Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[jandl100]

Thanks Roger - it was very nice to see you again - yes, the MBLs are keepers.

The Yamaha amp doesn't do at all bad, does it?!

And thanks for returning the 103 - I'm glad you liked it - & I'm sure the 103SA is substantially better again!

[jandl100]

As some folks here might have seen in the Classifieds section, I've ditched my trusty old Techie 1210 as the joys of vinyl have once again worn rather thin for me.

But, fear not, Monte-Tom, Marco and others ... I'm not going to be entirely without the wonders of vinyl.

Just picked up this leetle tt. Somewhat down-priced from my old Techie 1210 - and I can't play it yet, as my new (down-priced) phonostage hasn't arrived (hopefully today).

Quite pretty innit. Obviously a Techie knock-off!

Denon 103 cart all mounted and ready to go ....



The Grand Plan for this is that it will allow me to play and perhaps slowly expand my collection of Gilbert & Sullivan LPs and will allow me to keep a few very special LPs from my collection - the rest will be sold off or donated to charity shops as appropriate.

Hopefully, retaining a minimal vinyl capability will remind me how frustrating as a music playback medium it is for me and hence will stop me from investing bigger-£££ in the future! I really do need to break out of this buy-sell-buy-sell vinyl feedback loop I have been in for the last few years. It doesn't make sense - even an earthworm learns from experience - but not me!

[MartinT]

That is so obviously a knock-off that I'm surprised Technics haven't sued.

Jerry - you just haven't heard vinyl done right yet, otherwise you wouldn't be having these doubts

[jandl100]

That is so obviously a knock-off that I'm surprised Technics haven't sued.

Jerry - you just haven't heard vinyl done right yet, otherwise you wouldn't be having these doubts

Well, some folks might not think that a Voyd Point 5, SME V, Dynavector DVXX1L was too shoddy!

Been there, done that, love CD!

[Techno Commander]

IIRC the Numark has a greater range of pitch control then the Techie does.

Probably of little use in a HiFi scenario, but on this occaison, the TT was designed for club use.

[DSJR]

Any chance of some pics of the motor unit minus platter?


"Jerry - you just haven't heard vinyl done right yet, otherwise you wouldn't be having these doubts
__________________
-MartinT"

Martin, you just haven't compared CD with the master file/recording, otherwise you wouldn't be having the thoughts above

All good fun innit

[MartinT]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I like CD too

[jandl100]

IIRC the Numark has a greater range of pitch control then the Techie does.

Probably of little use in a HiFi scenario, but on this occaison, the TT was designed for club use.

Yup, unlike the Techie 1200/1210 which was a hifi unit adopted by the DJ community, I believe - the Numark is sold purely as a DJ item. It also has a button which reverses the direction of the platter - very handy!

My phonostage did indeed arrive today - had about a 3 minute listen before I had to go out this afternoon .... .... err, it all sounded bloody good!
More reports later once I've got a few hours on it.

I suspect I may have chanced upon the ultimate bargain phonostage, too. £39 + P&P !! Once again, more later.

[jandl100]

Once again, more later.

... and here I am a few days on ... & listening to LPs again.

The Numark Pro TT1 continues to defy expectations.
No, I don't have a direct comparison with my old Techie 1210, but it sounds damn similar to me. Do I feel I am missing out? - nope.

Just to clarify, the new bits in the TT rig are the Numark tt and the phonostage. My old Denon 103 cart and Partridge transformers are still in situ.

Just cos it's so pretty, here's another pic of the Numark ...



Note the neat display window showing speed, pitch and a kool segmented ellipsoid thingy which rotates when the platter is doing its spinny-thing. Beat that, Techie-owners!

Speed constancy? Dead-on - even on sustained piano chords - the ultimate test!

And the cheapo phonostage? ....



Moving magnet only, so my Partridge transformers are def needed for the Denon 103.
I was browsing good ol' eBay looking for a cheapo replacement for my luvverly Loricraft phonostage when I came across this - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT.

"This is not your cheap and cheerful preamp, it's a high quality analogue preamp using a professionally made PCB, laid out to maximise audio performance and coupled with quality components throughout.
The preamp has been designed for quality hifi systems ... "

Ah, thought I, that sounds more promising than the cheapo junk that you normally see selling for a few tens of £. Money back offer, too, so why not.

It's a really fine piece of kit. It can run off a 9V battery or a wallwart PSU (not supplied). I started off with a 9V battery - lasted about 10 hours before what sounded for all the world like cartridge mis-tracking set in - which of course I thought it was. So much frustrating fiddling with the cartridge alignment etc later (without success) I realised that the red light on the front of the phonostage seemed a bit dimmer than before .... the battery!
So I dug out a 0.5A / 9V PSU that was lying around and plugged that in - hey presto - no more mis-tracking!
And it still sounds fine.
So here we have a very decent sounding mm phonostage for £39 plus P&P. Whodathunkit?
I've owned the £15 'bargain' phonostages - let's just say that you get decent vfm. This little baby FAR exceeds that humble standard. I've also owned the CA 640P and I'd say that my 'stage easily beats that - no greyed out tonality and flattened perspectives here, it sounds far better than that. I'd say it is on a par with a Musical Fidelity XLP V3, although a bit more vibrant than that.
Strongly recommended. (But remember it's only moving magnet.)

I've also now ordered a decent 5A PSU to try with it - I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't take it up a further notch.

The ultimate test is that several days on Jerry is still happily spinning his vinyl again with a much down-sized (in price terms) tt rig. £39 for the used Numark tt and £45.50 (with P&P) for the brand new phonostage. Damned fine!

[StanleyB]

I used to sell a lovely MC/MM phono preamp for about £50. It was a poor seller for me, but Revolver has been doing good sales with it after they hiked the price from my £50 to £180. So the extra £130 in price increase seems to have improved its credibility .