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Thread: Anyone have a Valab LCR Phono Stage ?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

    Default Anyone have a Valab LCR Phono Stage ?

    Does anyone have a Valab LCR Phono Stage they would be willing to demo or
    possibly send to London for a home demo. Would put a ££ deposit in place and pay for all carriage..

    Appreciated.
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  2. #2
    Bigman80 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    Does anyone have a Valab LCR Phono Stage they would be willing to demo or
    possibly send to London for a home demo. Would put a ££ deposit in place and pay for all carriage..

    Appreciated.
    I heard one today.

    I will be writing up my impressions of it a little later today hopefully.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    I heard one today.

    I will be writing up my impressions of it a little later today hopefully.
    Great look forward to that Oli
    cheers
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Glasgow/Italy

    Posts: 866
    I'm Drew.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    I heard one today.

    I will be writing up my impressions of it a little later today hopefully.
    Which version did you hear Oli? Mine is the latest mk iii

  5. #5
    Bigman80 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by da2222 View Post
    Which version did you hear Oli? Mine is the latest mk iii
    MK2. I'd like to hear the MK3.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Glasgow/Italy

    Posts: 866
    I'm Drew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    MK2. I'd like to hear the MK3.
    What were your impressions Oli?

  7. #7
    Bigman80 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by da2222 View Post
    What were your impressions Oli?
    Of the MK2:

    Full bodied sound but never sounded fat or chunky. Soundstage was nice and wide. Really well balanced, tonally. Good insight into the track.

    I liked it.

    It lost out a on the little things like nuances, but we had the gain set at 68db. We did that to try and make the playing field Equal with my phonostage, except my phonostage now has less gain after a few mods. The Extra gain IMO masked a bit of the finer details and thus imaging suffered a bit. Didn't sound quite as natural as I'm used to but again, if the gain was too high, it wouldn't.

    I think, if we had more time to have got the gain right, the Valab would have offered more of what it already did really well and I think the imaging would improve.

    Our mistake.

    I'd definitely give the Valab another listen as it's certainly in the ballpark of my idea of good. Just needed to sort the setup out. I'm a little annoyed by the fact we got that wrong.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Glasgow/Italy

    Posts: 866
    I'm Drew.

    Default

    Thanks Oli... I have mine set at 65db and have no detail or imaging problems..I'm going to try it at 62db and lower this weekend. Should be interesting...

    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    Of the MK2:

    Full bodied sound but never sounded fat or chunky. Soundstage was nice and wide. Really well balanced, tonally. Good insight into the track.

    I liked it.

    It lost out a on the little things like nuances, but we had the gain set at 68db. We did that to try and make the playing field Equal with my phonostage, except my phonostage now has less gain after a few mods. The Extra gain IMO masked a bit of the finer details and thus imaging suffered a bit. Didn't sound quite as natural as I'm used to but again, if the gain was too high, it wouldn't.

    I think, if we had more time to have got the gain right, the Valab would have offered more of what it already did really well and I think the imaging would improve.

    Our mistake.

    I'd definitely give the Valab another listen as it's certainly in the ballpark of my idea of good. Just needed to sort the setup out. I'm a little annoyed by the fact we got that wrong.

  9. #9
    Bigman80 Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by da2222 View Post
    Thanks Oli... I have mine set at 65db and have no detail or imaging problems..I'm going to try it at 62db and lower this weekend. Should be interesting...
    I'm not saying it has imaging problems, or didn't image well, but it didn't image as well as my incumbent phonostage. Which I suspect was down to us having the gain too high. I only mention it to be completely transparent about it.

    It did paint a good picture in its own right.

    See, when you start comparing gear, it's rare that one unit is better outright than another. There's always an area something does better than something else. The Valab lost out on imaging and naturalism but it had the edge in terms of being fuller sounding.

    I can swap valves and fatten the tone up to match it though, so it isn't an outright win in that respect. However I was impressed with the Valab but I'd need to spend some time with one to really get to know it.

    It did well because id be willing to give it more system time.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Aug 2011

    Location: Midlands

    Posts: 185
    I'm Wayne.

    Default

    I've just bought a Mk3 and after waiting a few weeks it arrived this morning. Set at 62db gain and still playing with impedance as the Fidelity Research cart currently fitted is specced as 10 ohms.

    Most owners report needing a long burn in but we'll see. Certainly the range of adjustment makes it very versatile. Previous Aurorasound Vida owner.


    I'll come back and report on progress once it has a few hours on it.

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