New TT - modding already . . .

[Opti-cal]

Modifications:

Like most of my equipment I couldn't leave it alone for very long.

Although I hadn't yet done it myself I know a lot of people have reported that removing the plastic around the needle of the AT95e cart yields significant sonic improvements. Slightly daunting snipping away some material so close to the stylus but after trying a scapulae blade which wasn't really making much progress I tried a sharp pair of short nose pliers and it came away quite cleanly. Although it doesn't look so clean in the pic. I then filed away some slightly jagged bits when it was back on the cartridge body.

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Well, there is certainly an improvement. I won't be more specific with generic praise like extension/air/transients etc because this is a budget deck and cartridge which I've just hacked apart for an experiment, however the gains are there and audible. Very happy and very surprised.

I have also ordered a new wooden body for the cart. May have some slight sonic benefits from reduced resonance but the main reason for this mod is to turn your half hacked away £50 cartridge into more of a "damn I bet that cost a pretty penny" one. Hopefully this will turn up this week from Germany and I can get it on!

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I've also put a cork mat in place of the heavier rubber one. The cork mat is probably 1mm thinner than the rubber one and has changed the VTA a tad but I think perhaps for the better. The cart and arm still ride perfectly horizontal to the eye but as the angle has changed a couple of degrees there will be some sonic change I can't tell if this is from the mat or the VTA change. Either way it sounded the best it had at all.

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So that's it for now, I'll put some more pics up when the wooden body for the cart arrives. I've got a lovely Ortofon head-shell that should set it off really nicely too.

Phono stage:

It also gave me the opportunity to mess around with the phono stage I'm using with it. It's an Ear 834p clone design. I've swapped the original tubes which were just generic Chinese ECC83's to a NOS Ei 12ax7 along with a Psvane 12ax7 Tii and then a NOS Sylvania 5963 in the V1 position. Having a 12au7 or 5963 in this position effectively lowers the noise floor and to my ears at least, deepens the soundstage significantly. Albeit possibly not great for true RIAA equalisation curve . . .

As my room is quite narrow having a super wide soundstage is not necessarily a great idea and this combo seems to nail it.
I've tried having all Gold Lion 12ax7's all NOS Ei 12ax7's and all Psvane 12ax7's in this stage but as soon as I tried this combination I knew it was a winner. Super extended highs and lows with a super rich midrange. Great synergy seems to be there.

Future mods:

I'll definitely be looking into how far I can take this deck now. Counterweight upgrades, arm modifications, plinths, feet and anything else I can think of!

Any suggestions always welcome of course!

Cheers,

Chris