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new phono pre Pass Labs Xp-15 phono pre

Just wanted to first thank everyone for sharing their thoughts, experience and expertise in helping me select a new phono pre.... a whole lot of info to digest and investigate in replacing my well modified Jolida JD9. 

Ended up finding a great deal on a Pass Labs XP-15 from Mark at Reno HiFi.... thanks for that recommendation. 

The XP-15 arrived late afternoon yesterday, and it took about 3.5 hours to thaw out lol    Installed it and started playing with loading.   Overall initial impression is that it is a HUGE improvement over the JD9.... quieter, much much quieter, better dynamics, more articulate and better imaging. But so far the most noticeable improvement is in the more realistic timing and decay in piano notes, cymbal and drum strikes. Very cool.

FYI,  using a Talisman V2 gold cartridge. Best settings "so far" on the XP-15 are gain at mid point and loading at 311 ohms....  I'll update as changes are made. 
jimpittsburgh
jimpittsburgh OP
34 posts
 
lol   yep, that's why it's turned sideways in my rack while I'm playing with settings  Wife just loves seeing all those wires sticking out all over the place.... 
anotherjblnut's avatar
anotherjblnut
19 posts
 
Congrats! Love my Xono and don't see it going anywhere any time soon. The noise floor on these is just incredible. Hate the internal dip switches too but luckily I don't swap carts often. 
rbgoblue
2 posts
 
I have it love love it !!! Rega P9 new Hana ML  Golden ear triton ones simply amazing 3-D sound 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,796 posts
 
See what you think with no loading at all (which should be 47K).

My understanding is that the Pass Labs phono sections are pretty stable. It gets a bit technical, but the loading is often required for the benefit of the preamp, not the cartridge. This is because the inductance of the cartridge and the capacitance of the tone arm interconnect cable form a resonant peak, often at several MHz. If the preamp isn't RFI immune and also quite stable, it will react poorly to the Radio Frequency (RF) bursts that come in when the cartridge energizes this resonance.

Loading the cartridge causes the cantilever to become stiffer and therefore less able to trace high frequencies (and more likely to wear out the vinyl).


So IIRC, the Pass Labs phono sections are pretty good in this regard so you may find it sounds best with the stock 47K loading.  A side benefit: you may also notice you're getting less ticks and pops, as many of those are caused by errant phono sections and not actually the LP surface! Have fun!
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