2. analog
  3. 160790-121147

Problem with phono stage

Hello Fellow Audiogoners,

I need help with my Phono stage. It is Lehman Audio Black Cube from Germany.  It was recommended from Simao, a very respected Audiogon member who helped me a lot when I was building my stereo. It costs 450$ brand new which I bought used from this site. Michael Fremer considers it one of the best steals in phono stages. I get a little bit better detail and bass extension BUT it also much noisier. I can hear the pops and any other noises  on the records much more then with the phono stage of my Arcam FMJ 28 which turned out to be a surprisingly good one considering it is an integrated one.
I also switched the cables but the noise is still there.
Is this a common problem with added phono stages as opposed to integrated ones or something is wrong with my phono and needs to be checked.

All help will be greatly appreciated.
Emil


emilm
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,052 posts
 
Even welcomed. !

R.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,794 posts
 
So the low capacitance cable as the first step is now, a page and a half later, shown to be correct.

You can easily hear a peak at 17KHz as it influences an envelope of frequencies about it, going down to about 10KHz.
A gentleman with deep knowledge levels way higher than you and ovbiously than me says about:
" Clicks don’t inherently have a frequency because there is no repetition in the signal. That would be like asking "what is the frequency of an impulse? ""
Raul made this comment earlier which is mysterious, as its obvious that whoever he’s referring to here has no idea of what he was talking about. Obviously you can hear ticks and pops in the tweeter of a speaker; so you want that resonance to be well above the audio band so it becomes inaudible and not acting as a treble control. This is why there are low capacitance cables meant for phonograph use :)
emilm OP
18 posts
 
Wow, problem solved!

Relax guys, the war is over! 

Great news ! I can't believe this ! I took Geof's info to heart about The Cube (he has the next model up the line- Cube SE) being very sensitive to RF and placement and last night I was moving it around a lot. Finally I placed it in front of the other equipment (a place where I would'n consider placing anything) and far away from all the cables in the back and... The Cube became DEAD QUIET! Because of the lack of any floor noise everything improved, detail, articulation, bass and treble extension, soundstage, you name it.
After a simple location change I was finally able to find out what The Black cube is all about.
Can you believe it?


Now, my next tread will be about a new turntable, which should be friendlier and more relaxed since it's about sound and not that much about technical issues.


Thank you all and stay safe!


Emil


jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
excellent!  happy spinning!
ejb14
37 posts
 
Excellent - glad you were able to work it out! Kudos to you and Geof!

More to discover