Need help with Sutherland Ph.D. phonoamp

100 Ohms at around 50 to 55 dB for the Koetsu. Sorry can't help with the other questions.

Smokester, The Sutherland unit is very nice. It is interesting to hear what happens when you get away from AC power.

The Green LEDs are basically "Unit Ready" or "Power On" indicators for left and right channels.

The Yellow LED indicates that the unit is going to "power down" if it does not soon detect a signal. I believe it gives you 5 minutes before it "powers down".

The Red LED indicates "Low Battery". It will begin coming on after about 350-400 of battery use, even though this unit can run up to approx. 600-750 hours on one set of batteries.

Your Koetsu black has an output of 0.6mv. Optimum gain setting for that cartridge would be 55db. I believe that the Sutherland also has a 60db setting. Don't be afraid to experiment between the two settings. You'll know immediately which sound you prefer although, 55db will be a better match for your cartridge.

As Steve had mentioned, 100k ohms would more than likely be the best load factor. Again, try the 47k ohm setting also.
You need to keep in mind that the capacitance of your tonearm wiring and phono interconnects will have bearing on these settings. The Sutherland is kind of a pain in the ass as you have to keep the cover removed to make these settings. But, after the settings are made, replace the cover to assist shielding from RFI/EMI.

Happy Listening, Ed.

Steve and Ed,
Thank you for your responses. My settings are 60dB and 1000 ohms. I will try the setting you guys suggest when I get home tonight.
Again, many thanks.
John

Smokester, You may find this interesting. Or, you may find it totally boring. But it may be worth a read. In the least, it is a clear indication of cartridge loading variables. :>)

And, could you let us know of your final settings? Just for a reference. Thanks.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1077562228&openusid&zzBuscis2&4&5#Buscis2

Best of luck, Ed.

Ed,
No. Indeed I found it interesting and was just what I wanted. I guess I didn't quite do the right search of the archives before I started this new thread.

Course, the famous lack of documentation which "comes" with Koetsu's doen't help.
Many thanks,
John

My post indicated 100 Ohms, as in "one hundred Ohms", not 100k (one hundred thousand) Ohms or even one thoussand Ohms). Anything higher than 100 Ohms for a Koetsu does not load the cartridge sufficiently for good, warm full sound, but instead tends to brighten up the cartridge, often to compensate for too low a vertical tracking angle. The correct way is to use 100 Ohms and adjust the VTA to obtain the best frequency and focus balance. Other Koetsu owners should also contribute to this thread but most will tell you 100 Ohms is the correct load. I have an Urushi and Krell KPE Reference and ran extensive tests to determine that 100 Ohms was best. Also, check Koetsu's website (actually Musical Surroundings):
http://www.musicalsurroundings.com/koetsu.html

There you will see the load range as 5 Ohms to 100 kOhms.

Also check the thread: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1076019398&read&keyw&zzkoetsu

Thanks Steve. Sorry, my mistype. I need to engage my hands BEFORE putting my brain in drive. Ed

Thank you, Steve, for the reduction in entropy...I figured it was just a typo but your concern is very much appreciated.

Thanks also for the new thread to puruse. In it, Albertporter says that he has found 1000 ohms to be the magic loading. Perhaps this is a result of using the Io which some consider somewhat dark. Just speculating. Hope he weighs in on this.

I get the message that I need to try some different settings and decide for myself.

John

This preamp is still annoyingly turning off every half hour. So, after about every 1 1/3 of an LP side I need to clean the needle to give it enough noise to reset the clock and keep it going.

I tried the 100 ohm loading but the bass was boomy and the highs suppressed. Right now my settings are 47k and 60 dB and I'm pretty impressed. Will go back to 1k for further comparison. (Cartridge is Koetsu Black.)

Smokester, You are now finding that NO preamp loading "rules" are written in stone. Referring to the thread I directed you to, I state that people tend to ignore or not provide enough consideration to tonearm and interconnect capacitance. Often, the deviations, just as we are discussing, become deviations due to wiring capacitance.

They will, and do, have a MAJOR effect on preamp gain and loading settings.

Who coined the phrase "Your Mileage May Vary"?

Regards, Ed.

Smokester what is the table and arm you are using?

Steve,
I am using an SME 20 with the IV.Vi arm.

As an update, I have found that the PHD kept turning off because the threshold of the "music detector" which controls this was set too high. There is a pot inside which can easily be adjusted by hand and I have it adjusted perfectly now.

I spent Saturday morning going through selected tracks on some reference (auditioning) records which included Holly Cole's "Temptation", Basie's "88 Street (45 rpm)", Billy Holidays "Songs for Distingue Lovers", No Doubt's "Rock Steady", Von Karajan's '63 Beethoven's 9th, Szerygn's Brahms' Violin Concerto (original Shaded Dog), Heifetz' Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (original White Dog, not the reissue) and a few others. Also played the new Mercury reissue of Respighi's "The Birds".

Concluded, still with some slight reservations having to do with a very slight bloom in the bass and some very, very slight harshness in solo violins compared to the best I have had in my system, that this is an excellent phono stage...I still might not have the cartridge loading quite right but just wanted to listen to some music for a while. Imaging was outstanding. It is very clear, undistorted, tuneful in the bass, uncongested with massed strings, and always musical.

What more could you ask for? I am very impressed with this phonoamp.

Regards,
John

Nice table and arm John. As the PHD breaks in and you nail the settings, I (and possible others here) will be interested in your further impressions of this unit. as I mentioned above I will probably go for the Steelhead even though, foolishly, I have no immediate means to evaluate it (haven't identified a local dealer yet) except for Fremer's observations. Enjoy! Steve

Followup: Eva Manley tells me that Music Lover's Audio in Berzerkely here on the east SF bay is a dealer. Will check it out and try to in-home audition and report/review via new thread.