advertisement


Hana SL vs Digital: Bass Light.

Phono stage is a Guy Sergeant design, simple 2 valve details below
51127965162_fe6ed2e982_b.jpg

Xs9640

dateposted-friend
 
Well it was too cold to work outside today so I have had more time to try variations on VTA with the Apparition Tonearm. VTA is adjusted by raising and lowering the whole arm pillar. I tried raising it, had no impact on Bass. Lowered it to it's lowest level ( not much below where it was originally set) this seemed to improve the Bass slightly. Then left it at this setting and placed an extra record and turntable mat under the record to effectively lower the arm further. This slightly increased Bass but made the top end dull and lifeless.
I think I'm going to settle for the Bass I have until I get a response to my email to James, the Arm maker, and put down the difference in Bass to differences in mastering between Vinyl and CD.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions.

But have you considered our point that your arm doesn't have enough mass?

And on the point of gain, are you clear that you've got the right valve in your phono stage? (You didn't reply to my question about the ECC83/88 confusion)
 
I use the SL on my Audiomods Series 6 arm and have no problem; it's effective mass is similar. I note that the cartridge dynamic compliance is quoted as 10 at 100hz (same as AT), this equates to 18-20 at 10Hz which is the more common reference and would bring the cart (with fixings) in to the target area.
I think this is about the unipivot - I had the Morch and bass was good but not it's strongest point - and the SUT - 1:6 is not ideal in my humble opinion. The experiment where the OP lowered the tail and bass only got a little better but at the expense of muddy treble shows something isn't right. I'd start with the SUT, maybe see if he can borrow a phono stage that can give him c. 400 ohms loading to see if that's the problem.
 
The scanned photocopy I put up had to be heavily tweaked in Photoshop to make it legible because the original I have is so gray, so yes it was a misread. I have got the correct valves in the unit.
I have had a reply from James Grant the arm developer which pretty much agrees with the conclusion I reached.

"I’d put the bass difference down to one or a combination of recording quality, mastering, format and system differences. The best way to tweak extra bass is tail down, so lower the VTA.
I haven’t found this delivers much to be honest, so don’t expect too much. I developed my arms to deliver the best bottom end so also compare another record that you know delivers good low end bass to confirm the bottom end delivery is still there and not compromised by wear and tear of the cart or other problem."

I'm generally very happy with the sound quality from the arm / cart combination as I concluded above. But if anyone can loan me a set of 10:1 SUTs for trial I would be happy to see if that makes the difference.
 


advertisement


Back
Top