Ultrafide U500DC power amplifier - Croft Vitale )highly modified) - TRIO L-07D Turntable - Denon DL103C1 - Funk Firm Houdini - Lentek MC head amp - 15" Tannoy Monitor Gold Loudspeakers in Lockwood Major cabinets (From Trident Studios) - Tannoyista SPEC 3 Custom Crossovers - VanDamme Black Speaker Cable
Tannoyista.com - Audio Equipment Reviews
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
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Location: London
Posts: 12
I'm Paul.
Hi,
2 - 1/2 years later...... I'm thinking of following in your footsteps; I also have a Black Beauty (bb) installed in a Croft preamp. I understand I would gain more transparency, separation and space with a stepped attenuator (SA) instead of the bb. Is the Khozmo still holding up ? Does anyone have a sense of how differently the DACT or even TKD device would present music relative to the Khozmo ? Using a fast and open Decca cartridge on a good tonearm, silver bypasses on the phono stage's Duelund copper caps and fast single driver horns that give air and space aplenty, its hard to imagine just how much more transparency would come through with an SA. Perhaps I'd appreciate the difference on larger scale notionally more congested orchestral material. Concerned that the SA would thin out the sound too much, on the lean tending horns, though they're great now with the BB. Any thoughts much appreciated. Thank you.
Last edited by Paul4972; 05-11-2016 at 21:55.
I checked out the Khozmo website and that stepped attenuator certainly looks well-made and not terribly expensive. However, can someone explain exactly what a "shunt" attenuator is? I think I already know but I'd like it spelled out for me if possible.
Andrew, a shunt attenuator is one with a fixed series resistor followed by a variable resistance to ground, either by a variable pot, or in the case of a stepped attenuator a selected single resistor to ground.
Location: London
Posts: 313
I'm David.
I use a Khozmo shunt in the prototype of my latest pre design. I've also tried TKD and Tocos pots shunted or otherwise. The Khozmo is the best sounding of all of these and very well made
The very idea of a "shunt" attenuator seems deeply flawed to me. It's a shame the Khozmo doesn't come as a more conventional design because it does look nicely made.
It can sound very good though, and make a cheap pot sound much better too.
“Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”
Hunter S Thompson
Quite. It's probably not an issue though if using low output impedance sources and has some cost benefits in such cases. The issue with shunt type stepped attenuators is that there's always going to be a conflict between keeping the input to output series resistance as high as possible to maintain a sensible load impedance, especially for higher output impedance sources, with the requirement to pass most if not all of the signal for higher volume settings. Ladder-types or series types would make more sense for valve sources.
You're right though, they do look well made and Arek Kallas, the chap that makes them, is a really nice guy too.
Good article here-
http://www.world-designs.co.uk/forum...ead.php?t=5795
“Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”
Hunter S Thompson