I lived very happily with a Van den Hull Frog and VPI Aries turntable for about fifteen years. Very musical, great bass, and quiet combo. a good choice for these reasons.
Is Van den Hul Frog Gold a good choice for my rig?
Hi! I have what would probably be called a mid-fi system in these parts, although it's made up of components I really love with highish end used/open box parts bought because my tastes are Waygu, while my budget is nice brisket.
I recently acquired a gently-used VPI Titan (the older, belt-driven, model although still sold) with a 12 inch Fat Boy tone arm, in part because the price was fantastic.
After much study, albeit in complete ignorance, I am strongly leaning to the Van den Hul Frog Gold on my own, but a conclusion reinforced because my friend has it on a similarly-designed composite tone arm from Poland and the Frog sounds great. The rest of his system, however, is straight highest-end McIntosh. (He lives far away or I'd ask to borrow his cartridge for an audition.)
In contrast to his stock top-to-bottom, system, my system is a bit of a hodge-podge of things I love, largely designed around streaming/digital, to wit:
Phone preamp (new to me): Parasound JC3+
Preamp: Evo Luna 400
Amps: Classe Delta Monoblocks
Speakers: B&W 800 D3
Subs: SVS PB-16 ultras (2) (I have a dual hi-pass, low pass, up at pre-amp to divide between amps and amplified subs before amplification.)
(I do love base and low-end.)
Commercial 20 amp Furman power conditioner
Digital source: Lumin U1, Esoteric K-03XD SACD/CD player with excellent DACs)
This is a $3600 cartridge, which chokes me, but I could pay more or less, for the right thing.
Listen to everything, but mainly listen to classical while streaming (due to excellent choices) and rock/blues/jazz/something that pairs with Scotch while listening to analog.
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I have a new-ish Frog Gold and it’s awesome. I’ll warn you it was very mediocre until I got some burn-in time, and also adjusted VTF a little higher than recommended (1.6g). I’m not used to so much burn-in dependence, so this took me by surprise. It doesn’t need the full 100 hours to start sounding great, but definitely more than 20. As far as phono stages - it didn’t seem to like active MC gain, at least in my case. I tried with Herron VTPH-2A and Hagerman Trumpet Reference. The treble got harsh, and soundstage shrunk in - very unexpected. But with either phono stage in MM mode using an EAR MC-4 SUT for MC duties, it transforms into something wonderful. Can’t say if that will happen on your JC3+, but it’s something to keep in mind. Maybe see if you can borrow a SUT to have on hand. My Frog Gold says 0.85mV on the box, but it really sounds like a 0.4mV (0.5 at best) and behaves best when I treat it as such (e.g., 6 ohm tap on the EAR). I have other brand cartridges here rated at 0.4 mV, 0.55, 0.6 mV, 0.8mV (etc) and it’s clearly less output than the 0.55mV and up models. I don’t know if this is typical of Van den Hul ratings or just my Frog unit. Anyways, I'm happy with it at 0.4-ish if it sounds like this :) |
" I really love with highish end used/open box parts bought because my tastes are Waygu, while my budget is nice brisket." Great analogy. ""What would you recommend over the Parasound JC3+?" Definitely a nice SS unit. A tube phonostage will give another perspective. To my ears, just as your tube pre does, it delivers a more "organic" convincing presentation. Since you're open to used- Manley Chinook or Herron. If you do get the "new" itch, the new Prima Luna all tube phonostage looks inviting. I say that not having heard it, but owning PL gear for many years, likely it follows the PL lineage of value,performance and price. I'll demo one when I get a chance. Primaluna EVO 100 Tube Phonostage — PrimaLuna USA (primaluna-usa.com) If my current tube phono doesn't make it thru a visit to the shop, it will be on my hit list. You have a setup that does at least 90% of what uber setups do. The room setup, as you likely know, will make or break a system. "After a bit, I’ll probably add another time arm and go for something risky." I'd also look into Sota/Phoenix RoadRunner tach/speed regulation. Eclipse Roadrunner – Sota Turntables
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A word about phonostages. I owned my frog and upgraded my phonostage from an Audio Research PH 2, 2SE, 3, 3SE, 5, 8, and finally an ARC Ref 3. In each case I got a sizable boost in performance until the last. This is partially how I came up with the generality of investment level TT with cartridge = phonostage = preamp = amp. That seems to be to sweet spot if you carefully choose your components. Until I got to the PH 8 level my phono stage was holdin back me tt.
You need not start there… but this may be worth it long termed. It sure did for me.
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