audio-talk

Long story short...

After building the "Douglas Self Trimodal" amp that i brought to Owston recently i was looking for another project so went with Douglas' phono amp pcb.

I had a rega p2 (fairly recent) and Nagaoka Mp20 (late 80's) so was using the MM inputs on the phono. Quite nice but still much as i envisioned vinyl from my growing up years.

Then i saw Vinyl Ants post about the DL301 MK2 and i decided to take a risk. Got one from Japan. Wow. What I've been missing! I can't believe the lack of surface noise and the extra dynamics, lovely mids and sweet treble. I am really impressed.

I feel a rabbit hole approaches...

Argh, nooooo

Come in, join us !
We'll be your friends. Not like the others...

Awww, thanks Mark!

I'm not rabbit hole averse, it has to be said. I've certainly gone on some wacky DIY expeditions over the years.

I just never considered vinyl as a potential bunny void.

Onwards and downwards!

I can’t disagree I’ve always been in the analogue camp. ATM I can’t afford the expense. Or time to collect my deck and set it all up again. Not to mention fuel costs.

So I’m testing op amps in my DAC for the meantime…. It’s a lot cheaper than cartridge rolling.Vinyl is for the rich from where I’m deposited!

Paul Barker wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 9:17 am...Vinyl is for the rich from where I’m deposited!

You’re not wrong there Paul.

I must be a bad influence
But youre right paul, its a very expensive game these days.

The days of getting a bargain are long gone unless you are willing to take a punt on decks that have issues and fix them, like the xerxes i got recently.

The only relative bargains are still lencos, 150 quid ish is still not a great deal of money, but a far cry fron the 15 quid they used to go for. if you can put the time and effort into modernising them, the guts are practically bomb proof.

Old cartridges are a minefield, ive given up on getting anything that hasnt got a history, comes from a dealer with a warranty of some sort, or comes from someone i would trust. Or is new.

Arms arent too bad in terms of wear and reliability, but anything reasonable is expensive. A typical 3009 is still 250 to 300 quid, more if its an early one, and there are plenty of better arms available. Ive a collection of around 10 arms in various states of repair. The tabriz i got recently was a bargain but a circumstantial one. If it had been listed on ebay accurately it would have been a sight more expensive.

The amount of old crap that is either knackered, broken, or just plain rubbish that is hawked as classic is maddening

At the risk of banging my own drum, Heybrook TT2s come up on eBay fairly regularly below £500. There are very few issues with them that can’t be sorted relatively easily.

The heybrook is one ive wanted to get my hands on for a long time, that one and the logic dm101. Neither have ever come up for me at the right time at the right price. Neither seem to come up very often and always seem to have a nice arm on them too

There’s a slightly scruffy one on eBay at the moment with no arm for £190:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203934437029 ... media=COPY