banjoman
25-04-2016, 20:07
After a long stint of being content with my 2M Black - Croft 25R phono pairing, I've had an itch to try different MC phono stages and carts over the last several months.
Been through quite a few phono stages till I tried Jez's (Arkless) excellent hybrid MC phono stage. It was excellent and realised it shared a lot of characteristics with the Croft 25R phono which I love.
I've tried a few SUTs over the years with the Croft and Benz Wood SL - Audio Note S1, Puresound T10, Bob's Devices cinemag - with mixed results. There was always some problem or the other - a hum or sub optimal loading or something else.
Had always assumed that a head amp would be a worse solution than a SUT due to noise issues, but decided to give the Firebottle and Arkless head amp demo units a go.
I am quite pleasantly surprised with the results so far - they are both very good indeed - completely silent and very well balanced, while giving me the right amount of gain with my Benz Wood cart.
Both the Firebottle and Arkless are very close to each other in performance - there's not that much between them.
However, the Firebottle had a 100 ohm loading compared to 270 ohm for the Arkless. I've always found the Benz a bit dull at 100 ohms and typically needed 400/500 ohms at least to liven things up.
The Arkless sounded a bit more dynamic and punchy with better treble extension - which could well be due to the loading or something else...
It also had a tad more gain than the Firebottle.
The Firebottle was well balanced even at the fixed 100 ohm load which is know is not ideal for the Benz - unfortunately the demo units did not allow variable loadings to experiment with.
Overall, I am well impressed with both head amps, and in my system, I did prefer the Arkless by a small margin.
I'd imagine with higher loading options, both would sound better with the Benz
For the £150 price point, they are both excellent options and I'd imagine the higher end £300 Arkless head amp option would be excellent.
Strongly recommend anyone considering MC head amps to give em a go
Been through quite a few phono stages till I tried Jez's (Arkless) excellent hybrid MC phono stage. It was excellent and realised it shared a lot of characteristics with the Croft 25R phono which I love.
I've tried a few SUTs over the years with the Croft and Benz Wood SL - Audio Note S1, Puresound T10, Bob's Devices cinemag - with mixed results. There was always some problem or the other - a hum or sub optimal loading or something else.
Had always assumed that a head amp would be a worse solution than a SUT due to noise issues, but decided to give the Firebottle and Arkless head amp demo units a go.
I am quite pleasantly surprised with the results so far - they are both very good indeed - completely silent and very well balanced, while giving me the right amount of gain with my Benz Wood cart.
Both the Firebottle and Arkless are very close to each other in performance - there's not that much between them.
However, the Firebottle had a 100 ohm loading compared to 270 ohm for the Arkless. I've always found the Benz a bit dull at 100 ohms and typically needed 400/500 ohms at least to liven things up.
The Arkless sounded a bit more dynamic and punchy with better treble extension - which could well be due to the loading or something else...
It also had a tad more gain than the Firebottle.
The Firebottle was well balanced even at the fixed 100 ohm load which is know is not ideal for the Benz - unfortunately the demo units did not allow variable loadings to experiment with.
Overall, I am well impressed with both head amps, and in my system, I did prefer the Arkless by a small margin.
I'd imagine with higher loading options, both would sound better with the Benz
For the £150 price point, they are both excellent options and I'd imagine the higher end £300 Arkless head amp option would be excellent.
Strongly recommend anyone considering MC head amps to give em a go