Rug Doc
pfm Member
This is on the way to the next recipient now and I have bought a 620P already in preparation....
I have never used a phono stage before, having always used the built in stages my preamps... Having got hold of a Denon cartridge, I wanted to see what could be achieved without a huge outlay. I was enjoying the cartridge already, but wanted to see if the Gti made a difference..
Plumbed it in and the short answer is yes, of course it did. (Yamaha YP-D9 table with Micro Seiki arm and Denon 103r in Midas HS)
I compared my other sources (CD and Tidal HIFI) to what the turntable could now achieve with the same albums and I'll be honest the GTi blew me away on most selections.. I don't spend my time listening to music to try and recreate the 'live' venue, or create a 'real' instrument in my home, I listen to music that I enjoy and my main musical tastes are Electronica, Ambient and EDM - not your usual audiophile record collection.. BUT please don't stop reading if Classical is your only favour... some music of this genre has been written, mixed and produced by people with the utmost love, care and attention... The producers thrive on creating a layered, enveloping soundfield.. And lots of them have very esoteric hifi at home, so are very used to listening to HOW music should be produced...
I cannot imagine that the sounds from the mixing desk differ a huge amount from what I was hearing at home yesterday... With the Arkless in the loop the soundfield was wider, deeper and way more enveloping than Tidal for example.. Play Sasha's Involver on Tidal and it sounds great, - fast and powerful, switch to the GTi and the width increases and then depth of stage also elongates.. from listening to a flat plane of sound it's as if the straight line has got wider and has turned into a convex shape around you - sounds appear further off to the sides - at least 90 degrees so either side of me and the stage moved back about two feet. Amazing, and sounds like it should have 'always' been like that.. but I was missing it before.. I plugged in the CD player (same album) to compare and it all shrank and collapsed back into the same smaller size... I was after an hour of so playing the system quite loud (no neighbours) so much so that the bass was pressurising the room quite nicely, but I was sat on the floor basically listening to what the producers wanted me to and at the volume they intended... superb fun.
So, on Saturday my second hand 620P arrived (which I bought on here last week) so I though well I MUST plug that in and see how it compares to the upgraded Gti.. what an opportunity..
It wasn't a small change - the GTi increases on the strengths of the donor by increasing detail, depth, width and attack. It's such a fast and precise piece of electronics that opens up the whole soundstage and just delves deeper and clearer into the mix.. it's not like a 620p with a bit of extra sparkle to entice you in temporarily and then tire.. its a completely different beast with a far more involving way of presenting music that just gets you more involved... I've got to the stage in my system where I am very happy with my speakers and amp, I don't want to box swap any more as I've found such a resolving pairing (NS1000XW and B-2) that I don't think I'd improve it without spending thousands... But adding in the GTi in the phono section I do see as a very worthwhile addition so when he's doing more I'll send him mine in.
I have never used a phono stage before, having always used the built in stages my preamps... Having got hold of a Denon cartridge, I wanted to see what could be achieved without a huge outlay. I was enjoying the cartridge already, but wanted to see if the Gti made a difference..
Plumbed it in and the short answer is yes, of course it did. (Yamaha YP-D9 table with Micro Seiki arm and Denon 103r in Midas HS)
I compared my other sources (CD and Tidal HIFI) to what the turntable could now achieve with the same albums and I'll be honest the GTi blew me away on most selections.. I don't spend my time listening to music to try and recreate the 'live' venue, or create a 'real' instrument in my home, I listen to music that I enjoy and my main musical tastes are Electronica, Ambient and EDM - not your usual audiophile record collection.. BUT please don't stop reading if Classical is your only favour... some music of this genre has been written, mixed and produced by people with the utmost love, care and attention... The producers thrive on creating a layered, enveloping soundfield.. And lots of them have very esoteric hifi at home, so are very used to listening to HOW music should be produced...
I cannot imagine that the sounds from the mixing desk differ a huge amount from what I was hearing at home yesterday... With the Arkless in the loop the soundfield was wider, deeper and way more enveloping than Tidal for example.. Play Sasha's Involver on Tidal and it sounds great, - fast and powerful, switch to the GTi and the width increases and then depth of stage also elongates.. from listening to a flat plane of sound it's as if the straight line has got wider and has turned into a convex shape around you - sounds appear further off to the sides - at least 90 degrees so either side of me and the stage moved back about two feet. Amazing, and sounds like it should have 'always' been like that.. but I was missing it before.. I plugged in the CD player (same album) to compare and it all shrank and collapsed back into the same smaller size... I was after an hour of so playing the system quite loud (no neighbours) so much so that the bass was pressurising the room quite nicely, but I was sat on the floor basically listening to what the producers wanted me to and at the volume they intended... superb fun.
So, on Saturday my second hand 620P arrived (which I bought on here last week) so I though well I MUST plug that in and see how it compares to the upgraded Gti.. what an opportunity..
It wasn't a small change - the GTi increases on the strengths of the donor by increasing detail, depth, width and attack. It's such a fast and precise piece of electronics that opens up the whole soundstage and just delves deeper and clearer into the mix.. it's not like a 620p with a bit of extra sparkle to entice you in temporarily and then tire.. its a completely different beast with a far more involving way of presenting music that just gets you more involved... I've got to the stage in my system where I am very happy with my speakers and amp, I don't want to box swap any more as I've found such a resolving pairing (NS1000XW and B-2) that I don't think I'd improve it without spending thousands... But adding in the GTi in the phono section I do see as a very worthwhile addition so when he's doing more I'll send him mine in.