Attended Axpona week ago -definitely worth the time and min effort (Only live 90miles away from the venue.). For some reason I noticed that a lot of system descriptions included whoso cabling they were using. Obviously THRILLING :-) to hear a system with $5K IEC powercables and even more...
I am wondering if Ortofon ever made a cartridge/stylus with a sapphire cantilever and a fine line tip? Right offhand I don't think so ? but maybe I'm wrong. They used fine line tip for decades -but I think sapphire cantilevers always had shibata tips ?
I listen thru Meridian DSP-5000 speakers -which means they only accept 24/96 SPDIF inputs. 90% of my listening is off of LP's -so ADC's are necesary I own and use the Park's audio Puffins and actually -you could set one of those up as a ADC's with some interesting features, I've used the Mytec...
Trouble is we listen -unfortunately closer to taste than a measuable phenomon . Still-you don't want a glass of vinegar instead of wine -we can certainly measure that difference . .
While I've had strange humm issues in the past from other equipment's transformers-have owned a Benchmark DAC-3HGC for 5? years or so and use it-dead silent on or off. Not sayin you couldn't figure out someplace or something (AC majic box of some sort?) to plug it into that causes this issue-but...
tried something the other day : MM input on ART Precision Preamp -Sony Plug in MC transformer used with the Sony XL-MC3 LOMC cartridge (.25 mV ) -adjusted for this combo (IOW-no red flash) -then switched to Denon DL-301-II (.4 mV) -interesting how far I had to turn down the gain control on the...
This really has to be the understood filter for both the DJ Pre II and Precision ART phono preamps -their selling price is remarkable for what they deliver. It's not as though you can't spend more to get more -I have-but it takes a bit of genius to just use what you need to get to a quality...
I sold and serviced a ton -maybe two? of speakers that I personally didn't want to own and didn't particularly enjoy listening to over the years.One of the least perfect was a speaker the store I worked at at the start of my audio career always had on "sale" for buy one at 99 bucks-get the...
Dealt with a lot of customers who were seeking something like perfection (at least within their price range). Guess that's why I'm happy with LP's -plain n simple-never expect perfection-but better is really nice.
That's why I am so impressed by the current ART preamps. Started in the stereo biz in 67 (mighta been 66?) - we sold the Astatic version of the Rat shack clamshell phono preamp. I sold a fair number of them and they sounded terrible. From the get go I had religion about selling really cheap...
Ya- maybe time to put a footnote on the first tries at measuring phono preamps . Really appreciate the ART DJ Pre II -but it seems a little odd that's it over there on the far left of that chart. This does point out the Mark Twain ? quote :"there's lies ,damm lies and statistics." is still...
Here's my take on balance controls: a.) I'd much rather do this in the digital domain -despite 98% of my music listening being fed off of a LP (thus my enthusiasm for the ART -amazingly great for the money-preamps). b.) If your system uses a conventional stereo pot for a volume control -it's...