SP-10 vs SL-1210 round II

[Magna Audio]

First posted on the Wam but here also for AOS'ers.

Having been round Mr Coco's a while ago with me pimped SL-1210 and AT 33 PTG see http://www.hifiwigwam.com/view_topic...217&forum_id=1

It was time for a re-match again, my having acquired a Ortofon SPU Royal N to put up against the mighty IO.

Firstly Mr Coco had some car troubles - immobiliser gone duff, not allowing the Audi T to run for more than 3 secs at a time...
A quick tow behind my trusty 1.9TDI tow car saw it off a double yellow and onto safe permit parking.

We returned for the evenings hifi and beer - most of which found it's way down our necks:P ;-)

First up the SP-10. Same front end as last time. This time the power amp's were the 308B 35kg in weight each, (£2.5K parts only), mono's that Coco had built for a fellow audiophile.

I am now well familiar with the sound of this front end and the Golds GRF's.

So how did the 308B PP's sound? Well to start with a little polite and restrained to be honest. Not much ummph or get up and go really.
They had not had much burn in time up to this point (yeah - do we believe in that or not?) - well in this case I think we have to, cos the longer we listened to them the more authoritative and in control and darn right lovely they sounded.
Even after several hrs they run cool - much cooler than the SoH KT88 PP I use that could heat a small abode on its own quite easily. Perhaps its surface area - the 308 have a large copper top plate a bit like a beautifully cluttered aircraft carrier deck in size, clutter in the form of lots of nice iron work and tubes all aglow.

So after thoroughly warmed up and probably as much time on them in that evening as they had seen thus far in total things were sounding very fine indeed.

Discs played

- Blues for a Fisherman- by Milcho Leviev recorded at Ronnie Scots
- Tori Amos - Boys for Pele (any redhead who looks that hot holding a hunting rifle is all right with me).
- Heather Nova - Storm (More sensual music hotness).
- The old favourite Armstrong and Ellington - Together. Man that stick and horns sound good.
- A bit of Dylan, acoustic Cash, Jan Johansson (Polska - what else;-) ) and a splash of Nora too.

Ok over the the SL-1210 / SPU.
The Spu gives a very appealing and ever so slightly jazz specialised focus. Man was it born to play jazz!
It just rounds off some the oh so accurateness edges of the IO on the instruments and vocals and make them so compelling and easy/right to listen to.
Th IO has a slightly higher ceiling in some ways - you don't notice that on jazz or close mic'd / acoustic stuff but do on more complex stuff. The Spu has more bass depth we thought.
Pete was saying things like "I will have to get one of these one day", "a 2nd arm perhaps?" :-) etc etc.
You will remember that it was Pete's recommendation that 'forced' me to buy a SPU Royal N in the first place.

So all in all a very good evening and the winner was
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the music.
No, the beer! No the tea! no, def the music!!!

So decks and carts. Its horses for courses really - I am very happy with where my set is right now for the music I listen to it and what I want out of it - it is very very good indeed.

I wonder what the SPU would sound like in that SP-10 with the SME V12 all massed up - it should surely be better right?

Anyway, returning the deck to home and listening earlier this evening I find my GRF speakers slightly cleaner / tigher than Pete's - could be the cab construction playing in (21 / 24mm birch ply, and/or room acoustics. I fancy the SoH is slightly cleaner sounding then the 308 too. Silicon power reg perhaps? Or more running in time needed or Western Elec tubes it will soon get.

Lastly here's a couple of mood shots from Pete's Canon 'arty' lens, this time of the mighty SPU.





Thanks for another great evening Pete.

[chris@panteg]

Hi Steve

Excellent stuff ' are you thinking of getting the Mike new bearing , i suspect you may forget about an SP10 , or even Dave's bearing if money's tight .

[DSJR]

What's the arm? Looks like a Rega R200 to me - got it once I read the sig at bottom....

I can tell you straight off that the SPU is WRONG!!!!! The extra bass shouldn't be there and it adds a nice radiogram "tone" to all it carves up as it plays - the records aren't cut that way with all this bass and this ghastly old relic is only made still because far eastern clients with more money than sensibilities still want it 'cos it's old!!! The tracking of many of them is marginal as well. Why do you think ortofon replaced it with the SL15e series - far more charm and an ease I never heard in the SPU.... Ortofon can make a mint on these SPU's and they obviously do

Trust me on this, the 33PTG is in a different and far higher plane of reproduction, even if it doesn't add much extra "charm" to what's actually there on the record (and most LP's were cut with no deep bass to prevent granny's old groove-grinder needle jumping and remaining bass is mono'd)

If I had the money, I'd love an SP10 in a decent plinth, although the NAS Dias may well be better for top quality domestic use. never having compared them it's purely a gut feeling on my part....


P.S. if either of you are still reading this (oops), is Mr Coco the chap who had some huge Tannoy Pro Monitors with DC main unit PLUS an extra 15" bass driver in DMT style grey cabs?????

[Rare Bird]

What's the arm? Looks like a Rega R200 to me

Don't blame him, better than the RB250/300 shite

[DSJR]

I own an R200 and love it to bits..

The RB300 was never intended to be a top-flight arm, it's just that it CAN sound so good, but not on a techie, or really an LP12 to be honest. It sounds really excellent on a Spacedeck though and the collet fitting allows easy height adjustment... and that's with standard arm cables..

[Magna Audio]

What's the arm? Looks like a Rega R200 to me - got it once I read the sig at bottom....

I can tell you straight off that the SPU is WRONG!!!!! The extra bass shouldn't be there and it adds a nice radiogram "tone" to all it carves up as it plays - the records aren't cut that way with all this bass and this ghastly old relic is only made still because far eastern clients with more money than sensibilities still want it 'cos it's old!!! The tracking of many of them is marginal as well. Why do you think ortofon replaced it with the SL15e series - far more charm and an ease I never heard in the SPU.... Ortofon can make a mint on these SPU's and they obviously do

Trust me on this, the 33PTG is in a different and far higher plane of reproduction, even if it doesn't add much extra "charm" to what's actually there on the record (and most LP's were cut with no deep bass to prevent granny's old groove-grinder needle jumping and remaining bass is mono'd)

If I had the money, I'd love an SP10 in a decent plinth, although the NAS Dias may well be better for top quality domestic use. never having compared them it's purely a gut feeling on my part....


P.S. if either of you are still reading this (oops), is Mr Coco the chap who had some huge Tannoy Pro Monitors with DC main unit PLUS an extra 15" bass driver in DMT style grey cabs?????

I trust my ears not your blah blah blah
The 33 PTG is coarse in its reproduction compared to the SPU Royal N.
No huge Tannoy Pro monitors for Mr Coco..

[Magna Audio]

Hi Steve

Excellent stuff ' are you thinking of getting the Mike new bearing , i suspect you may forget about an SP10 , or even Dave's bearing if money's tight .

Well maybe...
TBH the thing sounds so good as it is even against a SP-10 / SMEV12 / IO (the expensive electromag one BTW).
I have other more pressing projects like an LCR valve phono stage...

[DSJR]

I trust my ears not your blah blah blah
The 33 PTG is coarse in its reproduction compared to the SPU Royal N.
No huge Tannoy Pro monitors for Mr Coco..

You're wrong sir and I have my hearing experience and memories of real recordings vs the discs made from them as proof, so there

The 33PTG isn't coarse, it's the SPU over-smoothing the signal and bloating up the bass. Sort your speakers out and then you may agree

Bet you have the TANNOY 3KHz quack with the tweets going off like mad at 9KHz which ALL the HPD's did. I have some pretty response graphs with resonant squiggles of HPD's starting at 9K and going up beyond 20Khz, so bad was the pepperpot by this time and the crossover driving it.............

You'll disagree with me now, but lets see what a few more years of listening will do to your tastes

[Magna Audio]

You're wrong sir and I have my hearing experience and memories of real recordings vs the discs made from them as proof, so there

The 33PTG isn't coarse, it's the SPU over-smoothing the signal and bloating up the bass. Sort your speakers out and then you may agree

Bet you have the TANNOY 3KHz quack with the tweets going off like mad at 9KHz which ALL the HPD's did. I have some pretty response graphs with resonant squiggles of HPD's starting at 9K and going up beyond 20Khz, so bad was the pepperpot by this time and the crossover driving it.............

You'll disagree with me now, but lets see what a few more years of listening will do to your tastes

er were were using Golds on the evening...
I'll just put you down as rather rude and misinformed. You'll be telling how I like my food prepared or which car I should drive next - tut tut

[Marco]

Hi Dave,

No disrespect mate, but I think you're quite off-beam here with regard to Steve's SPU.

I don't have to time to comment fully at the moment, but will return later to add my thoughts

Marco.