The Bigblog!

The metal is unlikely to be from the bolts, steel bolts arent damaged by alloy cartridge bodies, it's the other way round. It'll just random detritus.

I use A3 stainless bolts on mine, none magnetic.

No, I completely agree but for £12, I'm not gonna worry lol

Thanks for the tip.

I'll have a look but these arrived today and I'm probably ok.

However, I could do with a plastic screwdriver.....any ideas?

Hi Ollie. Sorry to hear about your Kb know you loved that cart😢

Thanks Martin,

I did absolutely love it so it's been a bit like the loss of a family member lol

However, it's a chance to try something that's pretty much totally unheard so I'm happy to do it.

If it doesn't work out, I'll sell it and get a Goldring Ethos

Your cart died? I must have skipped a post somewhere. That's a shame it was bloody good.

Yes mate, I sent it off to get the Vienna upgrades but unfortunately when it got there, it wasnt possible as the left channels coil was partly severed by a piece of stray metal.

Rare but it happens

I have bought a HA103-SEL from Kilian at Holistic Audio

Who knows Dave.

Aluminium horrors? Whatever do you mean!!!

Captive threads on this puppy, I'm told.

No drama there.

Yes, dont over tighten aly screws, I learned that lesson before.

Now what I need is a ceramic headshell

or a panzerholz one

Jeez man ...what a week 

They say sh#t happens yours seem's to have happened all at once

In this hobby, if you sit still you've either given up or stopped caring. I honestly believe that.

I for one had given up. A combination of injury preventing me from pushing myself and a belief that the gear i had was performing at it's best. Yep, i had bought well and quite shrewedly, but as always in this ever changing world we live in, someone was on hand to show me that actually, there is more to be had. Albeit at a price i could never comprehend.

After Tony of Coherent visited, i was left in no uncertain terms that my Neurochrome pre was holding my system back. Hard to admit, harder to rectify i thought.

firebottle read my bakeoff thread and suggested we bung a linear power supply into the Neurochrome Preamp (NP) and see what happens. Knowing that Tom Christianen is probably best placed to decide what goes into his preamp (Meanwell SMPS) i really wasn't in any kind of hurry to try this out. After all, if he didnt know how to power it best, who does?!

Anyway, i trundled over to LAans today with the NP and the 686, mainly to see whether his Dual Mono 286 was in fact better for the recent surgery it had recieved. Turns out it was. In a comparison with the 686, it did seem to spread out a wider stereo image. Wide enough to splurge on a similar surgery to my own 686? I wasn't sure. I mean, thats likely to be over £150 and in all truth, we coudnt use the same pre for the comparison as the cabling needs prevented it.

We decided to throw the LPSU in the NP and see what happened.

At Alans, i felt it maybe sounded a wee bit more rounded and textured but i wasn't 100%.

I took it home feeling a little "meh"

"Ok, it's better" i thought, but i wasn't sure how much.

After leaving my system in the listening room for an hour, i decided to put everything back in and have a listen in my own system. Well F#ck me, i didnt expect what happened when i listened to the first track.

Hans Theesink & Terry Evans - Down In Mississippi

Upon the first foot stomp, i sat up and took notice. "As far back, as i can remember" flew out of Terry's mouth with such feeling, that the hairs stood up on end all over my body. Everywhere. Then the whispering of Hans crept out of nowhere.....it was haunting and suspended in the air, like he had just pushed his face through the middle of the gap in my speakers and disappeared back again.

The guitar sounds so vivid and the decay to the slide just seemed to keep going and going into a darkness that exists somewhere in the rear of the soundstage.

I thought this must be a fluke. You know, a good recording that just happens to sound good etc.

I threw on Aldous Harding - Swell does the Skull.

I must admit to not liking this song all that much. I only downloaded it to have some familiar material for jimbo when he visited last. I listened and it began to become clear as to why he likes it so much. I bacame rather entranced by her voice.

Track after track just flowed by and bfore i knew it, it was 20:00 and the kids were gonna be off to bed. I hadn't noticed the time. 4 hours had passed from when i played the first track. I havent eaten, had anything to drink or even got up from my seating position. I have sat here completely lost in what i have been hearing.

The big thing i noticed was the fluidity. Everything has a pooling semsation. Like i could "get in" to it. Totally mad but i don't know how else to describe it.

Secondly, the ambience of the recordings is just magnified and seems to have more room to breathe. Ok, it hasnt quite hit the heights of the Coherent effort but it's not doing the same things that was.

Anyway, whatever it is doing, i can only say that i will be replacing all SMPS's in everything i own.

I am having withdrawal already.

It's certainly worth the effort and the 686 will be getting something done too.