Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[Spectral Morn]

Yeah, that's fine. Thanks Dave.




Thanks Neil - I do like it a lot. Currently using it via the tape inputs to bypass some of the switchery, and that has focussed the sound up quite nicely. Using the Chord amp's pre-outs at the moment but as soon as I can get round to it I plan to try my Eva2 LDR passive pre.

I've some 83dB/W sensitivity speakers on order, it'll be interesting to see how well the AI drives them. I'm not a headbanger like some folks here and a lot of my listening is to small scale classical, so it might just work!

I'm planning to try a bit of input tube rolling - it started out chez Jerry with a solid line of Mullards (2 ecc88 and 3 ecc83) - I've now swapped out the Mullard ecc83 for a couple of Watford TADs and a Telefunken - the sound was a bit too warm for me with the Mullards - I got on to the Watford site to order a triplet of cryo-ed TAD 12AX7 only to find that I was 5 hours late and they were now on hols til the 23rd Feb!

Waste of time Jerry. The Pre section in the AI 500 is passive. Only the middle ECC83 is a driver, all the other valves are part of the phono stage(worth doing if you are using the phono stage). Your using it through the tape inputs with a better pre proves my point about it being veiled, the pre bit is the weakest element. Better internal cabling (at the time Audio Note Silver was a common option), much better volume pot and source selectors was the only way to improve the pre section. Triode coupling was also popular if you had very sensitive speakers...I myself was not in favour of this...however many did it and loved it. I needed the 25 watts at the time.

I think it will struggle a bit with 83 db speakers...but with all things give it ago.


Regards D S D L

[jandl100]

Ah, OK - thanks Neil - that'll save me a penny or two.... although I do rather like the onboard phonostage ... with a pair of Partridge transformers it sounds rather good with my Orty Rondo Bronze.

And yes, I kind of expect to sell it on once I get my new speakers, but as you say, you never can quite tell until you try it!

[alfie2902]

Do you want to roll those Mullards my way Jerry

[jandl100]

Do you want to roll those Mullards my way Jerry

EDIT: Changed my mind! - Sorry Alfie, but I do expect to be selling the AI500 on in a couple of months time, so it would be nice to have a full set of Mullards to include!

[pure sound]

The very early 500''s were poorly wired up but they did have the very good Hinchley Mains & Output transformers in them (with 4, 8 & 16 ohms) Hinchley used to make the transformers for Leak amongst others., They were eventually taken over by Tamura and then stopped making audio transformers so other suppliers had to be found. The build quality gradually improved but took a leap forwards when production was moved down to Weymouth. Ventilation & layout were sorted. Whenever older 500's came in for repair to Weymouth, they'd be fully stripped & re-built just keeping the original transformers at no cost to the customer and usually without the customer knowing. That was just so they wouldn't come back again. I suspect that the huge majority of 500's still going now will probably have had a re-build. the problem was the EL34's being run at full tilt and many varieties of EL34 not being able to withstand that. They'd lock up, draw excessive current & take out the associated cathode resistor & bypass caps. That would include Mullards too. AI realised early on that none of the Chinese EL34's would last long so never fitted them. The Sovtek ones were the most robust and also sounded good. 5881's always had a slightly richer fruitier sound in a 500 which could be too much of a good thing with some speakers.

Funnily enough Leak had a similar problem with the Stereo 20 to begin with when they were trying to run EL84's at full dissipation. Eventually they had to re-design the OPT's and turn it all down a notch.

Amused by DSJR's Snell comments. Certainly if you attached Snells to the kind of electronics he used to sell they'd soon tell you about rough hf performance. But Snells could sound perfectly sweet on the end of good electronics.

[Marco]

Hi Jerry,

Ah, OK - thanks Neil - that'll save me a penny or two.... although I do rather like the onboard phonostage ... with a pair of Partridge transformers it sounds rather good with my Orty Rondo Bronze.

What's up with the Denon - have you fallen out with it already?

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

The very early 500''s were poorly wired up...........

Thanks a lot for clearing that up - sanity restored!
I've heard that Leak story too and I've heard Snells sounding equally angelic and devellish depending on what they've been hung on the end of.

[Spectral Morn]

Ah, OK - thanks Neil - that'll save me a penny or two.... although I do rather like the onboard phonostage ... with a pair of Partridge transformers it sounds rather good with my Orty Rondo Bronze.

And yes, I kind of expect to sell it on once I get my new speakers, but as you say, you never can quite tell until you try it!

Hi Jerry

I ran mine with an EAR Head transformer and a Lyra Clavis. TT was an Oracle Delphi Mk 4 with Eminent technology ET2 Linear air bearing arm...it was a magical combination. The phono stage is very good, though the Series 1000 pre being all phono stage (pasive line stage like the series 500) was quite a bit better than the 500's phono stage.


Regards D S D L

[jandl100]

Hi Jerry,

What's up with the Denon - have you fallen out with it already?

Marco.

Hi Marco

No, not at all.

It turned out the TAF 103 was slightly misaligned in the aluminium body, I only realised this when it was mis-tracking a bit on heavily modulated grooves near the end of side. I hope to get a new one next week. I've got a spare headshell now for my Yamaha tt, so it'll be easy to swap 'em about! I suspect the presentation is sufficiently different to the Orty that I'll want to keep both.

btw - did you get the headshell spacer/weight back OK?

[jandl100]

Hi Jerry

I ran mine with an EAR Head transformer and a Lyra Clavis. TT was an Oracle Delphi Mk 4 with Eminent technology ET2 Linear air bearing arm...it was a magical combination. The phono stage is very good, though the Series 1000 pre being all phono stage (pasive line stage like the series 500) was quite a bit better than the 500's phono stage.


Regards D S D L

Hi Neil

The tt rig you list there is a fair way ahead of my current little setup, I think, so phonostage diffs will be less obvious to me I expect.

The AI500 'stage sounds pretty good, but I'll do some direct comparisons with my Loricraft Missing Link 'stage soon and see what one I want to use. Enjoying the AI500 'stage, though, it does sound very fine in its own right.