wrm57
Responses from wrm57
| Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar Long live antiquated tube amp tech! The EPA-100 arrived yesterday. Mijo is right, it is a jewel-like looker. I’ll drill out an armboard and mount it this weekend. We’ll see how it sounds with an equally-antiquated (yet NOS) ADC TRX2 on a yet more... | |
| Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar @mijostyn, I hear you, I really do. And I admire the rigor of your approach, and largely agree with—and benefit from—your conclusions. So keep ‘em coming! | |
| Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar @rauliruegas, thank you for the detailed post with the suggestion for servicing. I had read that TNT review already and noted the specialist in Germany. I have reached out to him via email for more info. It appears that he uses stainless steel bea... | |
| Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar @pindac, that is a fascinating thread. Thank you. | |
| mint best tractor gone? @rauliruegas , Maybe I just got lucky with the B alignment and associated parameters, and then rushed to judgement. But I certainly prefer how it sounds now, and will keep using B until my “luck” changes. | |
| mint best tractor gone? It’s certainly possible that my casual experiment only revealed errors in my original alignments using Lofgren A. But I’m really happy with the sound realigned with B so I’m taking the win. At some point I’ll test again by changing the new TR to ... | |
| mint best tractor gone? And just to up the ante: I have another TR, a new one with maybe 40 hours, on another armwand. Before the experiment, when both were aligned using A, I thought this new one sounded better than the older one, which had been rebuilt. They can be eas... | |
| mint best tractor gone? I did a similar experiment two days ago, setting up a Benz TR on a Phantom Supreme using a dedicated Wallytractor’s Lofgren A curve, then the Lofgren B curve. All other parameters were as close to identical as I could make them. Lofgren B was (and... | |
| Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar I thought I’d update this thread. The Phantom Elite turned out to be a major disappointment. I found its bearing structure to be surprisingly unstable, wobbling in protracted oscillation when lightly touched as the armwand rested on the cueing lif... | |
| mint best tractor gone? For modern systems the best alignment is Lofgren B. @mijostyn , agreed. For years I used Baerwald/Lofgren A. Switching to Lofgren B yielded obvious improvement. Wallytractors offer both curves. I believe Yip used Baerwald for the ones he made m... | |
| Aric Audio Transcend Push-Pull with a few upgrades here. A very fine amp indeed, playing far beyond its price point. Aric is a truly good dude. | |
| mint best tractor gone? MintLP seems to be defunct, sorry to day. Several emails by me and others have gone unanswered over the past few months. | |
| Best Full-Function Preamplifier @mulveling , yes, Kevin got this phono circuit right. Mine is also kind of a one-off now, having been upgraded with Statement transformers (pre and phono), and slide-in screw terminals on both MCs that let me swap in any value of transistor for lo... | |
| Best Full-Function Preamplifier I second @mulveling’s rec for a used VAC. The higher-end models have excellent phone stages using 6 x 12ax7 tubes. As for Lundahl transformers, many people find them a feature, not a bug, although they can certainly be bettered by some separate SU... | |
| Cartridge suggestions for my rig Sorry to hear about your auditory condition. With it in mind, I’d second the Dynavector rec. Also consider the Audio/Technica ART9, whichever version is current now. I have the original; it is full-bodied with plenty of detail and no shrillness. I... |