The Arkless MC head amp.
I have never written any sort of review for any type of product or service before, therefore I apologise in advance for the lack of structure of these sentences. Nor am I very good at describing exactly what it is which I hear; I simply know what I like. I do though, kind of feel compelled to try and compose something about that which I now have sitting in my system.
Firstly, I'll try and explain how I ended up with this head amp. Like many of you I rely on other peoples opinions and recommendations regarding which kit I buy to try in my system; I don't think I've bought a brand new piece of hifi equipment in over 10 years, hence demonstrating before buying is nigh on impossible. After all my research, I had pretty much decided that a Hashimoto based SUT was the way forward for me. These transformers are heaped in praise on every single post or review I read about them, not only that, the adjectives used match perfectly with my listening tastes. With SUT's decided on, I posted in this forum to see if anyone would kindly loan me something similar before I went ahead and spent a few hundred quid on a couple of transformers, this before trying to stumble my way through wiring diagrams and relearning how to solder so I could install them in a box and use as intended. The kind gent that is paule offered to loan me his extremely well reviewed Choir Audio SUT-H7.
In the meantime I was speaking to Jez by pm regarding his one off MC head amp which he advertised for sale here. He agreed to let me loan the unit to try with the prospective to buy. I got my hands on the Choir Audio unit first and installed it in my system. I was AMAZED. This unit completed (until the next upgrade of course) my vinyl system. I was there. Made it. At last. Everything I had read about the Hashimoto's was perfectly true, 'organic' was a word I often read regarding the noises produced with them in a vinyl system, I now know exactly what was meant by this.
After a short while I felt slightly bad as I knew Jez had already sent out his head amp and there's no way it could compete with this H7 based SUT.
Turns out I was wrong. Jez's head amp is absolutely superb. Firstly the bass is just so impressive, my speakers surprised me at the depth of bass they were now producing. The attack of the bass and the mid range is mightily impressive. My dogs aren't keen mind. Notes stop and start ferociously and the amount of detail retrieved is unreal. With all of the above and more the music presented is just so enjoyable and exciting. I sit, smile and tap my foot. My girlfriend commented that my stereo now sounds more like you're there at the gig. That she has an opinion at all says a lot in itself. I absolutely love this thing! I fully expected to need to try the head amp for a fair amount of time before making my decision but I just didn't need to. It works perfectly well in my sytem and I feel very lucky that I managed to claim it before anyone else snapped it up.
My system is:-
Technics 1210. MN bearing. Timestep PSU. VA platter. Micro Seiki MA-202. AT 33PTG.
Croft 25R
Sugden A21aP
B&W 805N
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Originally Posted by sq225917
