advertisement


Valve Phono Stage

G T Audio said:
Convergence-1.jpeg


https://tron-electric.co.uk/convergence/convergence-phono-stage/

I have a couple of lightly used ones in stock, both MM, but they can by changed to MC if required.
Click to expand...


Great review!

Nice looking piece of kit!
 
I'm still exploring this - in no rush but looking at options as they come up.

Has anyone thoughts on Manley Chinooks? One has come up "lightly used" and is piquing my curiosity.
 
The problem with a valve-only MC stage will be noise - Arkless offered to build me one but warned me to buy LOTS of valves as there was no telling how noisy any might be. As a compromise (on cost), the unit was going to use Soviet equivalents to ECC88, which can be had for £2-3 each in 50's. Any single valve might be perfectly OK in a pre' or power amp', but be dreadful in a MC stage because of the minute cart' output voltages involved.

The hassle with valve stages using an internal SUT is that matching a cart' to an SUT is a black art, so are really best avoided - the EAR unit has got very iffy reviews when used for MC, for instance. Far, far safer to look at a stand-alone SUT and accept that finding one you like is potentially a challenge - the worst that I heard was a unit designed to "match" my Delos and was the most expensive - a Silvercore (it was a while ago, so I can't remember what I did not like about it, but it wasn't here very long.)
 
I used to have a valve phono stage with 10 of the little beasts in it, I replaced it with a solid state one since in my experience valves will inevitably go noisy at some point (generally on the first evening of a bank holiday when you have no spares in the house and you finally had the peace and quiet to listen to all those newly acquired LPs).
 
There are plenty of valve MM stages available, as so many keep suggesting, but the vast majority use SUTs to take MC. The Tron may be the only one commercially available that does not use SUTs.
I can't find mention or a pic' of the internals - what does the Pro-ject use? I assume that it does not use just two ECC83 to amplify an MC signal, but uses either internal SUTs or electronics (a head amp circuit) to boost to MM?

All-valve MC stages were available back in the day, but as @uncl_nigel suggests, they were not popular - hence SUTs.
 
Last edited:
FWIW the Tron is well known to be very quiet for a valve stage. The BB3 has a slight whoosh through 101dB speakers, inaudible at the 2.3m listening position.
 
Alex S said:
FWIW the Tron is well known to be very quiet for a valve stage. The BB3 has a slight whoosh through 101dB speakers, inaudible at the 2.3m listening position.
Click to expand...

In the case of valve-only MC stages, it is far more the individual valves than any design. A quiet MM valve stage, I am reliably informed, is not a major challenge.
 
Vinny said:
There are plenty of valve MM stages available, as so many keep suggesting, but the vast majority use SUTs to take MC. The Tron may be the only one commercially available that does not use SUTs.
I can't find mention or a pic' of the internals - what does the Pro-ject use? I assume that it does not use just two ECC83 to amplify an MC signal, but uses either internal SUTs or electronics (a head amp circuit) to boost to MM?

They were available back in the day, but as @uncl_nigel suggests, they were not popular - hence SUTs.
Click to expand...

The Pro-ject DS2 'tube' phono stage uses J-fets, so a headamp rather than SUT , then it goes to the triode, passive RIAA network, triode but is buffered by a solid state Burr Brown OP amp at the output stage.

The Tron Convergence uses SUT I think but @G T Audio will be able to advise.
 
I have been using the Puresound T10 and P10 as a combination for five years now, it's excellent and very quiet,no noise issues.
The T10 sut matches very well with my Hana ML cartridge.
 
chris@panteg said:
I have been using the Puresound T10 and P10 as a combination for five years now, it's excellent and very quiet,no noise issues.
Click to expand...

Compared to?
Something else that I tried - the T10 (into a Croft Micro MM stage) - it was moved on reasonably swiftly.

Thanks @Darren L - I searched but found nowt. Two ECC83 for a MC stage seemed "ambitious".
 
Darren L said:
It's actually very good for the price @Vinny
Click to expand...

I absolutely would not question that at all. I prefer a head amp' (any of the 5-6 that I have tried, into my Croft), to any SUT or MC stage that I have tired. (I have tried 5-6-7 of each) -so, based on quite a bit of experimenting here, I would guess that it sounds pretty good, perhaps very good for the £££ - around £600 (new) really is cheap for a stage that gets excellent reviews.

I am a long way from into stratospherically-priced hifi, but will give anything a try to what I regard as a "sernsible" price - for an SUT/head amp'/MC stage (second-hand, so that giving it a try costs me nowt if I sell it on), that is several £100's, so maybe £1500 or so, new, ball-park?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top