pani
Responses from pani
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy Let me make the OP more direct. Suggest 3 phonostages built in the golden era (1950 - 1985) which would do justice to a $30k turntable with a $5k cartridge (assuming appropriate Tonearm) today | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy I have heard the McCormack phono drive (not the modsquad deluxe phono designed by him). It is good. But it still sounds like a well done $1000 phono of today. An EAR 834p kills it in the same system. | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy I agree a lot with @dover about high end not co-relating with sound of real music. When it comes to phonostage, what makes it high end exactly? RIAA accuracy? It is a given. In fact most phonostages have very low RIAA deviation (even entry leve... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @lewm I agree I have not experienced too many vintage phonostages but I am trying to find good ones and the shortage of it is appalling. It is well known that they had lesser quality parts but if it was only that then just like the Mcintosh, Quad,... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @dover your list of vintage standalone phonostage is very interesting. I will check them out one by one. Having a phonostage inside a preamp or outboard is notional. A preamp with phono and external PSU is probably the best thing. Where I was com... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @larryi in those days there were many high quality MM carts and MC carts from EMT and Ortofon. But they relied on SUTs for the MC gain. Those SUTs by Cotter, Jorgen Schou, Fidelity Research were all masterpieces that even today is held as referenc... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy The reason I write all this is, when i look around for a high end natural sounding phonostage, there are very very few. I can count them on one hand. This is without bothering about cost. I have heard a huge number of stages so far. Most of them s... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy I started this thread. Few points made so far is very interesting but some are confusing too I have been referring to phonostages of the Vintage era. Late 90s is not vintage. It was when good standalone phonostages started coming in. My concern... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @motown-l brings up an interesting point. We had some superb SUTs in the 60s and 70s. Those are the references even today. But reference MM stages? Can’t think of any | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @newton_john i didn’t mean to pit the importance of phonostage against bearing, Tonearm or cartridge. All I am saying is the standard of the TTs and cartridges were so much higher than the phonostages they made in that era. It was almost a neglect... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy @noromance in the list you have suggested, only the Aesthetix IO can be considered to be in the company of a high end analog setup. That one was designed towards the resurgence of vinyls in 1995. I am talking about the golden era of audio which en... | |
| Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy Vendetta was comparable to ARC Ph1 which is no where in comparison to reference phonostages of ARC today or other reference phonostages. My point is there is no equivalent of a reference Micro Seiki, EMT, Fidelity Research or even Technics in the ... | |
| Technics 1200G vs VPI Forever Model One @displayname direct drives have a distinct sound. It is fast, zippy but a bit analytical in flow. If you don’t have an issue with it, consider the Denon DP3000 over 1200G. It is more musical Personally i have tried many high end direct drives ... | |
| Time for a new cartridge I have tried almost every good cartridge in $5000 price and I prefer the EMT HSD 006. For just about $2000, it is an insane value and kicks ass of many top dollar carts. Huge dynamic range, flat neutral sound with just the right amount of warmth w... | |
| Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927? Update: I have now heard the EMT 950 and 927 in the same room (another friend bought it). Both using the TSD-15 cartridge and internal phono stages. The 927 is clearly superior. It sounds bigger, more fluid, more explosive. 950 has the EMT present... |