Paradise phon stage - your oppinion

[mac72]

Hi
Looking for some feedback on Paradise phono stage (Diyaudio) ,
First of all anyone in Essex with one so I could hear it myself ?
Owners, please share your findings , what did you compare it with , most of all I'm interested in Paradise vs. MM/Sut comparisons .
Many thanks
Slav

[martinjohn308]

I've had a Paradise phono stage made for me by Simon Clark, I've owned it for 18 months. I've had several phono stages prior to that from the "K" boards in my 32.5 to Graham Slee Fanfare and finally the Whest Audio 30 R.

The 30R was a good phono stage quiet in operation very detailed but I found very cold in reproduction. When I got the Paradise Simon had already made about a dozen before and had finally settled on components especially transformers for the power supplies. My unit was no 14 which I received from him in June 2015. Simon's built quality is superb, the draw back you'll have at the moment is that the printed circuit boards are in short supply plus the Naim shoe boxes he was using are no longer available. Having said that I think Mark was talking about making the boxes in acrylic so theirs a possibility.

Regarding the Paradise you can only use MC and Simon sent me several values of resistors to play with. The only stumbling block is that it is completely mono so you end up with 4 Naim shoe boxes a la 110.

The plus side is the unit is completely silent it's such a beautiful piece of kit. The separation of instruments and the detail that it retrieves is phenomenal. Vocals are just so right you think the band is sitting in front of you.

Incidentally I think the last price I read for the Paradise from Simon was circa £1500.

I live in the Bexleyheath area near Welling if you would like to hear one you are welcome.

Regards,

Martin

[Macca]

Not an owner but have heard one and it was exceptionally good.

[mac72]

I've had a Paradise phono stage made for me by Simon Clark, I've owned it for 18 months. I've had several phono stages prior to that from the "K" boards in my 32.5 to Graham Slee Fanfare and finally the Whest Audio 30 R.

The 30R was a good phono stage quiet in operation very detailed but I found very cold in reproduction. When I got the Paradise Simon had already made about a dozen before and had finally settled on components especially transformers for the power supplies. My unit was no 14 which I received from him in June 2015. Simon's built quality is superb, the draw back you'll have at the moment is that the printed circuit boards are in short supply plus the Naim shoe boxes he was using are no longer available. Having said that I think Mark was talking about making the boxes in acrylic so theirs a possibility.

Regarding the Paradise you can only use MC and Simon sent me several values of resistors to play with. The only stumbling block is that it is completely mono so you end up with 4 Naim shoe boxes a la 110.

The plus side is the unit is completely silent it's such a beautiful piece of kit. The separation of instruments and the detail that it retrieves is phenomenal. Vocals are just so right you think the band is sitting in front of you.

Incidentally I think the last price I read for the Paradise from Simon was circa £1500.

I live in the Bexleyheath area near Welling if you would like to hear one you are welcome.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Martin
Thanks for your post ,
I'm working away next week (N Ireland) once I'm back I'll PM you , maybe one Saturday I could pop in with my Whest Two if you have bit of time.
I can get populated boards , assembled by Simon , I also posted wanted add and contacted Joachim from Diyaudio so fingers crossed .TBH I would rather complete whole thing myself , I fancy bit of soldering/measuring/tweaking:)
What cartridge/loading do you use with Paradise , I would make some loading plugs for my Whest to make fair comparison .
regards
Slav

[mac72]

Anyone compared Paradise against MMstage+SUT ,
I'm trying to decide if I should go for SUT or replace Whest with Paradise ,
certainly Paradise limits future options as is MC only , I do have few spare MM carts in case something bad happens to my Zyx cartridge, on the other hand my MA2275 has built-in phono which isn't that bad .

[Wakefield Turntables]

Best phonostage by a country mile. Whips the Whest stuff into the ground. I've a 4 box verion which hasn't been updated in a year so it's a little behind the times but Simon's build quality is seriously good and the component matching is nothing short of OCD (sorry Simon). I've got some silly expensive bits in mine but then they provide very fine tolerances but it's this attention to detail which sets it apart from kit costing much much more. I really should get mine booked in again for an upgrade.

[martinjohn308]

Hi Slav,

I use 220 ohms loading they're the expensive ones from Hi fi components the Z foil type.

Regards,

Martin

[mac72]

Hi Slav,

I use 220 ohms loading they're the expensive ones from Hi fi components the Z foil type.

Regards,

Martin

This ones?
http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/car_resistors.html

[martinjohn308]

Yes,

Regards,

Martin