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Review and Measurements of Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL

Dj7675

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For my turntable I needed a 5 pin din cable to the mini xlr on the MX-VNYL. I decided against building my own. After looking to locate a pre-built one, I found a place specializing in tonearm cables that make them at https://www.shop.back-promo.co.uk/DIN-Mini_XLR_(Musical_Fidelity_MX-VYNL)/cat4417239_3840770.aspx . Just in case anyone else ends up picking up one of these units and would like to use the balanced input. While I wouldn't ever pay the retail price on this unit, it does seem to come up around 5-$600 which isn't too bad.
 

board

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Appreciate your post. I have a Hana EL which appears to need around 60-62 db of gain. I'm now trying to either purchase or build my own 5pin din to mini xlr. Listening to it now and and it subjectively sounds very good with no hum, so not sure it is worth the effort to get balanced input working or not. Thanks again.
I'm glad I could help - and I didn't even know that I was helping :).
I've looked at several other phono preamps that offer more than 60 dB of gain, so I can list those, along with some important details, if you like ...?
 

MattHooper

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Nice test and report, Amirm!

I listen to $300,000 turntable setups at audio shows. And of course they play the best LPs they can get. The artifacts are still there. LP listeners tend to get numb to it and learn to ignore them. But to those of us who come from digital, they are clear and objectionable.

I think that is basically the case.

I come from digital too - been digital since the late 80's, and only got back in to vinyl a few years ago. I'm not a fan of record noise and don't find it "romantic." But I find the record noise in most of my stuff so low, and usually "not there" when a track is playing, that I can be happy with my vinyl music.

But if someone is so sensitive to additional noise, that the occasional tick and pop (and groove noise etc) will take them out of enjoying the music, vinyl is definitely not for that person!

It's interesting what you get used to, though. If I've been listening to vinyl for quite a while and go back to digital, the digital can sound sort of "canned' and 'dead,' almost "too sterile." Then I acclimate, and begin enjoying digital again. I spent a night listening to only digital recently and enjoyed it, except for my damned "music ADD" that arises. When I have my whole ripped CD collection and Tidal at my fingertips, I find it hard to really settle in and listen. I keep wanting to "surf music" as I do the internet.
 

daftcombo

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When you listen to hip-hop like Madlib or DJ Shadow, you can hear lots of cracks and pops coming from the samples they use. It's like visiting ruins: a charm would be lost if everything was clean.
 

anmpr1

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But I find the record noise in most of my stuff so low, and usually "not there" when a track is playing, that I can be happy with my vinyl music.
I don't know what the threshold is. I guess I could find some measurements if I was interested. Generally, anything over a moderate SPL level I don't notice plastic noise. Opera, especially something like the introduction to Rheingold (where the sound slowly rises from nothing), or most all of Pelleas et Melisande (which is performed at a very low level) is not very suited to LP, because of the wide dynamics (not to mention the side cuts that have to be made in the program). Single instrument recordings are more prone to record noise, I think.

One thing: I disabled (actually I broke it, duh!)) the anti-skating device on my Grace tonearm when I was changing cartridges the other day. So now it's just a tube in a gimbal. To be honest, I don't notice any difference. Maybe it's there, maybe the sound is worse, but I just can't tell, casually. I was using a Bill Evans solo piano track, and the image seemed stable without the device engaged. Maybe the skating devie never did anything to begin with.
 

SIY

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I've said this before, but it bears repeating- getting more than 70dB of SINAD for a phono preamp is meaningless (putting aside that the number, measured the way Amir measures it, is incorrect). Cartridge thermal noise will almost always be the limitation beyond that, even with a theoretically perfect record and turntable. The very best cartridges in this respect MIGHT hit 78dB SINAD before taking into account vinyl limitations.

This is Johnson noise, a basic physics constraint, not something that can be improved with any gear.
 

LTig

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I've said this before, but it bears repeating- getting more than 70dB of SINAD for a phono preamp is meaningless (putting aside that the number, measured the way Amir measures it, is incorrect). Cartridge thermal noise will almost always be the limitation beyond that, even with a theoretically perfect record and turntable. The very best cartridges in this respect MIGHT hit 78dB SINAD before taking into account vinyl limitations.

This is Johnson noise, a basic physics constraint, not something that can be improved with any gear.
Yep, but there is no perfect vinyl. I'd say that the best vinyl is still 10 dB worse than the best cartridge with the best preamp. If I increase the volume such that with the best vinyl the vinyl noise is easy to hear there is no audible noise when I lift the arm. This is with a Van den Hul MC1 Special and my DIY preamp. This preamp is a no nonsense all opamp design (AD797 in stage 1) but certainly not the best in terms of signal/noise or THD.
 

SIY

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Yep, but there is no perfect vinyl. I'd say that the best vinyl is still 10 dB worse than the best cartridge with the best preamp. If I increase the volume such that with the best vinyl the vinyl noise is easy to hear there is no audible noise when I lift the arm. This is with a Van den Hul MC1 Special and my DIY preamp. This preamp is a no nonsense all opamp design (AD797 in stage 1) but certainly not the best in terms of signal/noise or THD.

So in reality, 60dB may be good enough. Now to qualify that statement, we'd really have to get into finer details of the spectral distribution of noise, but the point remains that chasing SNR past a rather modest point will have zero effect on the real-world performance of a phono stage. That's one of the many ways why phono stages need to be measured and characterized differently than DACs.
 

Ellisr63

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I just ordered one for $765 shipped from Upscale Audio. It will replace my Art DJPRE2 phono preamp. I am hoping this makes a big difference. If I use the RCA Inputs will it convert to balanced outputs, or do I need to get balanced forearm cables for my pro ject RPM carbon tt?
 

daftcombo

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I just ordered one for $765 shipped from Upscale Audio. It will replace my Art DJPRE2 phono preamp. I am hoping this makes a big difference. If I use the RCA Inputs will it convert to balanced outputs, or do I need to get balanced forearm cables for my pro ject RPM carbon tt?
What do you mean by 'convert'?
If you use RCA in, you can use RCA out and/or XLR out. But it will not be 'balanced' as groundloopproof. I wouldn't worry though.

And yes, going from my DJ mixer phono in to the MC-VYNL made a huge difference. Dead silent. You forget it's vinyl.
 

NicS

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I'have had the MX Vinyl for a while now. I run it balanced in and balanced out. In my opinion, if you aren't doing this, it's just not worth the money. If you don't feed a balanced signal to the pre-amp, it's audibly more noisy. When I got a cable to run a balanced signal from my SME V, the difference was night an day.

I hope you can redo this test using the fully balanced path.
 

daftcombo

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I'have had the MX Vinyl for a while now. I run it balanced in and balanced out. In my opinion, if you aren't doing this, it's just not worth the money. If you don't feed a balanced signal to the pre-amp, it's audibly more noisy. When I got a cable to run a balanced signal from my SME V, the difference was night an day.

I hope you can redo this test using the fully balanced path.

I have a Technics SL1210-MKII with RCA out. I wish I could enter in the MX-VYNL in balanced mode but turntables with balanced out are not common.

The limitation of LP dynamics and the stylus are much more important than what you say IMHO.
 

LTig

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I'have had the MX Vinyl for a while now. I run it balanced in and balanced out. In my opinion, if you aren't doing this, it's just not worth the money. If you don't feed a balanced signal to the pre-amp, it's audibly more noisy. When I got a cable to run a balanced signal from my SME V, the difference was night an day.
Uh huh.
 

NicS

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I have a Technics SL1210-MKII with RCA out. I wish I could enter in the MX-VYNL in balanced mode but turntables with balanced out are not common.

The limitation of LP dynamics and the stylus are much more important than what you say IMHO.

Yes. I agree. The limitation on vinyl reproduction in terms of dynamic range and noise are markedly greater than you would find with digital sources. That said, if like me you use vinyl for older analogue recordings that are not available in digital formats from original sources, you have to make the best out of those limitations.

In the test, the MX-VNY is used in it's unbalanced input mode, using a moving magnet high output cartridge. I use a Dynavector 20X2 low output moving coil cartridge. It is connected to the MX-VYNL using the full balanced path. Having tried both the unbalanced and balanced inputs, I can say that the difference in signal to noise ratio is audibly dramatic. The 20X2 uses a MicroRidge stylus profile that plays deeper in the groove and with greater surface contact than a traditional conical or elliptical stylus. The result is much greater depth of sound and a much lower suface floor. The narrow stylus profile plays a part of the groove not touched by traditional stylus shapes, so in effect you are playing a new record, but with a far greater total area of contact. This lower surface noise makes the noise floor of the signal path that more noticeable.

I am acutely aware of all the woo-woo that vinyl enthusiasts are often prone to expounding. I like to think I'm more pragmatic than that. To me it makes sense that when you are attempting to amplify a very weak signal from a piece of diamond mounted to a coil, you keep the signal path to the amplifier as simple and straight forward as possible. Cartridges output a fully balanced signal (Left & Right negative conductors, Left & Right positive conductors and one common ground), so it stands to reason that inputting that balanced signal to the pre-amp is preferable, retaining the original signal path. In order to convert the balanced signal from the cartridge to an unbalanced signal via RCA sockets, the ground connector on the cartridge is combined with the negative conductor on both channels. This introduces ground noise and RF interference to a very weak signal, which is then amplified substancially. Which is precisely why the balanced path has such a comparatively low noise floor.

During normal listening of most music, this change in signal to noise is largely lost. Though in quiter passages, especially with some of the jazz recordings I have, the benefits can be heard clearly.

So yes, I'd be very curious to see what results you would get from this unit in it's fully balanced configuration. It seems this is what it's primarily designed for, with it's unbalanced mode included as a matter of course.
 

NicS

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I just ordered one for $765 shipped from Upscale Audio. It will replace my Art DJPRE2 phono preamp. I am hoping this makes a big difference. If I use the RCA Inputs will it convert to balanced outputs, or do I need to get balanced forearm cables for my pro ject RPM carbon tt?

I just saw this. Your turntable is designed like most others on the market, that is with RCA outputs. The signal from the cartridge is natively balanced, and then is converted to an unbalanced signal when it is wired to the RCA plugs. In order to convert to a balanced path, you'd have to remove the RCA jacks and install a 5 pin XLR to output the signal, precisely as it exits the cartridge.

See here:
http://www.aviom.com/blog/balanced-vs-unbalanced/
 
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kurosawa

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How many internal wires did the phono cable have? I only have 2 wires inside the Rega phono cable (a ground wire and another wires). I do not know if I can rewire it from RCA to XLR plugs.
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pva

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First-time poster here, hello everyone!

I'm considering fitting my Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable with this XLR socket mod and upgrading my Lehmann Black Cube phono preamp to a MX-VYNL (and connecting the lot to a RME ADI-2 Pro FS BE).

The trouble is that 5-pin mini XLR to dual 3-pin mini XLR cables seem to rarer than hens' teeth. I've found a few ready-made ones, but since they're both a tad short (I'd prefer 1 metre or longer) and a bit expensive, I might have to go the DIY route. To that end, can anyone recommend me suitable connectors and cable that'd be available here in the EU so that I could build my own interconnect?

I'm also open to suggestions for other pre-built cables, if you can come up with any. Thanks!
 

kurosawa

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First-time poster here, hello everyone!

I'm considering fitting my Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable with this XLR socket mod and upgrading my Lehmann Black Cube phono preamp to a MX-VYNL (and connecting the lot to a RME ADI-2 Pro FS BE).

The trouble is that 5-pin mini XLR to dual 3-pin mini XLR cables seem to rarer than hens' teeth. I've found a few ready-made ones, but since they're both a tad short (I'd prefer 1 metre or longer) and a bit expensive, I might have to go the DIY route. To that end, can anyone recommend me suitable connectors and cable that'd be available here in the EU so that I could build my own interconnect?

I'm also open to suggestions for other pre-built cables, if you can come up with any. Thanks!
If you connect the turntable (with preamp) to the Adi-2 pro, the sound will be processed by the dsp and becomes digital.
 

pva

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If you connect the turntable (with preamp) to the Adi-2 pro, the sound will be processed by the dsp and becomes digital.

I'm well aware the analog inputs on the ADI-2 Pro FS BE go through the DSP. In fact, I want the input signal to be digitised, because I'll occasionally want to rip a vinyl-only release to digital for casual listening. Sure, I could connect the TT straight to the ADI-2 Pro and do the RIAA correction in software when ripping, but then I'd lose the ability to listen to my records in the usual fashion.

Moreover, I believe the ADI-2's ADC quality to be good enough for my age-ravaged hearing.
 
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