2. analog
  3. 151643-110571

SUT's -Looking for one with some meat on the bones

I have Spendor D-7 speakers, with all tubes in my system.  The Spendor's are a little threadbare in the upper mids thru the lower highs in my listening room and I was trying to find a SUT with a little meat on the bones.  My wife runs from the room when I try to spin any LP's.  

  I am using a VPI Classic 3 Signature with a HANA SL cartridge.  I bought the Spendor's solely based on internet reviews, but am beginning to wish I had not.  I have never really cottoned to digital music and these speakers seem to go after that type of sound.   I am a lover of British speakers since the 70's, but these have zero relationship to what made me a fan of the UK sound.  

  Not trying to find a fat bloated sound, but very much miss the sweetness of acoustic instrument, string and vocals.  I may be suffering from oldtimers disease.  Analytical modern sound is not my idea of musical enjoyment I am afraid.
  
mckinneymike

Showing 2 responses by three_easy_payments

three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I have D7s as well and run all tubes in my front end through a Pass XA30.8.  I too am currently using a Hana SL   I have a Zesto Allassa SUT that I'm really happy with in that it provides fantastic flexibility and doesn't alter the sound at all to my ears.  I'm not sure the SUT is your solution unless you think your phono signal is being altered somewhere? 

How long have you had the D7s?  They take quite a while to run in and I don't think the higher frequencies really rounded out until I put over 200 hrs on them.  I never noticed a difference in the character of the speakers between digital and analog sources.  What phono pre are you using? I have a Herron VTPH-2A and couldn't be happier with the overall synergy.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@almarg  makes a good point here as I know this Hana SL cart pretty well.  My phono stage provides 43dB gain and then I add 18dB with my SUT to bring it up to 61dB. I set the load right at 400 ohms and it sounds fabulous.  I can attest that it sounds pretty lousy at anything below 400 ohms.
More to discover