Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice
- Thread starter Joe Mac
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Chucktshoes
Well-Known Member
I like it. I like it a lot. It has a very clean and light sound. The onboard headphone amp works well, even with my power hungry Sennes (HD 700). The onboard phono stage is decent if you find yourself without an external like I did when my iphono2 crapped out. Changing the tubes on the output side over to the genalax gold lions really opened up the sound quite a bit on it.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
Really enjoyed my Sphinx v2, it was just ultimately too much power for my system and I felt myself drawn toward tubes. No complaints about the amp itself at all. It’s built like a tank, looks good, sounds great. I sold it for only a bit less than I bought it.
The onboard stage is quite solid, but doesn’t compare to a nicer ($500+) outboard.
High Rant District
Active Member
Thank you both for chiming in - that was very helpful, particularly comments about the phono stage. I'm trying to get away from compromising, so this piece might not be for me. Will marinate on it though.
debianlinux
Well-Known Member
Can you expound on this? It doesn’t compute for me.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
My speakers are 98/dB efficient and I can happily shake the walls with under 20W.
debianlinux
Well-Known Member
I get that, but why change equipment if what you have is more than sufficient?
If your speakers are efficient enough the sound off low powered tube amps is spectacular.
The less technical observation from me is...
There are inefficiencies that sound good to the brain. Usually "great sound" is some combination of clarity and quality reproduction with "musicality" (read other things that create feeling of warmth, smoothness or dynamics) What sounds good is subjective, but is usually a combination of the two in some ratio and is not strictly perfect reproduction.
Like in studio Bass or drums will get driven and slightly distorted on some tracks. Not at a level where you hear audible fuzziness unless the single instrument is isolated on playback, but where the distortion becomes inaudible when mixed with the other elements, but might help the instrument stand out more, or glue it to the track better, even though you don't hear it. The end product sounds better. What sounds great is more like a sum of parts than it is simply having the best parts or the most "clear" or "clinical" sounding parts.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
I had wanted to delve into tubes. The Rogue quickly helped me realize that I wasn’t gonna need anything close to 100W in daily use, and could get away with a more tube-heavy system without sacrificing SPL.
It was a live and learn situation.
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High Rant District
Active Member
Made a decision for Year One of "stop fucking around" (within my budget for audio). I appreciate the advice several folks offered here.
Just placed an order with Schiit for an Aegir amp and a Saga S preamp. For good measure I also ordered a Mani phono preamp because why not.
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kvetcha
Well-Known Member
Schiit’s a good company that makes no-nonsense gear with a refreshing clarity of vision. Enjoy it.
You’ll be amazed at their build quality for the price. I run a Loki between my DAC and my amp to warm up my digital side. I’m quite impressed.
Any time you increase power, you also increase noise. So with high efficiency speakers, there is actually a disadvantage to having excessive power.
debianlinux
Well-Known Member
I'll buy that to an extent. I don't think noise floors are necessarily a necessary evil of high power potential. I will agree that any noise present will be amplified as power increases but a 100WPC amplifier can just as easily only supply 20WPC and amplify it's noise floor by only that amount.
In other words, assuming an equivalent noise floor, the 100WPC amp running at 20W and the 20WPC amp running at full tilt would produce the same amount of noise (in reality I would expect the 20WPC at full tilt to have introduced distortion). I guess the part where I am possibly missing the whole point is the effect high sensitivity speakers bring to the equation.
Given a 100WPC amplifier and a 20WPC amplifier with a theoretically equivalent noise floor and a set of high sensitivity speakers that are reaching peak desirable output at say 10W is there still an advantage to going with the 20W amplifier even at the expense of forgoing the preexisting 100W amp (argument that tubes sound better notwithstanding, let's presume both are solid state or something)?
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kvetcha
Well-Known Member
To be clear, I traded a 100WPC hybrid amp for a 70WPC push-pull tube amp, so it wasn't a matter of like-for-like. In hindsight, I could even have gone for a 25-30WPC SET integrated and been happy.
Looking for some input... If it needs to go in another thread point me there, but folks here know their stuff so...
I bought a 2M Black a while back and then had one of my Blue's retipped with a Shaibata from the guy that does work on ebay for a backup.
I tested them and all was good.
Upon working with Zu to get my speakers set up better I was getting just a bit of shrill in the trebles and the low mids bass were a bit lacking to me. We added a resistor to match the amp and raised them a bit more. They improved but I still wasn't as thrilled as I wanted to be.
I swapped on the retipped "black" tonight and BOOM! the resolution was still there but without the edge. The bass was deeper and the low-mids just a touch more forward in the mix. The overall impression was pretty great. Going back and forth it's noticeable .
The other doesn't sound "bad". To clarify it's not the same as the difference between a blue and Black. I have a regular blue as well and it's very different than that altogether. I'm also using the same cart for all 3 and swapping the tips.
Could this be down to wear? A different diamond? Variance from one to the next?
I know it's better and noticeable, but they definitely are still the "same" over all. It's like an EQ thing.
I bought a 2M Black a while back and then had one of my Blue's retipped with a Shaibata from the guy that does work on ebay for a backup.
I tested them and all was good.
Upon working with Zu to get my speakers set up better I was getting just a bit of shrill in the trebles and the low mids bass were a bit lacking to me. We added a resistor to match the amp and raised them a bit more. They improved but I still wasn't as thrilled as I wanted to be.
I swapped on the retipped "black" tonight and BOOM! the resolution was still there but without the edge. The bass was deeper and the low-mids just a touch more forward in the mix. The overall impression was pretty great. Going back and forth it's noticeable .
The other doesn't sound "bad". To clarify it's not the same as the difference between a blue and Black. I have a regular blue as well and it's very different than that altogether. I'm also using the same cart for all 3 and swapping the tips.
Could this be down to wear? A different diamond? Variance from one to the next?
I know it's better and noticeable, but they definitely are still the "same" over all. It's like an EQ thing.
What would make crappy or worn records pressings more apparent? An external pre amp or a turntable upgrade? I’m asking because I recently hooked up a Musical Fidelity LX-LPS to my Fluance RT85 and I’ve listened to a couple records today and have experienced at times pretty intense vocal distortion that ranges from sounding like the persons singing under water to really harsh S’s and strange reverb but it seems to come and go and isn’t present the entire record. Is this indicative of a bigger problem like my stylus has gotten out of alignment or worse, or is it more likely that I’m finally hearing wear and tear and record defects?
Bonus Question: In the case that I need a new stylus what are the go-to options at the sub $400 category? I seem to hear the most about Nagaoka and Grado!
Bonus Question: In the case that I need a new stylus what are the go-to options at the sub $400 category? I seem to hear the most about Nagaoka and Grado!
How are you cleaning your records? Start at the source. Clean records sound better.
What was your old turntable? What cartridge?
Bonus answer: For that TT you want the nicest Nagaoka you can afford. I’d say MP-200. How old is your current stylus? Heavy use?
I use GrooveWasher’s cleaning fluid and walnut brush every once in awhile, primarily if it’s a new record or looks physically dirty. I usually just use a carbon fiber brush before I drop the needle every time I put on a side and use a Momila stylus cleaner.
Old turntable was an AT LP60 with whatever it comes with!