SP10 +PMAT 1010 + Ortofon modded kb

Owning 2 ‘decent’ turntables in a Roksan Xerxes and a Kenwood KD750 it was a leap of faith to jump in with both feet for the SP10, arm and cartridge all in one go. Oh and I managed to get my hands on a Tenuto mat.

However retirement has come with some benefits and I wanted to up the game in vinyl reproduction.

The whole setup has been sourced through Angus, also known as Phonomac here and elsewhere. He refurbished the SP10 to resolve issues that might lurk, testing and replacing components where necessary.

He builds the plinth from Panzerholz and mounting to suit the Audio Technics AT1010.

However the arm is completely rebuilt with numerous parts replaced and machined, becoming the PMAT 1010. It’s a giant killer.

The Ortofon Kontrapunkt B cartridge is worked on by Killian at Holistic Audio in Holland.

Angus described the upgrade to the kb here

‘ a cartridge which has had all essential parts renewed – suspension and stylus - with the addition of the internal components from the higher end Ortofon cartridges which is what makes it into a close relative of the Vienna. It is also hand-aligned for optimum channel separation and balance. ‘

I am something of a loss for words at the way that I’m now hearing my vinyl.

It’s super clean, which is a bit of a shock compared with other decks that are ‘muddy’ in acoustic. At the same time all is revealed, interaction between musicians more easily understood, and detail such as room acoustic very obvious.

I thought the Xerxes was good, especially since I mounted a PMAT 1050 on it (it’s how it all started!). Another Angus modified arm.

However my struggle to express the improvement is because there really is no comparison and I haven’t heard the improvements in incremental steps.

It’s been one huge jump

Apart from all the usual hifi cliches (think separation/soundstage/musical information/ immediacy etc etc) I think the biggest surprise to be has been in low frequency information.

The phono is an Alan (Firebottle) Vivant and amp is a Lyngdorf 2200 (with room correction) combined with Harbeth 3PESR’s.

I’ve always found them a bit bass light.

Not any more. Plenty of bass (ok, not subterranean). But fast bass rather than bloated. Again takes some adjusting to.

However I’ve gained a whole different perspective on how the lower levels of music support and drive it along.

In fact that’s the biggest pleasure of all is the insight into how musicians are working, how a song works etc

Oh.. and speakers just disappear.

If I had to try and be critical it’s that the soundstage isn’t as big as in Angus’s system. I’m told that the soundstage will open up after 100 hours or so.

After a week of ownership I’d thought I’d also look at what improvements might be made to the tonearm cable, although I wasn’t too sure how much better things could get. Just had a feeling that the existing Jelco was filtering some info.

Having heard one in another system and read good reviews I asked Oli (Bigman80) to make me a Spotfire Tonearm cable. The price seemed very reasonable at £134 delivered.

It replaced a Jelco cable that wasn’t too shabby.

Wow.. even further insight into recordings.

String instruments are revealed even more, and you can hear even more of the recording room acoustics. The balance of presentation of all the musicians on a track suddenly seems ‘right’ along with the detail revealed.

A gamble that has definitely paid off.

This is my end game deck that a lifetime of working has given me.

Just hope there’s a bit more time left to enjoy it, and that goes for us all.