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Thread: Rexton's Valve System - Upgrade Blog

  1. #51
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by REXTON View Post
    Another Sunday, another small dose of single malt (Highland Park 12 year old) and another small update. The WBT's have been an instant improvement, very costly but an immediate step up in clarity and better than the silver plated/ copper spades I had bought 2 months ago from HiFi Collective. Stereo imaging with the WBT spades has come along in leaps and bounds. Probably one of my better purchases. It still surprises me that decent cheap speaker cable can sound so good with decent spades. I've been thinking about experimenting with speaker cable core diameter and I managed to find some 7.5mm2 cable at a very cheap £3 per meter, should make for an interesting experiment. I've also been hunting for some Mullard ECC35's and every so often some appear with the brown micanol base.

    Attachment 25781

    These ECC35's are supposed to be the last word in the 6SL7 family but what about these http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/stor...air-or-single/

    Attachment 25782

    I'm still on the hunt for the best sounding 6SL7 for my Croft pre-amp, so the hunt continues. I'm still playing around with ideas for mods to the Sondex and the Croft Epoch but I'm having too much fun messing about with cables, valves, cartridges and all the other stuff associated with a "system". The 301 has been my work horse for many years now and I occasionally look out for a Garrard 401 motor to try out and occasionally a really knackered 401 comes on the market or someone strips a 401 down and sells it off as parts. Again, I'm still waiting, but whilst I wait I think I'm going to plump for new plinth and possibly in the Shindo tradition. I'm probably going to get a slightly modded Layers of beauty cherry jobby which looks like this :-

    Attachment 25783
    I was thinking of having decoupled ebony tonearm boards made as well, possibly sitting under detatched tonearm pod which will be housed in the 301 plinth.
    The 301 also has a lovely new Silver Meister mk 2 SPU which not has about 75 hours on it. I'd say the suspension has bedded down now and it's singing like a good 'un. The SPU's typically last a mighty long time and I'm already thinking of getting a FGS diamond mounted when the time comes for re-tipping.

    Attachment 25784

    Well I think that's about it for tonight, more musings later!
    Pic on Russ's site is of my old one with the Schick arm I had at the time.

  2. #52
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

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    The paradise is now being updated. It's been a while (probably 18 months) since it was last touched. I've decided to have a comprehensive update so here's what's happening

    * Calvin boards getting hard mounted.
    * RCA loading for greater cartridge flexibility
    * Full RCA to PCB silver rewire
    * Calvin boards to now have silver inductor coils.
    * New gold plated MS HD plugs for each unit.
    * New WBT silver RCA's.
    * Loading resistors changed to 0.1% tolerance.
    * New 5% tolerance trim pots

    And a few other odds and sods. The biggest ball ache with all this is waiting for all the various packages to arrive . Then the CROFT at some point will get some attention!
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  3. #53
    Join Date: Sep 2014

    Location: brighton uk.

    Posts: 4,737
    I'm jamie.

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    yep and it will make f-all difference
    My System
    John Wood KT88 Amp.
    Paradise Phono Stage
    Sony TTS-8000 Turntable.
    PMAT-1010 MK6 Tonearm.
    Ortofon Cadenza Bronze
    Sony X555ES Cd Player
    Yamaha NS1000m Speakers

  4. #54
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by karma67 View Post
    yep and it will make f-all difference
    Is yours up to full spec yet? I decided against spending £240 for 12 resistors!!! for the input sections.
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  5. #55
    Join Date: Sep 2014

    Location: brighton uk.

    Posts: 4,737
    I'm jamie.

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    lol you know i was joking, no ive just changed my cartridge and interconnects so im going to get used to them first,it will give me some time to wait till the guys that have fully upgraded their paradise's to leave comment.
    My System
    John Wood KT88 Amp.
    Paradise Phono Stage
    Sony TTS-8000 Turntable.
    PMAT-1010 MK6 Tonearm.
    Ortofon Cadenza Bronze
    Sony X555ES Cd Player
    Yamaha NS1000m Speakers

  6. #56
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by karma67 View Post
    lol you know i was joking, no ive just changed my cartridge and interconnects so im going to get used to them first,it will give me some time to wait till the guys that have fully upgraded their paradise's to leave comment.
    I think mine should be up to full spec, but you always know that there is always something around the corner with respects to upgrading the paradise! I've got snagged a couple of MS audio gold plated plugs to plonk on mine, cost should have been £130, managed to get 2 delivered for <£75. I'm now on the prowl for x4 WBT-0210 Ag Topline RCA's https://www.hificollective.co.uk/pho...e-nextgen.html I seen these go for around £150, I'm in no hurry. I'll probably recycle the audionote RCA's that are installed already and use them for RCA loading sockets. I've already got my silver organised for a complete rewire. The trim pots will cost what they cost, you can't mitigate the cost of these. I have Z-foils in both my RIAA stages so this saves a bit of cash. I think all in it'll be several hundred to get upto spec.
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  7. #57
    Join Date: Sep 2014

    Location: brighton uk.

    Posts: 4,737
    I'm jamie.

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    cool,i think a couple of hundred isn't too bad in the scheme of things
    My System
    John Wood KT88 Amp.
    Paradise Phono Stage
    Sony TTS-8000 Turntable.
    PMAT-1010 MK6 Tonearm.
    Ortofon Cadenza Bronze
    Sony X555ES Cd Player
    Yamaha NS1000m Speakers

  8. #58
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    The Valve System - Part 1 - Infrastructure!

    I thought I'd change the structure of these posts slightly. I've not been spending much on the hifi systems as such, just merely refining what I already have and selling off bits that are excess or superseded. I've been investing heavily in cables, IEC's and plugs. The valve system now has high quality pure copper MS HD Audio plugs, I buy them second hand whenever possible and replace the silver plated, brass pin jobbies that I had previously. Sometimes if I'm lucky I drop on a silver or gold plated plug, recently I've been quite lucky and I've managed to pick three of these plugs up for under £100. My next stop is the IEC's, I have a mish-mash of various pure copper connectors, so tonight I went balls deep and ordered three of the fantastic IeGo 8095 IEC's, I ordered mine from here https://www.kempelektroniksshop.nl/a...ve-silver.html I saved a massive £75 by ordering from Europe, they usually sell for £125 from a hifi seller not too far away from where I live . The Paradise phonostage parts still continue to arrive from various bits of the UK, the USA and Europe! I'm still on the look out for a second hand PS Audio P10 regenerator, they don't come up too often, so I will have to be bide my time, I couldn't believe the difference it made when I experimented early in the year. I think I now need to replace the Belden cabling that currently sits in my power leads, I fancy some silver plated copper and shall be doing my research over the next few days. Well that's about it for tonight!
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  9. #59
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

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    The Valve System - Part 2 - Slumming it & Optimisation.

    My Paradise phonostage is poorly and is in need of upgrades. I sounds fabulous as it is but I think we can get more from her. I'm afraid my phone is at work so we will be picture-less tonight, sorry. I've been looking again at what can be done to improve the valve system and I noticed that their might be a possibility to removed one IEC from the Garrard 301 PSU this is useful as it will save me having to buy one of the Iego pure silver 8905 IEC's. I have never liked IEC's and have always preferred the hard wired route. So, I'm having to listen to my EAR 834P clone whilst I wait for my Paradise, it does sounds very very good when warmed up. The SME 3009 arm that I use is a great little performer, it's easily outperformed and better arm's exist but I think its great. Currently I have a Shure v15 mk 3 sitting on it with VN35MR stylus but I have been extremely tempted to buy one of these from JICO https://www.jico-stylus.com/product_...oducts_id=1688 its basically got a cutting lathe profile so it should sound extremely detailed, it's just one possibility. I also managed to get a new SPU, mainly the Royal N which has the Replicant stylus, I'd always wanted to try one and now it's sitting on my 3012. I mounted the Royal N on my Orsonic headshell and bought some new 5N purity silver leads. I've probably listened to 20 hours of music and can honestly say that the silver plated gold coils are the best I've heard with even more detail than my Silver Meister v2 SPU. I also own the Full Adjust+ system from Dr. Feickhart I intend to dig this system out at some point and get the SME 3009 and 3012 properly set up but like most things it's all a matter of time!

    Finally I think I'll probably do a little work on my Tannoy X-O's whilst the paradise phonostage is away. I've decided to order some new gold plated 4-pin connectors to replace the originals that I currently have and I'll probably rewire the Tannoys in silver and have some new WBT pure silver speaker binding posts. I guess I better get saving up!

    As always stay tuned....
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  10. #60
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    The Valve System - Pt 3 - The Event Horizon.

    The valve system is getting lots of attention and hopefully before Xmas there should be a new deck, turntable and power supply. My Garrard 401 has finally been given a date of completion, which is the first week in December. I shall be going to Martin Bastin's house and picking it up. I have also just managed to source a SME V 12 and it will hopefully be partnered with the 401. My Garrard 301 has a SME3012 which is a fantastic arm but it does have limitation. Firstly I've had to piggy-back a 5-pin adapter onto the wiring loom so that it will accept my Yannis Tome cable and the detachable headshell also mean that you have to carefully set thing up every time you fancy a different cartridge (I suppose this is advantageous as well). The SME V12 will do away from two layers of cabling in the sound path and provide instant alignment at the headshell for the cartridge. Finally, I may buy a new Long Dog audio PSU for the 401 project.

    v12.jpg

    I'll then spend the long December nights listening to Jazz and enjoying a few drams of single malt. The Garrard 301 will be taking a back seat and the 401 should be getting some air play. Currently my 301 is without the 4-Box paradise phonostage but it has been partnered with my EAR 834P clone. Ages ago I sent the 834 to Alan (Firebottle) to be modded so that I could start using loading plugs into the RCA's to improve the performance of my Shure V15 mk 3. They say that the V15 should "see" about 400-500pf at 47K and presently mine is loaded at about 450pf assuming my SME 3009 tonearm lead has about 100pf impedance.

    7.jpg


    All I can say is that the little Shure / SME3009 combo sounds great. I'm really enjoying the sonics. I hope to improve things further by maybe adding a new stylus to the Shure, I was thinking a new Jico neoSAS / Boron cantilever https://www.jico-stylus.com/product/vn35he-sas-b/ but this will have to be after the new year.

    I'd pondered buying an additional PS Audio P10 unit to power my Valve system in a previous post but I realised I could power the valve system via the P10 with some careful cable management. So after a while I managed to bag several Furutech UK plugs http://www.furutech.com/2013/02/02/1880/ and the P10 now looks like this :-


    6.jpg

    I've managed to get the Croft pre, Sondex power and the EAR clone running through the P10. The deck will probably get a Long Dog PSU at some stage which pretty much does everything that my Phoenix Engineering PSU/Tachometer and PS Audio P10 combo do presently. The 301 is sounded pretty good at the moment but I miss my Paradise phono stage . The Sondex amp is currently going through a little valve rolling. I decided to purchase 4 KT88's from the BrimarUK project https://brimaruk.com/ and I can honestly say that the Brimar's sound pretty good against my Genelex Gold Lions, time (and a lot of listening) will tell if the Brimar's are going to usurp the Genelex. I'm hoping to have everything up and running before Xmas.

    As ever stay tuned!
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



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