Joel, thinking of declaring it as new toaster and taking my chances w War Dept.....
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Beth Hart "Fire On The Floor" I recently received this and the music is fantastic. The pressing quality left a bit to be desired though. Higher frequency information was pushed in the background and lacking in clarity, or, "sparkle". A High level cleaning in the Degritter brought that area of the music more forward. I will do another High level cleaning cycle and see if I can get it to an even greater SQ. Should be a good test. Pink Floyd "Meddle" Pink Floyd Records reissue. Excellent! I'll do a few more Degritter cleaning tests today. Up next is my original pressing of Houses Of The Holy. I have owned it since first released and it's been played many times, especially when new, and always on a good TT and cartridge. Played it about 10 weeks ago and SQ was good but plenty of noise. Let's see how that noise level can be addressed. Hoping for the best., |
Yann Tiersen Portrait Mute 2019 I like this fellow’s music. Ambient, cinematic, and more. Always really interesting. What I especially like about this record is that to make it he got family and friends together in a studio and re-recorded certain of their favorites from his (large) catalogue on 24-track analogue tape. Then, he took the tape to Abby Road where it was mastered for direct transfer to vinyl. I suppose there were a few additional steps (but all analogue) along the way to the finished product on my turntable but I have to say this sounds deep and rich and very real here in my room. |
this might be a good place to ask. ,But, I do not want to hijack the thread. maybe just some quick mentions or replies. What would you guys consider a decent phono stage 500-2k price . I just got the Moon 110Lp V2 and have coming the Project Phono box DS2 . I have some great Vintage Mullards and a Pair of smooth plate Telefunkens that i paid like 400 for the Mullards and 285 for the Tele . I would have to look closer to the specific dates of MFg and details. 12AX7s |
Pink Floyd-The Dark Side Of The Moon(Blue Triangle) Side 1 SQ 4.5 Dewayne Phillips-Texas Rhythm(Cowpatty CR-922) Side 1 SQ 4.2 The Police-Synchronicity Side 2 SQ 4.2 Seals And Crofts-Down Home Side 1 4.2 Linda Ronstadt-Lush Life Side 1 SQ 4.4 David Frizzell & Shelly West-In Session Side 2 SQ 4.3 Beethoven-Symphony No.7(Angel S35945) Side 1 & 2 SQ 4.3 |
https://youtu.be/BfaXxbGPeqo 1969 Music Festival in Texas. Includes a set by Tony Joe White. Also Led Zeppelin. |
@grey9hound I don’t have as much experience with equipment as the rest of the members here, but I can tell you I absolutely love my Phono Stage. It’s an EAR 834p. It has an impeccable pedigree. It’s a tube-based circuit with a beautiful liquid and golden sound. It’s in your price range and I know you love tubes, so.... you can read a lot about it around the inter webs. I got one because it was used by a music friend who I very much respect and who has owned quarter million dollar systems in the past but became more focused on music and value. I’m extremely pleased with it. |
@grey9hound no hijack, we keep things mostly focused on music and discuss everything but always returning to our mutual love of music....no worries from my perspective....i also am of a fan of EAR as James and Eric run them, i agree glorious warm tube tone color without being syrup overdone. I have a Herron which is $3 k new but can be found a version back right at your price point. it ( so far for me and many others ) does not reward nos tube rolling. I stop short of calling it a giant killer but it is competitive into the $6 k range. it is no Lamm or ARC ref. It is taunt, lyrical and uncolored. image depth is quite good. My other tube phono is really 2 a Music Reference RM-4 head amp paired w single chassis Croft RIAA-RS, bit warmer presentation, more tube glow and does reward tube rolling, running 1960 rca clear tops , Mullards, and in the RM-4 some cryo Russian rockets. how much gain do ya need ?enjoy the journey. jim |
I run MM carts so gain should not be an issue. I have a Victor QLA-7 100v from Japan, that I use. I am using The JVC -Z-1S cartridge with Jico SAS Stylus. with Boron Cantiliver. I also have a NOS Stanton 681EEE mkIII and an NOS ADC XLM Mkii and a Shure 95HE with brand new original HE stylus. ($165 for stylus) I have found that the JVC Z-1S sounds as good as the others , at least with the McIntosh MX150 Phono stage. That’s what i had been using. until now,..so I have not yet tried any of the other Carts on the Moon 110 LP V2, since I just got it yesterday. Anyone tried the Project Phono Box DS2 ? It is coming next week . It is the one that uses two 12AX7s ? Thanks for the replies |
@grey9hound This is not a bad place to ask about or talk about gear. If you search, you will find that this topic has been covered a lot. Some suggestions for you... At the lower end of your budget, the Parks Puffin is really quite good for the money and has tons of adjustments and Shannon is continually tweaking the firmware and adding features. It's a tweaker's dream, but may put some off because it injects digital into your analog chain. The Musical Fidelity Nova Phonomena can be found used towards the lower end of your range and is very quiet and neutral and has a lot of loading and gain settings. The two phono stages I own that are near the top of your budget are the Manley Chinook and Pass Labs XP-15. You should be able to find a Chinook under your budget, the XP-15 might stretch it a little. The Chinook is tube based and is a little more dynamic than the XP-15, but also a little noisier. Which isn't to say that it's noisy, it's not and you won't hear it at all during playback and you can play around with tube rolling. It only has two gain settings, so not a lot of flexibility there, but it should work with most cartridges. Lots of loading settings. The XP-15 is dead quiet, very neutral, and offers a lot of options for gain and loading settings. I have personal experience with all of these and still own all of them except the Nova Phonomena. I had two at one time, so the fact that I no longer own them isn't due to lack of enjoyment, just that they were replaced by higher end units. |