no warning noise or any detectable sonic aberration - the Tannoys are really tough speakers. Still, that MC20 had to go. I finally mounted a Kontrapunkt "a" on the ET2 arm - it's actually a really nice arm to setup once you get used to it (assuming it's already mounted properly). Azimuth, overhang, VTA and VTF are all fairly easy to dial in. This setup still oscillates the woofers a little at 2Hz, but it's WAY damped down from the excursion it had with the MC20 - the "a" is spec'd down to only 20Hz, which is good in this case. This setup is really refreshing - I'm in the phase where I want to re-listen to all the records I like again, to hear them in this new light. Over the next few days I'll figure out if the differences are from omission, a more accurate portrayal, or both (ie: different but equal). The mids & highs are definitely smoother than with either Kontrapunkt cart on the SOTA/FR64. The bass impact, that the MC20 was lacking, is amazing - possibly a bit better than the SOTA setup. Dynamics are great too. Soundstage depth is superb, width perhaps a bit narrow but this may be the fault of the "a". On the FR64 it was clear that the "c" is the better cart of the two, so it'll be really interesting to try the "c" on the ET2. I think the "a" is sounding better on the ET2 than it was on the FR64, but then there is some more dialing in to do with that arm (headshell, anti-skate). I've also been trying lower resistive loading loading - I like both 20 ohms and 50 ohms better than 100 ohms - these settings are noticeably smoother. In particular, 20 ohms is lower than typically recommended for a 5-ohm coil, but it sounds great! Also, I've finally noticed some speed instability issues with the SOTA, on the very start of a listening session (doesn't last long). Hence the drive to get the Merrill setup going This summer might be a good time to get the SOTA upgraded to Nova V specs, assuming the Merrill/ET2 doesn't completely win my favor (there too upgrades are available). Tomorrow I'll get to try a Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 Signature in my setup. It's a hybrid, 6922 tubes & FET, stage. Plenty of toys old and new to enjoy, along with a new semi-skill of setting up the damn carts. Fun times!

And I'm finally at the age where my first thought to this was..."whoa, that would be great!" Today the curiosity was high and willpower, particularly weak. Bought a heap of audio trinkets: * Ortofon's LH-8000 wooden headshell - Japanese Urushi lacquer over oak. Nice and lightweight at 8,5 grams. This right after buying the 10g FR shell Can't hurt to try both! * Ortofon's silver headshell leads * Hi-Fi News LP test record * KAB TT speed disk/strobe * Octet of EH 6H30pi tubes - the set I have in my preamp is > 2 years old, and getting a bit noisy

An effing expensive vintage Fidelity Research headshell for my FR64fx arm. This one will save me 2 grams of mass over the stock headshell, and hopefully allow a swap of 2 carts without too much fiddling. All the carts I'm considering upgrading to are going in the WRONG direction (mass vs.compliance) for this 20g arm, so going back 2 grams in the RIGHT direction could help things.

Interesting, Tom! I've just started fiddling with cartridge/arm setup myself. Very interested in the 103R because its way low compliance is perfect for my heavy Fidelity Research arm (22 grams effective mass). Most of the modern MC carts are on the high-side of compliance for such an arm - and it only looks worse going for an upgrade, since the higher-end carts tend to be heavier too. I'm looking at arms too, but it would be nice to hear the FR64fx with a cart that's a right fit, before I decide to sell/keep it. Let me know what you think!

Happy birthday my friend!! Hey man, my effing cellphone dropped our call earlier and then couldn't get a solid signal the rest of the night. Will try again tomorrow.

Tom, I'm a fan of moving up in a line that you KNOW you love. The big Harbeths are a surefire bet to make you happy in the long run with a powerful Manley PP amp. I don't think you'd have to worry about overloading the room since you've been using a REL sub (which you could always unhook if necessary) with the smaller Harbeths. On the other hand, high efficiency speakers are hella cool. Either way - CONGRATS to you and Lyra!! Look forward to seeing pics of the new setup

Agree, you want more power. Seems to me Tannoys' power ratings are fairly conservative (I've heard the 10 and 15-inch DC drivers taking quite a bit of power, in stride). If you have a lot of system gain then just be careful on the volume control - always start low, then move it up until you're satisfied. Don't assault your ears or drive into hard clipping, and it should be fine. As for power, do consider the dynamic headroom the amp is capable of. A 50 Watt amp with 3dB of headroom could sound more powerful than a 70 Watt amp with 1dB of headroom. Music (maybe not recently recorded pop crap, so much) can have peaks > 10dB (much more for orchestral), so you're going to be limited by that much more than the continuous power levels. I wish more amps would have headroom of 6dB and up - for the most part now, 3dB is considered high. Are yours the Eyris 1 with conventional drivers, or the Eyris DC 1 with a dual-concentric driver and a supertweeter? The Eyris DC1 and Sensys DC1 I've heard are indeed very nice with that sweet DC sound and imaging, but I do prefer the larger DC speakers for the dynamics and impact they yield.