billstevenson
Responses from billstevenson
| Moving Magnet Phono Cartridges My experience using a Hyperion (the original) for the last few years (for stereo) and an Ortofon 2M Mono SE, puts me in general alignment with what seems to be the nucleus of a forming consensus among many of us here. Although I also like and sti... | |
| Lowest priced MC thats better than a Premium MM? First of all, lewm said it best, the premise of the question, that is that MC cartridges are going to be superior to MM (or MI) cartridges in all cases is flawed. That may of course be true sometimes, but not always, for every application, music ... | |
| Soundsmith cartridges I too have a Hyperion and agree with Rick's description of the sound. Mine is an original and is installed on a VPI HW-40. Prior cartridges included a Cadenza Black, and an original Winfeld. Before settling on the Hyperion I also seriously cons... | |
| Phono preamp, all suggestions welcome First of all I think you should reconsider your plan to replace your 2M Black. To wit, I am currently comparing two phono stages, C-J TEA 1 series 3 and C-J 88, both very expensive (well above those you are considering), and one of the cartridges... | |
| Not sure for power conditioner my amp or not. In South Florida we have a love of air conditioners cycling on and off and it causes fluctuations in the power supply. I found that my tube amplifiers were regularly needing to be re-biased. Since incorporating a power conditioner, the amps have... | |
| New Technics SL-1200GR2 The GR2 is new and has not been reviewed. I have not heard it. My comments must be interpolated by you and I hope they help. I had a fully KAB upgraded SL1200, which I am assuming is similar to yours. When the new SL-1200GAE came out I traded ... | |
| CJ's New ART88 Preamp The ET5 is a wonderful preamp too. I know because I had one for a couple of years. Whereas the GAT2 was better, though, it offered incremental improvements in several ways over the ET5, the ART 88 is a much greater improvement over the GAT2. I ... | |
| CJ's New ART88 Preamp Please consider this an early impressions report. I might write again after more listening time. First let me explain that I retired at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic with the result that my time with my GAT2 was quite extensive, definitely... | |
| Vinyl static ionizers who's used them? Destat III works well for me too. Wouldn't be without mine. I am speculating that if more static is building up in just minutes that something might be done to improve grounding. | |
| How should I upgrade? A new preamp with a phono stage or just a phono preamp? There are several ways of looking at this and it all depends on what you like and where you see yourself going with the hobby. Any good stand alone phono stage from any good company is going to outperform the built in phono stage of any integrate... | |
| CJ's New ART88 Preamp I swapped the amp just weeks ago, trading my ART150 for the 27A, but had fully adjusted to the amp change using my GAT2 before deciding to order the ART 88. But it is a lot of change in a relatively short few weeks. I'll report back after break-... | |
| CJ's New ART88 Preamp I just bought one to replace my GATII. Listening to it as I write this note. It is only 1 day old and in my experience will require at least 200 hours of break-in before meaningful listening will be instructive. Right out of the box it sounds w... | |
| Meandering Pitch, Where’s The Problem? The first answer you got from Don is the best one and the first thing he told you bears repeating: If the spindle hole is off, you will get wow. That is pitch instability. Piano is the most sensitive instrument to this problem of any. Many pia... | |
| Hudson HI FI UV stylus cleaner Yes the Hudson device is effective. Moreso than other mechanical removal devices that I have tried such as the Ortofon brush, the Onzow gel, Magic Eraser and so forth. I use a high quality stereo-optic microscope to examine stylus and cantilever... | |
| VPI felt mat vs aftermarket To mat or not to mat. After a lot of experimenting I settled on the Origin Live on both my VPI HW-40 and my SL1200GAE although on the latter it is a two layer affair with a plastic disc first and then the Origin on top. That is because of a limi... |