john_tracy

Responses from john_tracy

help me pick a phono preamp.
4yanx, Kenin has some new mods for the K&K phono pre. You should check them out. 
help me pick a phono preamp.
the K&K phono pre. 
Living with popping and crackling
Improper cart. loading can highlight surface noise. Check out Bob Hagerman's paper on his web site that addresses this issue. A MM cart. with too much shunt capacitance loading it will have a high freq. resonance. Ultrasonic noise pulses can excit... 
Dynavector Cartridge Load 100ohms or 47k ohms?
The higher the input resistance, the lower the damping factor is going to be and the more likely it will be that your MC cart. will have a rising high end and experience ringing. The lower the resistance, the greater the damping. See Bob Hagerman'... 
Tube power vs Solid state power, how much is enoug
Tube amps tend to clip 'softer' than SS amps. That is why you can play a tube amp as loud as a larger SS amp. Look at the distortion specs of both amps at full power and also the spectrum of that distortion. Generally the SS amps will come on stro... 
Heavy Kit / Power Supply upgrade for Nottingham?
As an owner of a Hyperspace you should try a bottle of Tom Fletcher's new oil. At $100 a pop it's a little pricey; but it will make a difference and is a lot cheaper than a heavy kit. I'm using the Hyperspace without a mat. I have Bob Benn's Insid... 
The importance of azimuth
Larryi,I own a dual trace 'scope (Tek 475A). Haven't used it much yet. Bought it off of Ebay. What would be the best way of using it to adjust azimuth? Look at a L-R constant tone and adjust for minimum signal?-JT 
Homemade Record Cleaning Fluids??
3.5L lab quality distilled water. 500ml ethanol. 20ml 30% ammonium hydroxide. Vacuum filter through 0.45 micron filter. Add 20 drops Squeggy (sp?) Off - available at Home Depot. note: no guarrunty (sp?) that this won't pull the plasticisors (sp?) ... 
Do all Cary amps have a 'Cary' sound ?
Sheldon60 - RCA 5U4GBs were the offending tubes. Mullard 5AS4s set things right. 
SLI-80 which 6SN7?
I own this amp and have tried MANY different tubes in it. To some extent the choice of 6SN7s will depend on the other tubes being used. That said: I have tried many of the exotic 6SN7s in this amp. Sylvania metal base Ws, black base Ws, 1940s era ... 
Audible Illusions L-2 vs. Cary SLP-98
"As for someone paying $200-300 for premium tubes, we never heard of this." Recently a pair of Holland "pinched waist" 6922s went for $800 on this site. 
Point to point wiring.
Point to point wiring is a heck of a lot easy to repair and modify than PCBs. BTW, my Cary amp was NOT assembled in a garage. I've been to the factory and met the nice ladies that assemble them. -JT 
Am I really smart or really stupid?
The bargain "hot" set-up from that era was to use the front end of an Advent 30 reciever as a preamp. Tom Hollman (sp?) of THX fame designed the phono stage in that reciever and it was excellent. It put to shame a lot of high-end stuff in its time... 
Good Quality Distilled Water???
I work in a lab and get my ultra-pure 18Meg-ohm water from "Wade's" still. I then mix up my own secret cleaning formula and vacuum filter it through a 0.45micron filter. It's then fed to my VPI-17 and it slurps it up. -JT 
Do all Cary amps have a 'Cary' sound ?
Also consider, any tube amp that uses little or no negative feedback - and Dennis Had doesn't believe in it - will take on the caractor of the tubes used in it. Feedback will help force an amp to be more linear; a non-feedback design relies on the...