advertisement


What phono stage do you use ?

oldius said:
I had two dealers supply and leave me with 3 phono stages for just less than a week so I had a good chance to get to know them. I thought the uphorik was veiled, lacking in both detail or warmth. It didn't suit my tastes or system and was well short of the group. The Ios and diablo both fared a lot better and I rated them similarly though I loved the convenience of the IOS with a front adjustment. The Mcr reference was the best of that group, slightly costlier but good. Nice midrange but a little too much warmth for me and a little slow sounding. It was very good but for me not worth the £2k investment.

The leema Agena is in a different league IMO. Exceptionally transparent so it displays the differences in deck, arm and cartridge brilliantly. It has the convenience of the iOS plus two inputs with three headshell settings for each.

The bottom line though is that at this level a guess shouldn't be an option if you don't want to take a punt. Speak to good dealers and insist on home demo if available. You may adore the uphorick it just didn't do it for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response - very interesting.
 
Mike Reed said:
Gosh ! Are these still going? Bumped into a chap called Hawkins from Cornwall at a Heathrow show (eighties/early nineties), who let me borrow his phono stage. Against the Iso/Hera and Naim boards I had then, it was very good indeed.

KINSHAW = anagram of HAWKINS.
Click to expand...

I would hazard a guess virtually every one ever built is still serviceable given their build quality. Very solidly made, and still showing a lot of contemporary stages how it can be done.
 
The standard SME Vdh wire the 501 runs full length foil and braid shielding where the actual foil is connected directly to the tonearn ground wire, it's a complete shield from din to RCA so whatever else people might think it sure isn't contributing to Rfi pickup. The older 3009 wires are different.
 
Another member of the P834 community here. Bought it ages ago. It's still in original state exept for the volume pot which is bypassed. Changing valves made an enormous difference. I tried alot of them. I only got real bass and an excellent insight + an exiting (who needs accurate) sound when I found the right combination. The rest of the system is LP12/Naim and it seems to go together well. I'm not enough of a technician to mod it, but I would be happy if somebody pointed me in the direction of someone who can.
 
sq225917 said:
The standard SME Vdh wire the 501 runs full length foil and braid shielding where the actual foil is connected directly to the tonearn ground wire, it's a complete shield from din to RCA so whatever else people might think it sure isn't contributing to Rfi pickup. The older 3009 wires are different.
Click to expand...

That may be so, but living with one on a Five for 16 years in various houses and rooms, the one constant with RFI was the 501. Moving it, waggling it, re-positioning it, all changed the RFI effect.

Having said that, I always suspected the Orbe was a bit prone to this, possibly inasmuch as it wasn't properly earthed (indirectly)to the arm lead. The only time I banished RFI completely was the few years I had a Prefix K.
 
Then your arm lead or Internal Wire was faulty wAggling mine never made any difference, as you'd expect we're all the connections soldered correctly.
 
Puresound p10 - I've had a lot of fun playing with the valves before settling on a Gold Lion And Sovtek lps as my favourite combo.
 
No not yet - may well be worth a go. I'm currently burning in some Shuguang treasures in my Yaqin MC-10L (replacing some JJ KT77's). Very impressed so far. May try the gold Lion once all is stable again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top