Bouhtou
17-09-2013, 06:56
My music system is only vinyl related. Deck is the Michell Orbe SE with a Jelco arm (it's actually the Sumiko arm that was sold together with the 1993-94 Pro-Ject 6.1 S/A turntable) and a Denon DL-304. Phono stage is hand-made from a local company, one especially built for very low output cartridges. I use a passive preamp to a Rotel RB991 solid state power amp and speakers are 18-year old Audio Spectrum Artemis TLS transmission line (Greek company)
Well this Synday afternoon and after a few months off use I finally took the time to terminate the tonearm wires to a set of Neutrik plugs and connected permanently the Jelco to the phono stage. Music was fine with normal vinyl discs like Year of the cat-Al Stewart, Alan Parson's Project Greatest hits, Kojiki-Kitaro and so on, as I remembered it from the last time I had temporarily connected the arm just for a brief test. It went late in the evening and allthough music was transparent and balanced it lacked deep bass. I thought that vinyl replay was fine but couldn't go that deep and that the usual suspects were the cartridge, the passive pre and the speakers.
Then I remembered that last year I bought myself 3 OST on 180g vinyl that I had never listened to (I'm a soundtrack fan and have around 50-60 albums and these 3 180g on heavy vinyl). The albums are: THE DARK KNIGHT, 300 and GLADIATOR. All heavy vinyl double albums limited editions on 33rpm except the GLADIATOR that is 45rpm.
I brought them in to give a listen...
Well I was on a shock when the 304's needle touched The Dark Knight's side one grooves. Low frequencies were frightening, I just couldn't believe how low it went. Dynamics too were exceptional. The same surprise came with 300. Shame it was too late in the night that I couldn't turn it up...
If you can rent from a friend these albums, even if you don't like that kind of music, you have to give them a listen on your system. You will be surprised.
(Take care of the volume control...)
Well this Synday afternoon and after a few months off use I finally took the time to terminate the tonearm wires to a set of Neutrik plugs and connected permanently the Jelco to the phono stage. Music was fine with normal vinyl discs like Year of the cat-Al Stewart, Alan Parson's Project Greatest hits, Kojiki-Kitaro and so on, as I remembered it from the last time I had temporarily connected the arm just for a brief test. It went late in the evening and allthough music was transparent and balanced it lacked deep bass. I thought that vinyl replay was fine but couldn't go that deep and that the usual suspects were the cartridge, the passive pre and the speakers.
Then I remembered that last year I bought myself 3 OST on 180g vinyl that I had never listened to (I'm a soundtrack fan and have around 50-60 albums and these 3 180g on heavy vinyl). The albums are: THE DARK KNIGHT, 300 and GLADIATOR. All heavy vinyl double albums limited editions on 33rpm except the GLADIATOR that is 45rpm.
I brought them in to give a listen...
Well I was on a shock when the 304's needle touched The Dark Knight's side one grooves. Low frequencies were frightening, I just couldn't believe how low it went. Dynamics too were exceptional. The same surprise came with 300. Shame it was too late in the night that I couldn't turn it up...
If you can rent from a friend these albums, even if you don't like that kind of music, you have to give them a listen on your system. You will be surprised.
(Take care of the volume control...)