Location: KY - Scotland
Posts: 5,470
I'm Mike.
"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!
Actually, in this case, its not!
I was gobsmacked to see that I only had to pay £35!!! I've thrown the docket away with the breakdown, but that included the usual £12 'handling' fee. I was expecting the full VAT plus import duty monty from customs.
I must have paid three times that for a vintage Fidelity Research cartridge I just bought from Japan for about £200.
"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!
To be frank, I can't really with any great precision.
For a start I think the Valab needs a good few hours on it before you can really assess it. I've also changed carts over, and even worse I've not really had my new TT for very long so that's probably yet to be fully optimised. And then you have to find the sweet spot between the various load and gain settings you can adjust. By which time you then have to try to drag an impression out of your aural memory as to what your records sounded like over a month ago through the Vida...
However, I can offer some hope in that I'm fully enjoying listening to it now, whatever the differences may be.
Am I expecting it to giant slay either the Vida or Paradise? Nope not really, just come close enough so that I don't regret selling my Vida. Its a bit of a stop gap as my intended preamp set up is via a Pioneer H-Z1 MC head amp (which I have) into a Pioneer C-Z1 preamp (which I'm looking for).
Once I think the Valab has settled in I'll also have a play with plugging the H-Z1 into the Valab and setting that for MM 47k output.
"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!
Just to put the spanner in the works I have just bought a Lounge Audio LCR Mk3, they are about $300 in the states.
However as supplied they are very flawed, as seen here https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...hono-amp.7244/
There are some very weird design choices in the component selection and subsequent need for 'pre-equalisation'
With 4 simple changes to the circuit it is now punching way above its $300 price tag.
I will get others to hear it and see how they rate it soon.
Alan once the Valab has burned in I can pop it up to you for a quick shoot out with the Lounge to see what you think.
Hi Alan.
What were your impressions of the Lounge Audio before you modified it?