Yorkshire Hi-Fi Club

[IslandPink]

Give the benefit of the doubt. See the best in people.
HiFi Forums (and life in general) need more of this.

Yep - absolutely.
Let's see the best in Nick

[savvypaul]

In everyone...n'cest pas?

[IslandPink]

Well no because Stephen agreed the hum thing was OK after explanation - but hasn't retracted his false accusation about Nick. Sorry for being overly logical about this, and to be fair, he has admitted that he's not a nice guy !

[pre65]

Well no because Stephen agreed the hum thing was OK after explanation - but hasn't retracted his false accusation about Nick. Sorry for being overly logical about this, and to be fair, he has admitted that he's not a nice guy !

I can't believe you really mean this Mark. What next, pistols at dawn ?

[savvypaul]

Stephen said "Sorry if I've offended anyone. It was not my intention".

But, if you're determined to be offended on Nick's behalf... your choice. I won't be offended. Defending a friend is still a nice thing to do.

Not a nice guy? That's ironic...

[IslandPink]

I have a strong suspicion that Stephen is actually OK, so i'll leave it here and am happy to let the phono discussions continue.

[savvypaul]

Cool.

I have a strong suspicion that everyone here is a nice guy

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Does that include me

Well basically I couldn't give a shit what eeediots think about me nor should anyone else. There are people who you decide to respect the opinion of and other you don't. I would *never* question anything said by Nick nor question his integrity even though he sometimes chooses strange friends.

Anyway back to the Phono 2, each channel has two gain stages, each based around an op-amp. Done deliberately, one is a gain stage only and can be set in level by a gain resistor on each channel (R3 and R9) and that could be set to what ever you want. Our standard resistor for MM is 22ohm and for MC 470ohm. The other op amp controls the RIAA. If Dave wants to post it back (don't need the PSUs) I can set it for what ever cart he wants it set for.

AFAIK the Phono2 used at this event was identical to the one used at the last event as long as this time not tampered with. Did it still have a fixed mains leads on the PSUs, or were they cut off so some daft stupidly priced one could be used, was the top cover loose or showing obvious signs of being re-glued - excuse my paranoia! anyway if it comes back to be reset then I will know myself.

I am sure everything was OK and above board, especially with Nick on board with the event. Maybe just some odd miss match, but it couldn't be load as the circuit is load rejecting. It strikes me a more *normal* system and room should be used in future events. BTW at the last event I disliked those speaker more than even the Yammys at the one before. I ask you how many of us use rooms that large. The venue and the event is flawed, but good fun, and the last one got me quite few sales of which none came back, and very happy customers according to their reviews as published at HFS.

If Nick want to get the cover off and check or change the gain resistors he is welcome, if worried how to just PM or email me.

[DSJR]

I can only recount a story of back in the bad old Naim days, when placing one of their preamps close (ish) to the HiCap power supply would induce a small bit of hum at very high volume levels to go with the hiss already there. Even with the lower musical resolution of a Naim small-form preamp (32.5 at the time of this tale) and a 'fruitbox' with Ittok Asak T cartridge, having *any* added hum at all made the perceived sound worse and more 'closed in.' Moving the offending HiCap away did seem to 'open up' the sound more as much as the electronics would allow back then.

I would say this, wouldn't I, but my NVA Phono 2 set for MC's seems to have plenty of output (about the same as CD) into a passive pre with 10k log pots and noise is all but non existent for me unless I'm stupid with the volume control at which point I'd be deafened. Not for me to say more except to ask for confirmation the unit heard was *actually* set for MC pickups and not MM instead?

Apologies all. I wasn't there and didn't hear what the attendees heard, but the 'anal-dealer' in me still comes out when the dem conditions don't reportedly seem quite right, regardless of the products being heard. Maybe the trusty Yamaha NS1000's should have been brought back, as they're a generally known and fairly predictable quantity and love plenty of clean power up their jacksie

[Edit] - I posted the above before I saw the post immediately above mine. I'm on nobody's tag team I assure you.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

DSJR it does sound like it is set for MM as because the circuit is load rejecting it works perfectly well with MC with the MM 47kohm load resistor, just very low gain obviously. The interesting thing is Dave (MCRU) bought this unit in December so if not noticed as MM it means it hasn't been switched on since then. I really do not remember which was ordered and sent. Perhaps I made a goof here.

[Thermionic Idler]

Taken me a while to marshall my thoughts - not sure how much of value I have to contribute but I'll do my best

For me, in the end there were just too many phono stages in the shootout to really get a meaningful impression of what I liked best - I got to the point of thinking 'you know, they all sound pretty good to me, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the music'.

That said, some stages did stand out for me as more musically engaging than others - I liked all of Nick's stages, even the cheap one. The Arkless and Paradise stages were really nice, I also liked the Modwight (ironic as my AMB linestage has just replaced a Modwright LS100) and even though the NVA wasn't operating optimally, there was something about the way it played music that I really liked too.

I was rather hoping we'd get the opportunity to try my scratch build AMB linestage in place of the Souluution preamp, especially as it's been suggested that the low impedance of the latter's inputs might have presented an issue for some of the phonostages? (I configured the AMB to have 25kOhm impedance inputs). But, in all fairness, it was billed as a phono stage comparison so I can't really complain. In the end we used my AMB to convert the XLR balanced output from the Souluution to RCA unbalanced for the OTL amps.

I must admit I wasn't overly keen on the Maxonic speakers - sorry David! They did a heck of a lot of things right - my Maria Callas LP sounded amazing on them, I felt like she was right there in front of me (can't remember which phono stage was in operation at the time). However, when we played the Handel Royal Fireworks Suite (Szell, Decca, Speakers Corner reissue) - I don't know, the orchestra horn section in particular sounded really shrieky to me - I started to wonder about whether it was the effect of horn instruments, being played through horn drivers - so you had a 'doubling up' of the horn sound which made things a bit overwhelming? Probably just me.

That all said - it was a really great day out, thanks to David for hosting it and it was so nice to spend the day with a group of like-minded music lovers.

[mainscablesrus]

Richard's phono stage was not tampered with in any way its as supplied. The fact it did not gel with the system on the day does not really matter as its a superb unit for the money that's why I bought one to use at home. My home system is not really getting used much currently for various reasons and I have that many turntables and carts I wouldn't have a clue what gain settings it needs.

The Maxonic speakers are the marmite of the hifi world bit like NS1000's like them or hate them. The dem room had only just been finished when the meeting took place as we had a rather large influx of water months ago and had to tank the floor and walls to try to stop water leaking in, that involved taking the floor up and 1/2 the plasterboard walls cutting off and replacing after tanking. Some may have noticed 2 wooden stripes dowmn 2 sides of the room on the floor with holes in, those are for air to circulate under the floor to stop build up of moisture, it is a basement after all.

Then flooring back down and acoustic panels putting on.

Now the journey to get the best sound begins, the maxonics field coil heaters have 64 different steps so that's a lot of experimentation to do, plus I have tried 7 amplifiers so far and the Soulution sounds best so far. I don't think the attendees realized just how loud we were cranking the volume up on saturday, the Soulution goes very loud with no distortion.

I like these get togethers as it gives me a chance to listen and read what people think and I now know its maybe a good idea to seperate analogue and digital systems in the room both fed by independent mains feeds (there was a lot of cable behind the racks possibly picking up RFI)

[Nick]

I will grab the NVA from David this week and measure the gain. I agree the most likely reason for the low gain on Saturday is its set for MM use.

[antonio66]

I will grab the NVA from David this week and measure the gain. I agree the most likely reason for the low gain on Saturday is its set for MM use.

Great idea Nick.
I would have loved to be there, unfortunately live too far away at the moment, but I would just like to thank David for hosting these get togethers, and also to everyone posting their thoughts on the event.

[SimonC]

I'm late to the party, but wanted to say a big thanks to Dave for hosting us, and being consistently ruthless with anyone who talked while the music was playing

I had to leave mid-afternoon, so I only got to listen to the first half dozen or so of the phono's in the line up. I'm not really in the best position to comment on them as I don't have any vinyl at home. My ears are not tuned into what it can, and can't, do and comparing it to digital sources is not what the day was about. I would agree that there were probably too many systems though. I was starting to flag when I left, and that was not even at the half way mark... But its a positive sign for vinyl that there are so many phono stages out there, and how good they were.

It was great to meet you all, chat, and listen to some good music. Looking forward to the next one

Simon C