Garrard 301 - Project

How about Count Basie…my personal favorites, 88 Basie Street and Farmer’s Market Barbecue. 

Those are Pablo recordings. Very high quality but small group recordings made during the twilight of Basie’s career as a big band leader. His big band stuff is on lesser labels, like Roulette. Try Count Basie and Joe Williams, on Verve.

I’m a fan of the Pablo Basie records: The Gifted Ones, Basie & Dizzy Gillespie, The 3 Basie Jams, Basie & Zoot Sims. I’ve a bunch of his big band work but the later ones above are just wonderful. 
Speaking of Joe Williams, his A Man Ain’t Supposed to Cry album is an outstanding vocal work. A must have.

@noromance 

Thanks…Joe Williams shares some stylistic elements with Nat King Cole. Another personal favorite of mine is Johnny Hartman…there’s not a lot of recorded material, but what exists is pure gold.

Joe Williams was wonderful but not at all like Nat King Cole, who was also wonderful, IMO of course.  To begin with, the two sang in different vocal ranges.  Joe was a baritone and sang a lot of blues tunes, some of them quite obscure. His improvisations were unpredictable at times. Nat was a tenor.  He was also an accomplished jazz pianist and accompanied himself on his earliest recordings, but his work was very mainstream for his time.  He took fewer chances than Williams. Hartman was in my opinion the greatest for purity of tone, his work is more in between Nat and Joe, in his choice of material. I think I have all of Hartman's recordings. I wrote in another thread that my go to LP for comparing systems and evaluating upgrades is Hartman's "Easy Living". Human voice is, for me, a good constant.

Pablo recordings were typically of very high quality in terms of SQ.  My only quibble is that they came along more or less after many of the great artists on that label had reached and passed their peak capability. Basie and Ellington when they no longer had a stable big band to lead.  Ella when she had really lost that purity of tone for which she is revered.  Sarah Vaughn was still in good voice when she recorded for Pablo; that is one exception. Joe Pass and Milt Jackson are two others. This is not to say that those Pablo LPs are not anyways quite enjoyable.

@dogberry - LD reference is available now. 

https://www.londondecca.com/ld-cartridges

and you can email sales@londondecca.com.

I purchased a SuperGold from Stewart about a year ago. Could not be happier. If the SG sounds this good, I cannot imagine what a reference sounds like. Also a good story about the Reference over at Decware. Steve Deckert was/is messing around with a Reference a few months ago and posted some great info/reviews about his experiences.

I’m finding the new Lond0nDecca somewhat disappointing. The prices are off the charts compared to what JW was doing. The Super Gold retailed at $1900 and now it’s a thousand bucks more. They no longer offer the Paratrace service option on non-Reference models. Decapods seem to be gone. $150 up front to look at cartridges in for service. I’d like to see more transparency on the service costs. The Reference was always a $5k cartridge, LD upped it to a fair $6500 8 months ago and now it’s $8500 and the Jubilee has almost doubled to nearly $6k. I guess I’m just old school and haven’t moved with these expensive times. On reflection, I should be grateful that someone has picked up the task of keeping these amazing cartridges going. 

@macg19 

I placed my order of Model 4 phono, delivery estimate end of June. I am looking at some alternatives to Telefunken 12AX7 NOS to try it out. Do you or anyone else here tried Amperex Bugle Boy - ECC83 (Holland) or Tungsram (Hungry) in a phonostage? 

The Mullard’s you’ve tried in Model 4, were they ECC83 / CV4004, long plate (1950s-60s) production? 

I have not tried the bugle boy or tungsram but I might try and get a pair of the Bugle Boy’s or Some nice Brimar’s.

The Mullard’s I have are 1950s halo getter long plates.  I put them back in my DAC after listening to the Sovtek LPS for a few days and they sure do sound nice. They were $450.00 per pair but are now sold  old at Brent Jesse but has other variants available.

as you probably know he lists every tube available on his website which has good descriptions but I usually just email him and ask for advice which I may do shortly.

let us know what you end up getting

@lalitk  I really think you can do better on the phono stage. You are running pretty a much state-of-the-art (within reason) turntable suite and feeding it into a basic phono amp (Softone #4). This is really compromising the analog end of things. 
I know you mentioned budget so this might be a better option.
Or an Aric Audio Super MC/MM Phono with some options. YOLO,

I would not go out of my way or to great expense to mess around with Bugle Boys (even assuming you can find a legitimate pair of them, which I doubt) or Mullards, when you can buy either JJ or Sovtek LPS any day of the week at reasonable cost. BBs and Mullards are not any better, IMO. I've got some legit BBs that I bought in the 70s, and they are not better than the modern reissues or as good as TFKs, for 12AX7s. (In my experience, the U, T, and X version of the 12A_7 series must be evaluated separately on a brand per brand basis. For example, 12AU7 BBs are very good but 12AX7 BBs were nothing special.) Then too, some tubes were made in one factory then branded as if made in another. Tube-aholics know all such stories but not me.  Best 12AT7 I evaluated were made in China sold by Billington in the UK.  GE Gold Star were second best.

@noromance 

Totally hear you and I appreciate the feedback. On surface, the Softone Model 4 may appear to be weakest link given rest of the components in the analog chain but Model 4 phono turned out to be pretty darn good and wonderfully engaging. Having said that, I am keeping my options open as far as trying more phono’s down the road.

And hey, you’re right—YOLO.

@lalitk I forgot  - the Mullard’s are marked 12AX7 not any of the variants suggested.

@lewm Brent Jesse has various Amperex/BB available, yes they are expensive but I trust him in terms of authenticity. 

I disagree on the value proposition though - while I do agree the Sovtek 12AX7LPS is very good, the NOS Mullard’s and Tele’s are more pleasing to my ears.

@noromance I bought a used Model 4 on Lalit’s recommendation. I think it is ridiculously good for the money. I knew my Goldnote PH-10+PSU-10 ($3k new) was a bottleneck after buying a Clearaudio Innovation and an MSL Signature Platinum, but was holding off a next-level PS for a while. The Model 4 is way better than the GN. Maybe not end-game, but will definitely keep me happy for a while. 

The Aric MC is 4.5 times the price of the model 4. Have you heard both?

PS. @noromance the Aric does look really interesting.

@macg19  I haven’t heard either so I’m not recommending them per se, merely offering examples. However both have had solid reviews from trustworthy (known personally) posters over the years. I have heard the Gold Note and wasn’t impressed. Too dull. The Aric is customizable at the build stage. Better components are critical. 

@noromance 

Based on my experience, I won’t be buying anything from Aric Audio (new or used). 

Based on my experience, I won’t be buying anything from Aric Audio (new or used). 

duly noted!

Ha! I can't win for losing! Care to elaborate?

Based on my experience, I won’t be buying anything from Aric Audio (new or used). 

@noromance 

I’d prefer not to go into all the details publicly, but let’s just say my personal experience left me with enough hesitation that I’ve decided to steer clear moving forward. I know others have had great experiences but for my part, I’m just choosing to not purchase his products. 

Hope that makes sense and thanks again for understanding.

Lalit, We had conducted business about 6 years ago and had been in touch via email many times since then. We have not conversed in over two years. To my knowledge there was not any unattended business or things left in the air. Your statement seems to imply otherwise. Please contact me directly via email since it appears there are matters to discuss. Best regards, Aric

@aricaudio 

Aric, thank you for reaching out. I appreciate your willingness to reconnect. I’ve made peace with the experience and don’t feel it’s worthwhile to revisit or invest further into it. I trust you’ll understand and I wish you continued success.

@lalitk  I was looking at your room and can't make out if it's a basement or an attic–like over the garage type of bonus room. 😏 

@noromance 

My room is a bonus room, it’s not acoustically perfect but the dimensions offer a lot to work with. The 15’ depth and 30’ width give me some flexibility for speaker placement and optimal listening spot. The 8’ ceiling is standard due to being on 3rd floor and part of a split attic, sloped ceiling angle in the back, which helps with diffusion and reduced parallel surface reflection (a bonus in disguise). 

@lewm 

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts. While I can see your point about not all vintage tubes live up to their reputation, I have a different take on trying vintage NOS tubes. Just like anything else in audio, NOS tubes can be easily a misfit in any given application. To @macg19 point, NOS mullard’s performed admirably better in his DAC versus phonostage. 

Whether NOS tubes are worth chasing depends on your goals, system resolution and budget. If your system or a tube component responsive to tube rolling, then it’s totally worthwhile to chase the best possible NOS tubes that can further elevate your emotional connection with music. YOLO! 

@noromance 

I picked up another nice album off Amazon, Ben Webster - Plays Duke Ellington.