Guest Muon N' Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Performance in regards to brightness ect' of any phono stage will be dependent on the rest of the system. With a bright sound, this can be addressed in many places of the whole system. It's a sum of It's parts. Try treating the system as a single entity, by looking at it as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 14 minutes ago, Muon N' said: Performance in regards to brightness ect' of any phono stage will be dependent on the rest of the system. With a bright sound, this can be addressed in many places of the whole system. It's a sum of It's parts. Try treating the system as a single entity, by looking at it as such. G'day mate, there is some truth in what you say but not the complete truth, in my honest heartfelt opinion. Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyr Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 2 hours ago, catman said: A bit of a vent. Phono stages that sound too bright! G'day all, although I know that many factors can influence this, one of my pet hates are phono stages that sound too bright. Of all the phono stages that I have, one or two definitely have a 'bright' sonic character, and invariably just become grating to the (my) ears. Yet in some ways these phono stages can sound endearing but ultimately the bright tendency dominates! RIAA equalisation not withstanding it seems to me the even subtle lumps/peaks in the overall frequency response can produce the perception of 'brightness'. My Rothwell Simplex is probably the worst of mine in this respect. It is a phono stage that I really like yet long term sounds uncomfortably 'bright', yet is supposed to possess a linear RIAA playback equalisation curve! You have a Valab, don't you, Felix? How do you consider the brightness on this? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 G'day mate, no Valab. Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Muon N' Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 23 minutes ago, catman said: G'day mate, there is some truth in what you say but not the complete truth, in my honest heartfelt opinion. Regards, Felix. Felix, I was basing my post on facts as there are too many versions of 'truth' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted June 22, 2018 Author Share Posted June 22, 2018 The lure of Euphonic audio. G'day all, I'm possibly revisiting a theme here in that I wonder if nice sounding/euphonic audio might actually be preferable to 'accurate' but less subjectively pleasant audio? This is not as silly as it possibly sounds, speaking from personal experience. It has been a personal experience that at least one of my phono stages has a subtle euphonic sound tendency which actually 'sounds' wonderful to the ear, whereas other more 'accurate' phono stages are not as sonically satisfying. That is quite an irony in a sense....preferring the sound of something that is not necessarily accurate, but more pleasant sounding to the ear! I have memories as a teenager of loving the sound of one of my old radios with the 'loudness' control switched on. Curious indeed! Regards, Felix. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooogh Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 35 minutes ago, catman said: The lure of Euphonic audio. G'day all, I'm possibly revisiting a theme here in that I wonder if nice sounding/euphonic audio might actually be preferable to 'accurate' but less subjectively pleasant audio? This is not as silly as it possibly sounds, speaking from personal experience. It has been a personal experience that at least one of my phono stages has a subtle euphonic sound tendency which actually 'sounds' wonderful to the ear, whereas other more 'accurate' phono stages are not as sonically satisfying. That is quite an irony in a sense....preferring the sound of something that is not necessarily accurate, but more pleasant sounding to the ear! I have memories as a teenager of loving the sound of one of my old radios with the 'loudness' control switched on. Curious indeed! Regards, Felix. Nothing wrong with either approach in my opinion Felix. An accurate system can be very satisfying, as can a 'beautiful' system. Loudness buttons, tone controls, overblown midranges ,can all help achieve an enjoyable experience. Some people want 'the truth', others want to relax and just enjoy. I find it a great pity that so much energy is spent with people arguing their belief is right. It does not matter, as long as the end user is happy. No shortage of folk reflecting how much joy they gained from their earlier less accurate systems. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 'Harshness' in audio gear. G'day all, I just did some repairs on my DIY ESP P97 stereo line preamp (a broken balance pot.), and with something on a shock it is apparent that this preamp makes my Cambridge Audio AM10 much 'less harsh' sounding than on its own, and it does seem to be quite often the case that some even high quality electronics have a subtle sense of harshness. Is this something borne out of even low level distortion? Over the years I have heard quite a few bits of gear with this sonic character and I've often wondered why? Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 I'm a believer in having the highest quality components at the start of the audio path. This way, each component is receiving the best quality signal so the component can then work to the best of it's potential. Send signals that are not optimal quality and you have a "garbage-in, garbage-out" scenario. Of course such a situation may not be caused by poor quality components, but of a less than perfect synergy between them. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weavzy Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 Hi Felix. Not sure if you're aware, but Lounge are now offering an "upgrade" service to the Lounge Audio MkIII. Its 150USD. The maker upgrades some of the guts and sends it back. Im not to savvy with technical stuff, but there's a lot of talk about 'silver wire' in it or something. There's been positive reviews on Hoffman, regarding the upgrade Also, Lounge are about to release a Tube phono. Early reports say it has switchable gain, mm to mc and mono switch. Looks to be 900USD, which is out of my price range, but I'm very tempted to send my MKIII over for the upgrade...not sure how it could sound any better though. I love it already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 G'day mate, all ok. Yes I am aware of the changes, I don't know about silver wire, but my unit has the upgraded Teflon capacitors. Regards, Felix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 100 pf at last. G'day all, I see a new phono stage or two from Cambridge audio (Solo and Duo), that in some ways remind me of the NAD PP2, but lo and behold they have apparently ditched their long standing 220 pf input capacitance loading in favour of a much more workable 100 pf....about time, in my heartfelt opinion! All that they need to do now is to bump up the gain to a genuine 40 db. I honestly can't see why some manufacturers steadfastly sit on less than 40 db gain. At least Cambridge Audio have chosen to use 39 db and that is almost acceptable! Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 Lucid Labs 'Catalyst' phono stage. G'day all, I'm actually quite glad that I have one of these nifty little phono stages, before production sadly ended, as it is a really fine and good sounding phono stage with some worthwhile refinements too. I actually had to replace a 'blown' fuse on mine. Why it blew, I have no idea! It didn't even 'look' blown, but it tested open circuit on my digital multimeter. A five second job to replace it and it is fully operational again. A crisp sounding and clean/quiet phono stage with very nice sonics and yes two NE5532's are used and sound great! A very compact design physically, and it works perfectly. Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 Thinking for yourself! G'day all, I admit to feeling a bit feisty tonight in that in this modern world it often seems hard to recognise the truth from the 'other' opposite kind, and I'll freely admit that I am not at all comfortable with much of the BS out there masquerading as the truth! Being an old time tech I generally know what is technically real and what is 'hype' (being kind), yet I still see a lot written mainly in advertising blurb that is simply at least technically complete rubbish. Sadly those without any real technical training will tend to believe anything especially if it sounds plausible enough. It sure annoys the heck out of me. Regards, Felix. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 Most annoying, extremely! G'day all, the other day I purchased a couple of 'monorising' RCA adaptor plugs for some capacitance loading applications, which were duly built....and they work, but only intermittently. Most annoying! One tap on the RCA jacks and they work, another and they don't. Grrrrrrr. What shoddy 'quality'! Well I guess that you get what you pay for. I suppose! Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 Why upgrade your playback electronics when they are already of a high standard? G'day all, while I'll freely admit that there is always room for improvement with some things, well at least things with mechanical aspects, like turntables and loudspeakers for example, playback electronics are a somewhat different matter, in that speaking from personal experience relatively simple but well made playback electronics can already be of a very high standard and indeed this is something that I know full well for myself to be quite true. So in all sincerity I ask the question why chase improvements that may not be readily apparent if at all? That's worth thinking about I think! Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Muon N' Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 They are often apparent to myself, YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 What is a 'great' phono stage? G'day all, I guess that I'm going through a bit of a phono stage phase at the moment, and whilst pretty well all of my 18 or so phono stages are good, I'm not sure that many of them qualify as 'great'! I guess everyone will have their own opinions on this, and interestingly enough some non sonic aspects are actually quite important. Thinking through all of my phono stages I would only categorise two as being in the 'great' category, my ANT Kora 3T SE and my DIY ESP P06 and for possibly different reasons as well. My others are good to very good, but not 'great', although that is subject to daily change of course! One curious thing about the ESP P06 is its incrediblely 'soundstage', first actually noted on a friends system, believe it or not, and its superb transient/dynamic performance! Nothing quite matches it in that respect. The ANT Kora 3T SE just has 'a sound' about it. Something intangible. To me they are both 'great'. Regards, Felix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Felix.........you've been going through a phono stage phase for years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 G'day mate, yes I guess so! Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky500 Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 24 minutes ago, catman said: What is a 'great' phono stage? G'day all, I guess that I'm going through a bit of a phono stage phase at the moment, and whilst pretty well all of my 18 or so phono stages are good, I'm not sure that many of them qualify as 'great'! I Maybe you could consider selling them all and with all the money, might be able to buy a "SUPER" great one. A 2nd hand RCM or similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasebass Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 25 minutes ago, catman said: What is a 'great' phono stage? One you cant stop listening to.............as with every other component Tase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rantan Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, rocky500 said: Maybe you could consider selling them all and with all the money, might be able to buy a "SUPER" great one. A 2nd hand RCM or similar. Damn straight. Nobody needs 18 phono stages, particularly when only 2 of them are even half decent. Sell most of them and buy a really good cart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 (edited) G'day Tasebass, good comment actually because that is the way that I feel about my DIY ESP P06. Rantan: Yes it is a personal folly of mine. Regards, Felix. Edited July 25, 2018 by catman Addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasebass Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, catman said: G'day Tasebass, good comment actually because that is the way that I feel about my DIY ESP P06. Regards, Felix. Then as suggested Felix sell the rest... I have 3 which all sound great and thats plenty for me.. Enjoy Tase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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