Lightspeed Attenuator - Best Preamp Ever?

Well deserved.

Am I right in believing that non-ideal impedance match between phono stage and LSA results in a attenuation of the high end? Perhaps it hasn't bothered me because of my old ears?

My LSA keeps getting better with time (I've had it less than a month), so I'm withholding final judgment until later. Definitely needs warm up use time to sound its best (the second side of a record, and beyond, always sounds better than the first side played).

That said, it delivers beautiful sounds right now and no way I would sell it. And, yes, George is a standup guy who is very quick to answer questions and delivers as promised.

George,

When I wrote "warm up use time" I meant actually used to play music. My LSA is already always plugged in and at half position (per instructions), but I've noticed that irrespective of that, my vinyl always sounds better on the second side (and beyond). I've tested this by playing the first side over again--always sounds better the second time. It's not my phonostage (which is always on) or my amp which I switch on, without fail, at least an hour before use. To be clear, this is not a complaint but rather just an observation. The other belief, that the LSA is getting better over time, is also entrenched. I'm no true believer in burn-in time or whatever it's called, but I can't help but notice that the LSA keeps delivering more beautiful music with each passing week. I can't explain either phenomenon; I don't care to.

Fiddler,

It may be friendlier than tubes, but one weakness of the LSA is its one input design. I understand and appreciate the argument that more inputs would be sonically compromising, but if I didn't primarily use my turntable, I would find constantly switching interconnects a serious pain.

You can get them pretty cheap, but if you're concerned about sound degradation Decware makes one for $119.

Thanks, Clio. I might just go ahead and get that Decware, as my wife likes to use the system to watch her Korean dramas :). The IC's look promising as well.

Also, are you suggesting that the Decware would not lead to any degradation or that it would tend to minimize it, given its quality? I don't know anything about how switchers work.

regards.

DNM datasheet states 13.2pF/meter:

http://www.dnm.co.uk/datasheets/stereointerconnectall.pdf

Both Publ57 and Fiddler argue, I think, that the live performance is not relevant to the LSA because (in Publ57’s case) the LSA connects directly only with the output of the TT/arm/cartridge/phonostage, and because (in Fiddler’s case) “We have no control over what happened in the studio, therefore, that discussion is a non-starter for me. I can't change a single decision made during the recording process. I can only try to extract the information from the recording as accurately as my equipment will let me and change the sound of it to the degree that I want to KNOWINGLY change it.”

Of course, I agree with their premises, but I don’t think the conclusion follows.

If we understand ‘source’ generally to mean ‘the standard by which we should evaluate a piece of equipment’, then I think the live performance should serve as that standard—and not either the information codified on the vinyl or the output of the TT/cart/stage. I think Marqmike’s post serves as a reminder of this truth, a point I’ll return to below.

I don’t think the vinyl (or output of stage) can serve as standard because we don’t (can’t?) know what it contains except through ‘corrupting’ electronics (I take it this is part of Knghifi’s point that “Every component has a sonic signature.”). Suppose Claire, using a LSA and other purported neutral and natural sounding equipment, judges that some vinyl sounds like X, Y and Z (fill in with your favorite audiophile vocabulary). She proclaims triumphantly, “I finally got it; the vinyl as it actually is, all the information it contains has been transmitted through my system.” Suppose Claire now swaps out the LSA and puts in a different passive preamp (say the McCormack TLC-1) and plays the same disk again (all else remaining the same). It sounds different (X, A, B; no or diminished Y and Z), and she swears “this time I’ve finally got everything, nothing added, nothing lost.”

Question: on what basis can she decide which judgment is correct?

Remember that this is not a question about which she prefers but rather about which is truer to the information codified on the vinyl or the output of the stage (after all, that’s what she’s after). She can go through many iterations of the above scenario trying to find the one preamp true to the vinyl, but she can never find an adequate basis for justifying any particular judgment because this method does not allow for any external point of view. It will be just more equipment, all sounding great and ‘neutral’ but, alas, different. [it is conceivable, contrary to my hypothesis, that the two preamps deliver the exact same sound—that might serve as confirmation that they had arrived at the truth. I leave that possibility aside because I’ve never heard two different pieces sound exactly the same. “Every component has a sonic signature.”).]

The point Marqmike makes in his post can now play its role. The way to adjudicate between the competing judgments is to assess which comes closer to what instruments played live sound like. This is the ‘external’ point of view. The reason the LSA is true to the vinyl is that it best approximates what instruments actually sound like. Live play serves, then, as the standard of evaluation and ultimate source (this part jibes with how Publ57 describes it).

I experienced something like when I switched from the passive I used to own (TLC-1) to the LSA. The McCormack was a well-received preamp when it came out and I found it a good product. When I got the LSA (as a result of reading this thread) I noticed immediately a warmth and fullness of sound that wasn’t there with the McCormack. Did the LSA add that warmth or did it merely reveal what the McCormack couldn’t? I decided to keep the LSA precisely for the reason Marqmike described: it better approximated the sound of actual snare drums, pianos, etc…

When I used to live in NYC I had season tickets to the Met. My last year there Tristan and Isolde was on the program and I recall very distinctly the sound of the opening notes (as played by a James Levine led orchestra). I was really moved because the orchestra had not ever sounded like that in the times I had gone before. Recently I bought the Furtwangler and Bohm recordings of the same opera and my test was whether the McCormack or LSA could bring me back to that sound. The LSA won and that another reason why I kept it. (of course, that sound never really came to me, even approximately, because my system in total is not good enough).

I tell this story because I conjecture that many of us have a sound we experienced live and we use it, consciously or not, to assess the comparative quality of equipment.

Lest I again be accused of dispensing too much jabberwocky, I include a banal jabberwocky-free report on the LSA:

A couple of weeks ago I was considering buying a new phonostage (the tubed Allnic h1200). I wondered about its compatibility with the LSA and so emailed George the manufacturer’s specs. He told me the output impedance at 1.2 kohms was “a bit too high”, but that he had had other customers who had DACs and phonostages with impedance that high and they had no problems. Slightly hesitant but impulsive by nature I bought the Allnic. I’m sure glad I did because it sounds fantastic and, as far as I can tell, plays well with the LSA. What am I supposed to be losing if the output impedance is too high? The lesson is that even though the numbers may not look promising from a compatibility point of view, it may be worth trying nevertheless.

Publ57: I had a suspicion you were a philosopher; what subjects did you study? (I specialized in moral philosophy).

I'm having trouble following this debate between Knghifi and George, particularly with respect to the use of the concept of 'source'. Originally, when I read 'source' I thought it just referred to the music as found on the CD or the vinyl record. At other times, the reference appears to be to the source electronics (CD player or TT). On one occasion, George seems to be using ‘source’ to refer to both, “What comes after the source can only be corrupted by more electronics, it cannot fix a "bad" cdp dac or cd.”

Clio suggests yet another sense of ‘source’ when he writes,

Maybe true to the source should be more about the least coloration added to something that's been colored from the beginning. By that I mean we need to take into account what the recording engineer adds to the mix before it gets stamped as a disc or a piece of vinyl and can be played on our sources. Lets even go further, the instruments played by the musicians add color to a recording whether by composition (ex. wood) or effects (ex. tube guitar amps or feedback).

This is ‘source’ in a truer sense, in my opinion, because it takes us back to the original musical activity that was recorded. [One could ‘go back’ even further and speak of source in the sense of the musical composition, e.g. the musicians are only interpreting the source. And if you’re a certain kind of philosopher, the ultimate sense of source might be the music as it exists independently of even the ‘composer’, e.g. one could argue that Mahler only discovered the 9th symphony, he didn’t invent it] Nevertheless, I think we should leave these latter senses out of the discussion because no manner of electronics design is ever going to get us back to them.

The specific understanding of ‘source’ matters because it influences our stand on several different theses. We can all agree presumably that playback should be guided by the norm of neutrality (compare: all action should be guided by the good; all belief should be guided by the truth). And we can say that neutrality is achieved when a suitably situated perceiver (“ideal listener”) can hear the music as it exists on the vinyl or cd. In this sense, the music on the vinyl or cd is the source. Three theses immediately present themselves:

a. There is no such thing as neutrality (compare: there is no such thing as truth, only interpretation or, differently, preference)
b. Neutrality exists but cannot be achieved
c. Neutrality cannot be achieved because of the nature of electronics
d. Neutrality cannot be achieved because of the nature of perception

Knghifi seems to subscribe at least to (c) when he writes, “Every component has a sonic signature. It's not bad or good but just a sonic signature.” George denies (c), at least regarding the LSA, because he claims that it “adds nothing and subtracts nothing.” In addition, George denies (a), and Knghifi’s position on (a) is not clear to me. Could the correct combination of components get us back to the source/neutrality? If Knghifi believes this, then there is yet another disagreement between him and George because George believes that “What comes after the source can only be corrupted by more electronics, it cannot fix a "bad" cdp dac or cd. It can only add corruptions, colourations, distortions and euphonics.”

For my part, I believe that neutrality exists but that it probably cannot be achieved due to the nature of electronics. I believe the LSA achieves partial neutrality in the sense that the signal it receives it leaves more or less unaltered. However, I don’t know of any cartridge or stylus or TT that achieves what the LSA achieves with its own work. Knghifi’s reference to the total system sound is pertinent here because it helps articulate why neutrality is difficult if not impossible to achieve. This isn’t a knock against the LSA. Perhaps we should be speaking in terms of degrees of total neutrality. If so, and if the LSA does what George says it does, that is, leaves the signal as it is, then that explains why many of us like it so much: it gets us closer to where we should be.

Lastly, I want to return to an issue raised by the total system sound perspective. Knghifi has asserted, and others have intimated, that finding the correct combination is important. I’d like to ask, “Important for what reason?”

i. Because, irrespective of questions about neutrality, a certain preferred sound is acquired
ii. Because the correct combination helps us achieve neutrality

Point (i) seems to deny the importance of neutrality as a norm. I started above by saying that we can all agree that it is a norm, but the more I read people’s postings, the less I’m sure about this. This touches upon thesis (d). If you don’t believe in neutrality, is it because of the vagaries of perception? Or what?

Point (ii) suggests an intriguing possibility. Does anyone believe it? George gave us a reason to deny it, but I’m agnostic myself. Why couldn’t a known type of distortion be corrected by another? Don’t people use and buy cables based on this possibility?

Banquo, where did you study philosophy?

UC Irvine. For more years than I'd like to admit.

I've never turned my volume past 12, and most often have it at 10. Both vinyl and CD. What is responsible for having to turn it to 2-3? My ear drums would rupture at those levels.

Since I haven't been able to understand a word of the recent postings (you all lost me at 'caps'), let me change direction a bit.

IF we assume that a straight line from source (phonostage) to amp is the best/least colored way to get at the information on the source (vinyl), then can we assume that finding an amp that has a volume control built into it would be a good way to go? Since it would allow for direct connection and also allow for volume control. In such a scenario we would bypass the LSA (or any preamp) and any colorations it may add. And also bypass a set of IC's and whatever potential issues it raises.

I take it that the answer depends upon the nature of the volume pot design/quality on the amp?

Differently, remaining with this type of amp (with volume control), if we use it in conjunction with the LSA:
1. could we use the amp's volume control to mitigate any impedance mismatches between the two? I understand that these are two different variables, but they are physically related.
2. and, what adverse effects can we expect to remaining faithful to the source?

I'm wondering about these questions because I see that David Berning and Paul Grzybek have amp designs with volume control as an integral part, and am curious as to what the (dis)advantages are.

Yeah, I bought one from " buyincoins_au " and the charger never worked or if it did it didn't work for long. The battery itself works fine though. Been using it for a couple of months with a different plug I had lying about.

I have a combined $2.5k sunk into my components between transport and speakers (ex-cables) and I think I'm done. Beat that price/performance ratio!

I accept the challenge: Allnic h1200 phono stage>LSA>Music Reference rm10, bought for total $2550 (used of course, except the LSA). I must admit that an itch has emerged for a new phono stage, but the LSA stays put--perhaps forever.

Kudos Jylee: your LSA looks fantastic.

I've been playing around with interconnects and note that the LSA really responds to changes. I was having the LSA drive a 12 foot run of blue jeans cable into my rm10 amp. Sounded good to me...until I moved some stuff around which allowed me to put in a 3 foot cable I had. Much, much better--I'm pretty satisfied with them in fact. However, I can't leave my equipment as it is, so decided to buy a 6 foot (the shortest I can use if I leave my rack where it is) Mogami 2534 cables. Not good. The mogamis are supposed to have low capacitance, so I'm wondering what the issue is.

What cables are people using with the LSA? I'm cheap, so nothing over $350. Also, have people noted the differences in sound depending on length? I can't imagine the 3 foot cable I used is better constructed than the mogamis (although they do have nice locking terminations) so I infer it must be the length that's the culprit.

I'm thinking about trying the Tempo Electric silver cables. Any comments on those?

Another point to note is the following. I bought a 2 foot Soundsilver cable (gold and silver) to connect my source to the LSA. I noted that it sounds much better using itthat way than using it to connect LSA to amp. I would have thought my cd player could easily drive a longer cable and the that the LSA would benefit from driving the shortest length, but that turns out not to be the case for me. Why?

I'm not at all a 'cable guy'. It would please me no end if I couldn't hear significant and pleasure undermining differences between cables. FWIW, I'm just listening for musicality, whether my reference recordings draw me in more with one set of cables over another. I was very surprised to find that I could detect a difference.

I don't know if it's the differences in length of the cables that I'm hearing or differences in the variances in construction. I don't have the same cables in varying lengths to test that. Incidentally, the blues jeans have low capacitance of 12.2pF/feet--that's why I bought them in the first place. I auditioned a 5 foot pair of magnet wire interconnects last weekend. Too lean; the harmonic richness in my Johnny Cash cd's were almost entirely missing.

Teajay: I see you own the Concert Fidelity preamp. I heard it at last year's THE Show in the room where Clio09 was working. Amazing sound. If I could only locate the $20k I misplaced, I'd happily replace my LSA with it.

I just read Arthur Salvatore's review of the Coincident Statement Line Stage. He mentions the LSA as a possible player in the best preamps sweepstakes (although he hasn't tried it himself). He mentions it despite advising against all resistor based passives--the LSA is one of those, right?

Unlike the CF, the Coincident is within reach (for me) and is tempting because I know my phono stage has a higher output impedance than is ideal for the LSA. It nevertheless sounds superb and I don't know if I'm missing out on anything, but one always wonders. Too bad their phono stage has too much gain for MM carts.

From reading A. Salvatore's review of the Coincident Preamp, I get the idea that it is not trivial to discern whether the source can deliver sufficient current and volts to make an active preamp unnecessary. After all, for more than a decade he believed his source was sufficient but it turned out, by his standards, it was not. I take it then that if his observations are correct (a big 'if'), then one cannot merely look at a spec sheet to determine sufficiency.

The question is, what more is there to look at? One can do the Bolero test, but Salvatore did it and it gave him the wrong answer and misled him for a long time. What then?

I should add: what else should we look at other than impedance matching concerns, which concerns I assume Salvatore knew about and also are not enough to determine sufficiency.

As Paul suggests, we are left with trying out different equipment. But unlike trying out the LSA, trying out different active preamps is typically an expensive proposition.

Grannyring: I've noticed a great dependence on cable length.

Because of my set up, I have been running 2m Mogami cables out of the LSA to my rm10 and 1/2m Soundsilver sextopia into the LSA from my Allnic phonostage. They are both low capacitance so I thought I'd be ok.

Bored last week, so I moved the LSA closer to the amp so I could use the shorter cable (I used the longer cable to connect stage to LSA). Big difference! For the better, I think, but that's besides the point. I've now purchased longer speaker cables so I can try short IC's for both the input and output.

Both the mogami and the soundsilver are well under 100pf/ft. I wonder then what explains the dramatic difference I hear? Perhaps the difference was the length my tubed phono stage was seeing? Its output impedance is 1.2kohm, high for the LSA, I know.

Cables are mysterious to me.

I don't know what it is (thanks Almarg for the explanation above), but I've been switching my short (1.5 ft) and long (3ft) interconnects as described above and I always get better sound when the short IC is between LSA and rm-10. Perhaps it's as Almarg noted: that there's an attenuation of bass due to variations in the impedance of my tubed phono stage. At any rate, I now get more dynamic and better bass (articulate and rich). I get 15-20db dynamic swings (as measured by my radio shack meter) on symphonic music, from the average sound level to peaks. Not bad at alI, I think. What counts as a good dynamic swing?

Joe Morello's drum whacks can now sound like a shot in the dark.

I've made a myriad of changes to my system of late and I'm continually impressed by how the LSA allows me to note them all, good and bad. I guess that it's the LSA's neutrality 'at work'.

Thanks, Clio09 for the shorting plugs idea above. I made some and went through the procedure. My rm-10 is not dead quiet, close but not quite. Transformer hum, I believe. But the LSA with shorting plugs adds no additionally noise. My phono stage however...There's a dreaded ground loop I think. I bought a cheater plug but that didn't help. Mercifully it's not too loud. I need to have the LSA at 3 o'clock to be bothered by it at my seat.

On a side note for those using the rm-10: I've been using NOS GE El-84's and they're fantastic. Superior to the stock tubes and to the Genelex reissues.

Andy at vintage tube services

Clio09: what's a jensen plug? I looked up Jensen 'iso-max' products but there is a legion of them. Which one are you referring to? Is it for diagnosis or treatment?

Regarding lifting the ground, the only other item I have with a 3 prong plug is my stage. I use the walwart that George pointed to and it is two pronged. My tt's power supply is also 2 pronged. I tried a cheater plug with the stage and it didn't help. I had entertained the thought that it was the LSA's walwart that might be responsible. But I swapped in a battery supply I have and the same noise persists.

I once considered a switcher but I'm over it as well. I use almost exclusively my tt, and swapping IC's is easy because I have an open rack. I can see the appeal though if one had a cabinet and switched sources constantly.

I'd be interested in hearing the difference a switcher makes though. Anyone use one?

Thanks Clio, I'll look into it.

I had close to that issue with my CD player. I used to max out at around 10, which gave me very loud, but not ear splitting levels. Now I'm at 12 with loud (so my wife says) but comfortable levels. I don't know why or when the change. I have changed amps sometime inbetween so that might be it.

With vinyl, I'm now at 3 for pleasing but not head banging levels. I don't think I can get head banging levels with my amp which I'm now light loading.

Even if you gave it away for free, you'll find someone to complain that it wasn't shipped overnight express.

To be honest though, two years ago, prior to being bit by the audio bug, I also would have said that $500 is 'very expensive'. I know better now.

Wow that's a long one. Who wants to have a possibility to go to the last page from one click instead of paging it through?
Oooh-Gon, please find the power from Allmighty to properly design your web page!

that's what '>>' is for

My asymmetric room is causing, I think, balance issues. I wish I had bought the dual mono version.

I believe to achieve mute on the LSA would require that the LED's be off. Since there is no power switch, the LED's are always on if the unit is plugged in.

At least that's what I believe I read somewhere.

That's so sad.

Paul was one of the great ones on Audiogon.

I've been having issues with the sound out of my system and finally had some time to diagnose.

I've narrowed it down to the LSA or my tube amp (music reference rm10). The symptoms are the following. I'm getting diminished power/volume and muffled sound quality. Every other track or so the volume and sound quality will briefly return (the volume will suddenly shoot up) and then go back down after a few seconds or so. It's not isolated to one speaker or the other, so I'm ruling out an interconnect or wire issue. I've changed all the tubes on the amp and the problem persists. So I'm suspecting the LSA. I'm using a wall wart power supply and not battery pack. But what in the LSA could cause the symptoms I'm hearing? More importantly, how can it be fixed? Preferably without having to send back to Australia?

Help. Thanks.

Thanks, Clio09. I think I figured it out. I was premature in blaming the LSA. You are right. I opened up the rm10 and found that one of the wires to the fuse box is disconnected. Now if only I knew how to solder :).

That's cool that you'll be exhibiting. I'll be sure to swing by.

Well, I spent the day learning how to solder and fixing the detached wire. While it was fun, it didn't help. The very first track I played after all that revealed the same problem.

So, I dragged out a beater preamp (thanks for the suggestion, clio09) I had stored in the garage and hooked it up and listened for 45 minutes: no issues. Afterwards, I immediately plugged in the LSA and replayed the same cd: problem returns.

So, it's not the amp after all. It must be the LSA. I tried a different wall wart and the problem persists. I tried a different outlet and the problem persists. As I noted above, the problem is not channel specific: imaging is centered as usual. Perhaps there's a power regulation problem in my unit?

I should note that one of the output rca jacks is loose, but that's been that way ever since I've had the unit. By loose I mean I can rotate it a quarter turn back and forth with little resistance. If I try to go past the quarter turn, there's resistance.

Anyone else experience these symptoms?

Clio09: do you or your tech know the insides?; I'm loathe to send it to Australia but it'll be easy to carry it to Newport Beach :).

I'm in the US, George. I have no idea what kind of wallwart I have, nor do I remember how I came to acquire it (or whose advice I sought).

I certainly had no expectations going in, so I myself am surprised by the differences I heard.

But I used it for only a short bit of time; and, who knows what psychological forces are at work when auditioning cables and whatnot. I will be fully prepared to see it as an illusion, albeit a delightful one, if this weekend's scheduled round of testing reveals it to be so.

I'll see.

And thanks for making us aware of the product, George. It's a nifty piece of gear.

Apparently, being perfectly content with the LSA and its wall wart isn't incompatible with ordering this new 'fancy' power supply :).

fyi: one can buy it off the bay so as to avoid having to register at yet another website.

I guess I'll go first. I received the TeraDak power supply today and played with it for 3 hours or so. The first thing to note is that it works as it should. That's more than can be said for the battery I ordered for the LSA when I first got it years ago. That died within minutes.

The unit comes well packed and looks decent enough. Mine came with 3 wood isolation cones and corresponding supporting wood disks. That was either a mistake or a surprise New Year's gift, because I didn't order them. The cones are quite nice so I stuck them on the unit with some blu-tac. It doesn't come with a power cord so I used one that was just ready to hand.

The second thing to note is the retina destroying red indicator light on the front panel. Damn that thing is bright! That thing needs to be covered up. I left the unit powered up but unused for about an hour as I acclimated to the sound of the LSA with wallwart. When I switched over there seemed to be a significant attenuation of volume. I checked with my trusty radio shack db meter and, as far as it can detect, there was no change. Puzzled, I continued to a/b the two power supplies for the next two hours. Looking back, I believe the sense of volume attenuation was due to the decrease in distortions caused by the wallwart. The teradak smoothed out distorted peaks and thus gave the appearance of being softer in volume. It gave me the desire to turn up the volume. Another thing I noted was an increase in transparency. This was evidenced by how much more clearly enunciated were the words of songs. There were possibly other changes as well, e.g. in dynamics and soundstaging, but I didn't have a chance to fully explore those.

Obviously, a couple of hours is insufficient to draw any definite conclusions. Nevertheless, I'd be surprised if someone said they couldn't hear the difference between the teradak and the wallwart. Unlike with reports involving battery supply/wallwart comparisons, the differences noted here are not at all subtle. And I am not in any way a power cord guy. My few forays into after market power cords have ended in disappointment.

For $60 this thing is a no brainer in my book, if only to mess around with a new toy. I believe it improves on the already stellar sound I was getting, so it is for me better than just a new toy. YMMV.

Needless to say, I have no affiliation with the Teradak's maker.

Well, good grief: I didn't know I was flooding my system with grunge all this time. Shows you how good my ears are :).

On the bright side, I look forward to hearing what the LSA can really accomplish.

I believe I own this wallwart. I don't own a radio, so can't do the test.

I'll probably get a lot of guffaws over this next revelation, but the power cord I will be using is a Shunyata Annaconda Helix,which was sitting here doing nothing but collecting dust.

No guffaws from me, just envy: I wish I had stuff like that just lying around. :)

John47: you must have the most heavily modded LSA in existence. It would be interesting to a/b it with a stock version.

fwiw: after some more hours of testing, I've confirmed to my satisfaction my initial observations.

First, the appearance of a difference in volume persists. The wallwart renders the LSA brighter and moves the stage forward, and I believe this is, in addition to increase in distortions, what I'm interpreting as a difference in loudness. Depending on one's system, I can see how someone could favor the wallwart. It seems livelier. YMMV.

However, with respect to transient response and transparency, the TeraDak is the clear and obvious winner IMO. My wallwart blurs transients and obscures the rhythmic qualities across all genres of music I tested: jazz, rock, folk, and classical. Choral work is more articulate.

Keep in mind that the deficiencies I note are relative to a side by side comparison with the TeraDak. Which is to say, I certainly didn't notice them in the 3 years that I've used the wallwart with LSA. (Or perhaps I noted them, but blamed other parts of my system?)

At any rate, in the end I'm with Lacee: my wallwart days are over. The question whether a linear wallwart is as good as the TeraDak is of theoretic interest to me, but I'll leave those questions for people like George to answer.

For $60 shipped, I see little reason to not hold such theoretical questions in abeyance and see for oneself.

B_limo: several posts ago, I already linked to the wall wart that I own. George speculated that it is an smp. I've searched and searched and there's no published info to confirm or deny. George suggests the AM radio test, but I'm not buying an AM radio just to do this test. To be blunt, I have little motivation, since the differences between my wall wart and the TeraDak are so clear. If, theoretically, there shouldn't (couldn't?) be much difference between linear power supplies, then the conclusion to draw is that I must own a smp wall wart. If someone wants a stronger argument then that, well, they can try it out for themselves--as you have suggested you will with your battery supply.

fyi: for my tests, I used a cheap hospital grade power cord. Whether one could do even better with a better cord, I'll leave that to those with deeper pockets than I to determine.

No worries, B_limo.

John47: did replacing the rca's make an appreciable difference? I've been wanting to have that done for the longest time. I wish I possessed your soldering skills.

I also see that Output Voltage is "adjust" between 0.25V and 9V. Is output voltage adjusted by user...or preset by the vendor to user requirement?

There's nothing to adjust on mine--at least not on the exterior.

I bought mine from their bay store, but I see that they have nothing presently for sale...hmmmm.

Jult52: I just use whatever came stock with the unit; no adapters needed. I do note that the cord juts out a bit when plugged into the LSA, but it is powering the unit as it should.

Perhaps the Teradak people changed their stock cord?

That's cool, Detredwings. Can you provide a link to your battery pack.

I bought a battery for my LSA years ago and the differences were subtle at best. But the battery was suspect and died within a month. I'd like to try batteries again even though I'm very happy with the Teradak.

I've been a long time user and advocate of the LSA. I never contemplated replacing it, but I wanted to try a new phono stage and ended up with this one. It uses what Sony called the 'zp-1 perfect balancer' as volume control (sealed, gold plated contacts, made by alps). The Sony has a lot of knobs and is the opposite of George's spartan design. I look forward to noting the differences.

The good thing about the Sony is that if I don't like its volume control I can bypass it and run it through the LSA instead (at least that's what I was told). At 1kohm, the output impedance is kind of high for the LSA. But I used to run a phono stage with the LSA that was even higher--with no problems.

At any rate, will report back.

Either I jinxed myself with my premature announcement, or else I am fated to be with the LSA for the rest of my audiophile life: see here for the gruesome details.

Hope this information will be helpful.

Yes, very, Vyokyong. And motivating as well. I've been meaning to do this for quite awhile--now is the time?