Little shoot out of phono pres coming

[Hartge7]

I've got a couple lads dropping by to hear the differences. We are going to be using the Heed Quasar, a Nelson Pass kit built phono preamp and I'll throw in a Crown DL-2 phono module either A or B as needed for the cartridge and a Musical Fidelity AC-1 that no one knows along with a preamp phono stage.

The AC-1 is the only that does not put out line stage levels so that is why it will be with a phono stage in a preamp.

I had hoped to add the Musical Surroundings Phenomena to the list but the owner can't make it.

I did a bit of testing with the Heed, the AC-1 and an MCA-76 a while ago but the gain differences were significant. Tomorrow's testing will be more volume controlled as all have similar output levels. The Heed and Nelson Pass are adjustable for different types of cartridges, capacitance and gain generally. The AC-1 has only loading adjustment and is for moving coil cartridges.

I'm guessing we'll try the Dynavector 23R and possibly the Koetsu Black for the low output moving coil cartridges and either the Adcom XC-LT (SAE 1000 LT) or the Audio Technica AT-15Sa for the moving magnet output level comparison.

We'll see what happens.

[Tarzan]

:popcorn:

[Hartge7]

Well the boyz stopped by.

Tom brought the Phenomena that he uses with his PL-41a and a Denon MC cartridge. Someone told him "you have a big heavy arm, you need a cartridge that works well with it, get a Denon." He did and enjoys the combination.

Mark brought over the Nelson Pass Pearl 2 kit he built. He uses the SAE 1000 and other cartridges on his Pioneer and Mitsubishi linear tracking tables.

Mike brought over his Heed Quasar that is used with and SAE 1000 and Ortofon MC-10 Super on a Thorens TD-125/SME 3009 S2 Improved.

I had the Crown DL-2 "B" set up. The rest of the system for that part of the day was the Audio Research SP-9, Mirage BPS-150i subwoofer, McCormack DNA-1 amplifier and Magneplanar MG-IIIa speakers. The Turntable was a TD-160 Super with a Magnepan Unitrac-I tonearm and a Dynavector 23R. We did not change cartridges to make these phono pres work harder as we only had a few hours.

Mike played some of the jazz he likes, very natural sound. Not large groups as his speakers at home Salk HT-2s get a little too busy with large groups of musicians. We played each of the phono preamps all providing line level output into an available line level input on the SP-9. I did the swapping and let the rest do the listening.

The Heed, Phenomena and Crown all sounded good enough so that each owner would be happy with the unit up to a point. And that point is the opportunity to listen to the Pearl 2. This unit had Mike, who is new to vinyl, evaluating the opportunity to try a Pearl 2. I will say his Heed is very versatile with the MC/MM as well as loading and gain jumpers to be used to make it preform the best. Another listener and I did evaluate the Heed previously and it was not as good as the Crown for that test and I believe it is still the case.

The Pearl was a cleaner presentation. I need to talk to the participants to get their thoughts on the differences of these units to get more information but there are those that were curious about the Pearl. The kit is two boards about 5 x 9 inches one for each channel and a set of matched J-FETs for the build for $200 and then the builder can add the chassis, power supplies and other components to populate the board. It appears the Pearl was at its limit of gain (55db) with this low output moving coil, (0.4mV). I might consider a nice kit build but I need closer to 70db gain as I have cartridges of 0.07, 0.4 and 0.6 mV output.

I'll follow up when I find out more about what others thought.

[Hartge7]

Well I have talked to Mike about his impressions and what he heard from the other participants.

Since we only used the Dynavector 23R and did not set up each phono stage for the cartridge exactly but did use the settings of 100Ω and appropriate gain if easily selected.

The Crown DL-2 Phono Module "B" is not adjustable except for gain, 50-70dB to line input. This unit was the winner of a different listening session but I don't recall which cartridge we used. Ortofon MC30 I think. But in this 4-way test the Crown had a thinner sound and was also the most neutral. Recall we were using the ARC SP-9 II which is a hybrid preamp that we have previously determined to be the most neutral of my preamps. It does not embellish the sound at all. So the Crown would benefit from use with a nice tube preamp. Fine I have a wonderful SP-3A to use it with.

The Heed was set for MC, 100Ω and 600µV input which I later changed to 200µV input. We used the low output as recommended by Heed for the best sound. This unit had tight, deep bass response but had a hard edge to the sound. On the neutral cool or warm sound, this one was on the cooler side. The mids were not quite as good as the rest of the spectrum.

The Musical Surroundings Phenomena was set up for a Denon LOMC and we did not change any settings. This meant the loading was about 278Ω according to the owner of the unit. Although there were dip switches that could be changed, the manual with the information was buried under a few pints so we did not worry about that adjustment. The sound of this unit had a fuzzy edge to it. The bass was not to the level of the Heed and the cymbals had a splashy sound, tinny not brass, to them. The sound was more to the warm side and the high end was better than the Heed. This gave the unit a benefit in the female vocals with the cleaner warmth.

The Pearl 2 was adjusted using the 100Ω resistor I have for another phono preamp. This unit was less edgy, more analog sounding and had a bit of a tube sound compared to the others. The voices, Nora Jones in this case, were the best of the group and as expected it was on the warmer side. The advantages of this unit were acknowledge by most and may get one of them to make the change.

Overall, this was a good listening introduction to these 4 units in one system. Obviously, different gear will have an effect on each of them, but they all saw a line input to the SP-9 and for the ones I own, I can fine tune their perceived performance with a choice of preamplifier. I know my Bottlehead Foreplay is a clean sweet sounding unit that may well match up to the Crown very well.

Further testing will be done as the Heed comes back for a visit and its owner will want to hear it on some other gear. His regular preamp is a Response Audio Purity One, something very similar to a Bottlehead in execution.

With any further comparisons, fewer preamps and more cartridges, better optimization between the cartridge and preamp and matching sound qualities to the rest of the components can be considered. But this was a good start for those that participated.

[DSJR]

Thanks for the info. Any piccies available?

Interesting that the Crown basically did well. The matched transistor (no op-amps in this one) stage in my IC-150 ain't too bad either and with the gain set carefully to half way, there's no noise or overload issue either. The Pearl is very interesting though. Any chance of giving this numpty some more info on it please?

[Hartge7]

I forgot to pull out the camera and take pictures but the Phenomena, Crown and Heed all look like pics on the web. The Pearl 2 was built and installed in selected project boxes. I'll try to pick out some photos and get a pic or two of the set up even though I have basically pulled the system apart to clean that room and set up more gear. Like my handle upper right says, I'm swapping gear.

Keith

[Aerobat]

Thanks for the info. Any piccies available?

Interesting that the Crown basically did well. The matched transistor (no op-amps in this one) stage in my IC-150 ain't too bad either and with the gain set carefully to half way, there's no noise or overload issue either. The Pearl is very interesting though. Any chance of giving this numpty some more info on it please?

Hi, I'm the builder/owner of the Pearl 2. The boards and matched JFets can be purchased here: http://passdiy.com/store.htm

Here are some photos - I don't seem to have the ability to use the add photo button. Naturally, I highly recommend this phono pre if you're into DIY at all.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/370002/Pearl%202%20001%20(1024x576).jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/370002/Pearl%202%20002%20(1024x576).jpg