mulveling
Responses from mulveling
| Preamp comparison - Rogue Perseus and ARC LS25 MKII The Rogue preamps of that era have a really nice full bodied sound, like a warm sweater on a cool fall day. The Athena and Hera were the top of the line back then, and imo were their best offerings by a SIGNIFICANT margin. These preamps use 6H30 a... | |
| Concerningly loud pops in vinyl playback Its OK that the phono section isn’t grounded to the wall. What is important is that the ground of the ’table is the same as that of the phono section. IME the platter pad can have a big effect on static. I’ve never used a delrin platter though. ... | |
| New Synergistic Master Fuse Here is the recommendation from SR's Ted Denney himself: Yes, you can put a Master Fuse on your amplifier, but in all likelihood, you will try one or two higher up in the signal chain, like your DAC and or PRE, and choose this as your place to s... | |
| Concerningly loud pops in vinyl playback Thanks again all, really good ideas here! Replaced the 2 regulator tubes in Ref 6. Greatly enjoyed my music yesterday with no incident, though I didn't budge the Ref 6's volume past 40 max (if I'm in the mood I might like to go up to ~ 42 :)). Ot... | |
| Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges what does a 10,000 dollar cartridge do better than a $1,000 one? @grislybutter There are so many variable in analog playback, this will never be sufficiently answered. However at some point the price comes down enough that it dictates material... | |
| Concerningly loud pops in vinyl playback Superb suggestions - thanks guys! A humidifier is cheap enough to buy & try. And yes I think there is a bearing ground wire in the Clearaudio’s box which I forgot all about. I never needed it with Innovation Wood or Master, but maybe it’s need... | |
| Concerningly loud pops in vinyl playback Grounding seems OK (the Universal arm has a hardwired cable w/ ground), and there's absolutely no hum/buzz in the noise floor. There's no streamer anywhere, and in fact no digital source in the room. I do have 2 Philips Hue bluetooth lights, and c... | |
| Concerningly loud pops in vinyl playback Poor quality record pressings. Lack of vinyl fill in certain spots on the LPs. Like a road pothole. Find better pressings. It’s not the pressings; some of these same records have been played many times on the main rig with no such issue. The pr... | |
| Can I get more out of my Koetsu ? In my experience, mass itself isn't really the key factor in getting Koetsu to sing. I've heard them perform very well even on the relatively lightweight VPI 3D arm (*with dual pivot). I think the arm's bearing and overall energy management is mor... | |
| Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges I have a strong tendency to hoard while saving the "best" for later. However, with cartridges and vinyl that rather defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. So in fact my best cartridge (Blue Lace) on my best arm (FR64S) gets the mos... | |
| Bob Carver tube amps I had a Sunfire Signature 600 II, and remember it distinctly as the worst sounding 2ch amp I’ve ever owned in 20 years. It got used for like a week before I couldn’t stand it anymore and put back in the PS Audio HCA-2 (also very efficient, certain... | |
| Can I get more out of my Koetsu ? Koetsu is a brilliant match with MC4. From either its 3 or 6 ohm taps. Other solutions can probably do well too but that MC4 is right at the very best I’ve heard Koetsu. I even preferred using MC4 into an ARC Ref 3SE (low gain mode) over the Ref 3... | |
| KT120 replacement options in a Cronus Magnum II Agree, replace all 4 tubes and re-bias when you're changing types. Also agree the Gold Lion KT88's are great tubes. I've rolled them into my Rogue Apollo Darks and I think there's a good argument to be made they're better than the stock KT120. The... | |
| Looking for recommendations for a phono preamp under $2k Yeah let me second the Hagerman Trumpet MC. I’ve had many much more expensive stages, but this one will stick around because it’s so versatile and has such a pleasing analog sound. Works equally well with MM or MC of all output levels (until you g... | |
| Tube or solid state Either can be great. I really like good solid state gear, but I love tubes. So mostly I end up with tube phono, tube preamp, and tube power amp - sometimes with a JFET MC stage thrown in there. But I definitely still like good solid-state gear, or... |