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Post by macca on Nov 26, 2023 19:17:45 GMT
These Sunday updates seem to come round faster and faster.
That does look really good - both the TT and that the TT plinth matches the rack shelves. I'm pretty taken with that. You might start a trend!
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Post by rexton on Nov 26, 2023 19:56:40 GMT
I must admit that I do like the aesthetic. I don't wany anymore bamboo in the listening room, I could now probably keep several Panda's in residence. I'm now wandering if a solid permali or Panzerholz plinth could garner better results? I'm always worried of over damping the 301. I learned my lesson when experimenting with the 1210 years ago, a bright vibrant sound machine which sounded piss poor after a few choice areas that had been over damped. You live and learn.
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Arke
Moderator
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Member is Online
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Post by Arke on Nov 26, 2023 20:03:44 GMT
Looks fantastic - great work! Big bonus to get a big lift in SQ too. I'm a sucker for bamboo too — Our house is slowly filling up with it!
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Post by pete on Nov 26, 2023 20:36:29 GMT
Looks fantastic - great work! Big bonus to get a big lift in SQ too. I'm a sucker for bamboo too — Our house is slowly filling up with it! You are lucky it is your house Chris. I’ve ’inherited’ some massive clumps in my garden that are taking over… they are taking over the neighbours garden too! I also think the platter and matching shelves look very smart😁 |
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Post by macca on Nov 26, 2023 20:49:56 GMT
Looks fantastic - great work! Big bonus to get a big lift in SQ too. I'm a sucker for bamboo too — Our house is slowly filling up with it! You are lucky it is your house Chris. I’ve ’inherited’ some massive clumps in my garden that are taking over… they are taking over the neighbours garden too! just get a borrow of Rexton's pandas when they arrive. Three of them will soon scoff their way through it I'd have thought. |
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RexBlog
Nov 26, 2023 21:10:18 GMT
via mobile
Post by pete on Nov 26, 2023 21:10:18 GMT
You are lucky it is your house Chris. I’ve ’inherited’ some massive clumps in my garden that are taking over… they are taking over the neighbours garden too! just get a borrow of Rexton's pandas when they arrive. Three of them will soon scoff their way through it I'd have thought. 🤣🤣 |
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Post by rexton on Dec 3, 2023 20:25:30 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night! It's Sunday again and I've got my valve central heating on, it's amazing how it heats up the listening room. Not really much to report apart from the importance of setup. I've been tinkering with the MONO setup side of things and experimenting with platter mats. I thought I'd done all the faffing around years ago with lots of experimentation and careful, critical listening. Well I revisited this area of TT setup again over the last few weeks and it's nice to know that my opinion hasn't really changed and the 301 setup is pretty much as good as I can get it with the resources that I have sitting around the listening room. The same can also be said for tonearm height on the SME 3012, I have tried a few very very small height changes to try and raise the height of the Silver Meister II SPU only to find that this thing is a low rider and perfectly happy functioning very very low to the records surface, so again another area the I revisited only to find that I had things pretty much spot-on already. 
Hum is another issue with the valve setup. Prior to the new(old) stand alone Croft MM phonostage I had a silent background noise when sitting in front of the big tannoys, sure you could hear a little transformer hum from the amp but nothing else and nothing that had any impact on the silky black silence of the speakers idling in the background. Cable management is something that I have been going to do for ages but still haven't done anything about. Equipment placement is key to get the least amount of hum through the speakers and it's nice to see that it does happen if the equipment is in a specific place. Yes this may sound weird but experimentation should show optimum placement.
Finally I'm developing quite a collection of microgroove records and I'm thinking that I might have to buy a new SPU just for this very purpose or see if I can pick up a low mileage second hand example. I'm taking a cue from our Japanese friends how have seperate carts and tonearms for various implementation of the RIAA curve. Except it's for groove width variations on MONO records. Speaking about tonearms, the 3009  . Turns out my 3009 is designed to be used with 8g carts and not 32g SPU's amazingly it does work and quite well I'm probably not getting the very very best playback but the output I do hear is more than satisfactory. I have been alerted that I may need to use a heavier antiskate weight to prevent uneven wear and tear on the diamond I may have something sitting around in the spares box so this could is something that I will looking into. It's all good fun.
Stay Tuned....
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Post by rexton on Dec 10, 2023 19:34:33 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night
Hello again. I've not got much to report tonight. The nights are gettingt colder and I've turned on my Valve central heating (forget gas central heating), well the valve system seems to keep my listening room mighty warm! Tonight I've been contemplating moving forward with the various systems that I have sitting around me. I've decided to spend more on vinyl than buying new pieces of kit. Don't get me wrong I'll still be buying new kit, just less of it. I do have a slight confession to make. I have spent a massive amount on a new stylus for a cartridge that I was given to play around with, the Shure M44-7 (£19.99). As some of you may know I have a bit of a fetish for these carts and I still think that the M55-E is one of the best MM's I've ever heard. I've decided that I need a little toy over Xmas so I'm going to be messing around with the M44-7 with a SME 3009 S2 which should be a great match. I have a couple of decent MM phonostages to mess around with. It should be fun. I'm probably going to have a very good look around the JICO website over Xmas as they seem to be promoting a new M44-7 which they have built. They seems to have many many version of this cart with many stylii profiles. Who know's I may buy one at some point in the future alongside a whole collection of stylii profiles. The Ortofon 2M black is my favourite MM with the M55E a very close second. I think I have a plan for 2024 and also the 3009 should get some usage instead of looking like a nice appendage on my 301! 
The Xmas break should be fun listening to loads of old vinyl through the Ortofon SPU MONO and messing around with the M44-7 and new (cheap) stylus!
It would be interesting to hear what you lot intend doing over Xmas with your vinyl rigs, any comments and discussion most welcome.
As ever
Stay tuned....  |
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Post by robbiegong on Dec 10, 2023 19:57:34 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night
Hello again. I've not got much to report tonight. The nights are gettingt colder and I've turned on my Valve central heating (forget gas central heating), well the valve system seems to keep my listening room mighty warm! Tonight I've been contemplating moving forward with the various systems that I have sitting around me. I've decided to spend more on vinyl than buying new pieces of kit. Don't get me wrong I'll still be buying new kit, just less of it. I do have a slight confession to make. I have spent a massive amount on a new stylus for a cartridge that I was given to play around with, the Shure M44-7 (£19.99). As some of you may know I have a bit of a fetish for these carts and I still think that the M55-E is one of the best MM's I've ever heard. I've decided that I need a little toy over Xmas so I'm going to be messing around with the M44-7 with a SME 3009 S2 which should be a great match. I have a couple of decent MM phonostages to mess around with. It should be fun. I'm probably going to have a very good look around the JICO website over Xmas as they seem to be promoting a new M44-7 which they have built. They seems to have many many version of this cart with many stylii profiles. Who know's I may buy one at some point in the future alongside a whole collection of stylii profiles. The Ortofon 2M black is my favourite MM with the M55E a very close second. I think I have a plan for 2024 and also the 3009 should get some usage instead of looking like a nice appendage on my 301!
The Xmas break should be fun listening to loads of old vinyl through the Ortofon SPU MONO and messing around with the M44-7 and new (cheap) stylus!
It would be interesting to hear what you lot intend doing over Xmas with your vinyl rigs, any comments and discussion most welcome.
As ever
Stay tuned.... Not surprised the 2M Black is your favourite mm, cracking cart. Might be an idea you start a thread re: what us guys intend doing over Xmas with our rigs, which reminds me I really should update my own Gong Blog which I haven't updated since Feb  - truth is after the last chunk of upgrades, back then, I've just been enjoying my set up like never before. |
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,401
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Post by Bigman80 on Dec 10, 2023 20:44:04 GMT
There was a 2MB for sale on Wam...I did consider it.
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Post by rexton on Dec 17, 2023 19:42:04 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night..... Welcome back my friends to the restoration that never ends (can anyone guess the prog album?). I'm sitting in the listening room with a big smile on my face. I now have two fully working SME tonearm sitting on the 301. It's just a matter of flicking a switch to listen bewteen mono and stereo, the MONO is a valve MM Croft phonostage whilst Stereo is a customised four box Paradise phonostage. MONO is sounding amazing through my Ortofon MONO SPU, ok the Ortofon may not be the last word in MONO reproduction but it's still pretty decent, ok not a Miyajima ZERO but still pretty damm good. I will of course be messing around with setup and trying to get the best from the cart and that's some of the fun over the long Xmas holiday. Here's a picture of the 301 playing a 10" that I bought for very little money.
 MONO is an excellent way to listen to vinyl. There are literally thousands of recordings which can be purchased for pennies which sound excellent through the right speaker. I've been listening today through a single Tannoy MG 15" but my preferred speaker which I'll setup over Xmas is my single Quad ESL 57 speaker, this speaker fetches a realism to classical and vocals that the Tannoy can't quite deliver. Setting up the 3009 has been a pain and still continues to provide problems. I had to modify the Panzerholz tonearm mount by sanding 3mm off the height which was actually quite easy with the correct sanding belt! The 3009 still plays it's games in that I'm thwarting playing around with old Shure MM carts. I have two that I would like to try my old Shure M55e and a newly donated Shure M44-7. I have stylii for both (very cheap after market) but have been stumped again with VTA problems. It's all my own fault by not fully researching the limitations of the 3009 S2 Improved which is what I own. Several people said you can't use a 32g cartridge on these tonearms, well we proved them wrong and I have one working and singing like a canary. This has been achieved by having some custom ant-skating and balance weights made. I will need another for some of the custom bodies that I like to have installed on my Shure carts, but then that's the fun of the hobby. I'm sure some audio snobs will be crying on their UHQR 45RPM pressings, screaming I should get a non-improved 3009, I agree but I don't want the expense. Here's a picture of future experiments with the 3009 and 301 combo.
Custom anti-skate and tonearm balance weights, several vintage MM's and several different stylii, it might be 2024 before we start messing with these but I have time! The ultimate conclusion to this experient is to have a vintage reference MM which I can play with through either my Croft or EAR 834 clone MM phonostage. I'll be doing experiments with loading plugs etc etc. It'll all be documented at some point in the future. Suffice to say that I'm extremely happy to get the MONO side of things setup. I'll be going through my entire record collection (2500 lps) and setting up a dedicated MONO section. Well that's a rap folks. As ever stay tuned.. |
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RexBlog
Dec 17, 2023 19:51:27 GMT
via mobile
Post by lurch on Dec 17, 2023 19:51:27 GMT
Where abouts are you based? As I have quite a few 78s here taking up cupboard space if they're of any use to you?
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Post by rexton on Dec 17, 2023 19:53:03 GMT
West Yorkshire. Didn't you have a couple of thousand LP's at one stage that you were giving to charity?
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RexBlog
Dec 17, 2023 21:11:32 GMT
via mobile
Post by lurch on Dec 17, 2023 21:11:32 GMT
Stuck about 200 of my Uncles into 2018 kegworth Wam show charity. Came across these bloody things several months later in the back of a cupboard.
If they don't find a home then will leave them when I sell up for the next incumbent to trip over.
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Post by rexton on Dec 24, 2023 20:49:17 GMT
It's not Sunday Night - Update Night Gentle people of this shire, it's nearly Xmas and I'm having a taste of what retirement must feel like, time of your hand to bugger about with your hobbies. The 301 is taking a little bit of a rest and now I'm messing arouond with my 401 and Shure Carts. I've decided to try and do an experiment into finding the best vintage Shure cart for my system. I've already ruled out the V15 mk III + lots of weird and wonderful stylii, I've had the USA and Mexican variants of the SC35C with top end JICO stylii and they now sit in my cartridge box. So, currently the shoot out is with a M55E and a M44-7. I'm spinning vinyl with the M44-7 and generic £20 Tonar stylii, sounds ace so far. Tonearm happens to be a £5K+ SME V-12 which according to these guys is an excellent match korfaudio.com/calculator and now begins some stupid posts about these silly old vintage carts and getting the best from them. Stay tuned... |
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Post by rexton on Dec 25, 2023 9:55:51 GMT
It's Xmas Day - Update pt 1 (before alcohol)....
ha ha... got you all, merry Xmas.
Altough I will say stay tuned.....
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Post by rexton on Dec 25, 2023 17:49:11 GMT
It Xmas Day - Update Night pt 2
Shure thing.....
Just a few lines about how things are going to pan out over the next few days/weeks. I'm in the process of evaluating two ancient Shure Carts the M55E and the M44-7. Previously I have had and said goodbye to many Shure Carts, these being the SC35C + JICO/S stylus, the V15 mk3 with VNH35H (is this correct?) stylus, M75ED. I have had the USA and Mexican version of the M55E, supposedly the USA version is superior, this is the version I will be using during testing but I can't claim to have noticed any difference when doing extended listening tests. I did intend doing this experiment with a SME 3009 as I thought that this would be an excellent match for the Shure Carts. Fate, however seems to have intervened and meant that it would be very difficult to set the Shure's up with the 3009 in it's current configuartion and it took me an age to get the 3009 working with my Ortofon MONO SPU. I did have a solution sitting less than 24" away, this came in the form of a Garrard 401 and SME V-12 configuration. The Garrard 401 was a complete nuts and bolts restoration done by myself and then later checked over by Dr. Martin Bastin, I asked Dr. Bastin to mount the 401 in one of his "Max Planck" plinths. A high quality massive birch ply which decouples the motor. The 401 has had little use over the years and has been mainly over shadowed by the Garrard 301, another nuts and bolts restoration that I did over 10 years ago. The 401 needs some setting up but today I made sure that the 401 was sitting level in all planes, I shall be fettling cartridge setup tomorrow. I partnered the 401 years ago with a SME V-12 which at the time wasn't cheap, fast forward to 2023 and they now go for double what I paid and that's if you can find one, used examples in very good condition has been changing hands for £7K+  (yeah that's what I thought). Tonearm cable happens to be the very top end Yannis Tome cable which again I have on all my arms. I have used the Korf Compliance Calculator korfaudio.com/calculator and checked to see if the old Shure carts would be a decent match for the SME V-12, turns out they should do fine. The first variables that I will be checking are cartridge loading and valve type. Traditionally I have always used a EAR 834P clone which Alan (Fire bottle) modded and built for me a few years ago. The EAR clone had the benefit of cartridge loading installed. I also own the late Len Gregory's Croft phonostage which is excellent but has no cartridge loading capabilities. So, an inability to fine tune these old Shure Carts should prove interesting when assessing them. Another interesting aspect is the valve type, the EAR uses vintage Mullard ECC83 8157's variant. The Croft uses my all time favourite 6SL7 valve the RCA 5691, I've compared 13 different types of 6SL7 and found these to be the best. So, I have to make the tough decision of Croft v EAR, ECC83 8157 v 6SL7 5691 variants. The M44-7 is the first to be put through it's paces. I already have history with the M55E and JICO stylii and don't want to bias findings before they have already started.
I did do an indepth analysis of the M55E + JICO SAS/S stylii v the Ortofon 2MB several years ago. I only had EAR clone phonostage back then and found that the M55E+JICO combo came within microns of upstaging the 2MB, ultimately the 2MB had better detail and resoultion. I did have two other MM phonostages back then, the MM phonostage which is an optional extra in my ATC SCA2 pre-amp and the other being the built in MM phonostage in my Radford SC25 pre-amp (I still own both of these). The Radford used the same M8157's but did nothing for me. The ATC just sounded sterile and lifeless. No a few stats, here are the stats for the Shure M55E
Tracking Force: 0.75 to 1.5 grams
Frequency Response: 20 to 20,000 Hz
Output Voltage: 6.2mV per channel at 5 cm/sec peak recorded velocity
Channel Separation: greater than 22dB at 1,000 Hz
Trackability at 1 gram force: 12 cm/sec at 400 Hz
Effective Stylus Tip Mass: 1.2 milligrams
Tip Radius: 0.2 x 0.7 mils
Inductance: 720 millihenries
DC Resistance: 630 ohms
Dynamic Compliance 25 Recommended load capacitance: 400-500pF
Weight: 6.5 grams
Here are the stats for the Shure M44-7
Output voltage: 9,5mV bei 1kHz, 5cm/sec.
Amplifier-connection: Phono MM
Frequency range: 20-20.000Hz
Material: diamond, bonded
Stylus type: spherical 0.7 mil
Tracking force range: 1,5-3,0g
Tracking force, recommended: 3,0g
Recommended load resistance: 47 kOhm
Recommended load capacitance: 400-500pF
Dynamic compliance 20
Weight: 6,7g
The Shure M55E proved to be a slightly better match running these figures through the Korf Calculator, assuming the Effective mass of the SME V-12 was 11, and the weight of cartridge wires, mounting screws and bolts was around 2.5mg (I do need to verify these). So first blood to the M55E. Stay tuned for more knackers, sorry, I mean indepth analysis of Shure cartridges.
Stay tuned....
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Post by rexton on Dec 26, 2023 20:22:46 GMT
Shure Experiment - Part II - Loading....
The M44-7 according to Shure likes to see 400-500 pf loading. I'm now glad I'm not using the SME 3009 as I've heard that several people have tried to measure the capacitance of the old tonearm cable with varying readings, sometimes differing markedly from one channel to the other other. I'm glad to say that my cables are a known entity and that the loading capacitance in each channel is pretty much perfectly matched. I have been trying to work out some figures with respects to what my M44-7 is currently "seeing". Here goes :- Cartridge to Phonostage Natural capcitance loading of Croft MM stage 100pf Cartridge tags & cartridge leads 10pf Connector from tonearm to intrinstic tonearm wiring 10pf Internal tonearm wiring 15pf (SME source) Tonearm connector accepting intrinsic wiring 10pf Tonearm connector 5-pin plug 10pf Tonearm cable 60pf (Yannis Tome source) Tonearm cable to RCA 10pf TOTAL 225pf So, I'm missing around 225pf loading. This means i'm not getting the best from the M44-7, so it's looking like the EAR 834P may be a better option for optimal cartridge loading. At least I can make the EAR make the M44-7 see the 450pf. Hmmm anothor conundrum to ponder. I've spent a little more time on setting the cartridge up tonight using Dr. Feickharts protractor, cartridge tracking force and antiskate are both sitting at 3g, things appear a lot clearer. The deck is still not perfectly level in all planes but I'm not that far away, the bubble in the spirit level doesn't quite sit perfectly central but it's not so far away, I'm hearing great things. I also need to address the speed accuracy of the 401 as it does not have a speed controller like the Garrard 301 that I own and I'm not prepared to mess around rewire everything for this experiment, I'll dig out the timing laser and alter the speed control that way. Usually we can be accurate within +/- 0.01 RPM. Both cartridges stylii are new the M44-7 has a Tonar stylii to the same specs as the original www.turntabletrainingwax.com/tonar-n44-7-stylus mine cost £19 delivered, I'm sure you can get cheaper if you shop around. I must confess to not knowing where I purchased the M55E replacement but I do know it's new and zero hours usage. Currently the M44-7 has around 6 hours usage. I'm trying to get 3 hours a day. Things I could do to further improve this Experiment ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Vertical tracking height for cartridge has not been properly set yet. 2. Could use Townshend Isolation platform for further improvement of airbourne vibration and such like. 3. Tonearm needs a very very small amount of tweaking. 4. Feed the phonostages with a cleaner power supply. Could this produce a bias in that the 401 has a clean supply and the phonostages don't? Factor Affecting the Absolute Performance of the Shure Carts -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The M55E appears to be a marginally better match for the SME V-12. 2. The Croft phonostage (if loading capacitance is set at 100pf) lessens the chances of accurately matching old Shure Carts. 3. I'm compromising the absolute speed accuracy of the 401, I could use a Roadrunner/Eagle PSU combo to match speed to 0.001 RPM rather than 0.01 RPM accuracy. Steps Taken to Maximise Performance ------------------------------------------ 1. Using Baerweld tracking, setup with respected Dr. Fieckhart protractor 2. Using a true Reference tonearm which matches both the M44-7 and M55E very well. 3. Turntable perfectly level in all planes. 4. Tried to make sure that the 401 is running with a clean power supply, supplied with a PS Audio P10 5. Motor decoupled from 401 less vibration getting into cartridge 6. Tried to improve the trackability of the Carts by making sure the vinyl is as flat as possible and then using heavy record clamp and peripheral platter ring on vinyl. 7. Both cartridge stylii are new and I have allowed a 30 hours break-in period for any cantilever stiffness. 8. Accurately known and matched loading capacitance for left and right channel cartridge channels. 9. 401 platter damped with a Tenuto platter mat. I think that's enough for tonight. Maybe some pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned... |
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Post by rexton on Dec 27, 2023 19:14:09 GMT
Shure Adventures Pt III - Solving problems This Shure adventure is a really neat way of learning new things, interacting with new people and what's more getting the best from the kit you own. I'd never heard of Miller Capacitance and it's relevance to phonostage design, now it's something I'll always consider. I'm not happy with the way the M44-7 is loaded through the Croft Phonostage and there is no way that I'm opening up a completely unmolested phonostage. I want this thing to be as complete and original as possible. It's always been in my nature to push things as far as possible with the kit I own and in the past this has meant modding to stupid levels of deminishing returns, thankfully those days have gone (well nearly) . The Croft phonostage belonged to Len Gregory who used to design MI carts, these are known to be pretty much capacitance loading immune and I also know that Len asked Glenn to make this phonostage a custom build to his requirements. You can now see my problem with capacitance loading. Most people who I know and respect seem to think that 100pf loading from the Croft sounds like what Glenn would use. My Croft phonostage offers no way of externally changing capacitance loading but thankfully some of the members of PFM have been very accomodating is coming up with some solutions. I'm happy to say that some of the solutions look cheap and easy to implement so I shall wait with baited breath. I'm still running up the 30 hours on the new M44-7 tonar stylii so I have a weel or two before this milestone is reached and then I have to do the same on the M55E new stylus. Critical listening will start when both carts have had 30 hours break in period with each stylii and then each phonostage will be carefully assessed for it's pro's and con's. I will have a list of records which I shall compare on each phonostage and the I'll make my decision with respects to which is the best cart, and which phonostage will be pared with the Shure Cart. I though I'd add a few pictures as I've been text heavy over the last two nights. Firstly, just to prove that this whole thing is actually happening, the venerable M44-7 with Tonar stylii.  Secondly a picture of the setup rig. The 401, SME V-12, heavy record clamp and peripheral clamp. All in a bid to get the vinyl as flat as possible.  No we've had some talk about Stylii. Presently, I've used a couple of cheap after market replicas which are supposedly to the same specification as the original Shure variants. My reasoning behind using these stylii is very simple, I need a baseline. I've already heard several of the best JICO stylii that money can buy on some of these carts, I have a very good appreciation of how they can sound. A baseline reference will eanable me to very easily see how far these carts can go and also to see the after effects on my listening notes of these top notch stylii from JICO. The M55E no longer has the SAS/S variant which I prefer, the M44-7 might trump the M55-E in my system and this would be good news as there are many stylii to choose from and many a year of fun to be had. I will not be releasing any listening notes for probably several months. I'm still very critical of the Croft not properly loading these Shure carts correctly. The M44-7 will have had about 7-10 hours break in by the end of this night. Here's an update of what I've also done to improve my listening. So I listed four areas that I thought might improve my listening experience :- Things I could do to further improve this Experiment ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Vertical tracking height for cartridge has not been properly set yet. 2. Could use Townshend Isolation platform for further improvement of airbourne vibration and such like. 3. Tonearm needs a very very small amount of tweaking. 4. Feed the phonostages with a cleaner power supply. Could this produce a bias in that the 401 has a clean supply and the phonostages don't? I've finally pulled my finger out and sorted out numbers 1 and 3. I'm looking into number 4 and I can always do number 2 when I pull the other finger out. Stay tuned.. |
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Post by rexton on Dec 28, 2023 19:57:06 GMT
Shure Adventures Pt IV - Problems = Solutions! Not Shure (sorry) if anyone is following this little series of posts as I don't seem to get much feedback, anyway I do this so others can have a play if they fancy. Firstly, a BIG thanks to Tony over on PFM for sending me a link to a pair of splitters which can be modded to add capacitance to the Croft MM phonostage!!!!!. Here is a link if you fancy producing something yourselves www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-Plated-RCA-Phono-Splitter/dp/B00J5N3YHY?pd_rd_w=k9Kfo&content-id=amzn1.sym.564a65b5-8864-489e-8f09-00335ca035f1&pf_rd_p=564a65b5-8864-489e-8f09-00335ca035f1&pf_rd_r=HRDFQ81H72DZ8J914F5R&pd_rd_wg=vlv6M&pd_rd_r=32c3e80a-d051-4173-9c05-e3321883a063&pd_rd_i=B00J5N3YHY&linkCode=sl1&tag=pinkfishmedia-21&linkId=89b765b67ae825c3038f0dec424ec1fc&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tlYep, a big link. I've a set of loading plugs for the EAR 834P clone and the resistors have a 5% tolerance which to me is no good as I'm supposed to be critically matching each channel as closely as possible. So it looks like I may have to order some resistors from here www.vishay.com/en/product/31814/ with a tolerance of 0.005% or it might be a call to Hi-Fi collective if I can't get the correct value, tolerance goes down to 0.01% but that's not too shabby. I'll make up a pair of loading plugs for the Croft once I've got a properly measured value from the MM stage itself. I'm already bugging a few people with brains far larger than mine to have a look at the insides of the Croft and figure this out. It may even be that I have to make a pair for the EAR 834P clone. We shall see when critical listening tests start. I've added another 3.5hours on the M44-7 stylus today which is approaching the half way period. It now appears that JICO are making M44 stylii which are compatible with the M55E, thats great if yoy wamt boron but what about Sapphire and Ruby which is something that JICO used to produce for the M55E. Both Ruby and Sapphire are better cantilever materials (to my ears) than Boron. Boron is cheaper but the others do offer a significant upgrade and by experimenting with these materials you can get a cheap entry level into listening to cartridges with Crystal based cantilevers, a little like ortofon.com/products/mc-diamond ok, this cart is £10K but it does have a diamond cantilever. I'm not suggesting a 50-60 year old cartridge would sound anything like Ortofon's top cart but the JICO crystal based cantilevers offer a massive upgrade to the Boron cantilevers, and once you factor in the diamond profile it's a killer combo. Please don't bother flaming me for making comparison with a 60 year old MM cart. You won't get any response from me. OK, enough for tonight. I've got to listen to Atomic Rooster..... Stay tuned.... |
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RexBlog
Dec 29, 2023 8:05:54 GMT
via mobile
Post by lurch on Dec 29, 2023 8:05:54 GMT
Been using those splitters for a couple of years now (<£6 on eBay) to increase the pf loading for my A&R P77 Mg as it likes 300 - 400 pf. Also use them to play with R value for MCs into my 80s Cambridge Pre as they cheated and simply added gain and retained the 47k from the mm when using the mc option button.
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Post by rexton on Dec 30, 2023 19:16:07 GMT
Shure Adventures Pt V - Further set up tweaks. The adventure continues. So far this whole escapade has cost me nothing apart from some electric to power everything. I've managed to solve the problem of loading the Croft with an accurate level of pF so that the Shure carts should be properly loaded and can be assessed accurately against one another and also sonic presentation of the Croft/EAR 834p (clone) phonostages. It turns out I had all the parts sitting around in my garage of plenty. Ages ago I wanted a cheap solution when playing MONO records and I'd bought a couple (in case I lost one) of "Y" splitters to be used with my then Shure M55E and mono stylus. Things move on and stuff gets put in the spares box. I also have a full set of loading plugs, I think these came from Alan (Firebottle). Anyway, I now have capability to listen to the Shure carts at correct pF loading irrespective of phonostage used. Here's the kit to load the Croft MM phonostage.  More tweaking the the TT setup. The 401 now spins at 33.3 RPM, the laser is very accurate, I've used this system before to monitor the speed of a Pheonix Engineering PSU+Roadrunner controlled Garrard 301 and it pretty much matches it's measurements when you mess around increasing or decreasing the speed. The laser is not the most accurate of kit but I'm confident things are spinning with 0.1 RPM accuracy.
If you remember I had a list of things that I'd done, or would like to do to improve this experiment. I have included a new update of the lists. Things I could do to further improve this Experiment ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Could use Townshend Isolation platform for further improvement of airbourne vibration and such like. 2. Feed the phonostages with a cleaner power supply. Could this produce a bias in that the 401 has a clean supply and the phonostages don't? Factor Affecting the Absolute Performance of the Shure Carts -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The M55E appears to be a marginally better match for the SME V-12. 2. The M44-7 has +3db better channel seperation (25db) compared to the M55E (22db)
3. I'm compromising the absolute speed accuracy of the 401, I could use a Roadrunner/Eagle PSU combo to match speed to 0.001 RPM rather than 0.01 RPM accuracy. Steps Taken to Maximise Performance ------------------------------------------ 1. Using Baerweld tracking, setup with respected Dr. Fieckhart protractor 2. Using a true Reference tonearm which matches both the M44-7 and M55E very well. 3. Turntable perfectly level in all planes. 4. Tried to make sure that the 401 is running with a clean power supply, supplied with a PS Audio P10 5. Motor decoupled from 401 less vibration getting into cartridge 6. Tried to improve the trackability of the Carts by making sure the vinyl is as flat as possible and then using heavy record clamp and peripheral platter ring on vinyl. 7. Both cartridge stylii are new and I have allowed a 30 hours break-in period for any cantilever stiffness. 8. Accurately known and matched loading capacitance for left and right channel cartridge channels. 9. 401 platter damped with a Tenuto platter mat. 10. 401 now accurately setup and running at 33.3 RPM +/- 0.01 RPM. 11. All phonostages now have ability to be accurately loaded with accurately measure pF levels. The M44-7 is now over half way to being run in, probably at the 17 hour mark now after tonights session. I have switched over to the EAR 834P just for a change away from the Croft. Things sound different, but that is for the better. It's nice to refresh myself with the sound of vintage ECC83's, a marked difference from the 5691's! That's it for tonight. Stay tuned..... |
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Post by rexton on Jan 2, 2024 19:14:02 GMT
Shure Adventure Pt V - Some initial thoughts...
I've now completed my 30 hours on the Shure M44-7 and Tonar stylus, I've had 15 hours with the Croft phonostage and 15 hours on the EAR 834p Clone. I've pitted RCA 5691's against Mullard ECC83's. I've now swapped over to the M55-E and now I'm pluuged into the EAR 834p listening to vintage Mullard ECC83's. It's a sound that I'm very familar with. I've got a Shure N44G sitting in the M55E at the moment as this is the only thing I had that could plub into the M55E and give me some output. I have a few initial thoughts on the M44-7 which I shall share but I don't want to give to much away. I've still got 30 hours to put onto this new stylus for the M55E.
One thing is for S(h)ure the output on the M44-7 is ok (just) on my system. I honestly do not need a great deal of wiggle on the volume pot to get a whole room of noise. This makes this cartridge great for low level listening (if that's what you can call it). It does indeed (Jim) paint a very wide sounstage and I would say that there is more seperation in the soundstage, things just appear "bigger and wider" with the M44-7 than the M55E altough I'm still refreshing my lug'oles with regards the sonic presentation of the M55E, things are a little different in that I'm not using a JICO stylus so presentation is somewhat different to what I'm used to. Maybe I've been biased after reading Jim's post but I would also say that things appear a little polite with the M55E compared to the M44-7, less shrill, less edge and more rounded notes. I'm thinking this could be down to the large difference in mV output. The M55E sits at 6.2mV out and denpending upon which Shure catalouge your reading the M44-7 is either 9.5 or 11mv !!! I will probably have to do something with the cartridge loading with the M44-7 to make things sound less Shrill. I still have 29 hours to put on the M55E so less typing and more listening...
Stay tuned...
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Post by macca on Jan 2, 2024 19:42:28 GMT
i think you may be onto something with the output thing.
I got a Technics with one of those big Stanton DJ cartridges on it. I forget the designation. I might still have one as there were two of them supplied, I think I only gave one away.
Some ridiculous output level - slightly crude but it was properly big and bouncy.
I never realised until then how much of that 'disco bass' is from the cartridge.
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Post by rexton on Jan 2, 2024 19:49:59 GMT
i think you may be onto something with the output thing. I got a Technics with one of those big Stanton DJ cartridges on it. I forget the designation. I might still have one as there were two of them supplied, I think I only gave one away. Some ridiculous output level - slightly crude but it was properly big and bouncy. I never realised until then how much of that 'disco bass' is from the cartridge. There does appear to be a sweetspot with mV output and correct pF loading. It's a bit like positioning speakers. This whole experiment started out as a bit of fun over the Xmas period due to the fact I was given a M44-7 cartridge and I've always been a big fan of the M55E with various exotic JICO stylii. Hence the comparison. I'll ideally be 60 hours into this experiment before making any critical decisions. You are right bass can be somewhat over powering and bloated, it can, however also sound quite sinuous on some recordings. |
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Post by rexton on Jan 28, 2024 20:13:37 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night - Shure Adventures Pt VIII - Focus - Not the prog band.
This experiment is fun. I've been digging through my collection of vinyl playing and finding stuff that I completely forgot that I owned. Playing stuff with gay abandon is all well and good but what am I actually testing and how does this form part of this long term experiment? Well let me try and explain. I've been lacking focus with respect to the design of this experiment and how I could describe or assess the sonic spectrum of the M44-7 and the M55E cartridges. I needed to re-educated myself with terms and basic knowledge with regards the frequency spectrum through the Hz range. So, I've been doing some reading today with respects to the basics of bass, treble and midrange. It's funny how much you forget. So this explains why I've been digging through my vinyl. I've been looking for reference records so that I could assess individual things like vocal treble, sub-terrain bass and all the various other aspects of the sonic spectrum. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to break down the assessment of the bass, midrange and treble as various parts of this experiment, but that's ok with me as the experiment will be more rigourous and allows me to formulate a method of critical evaluation of any future cartridges which may or may not enter service in my systems.
I have come to realise that these early Shure carts are something very special and that Shure designed something rather special. I also have come to viewpoint that I really like the combo of the SME V-12 and a vintage MM cart even though this arm has been designed for far more venerable carts costing many thousands. I'm also really loving the EAR 834P MM clone phonostage and can confirm that I'm a tad smitten with the Shure / ECC83 valve combo. I will be experimenting with the bass aspect of the Shure M55E cartridge over the next few weeks and then I'll go into the various aspects of the Midrange and treble. I'm still putting together a reference list of material for bass assessment of the M55E. It's all fun and I'll still need to read around bass and the various types which can be found on vinyl recordings and how these impact on what you hear.
OK enough now, stay tuned...
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Post by rexton on Mar 10, 2024 20:02:00 GMT
SUNDAY NIGHT - IT'S UPDATE NIGHT!!!
Adventures into modding a Garrard 301 - Pt XXXXI
OK LETS GET THIS OUT IN THE OPEN BEFORE YOU READ THIS - I HAVE NO LINK WITH THE SELLER OF THIS PRODUCT. Hello people! Here we are again we another small update on the Garrard 301 Restoration project. Tonight a few words on a drunken purchase several sundays ago from the U.S of A. I purchased a chassis stiffener for the grand total of £107 delivered. I've waited several years for this oppotunity. The fit and finish was very good but the instructions for fitting were nil, bugger all, nowt, nada, nuthink  ! It's a good job that yours truly know's his way around a 301 pretty well. After removing part of the motor cradle, several of the linkages and the cable spring we had a nicely fitted chasis stiffener plate fitted. So, my first gripe is I had to dismantle half the bloody 301 to get this thing fitted, BUT, I'm so glad that I did! I noticed an immediate improvement, or at least I thought I did . One of the benefits of owning my 301 for over 10 years is that I know it very initimately and I know how it performs. I can usually hear a difference in any tweaking within 15-30 minutes of any modification. I'm not going to beat around the bush, the soundstage changed. Everything had a little more solidity, definition, cohesion, and seperation. It was subtle but enough for me to judge this upgrade as a worthwhile punt into the unknown. End of the road....... I'd always wanted to try something like this but oppotunities are scarce. You don't see the Tim De Paravinci "H" bar up for sale and he can't make you one know. Classic Turntable Company offer a new chassis which is substantial in mass compared to the 301 but that's at a cost, then you have more esoteric things like the "Wave Break" highlighted by Audio Grail with very little info on the product. It's quite sad really as I'm now nearing the end of modding the 301. I suppose a new Panzerholz plinth could be the way forward and then we always have after market bearings and we also have other PSU's such as the the Long Dog PSU. New SPU's could also be an avenue of exploration. I would also surmise that there might some mileage in room treatment. So, maybe not the end of the road yet but I think I'll be slowing down with updates on the 301, but only because the oppotunities are very few and far bewteen, this latest upgrade being a case in point. Anyway, let's not get all sad, I'm looking forward to another ten years of updates for this deck, and here's a pick of the 301 with new mod fitted.  As ever, stay tuned.... |
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Post by rexton on Apr 1, 2024 19:02:27 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night! Adventures into modding a Garrard 301 PT XXXXII - Playing with my Balls (Well ball bearings)! It's Sunday and time for another update for the 301. There has been a lack of information regarding the chassis stiffener from the US of A mainly beacuse I wanted to see if the improvements in soundstage were still apparent and not just initial installation bias. I'm happy to report that my feelings towards the soundstage are still the same. Just a smidge more cohesion, great clarity and definition of the small details, maybe a tiny bit more depth in the soundstage but overall a positive improvement. So, this got me thinking.I've been rooting around in my spares box again and discovered an old set of turntable footers that I'd used years ago on a previous project. These footers are solid aluminium, very nicely turned that sit on a single ball bearing. mounted footer. I'm thinking on trying these on my newly made Bamboo plinth instead of the Bamboo feet that I made. I'd also get an additional level of flexibility with these new (old) footers in that I can change the height of each foot so levelling up the Garrard would be that much more easy. I'm hoping that I may introduce a greater level of Isolation for the Garrard from its external environment and maybe improve things a little further. This with the ability to produce a more accurately level 301 is tweakers heaven! I can only try and it's a very nice easy thing to reverse. The second thing I've been looking into is the periphery ring that I use. Here's a link for those interested www.waynesaudio.com/product-...uter-ring-ss-2 Yes it's expensive but it's a very well made piece of kit and great for sorting out those warped 60 year old DECCA SXL's ! Heres a video that I made years ago for Youtube which demonstrates it's usage, this is back when I had the birch ply plinth . The periphery ring also adds additional mass and inertia to the platter as well as helping to flatten out warping in the records alongside producing a more congruent platter/vinyl interface. The platter ring gets used alongside a 1KG solid copper weight, again helping to to produce mass/inertia and further helping to reduce vinyl warp and vinyl/platter interface (this can also be seen in the videolink). So, the first thing I'm assessing is the periphery ring/copper weight combo and then I'll start with the new plinth feet. The journey continues into it's second decade. As ever stay tuned... |
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Apr 1, 2024 19:52:25 GMT
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Post by lurch on Apr 1, 2024 19:52:25 GMT
For My 401 plinth build Paul Knipe at Solid Sounds used some Acorn shaped threaded rubber machine feet which are proving to be brilliant, they're about 40mm at the base of the cone.
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Post by rexton on Apr 1, 2024 20:17:30 GMT
For My 401 plinth build Paul Knipe at Solid Sounds used some Acorn shaped threaded rubber machine feet which are proving to be brilliant, they're about 40mm at the base of the cone. Piccies !! |
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. Turns out my 3009 is designed to be used with 8g carts and not 32g SPU's amazingly it does work and quite well I'm probably not getting the very very best playback but the output I do hear is more than satisfactory. I have been alerted that I may need to use a heavier antiskate weight to prevent uneven wear and tear on the diamond I may have something sitting around in the spares box so this could is something that I will looking into. It's all good fun. 
- truth is after the last chunk of upgrades, back then, I've just been enjoying my set up like never before. 
(yeah that's what I thought). Tonearm cable happens to be the very top end Yannis Tome cable which again I have on all my arms. I have used the Korf Compliance Calculator 
! It's a good job that yours truly know's his way around a 301 pretty well. After removing part of the motor cradle, several of the linkages and the cable spring we had a nicely fitted chasis stiffener plate fitted. So, my first gripe is I had to dismantle half the bloody 301 to get this thing fitted, BUT, I'm so glad that I did! I noticed an immediate improvement, or at least I thought I did . One of the benefits of owning my 301 for over 10 years is that I know it very initimately and I know how it performs. I can usually hear a difference in any tweaking within 15-30 minutes of any modification. I'm not going to beat around the bush, the soundstage changed. Everything had a little more solidity, definition, cohesion, and seperation. It was subtle but enough for me to judge this upgrade as a worthwhile punt into the unknown.