#1 Stepping up
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:01 pm
Been buggering around again today with the setup. I put the audio technica at f7 back on the lenco in place of the shure m97xe.
The phono stage is a benedict audio hothead, the mm one. These phono stages are either or, not mc switched, you buy what you require which i think is quite a good idea, if you want the optimal performance for your cart.
So, the dl103 and the atf7 need a step up.
I got hold of a denon ha500 head amp off Ali for the purpose. Now in the past I have used cinemag suts, llundahl suts, neutrik suts, and sowter ones. I found the sowters t' other day in a box, i thought they were something else, id bought some sowters in identical cans for use as phase splitting transformers, but they werent those. Forgot I even had them.
Found the neutrik ones too. So i had a play and wired the sowters and neutriks to a bank of sockets so i could a-b.
Unfortunately one of the neutriks was buggered, but doing an a-b between the denon and the sowters was eye opening. Reason being, I found the denon much better than the sowter suts.
The denon doesnt seem to roll the top end off or curtail the bass. The sowters sounded soft, the bass abit sludgy and the top end abit splashy compared. Mid about the same.
Used with the hothead, it doesn't seem to have much of its own signature, and the selectable gain is very welcome with the pass f5, giving plenty of gain. Enough that it might be ok at owston without needing a pre on the +32db setting
I seem to remember Andrew looking at a fet based step up some time back, and now I know why.
I had a moment with it, thinking one channel had packed up with no output from the right channel, turned out one of the cart tags had come off inside the insulation. Fixed that, and good to go.
Frankly, having used the denon, i wouldnt use suts again.
Caveat is, it has to be a very good head amp, the ortofon mca 10 I had wasnt all that good, about equal with the sowters, which were better in some respects and worse in others
Accepted wisdom is to use suts, but i now think that needs some revision
The phono stage is a benedict audio hothead, the mm one. These phono stages are either or, not mc switched, you buy what you require which i think is quite a good idea, if you want the optimal performance for your cart.
So, the dl103 and the atf7 need a step up.
I got hold of a denon ha500 head amp off Ali for the purpose. Now in the past I have used cinemag suts, llundahl suts, neutrik suts, and sowter ones. I found the sowters t' other day in a box, i thought they were something else, id bought some sowters in identical cans for use as phase splitting transformers, but they werent those. Forgot I even had them.
Found the neutrik ones too. So i had a play and wired the sowters and neutriks to a bank of sockets so i could a-b.
Unfortunately one of the neutriks was buggered, but doing an a-b between the denon and the sowters was eye opening. Reason being, I found the denon much better than the sowter suts.
The denon doesnt seem to roll the top end off or curtail the bass. The sowters sounded soft, the bass abit sludgy and the top end abit splashy compared. Mid about the same.
Used with the hothead, it doesn't seem to have much of its own signature, and the selectable gain is very welcome with the pass f5, giving plenty of gain. Enough that it might be ok at owston without needing a pre on the +32db setting
I seem to remember Andrew looking at a fet based step up some time back, and now I know why.
I had a moment with it, thinking one channel had packed up with no output from the right channel, turned out one of the cart tags had come off inside the insulation. Fixed that, and good to go.
Frankly, having used the denon, i wouldnt use suts again.
Caveat is, it has to be a very good head amp, the ortofon mca 10 I had wasnt all that good, about equal with the sowters, which were better in some respects and worse in others
Accepted wisdom is to use suts, but i now think that needs some revision