The centre piece of this system is my (J&R Audio) Essential 3160 phonolinestage preamplifier. All present and future equipment and modifications are selected to meet its ultimate fidelity without colouration. In this light, I am currently working on a potential replacement or second turntable (my Technics SP10 MK2 with a highly engineered bespoke plinth).
Apart from hoping for a change of home and larger listening room, my experimentation will continue with isolation, acoustics and cabling. Any other changes will need extensive in-system A/B testing: I am that happy with where things are at.
Mambo with Jeweltone Crystal Stabilizer on Symposium Ultra platform sat on birch wall shelf. Simply superb
Analysis Plus Silver cables
Scientifically accurate cables at unbelievably low prices. These replaced my Siltech and Kubala Sosna Emotion speaker and interconnect cables
Arm Tower AS
This is the stand alone arm tower arrangement that I currently use. It is the basic Acoustic Signature Mambo arm tower plus weights and spikes at three points. Although a case of expedience and therefore not the prettiest arrangement, its performance has been a revelation
Arm Tower AS 2
A close up to indicate the spikes arrangement on my arm towers.
Audiocraft AC 3300
Dual point oil damped tonearm with s-shaped arm wand
Audio Technica AT-20 SLa
A world beating cartridge. Although these are early days, every aspect of its performance seems perfect.
Audio Technica Pneumatic Footers
Range of three distinct sets of Audio Technica pneumatic footers. Each one is an excellent means of isolating turntables and are highly recommended.
Dynavector XV1-s
A phenomenal MC cartridge that perfectly complements the excellence of performance offered by the Nagaoka MP-50 MM. Audio doesn't get any better than this (unless, of course, the new XV1-t proves to be better and not just different)
Essential 3160 (J&R Audio)
3160 phonolinestage. Offers two MC phonestages, two MM phonostages and a comprehensive line stage in one package. Simply SOTA
Essential 3160 power supply
The dual mono power supply is part of the Essential set up
Glanz cartridges G7 & G5
The two Glanz statement cartridges were produced by Mitachi Onkyo Seisakusho factory in Japan. They need further investigation ut clearly deserve it. More as soon as...
Grace G-660P
12" gimbal pivot tonearm. This is a very rare tonearm but claimed to be an ideal match for the Dynavector XV-1s cartridge.
Ikeda IT-407 silver wired
The top of the Ikeda food-chain
Keith Monks Record Cleaning Machine
Rated as the best RCM, a joy to keep your vinyl in mint condition
Marantz CD-7
The best CDP I have heard: resolving and beautiful, similar to a good turntable. See review at http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/frr.pl?rdgtl&1112565957&read&3&4&
Marantz ST-17
A beautiful and greatly underestimated performer. It is a perfect match for my Marantz CDP and outperforms my other more expensive tuners by some distance
Mark Levinson No 23.5
This is a heavily modified model with Eichmann cable pods, top grade resistors and internal cross set to cut off at 70Hz (everything below 70Hz handled by my Velodyne DD12 subs)
Morch DP6 red point
Beautiful. The Moerch DP6 is a dual bearing radial arm with interchangeable arm tubes with either 9 or 12" effective length and various mass options. Moerch's top model, the DP6 tonearm has conventional bearings, a silicone damped high precision ball bearing for the horizontal plane, and two precision sapphire bearings for the vertical plane.
Nagaoka MP-50
An amazing MM cartridge that outperforms top end MC cartridges costing up to ten times its price. Realism
Symposium Isis Svelte stands
Apart from wall shelves, these set a bench mark in my experience of isolation and damping
Symposium Ultra
I use the Ultra, Super and Svelte platforms beneath most of my system. On a sprung wooden floor, these have proved indespensible - along with wall shelving
Talon Audio Hawk
40Hz-40Khz ceramic driver monitors on Escalante Hoodhoo stands. Operating down to 70Hz only - remainder (70Hz - 15Hz) handled by pair of Velodyne DD12 subs
Technics SP-10 mkII
Technics with new bespoke plinth. Works marvelously.
Technics SP-10 mkII
Technics with bespoke plinth sat on AT363 pneumatic footers.
Technics SP-10 mkII
I am trying the Technics with a stand-alone (AS Mambo) armboard. Will report more when certain.
Technics SP-10 mkII
Technics SP10 Mk2 turntable (naked on Audio Technica AT616 pneumatic footers). Early days but trying it out without the still-in-progress plinth following enthusiastic feedback from fellow Agoner
Various cartridges
Selection of Astatic MF100, B&O MMC2, Glanz G5, Andante P-76, Spectral MCR and Nagaoka MP50 cartridges
Velodyne DD12 (1st)
Pair of Velodyne DD12 subs used in perfect stereo with Talon Hawk monitors. Handling everything from 70Hz to 15Hz. Microprocessor controlled with Texas Instruments computer chip; Digital Drive room equalization system; Digital High Gain Servo system; Four listening presets for action adventure, movies, rock pop, jazz classical; Transformer-less Class-D digital energy recovery amplifier; Dual tandem voice coil and Kevlar-reinforced cones
Velodyne DD12 (2nd)
A pair of these used in perfect stereo with my two Talon Hawk monitors. Hearing is believing
I agree that the shibata can sound slightly more critical in certain systems and have a tendency to prefer line contact styli. However, I still believe that the issue of detail retrieval gives the shibata an edge in certain areas: attack on strings, percussion and brass for example. Maybe it depends on what one is used to; looking for and what one experiences as live music. Vive la difference!
Huge apologies but a career change means that I have little time to myself these days and rarely visit A'gon. Anyway, I'm here now and regarding your question, I loved the MP-50. It is very good on brass, percussion and imaging. I only ever heard the MP-500 on a friends system and (in that environment) it sounded harsher and more mechanical than the MP-50. I hope that helps.
Not to mention you can give yourself a new 300 stylus every Christmas, while the 5K MC crowd is making believe 5 years is nothing on their little babies . Not to mention the 300 is more natural to start with.
I'll say something, having tried the MP-500 and the MP-300 I preferred the latter, at least for the classical music I listen to. But, I've never been a fan of shibata stylus, gives a unnatural sound to strings IMO. And changing VTA 76 times doesn't make my day.
Hi Dgob, You have the NAGAOKA MP-50. What would you say about its later incarnation the MP-500, what´s the difference and is it any than the original ? Thanks
Can any of you owners (or anyone who knows of an owner) of the Essential linephonopreamp, contact me ([email protected]) as I need help with making an adjustment from the standard low-gain to high-gain option on mine?
I am limited by what I can say here but suffice to note that I am aware of the difference as Jose upgraded the internals of my 3150 but not the case: and sending it (or anything) to Raul was/is not an option.
Hmmm, seems my 3160 is different from yours. My power sockets are in the rear of the power supply and I have 3 cables from power supply to preamp. Seperate cable for left, right channels and another one. How does the resistor changes and relayout improve the sound of the unit? Did you consuder sending the unit back to Raul for repairs
I am not technically gifted (or, to be honest, even interested) but from what I understand: a resistor blew.
As a consequence I had to send it off to a local technician to have it mended. He identified and made changes to the resistors and the layout of the phonoline preamp'. This includes simplifying the main socket fuse holder to a more standard and secure design and changing the connector sockets from the flimsy 12 pin originals to XLR three pin, which offers options (make and lengths) for the interconnects between the power supply and preamp.
We're also considering moving the connector sockets from the front of the power supply to its back but that will require a lot of work for what is only a cosmetic change and so I'm not rushing to have this done.
Hope all goes well with your 3160 and wider system.
Hello Dgob, Glad you have solved your preamp problems. I´ve been enjoying my "new" TT and everything is very well. Interesting that your new plinth seems to make progression. Not surprised as my own plinth makes a huge improvement as well.
Excuse my tardiness but I have so little time at present that I can't really follow the threads as I used to. Anyway, I've had huge problems with my Essential 3160 preamp and am currently having it fixed and redesigned. That means that I've not really had a chance to carry out a full and complete comparison of many aspects of my changed set up. I hope to have the redesign back in the next month or so and will then set about real comparisons.
As soon as I do so and am certain of my observations I'll post again. What I can say for certain is that our plinth design seems to increase the clarity of background acoustics and harmonics but, as I say, I need time to evaluate and distinguish the 'different' from the 'better'.
I hope to have more time soon and hope all goes well with your system and enjoyment.
Hello Dgob, It´s been a while since summer... I´ve been working on my own TT project as well and meanwhile wasting my precious time watching YouTube music videos and missed these fascinating things going on there. Heh, it´s so funny when I turned my back to A´gon for a couple of months I just found out that Dave the Messenger, the Trans-Fi TA man is running his new mighty Kenwood L07 DD TT and getting great progression ! That lead to wondering what you have been doing lately... Well, another nice surprise is your new plinth for your Technics SP-10. Absolutety fantastic ! Congrats ;)
I´m a bit worried though. Are you saying that getting rid of that excellent AS stand alone armboard makes progression ? Cheers
Promisingly, my system is still undergoing modifications and so I have not yet had the opportunity to do a full A/B test on the Technics SP10 MkII analogue set up 'with and without plinth' (also meaning: 'with and without coupled tonearms'). I hope to have finished this before November and will feed back as soon as I am certain of my findings.
Again, another huge apology for my apparent tardiness in responding. I am enjoying the strengths of the new plinth very much and thanks for the kind words regarding its aesthetics. I suppose that many (wives included) would find the appearance a key consideration when it comes to enjoying their hardware. Fortunately here, my artisan brother-in-law's involvement in the design and production of the plinth means that the aesthetic possibilities are nearly endless.
Regarding its performance in comparison with the decoupled and plinth-less approach, it is difficult to conclude that it is a better option at present. Several bits of my system have changed since the TT revisions and so I have not yet done a fair A/B test. I intend to do so over the next few months and will then report with certainty about my experience.
I would still note at this early point however that the ability to fine tune the plinth/TT is far more extensive than I had previously thought. It therefore seems unlikely that an acceptable alternative to the decoupled and plinth-less approach will not result from the more complete testing. I'll definitely let you know how it pans out then.
Huge apologies for the delay in responding: I just don't get the time to keep up with events on Audiogon these days.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words. My key partner in crime is responsible for the aesthetic qualities of the plinth but it really underpins the fact that the TT works phenomenally well in its new setting.
The footers are also phenomenal when it comes to isolating turntables from their key problem of returning and air-born vibrations. Marvellous! Hope all goes well with you at present.
Hi Desmond Hope all is well. Just saw a picture of your SP10 plinth. It is really stunning. The AT-616 footers imo are also a truly excellent product. Cheers Chris
If you'd like to contact me off line I can discuss the design of the plinth. The key ingredients of this iteration are birch, acrylic, aluminium and pneumatic footers. I've just posted some new photo's of it above although we still have a second (and much more complex) plinth design that we'll probably get around to building at some future point. For now, I'm just enjoying the groove.
System edited: I am still auditioning the sound but recent upgrades (including the use of a bespoke plinth) have brought noted improvements. Exciting times in Hi-fi world.
I noticed one of your replies on the epic MC thread. I just bought a bare SP10 mk11 and am looking for ideas for a plinth. I have a few arms I can use. I have a FR64S and an EPA100. i was thinking of using the EPA100 on it.
I think Axel should be able to help in optimising your M320 Improved and it will be interesting to see how it compares to your Ultra after that. Incidentally, I do think the Acutex perform exceptionally well at 100 Kohm loading and that might be something worth trying when it returns (if you can make that adjustment).
It looks like you have some musical joy ahead of you with your current options. I'm now finished on the MM/MI trail and am busily trying to sort out my final MC choices. I'm down to a short list of three but recently missed out on the one that I most want. Fingers crossed, I'll have my complete analogue front end sorted out within the next year or so and obviously look forward to sharing notes and experiences beyond this.
The Improved is at 1.4 g/flat VTA & 155 pF/47 kOhm. Unfortunately there´s some distortion in highest levels left, it´s 1 mm off-axis and this is too much. I will send it to Axel in near future to straighten the cantilever and ensure its optimum playing. If he finds other faults he can do the best he can.
I was lucky to hear the Ultra in a real high resolution system at very high volume in the late 1980´s. I had never before heard such a pure & convincing sound from a cartridge. I remember vividly I heard nothing "wrong" and could have listened records, whatever style they were endlessly. I was stunned by the smooth yet very dynamic sound. I went to various "high-end" shows to hear a similar quality level but I couldn´t find a cart that could match the Ultra. The Shinon Red (a Japanese Micro Ridge/LOMC) was the nearest, others were more or less tiresome. I got tired of those shows and bought my Ultra in 1989 and have played 10+ replacement stylii, now I have the superb JICO SAS.
The Ultra has never had any negative issues whatsoever in my various systems over the years. I confirm Raul´s statement: "It plays superbly everywhere". One thing puzzles me: why he doesn´t have one, he never talks about...
Great news about the M320 Improved. Have you thought about sending it to Axel to ensure the cartridge is playing to its optimum? If you have or do come across a M420, I would recommend the same.
I think the Ultra 500 is a fabulous cartridge and even suggested it on the MM/MI thread a while back. I've only heard it briefly and it was in another hifi system and listening room. Nevertheless, it has formed part of a very fond memory. You're a lucky man and it'd be great to hear from you on the developments regarding your M320 Improved and other pleasurable and compared gems.
