Whest PS.30RDT 'Special Edition'

[Snoopdog]

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







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



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

[John]

Sounds good Steve and can only get better

[Snoopdog]

Cheers John

Wil report back when I've put some more hours on the clock!

[Marco]

Looking good, Steve! I like what he's done with the dip switches - that makes a lot of sense, as does this:

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.

Of course it does, as it keeps the signal path shorter

However, if you really want to shorten the signal path big time (and improve the sound even further) I'd be tempted to get James to optimise the phono stage for your Orpheus and hard-wire the circuit in that position, thus doing away with the dip switches altogether. Trust me, that'll be even better!

It depends on how many different cartridges you're likely to use. Do have any cartridges other than the Orpheus, and crucially, will you likely be arsed fitting them at any point instead?

If not, I'd be tempted to get James to hard-wire the circuit in the optimised position for the Orpheus. I've heard the effect of this before, Steve, and it's not subtle.

Anyway, that's something to consider for later. At the moment, enjoy yer choons!

Marco.

[John]

Thats a really good thought when I am ready to get a TT I think I will go down a similar path with the phono stage
James is quite reasonable so sure he be up for this Steve

[Marco]

Yep, Tom Evans does it with his 'The Groove' phono stage - it makes sense!

Marco.

[Snoopdog]

Yes. I seem to remember when I had a TEAD Groove that you had to specify a cartridge and it came set up for gain and load matching.

I do like the flexibility of the PS.30RDT. I have been listening at 470 Ohms loading with 65db of gain. 470 Ohms seemed to suit the Orpheus really well on the importer's multi-box Asthetix valve phono stage when we did some listening at his house.

I have today, flipped over to the 220 Ohm setting and I'm liking what it's doing. 100 Ohms is a bit too shut in, albeit the Orpheus has an internal impedance of just 1 Ohm so you would think that a lower value resistor would be the better option.

When I settle on an optimum value for the Orpheus I might have a chat with James about hard wiring the load and gain as you suggested.

The new 'Special Edition' circuit certainly suits the 'lowish' output of the Orpheus L at 0.3mV and noise levels are vanishingly low.

This phono stage has plenty of 'boogie factor' with bags of detail resolution and the front to back depth of the soundstage is astonishing!

Anyway, listening continues and as it's Summer I thought I would post a few shots with the top off





Having removed the lid, I now know why the sound is so transparent and 'airy'.
It's full of the stuff inside

[Marco]

Some nice Clarity Cap SAs in there, Steve! I use those (and the MRs) in the crossovers for my Tannoys. They're one of the best types of capacitors on the market

Marco.

[atap]

I'm jealous

[The Black Adder]

When your done with it... give me a shout!