catman Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 (edited) The 'bias' control on the ANT Kora 3T SE G'day all, the ANT Kora 3T SE phono stage is a long term favourite of mine, with a somewhat unique sound, however apart from that, its back panel 'bias' control has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I recall reading several reviews mentioning its value in optimising sound quality, however I personally have never noticed any sonic change when used. I will say though, that FET's can be temperamental but very useful solid state devices, speaking from personal DIY experience and I can see some real value in such a 'bias' control to tweak various parameters but again at least with my unit, I have never noticed any discernible change with adjustment. Maybe my hearing acuity isn't as good as I think it is! Regards, Felix. Edited November 5, 2023 by catman grammar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 (edited) Mid price gear. How good can it be? G'day all, a different type of thread subject from me today, and specifically how good can good but mid price audio gear be? I ask that because a fair of bit my audio gear, mainly power amplifiers are commercially made gear of good quality, but essentially mid price with I guess overall quality to match. I ask this because one of my DIY projects in recent years have been various high quality stereo audio preamplifiers built from various Elliott Sound Products designs. Presently in this room I use a Cambridge Audio Topaz AM 10 integrated audio amplifier and I have teamed it with my DIY ESP P97 stereo line preamplifier into one of its line level inputs, and subjectively the overall sound quality has improved markedly with use of the ESP P97 line preamplifier stage with lower noise, clarity and musicality. The Cambridge Audio integrated amp is pretty good on its own, but I think that its own stereo line preamp is something of a weak point in terms of sound quality. Any thoughts or comments on this? Regards, Felix. Edited November 6, 2023 by catman Addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted November 13, 2023 Author Share Posted November 13, 2023 (edited) A rare 'wow' moment. G'day all, I recently posted about including my DIY ESP P97 line preamp in the setup in here and have noted clearly apparent sonic improvements overall and particularly on phono. I have been slowly rotating my different phono stages into circuit and have noticed sonic improvements with each one, and this morning I rotated my simple 'hifisonix' phono stage into circuit, and frankly I was floored, a definite 'wow' moment! I've long been impressed with that simple but very well designed DIY phono stage, but why it sounds so excellent mated with my DIY ESP P97 stereo line preamp is unknown, but for whatever reason its sound quality is stunning! Some kind of sonic synergy perhaps? Regards, Felix. Edited November 13, 2023 by catman Addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts