Snoopdog
20-06-2010, 17:33
As reported yesterday in Analogue Art, I made a trip to Brentford and swapped my PS.30RDT for a brand new production sample of James' new creation, the PS.30RDT Special Edition phono stage first unveiled at the Heathrow Hi Fi Show back in April.
When I laid eyes on the 'SE' in black with white and red legends in the Whest Audio room at Heathrow, I covetted it deeply!
A chat with James at the show revealed that, as a result of 3 years R&D, he had come up with a new, fully discrete bipolar transistor input stage capable of noise levels as low as the very best opamps in the world. The 'SE' starts life as a PS.30RDT but ClarityCaps capacitors are used together with updated RIAA filter capacitors, a reworked power supply section and of course the new DBPM (discrete bipolar module).
James was pretty excited about his claims for an increase in audio resolution, broadband signal power, soundstage and realism.
He explained that the new DBPM has the ability to handle ultra low output cartridges with ease with no input transformers. The ability to be free of input transformers means the tiny and delicate signal from a moving coil cartridge does not have to 'drive' metres of coil wire which degrades the signal adding unwanted harmonics to the final output. With the 'SE' edition of the PS.30RDT, the signal is now amplified instantly in the DBPM. Because the signal is amplified instantly, the conversion process to the RIAA filter happens alot sooner and faster. The signal path has been 'trimmed' in the 'SE' to maximise the benefits of the DBPM.
When I collected my phono stage yesterday, I had an interesting discussion with James about UK production and was pleased to see that he is a great believer in sourcing his casework from a British supplier. The latest 'SE' casework sports an access panel underneath the unit to facilitate easy changes of the load and gain dip switches. A big improvement on the removal of the nine screws in the top panel on the earlier model!
Some will say, why not just mount the dip switches externally? but James insists that there are sonic benefits to keeping the dip switches internally on the circuit board.
Anyway, enough waffle, so here are sme pictures:)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/003-1-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/004-4-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/005-3-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/006-2-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/011-1.jpg
During my visit, I admired James' heavy brass TT Weights record puck and when I said that I hadn't tried one on my Raven turntable, James presented me with a complimentary alluminium TT Weights 375g puck:)
Here it is on the Raven
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/017-2-1.jpg
How does the new phono stage sound?
Well, cold out of the box, the sound was very impressive. 27 hours later, it is bedding in nicely and I have been playing LP after LP (I had forgotten what a great album Simple Minds 'Street Fighting Years' is!).
Initial impressions are of a great solidity to the image with instruments clearly presented in space with stunning depth and breadth.
This phono stage really rocks and there is a propulsive quality to the sound allied to great delicacy and detail retrieval.
So far, I am very impressed at the overall improvement from the standard PS.30RDT and it does exactly what it says on the tin:)
When I laid eyes on the 'SE' in black with white and red legends in the Whest Audio room at Heathrow, I covetted it deeply!
A chat with James at the show revealed that, as a result of 3 years R&D, he had come up with a new, fully discrete bipolar transistor input stage capable of noise levels as low as the very best opamps in the world. The 'SE' starts life as a PS.30RDT but ClarityCaps capacitors are used together with updated RIAA filter capacitors, a reworked power supply section and of course the new DBPM (discrete bipolar module).
James was pretty excited about his claims for an increase in audio resolution, broadband signal power, soundstage and realism.
He explained that the new DBPM has the ability to handle ultra low output cartridges with ease with no input transformers. The ability to be free of input transformers means the tiny and delicate signal from a moving coil cartridge does not have to 'drive' metres of coil wire which degrades the signal adding unwanted harmonics to the final output. With the 'SE' edition of the PS.30RDT, the signal is now amplified instantly in the DBPM. Because the signal is amplified instantly, the conversion process to the RIAA filter happens alot sooner and faster. The signal path has been 'trimmed' in the 'SE' to maximise the benefits of the DBPM.
When I collected my phono stage yesterday, I had an interesting discussion with James about UK production and was pleased to see that he is a great believer in sourcing his casework from a British supplier. The latest 'SE' casework sports an access panel underneath the unit to facilitate easy changes of the load and gain dip switches. A big improvement on the removal of the nine screws in the top panel on the earlier model!
Some will say, why not just mount the dip switches externally? but James insists that there are sonic benefits to keeping the dip switches internally on the circuit board.
Anyway, enough waffle, so here are sme pictures:)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/003-1-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/004-4-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/005-3-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/006-2-1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/011-1.jpg
During my visit, I admired James' heavy brass TT Weights record puck and when I said that I hadn't tried one on my Raven turntable, James presented me with a complimentary alluminium TT Weights 375g puck:)
Here it is on the Raven
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/crystalref/017-2-1.jpg
How does the new phono stage sound?
Well, cold out of the box, the sound was very impressive. 27 hours later, it is bedding in nicely and I have been playing LP after LP (I had forgotten what a great album Simple Minds 'Street Fighting Years' is!).
Initial impressions are of a great solidity to the image with instruments clearly presented in space with stunning depth and breadth.
This phono stage really rocks and there is a propulsive quality to the sound allied to great delicacy and detail retrieval.
So far, I am very impressed at the overall improvement from the standard PS.30RDT and it does exactly what it says on the tin:)