Mopar Muscle Association UK

Sorry chaps, refuse to go hi-tech - has to stay vintage. Don't even want a CD player!

Had my doubts the Wharfedales would work but thought it was worth a punt for nine quid. Work perfectly

Love this thread.

I collect a bit of Hi-Fi too.

I did have some of those Sonab speakers and they sounded great until the cone surrounds failed, never did get them re-coned.

I have a pair of KEF Reference 104 - they sound great for their age.

I have just inherited a leak TL12 plus and Varioslope III from my grandfather, haven't been brave enough to fire up yet and it's only just the one mono amp.

At home I have mostly Naim gear inc an HDX which I am slowly ripping too - sounds great...

GJUK wrote:Dave, do you know everything about everything? I'm worried. Impressed but worried.

no


currently lacking in the area of

women (what do they mean when they say)

the appropriate way to behave in a myriad of social situations

trade agreements with Belize in respect to bananas

and

if a book weighs 3KG + half a book how much does the book weigh.

which was in my 9 year old daughters maths homework !!!!

Dave

sprintgtvgus wrote:Love this thread.

I collect a bit of Hi-Fi too.



I have a pair of KEF Reference 104 - they sound great for their age.

I have just inherited a leak TL12 plus and Varioslope III from my grandfather, haven't been brave enough to fire up yet and it's only just the one mono amp.

the leak stuff

in an ideal world you'd borrow a variac and slowly bring the power up to 240 volts from somewhere like 60 volts AC

but whats the fun in that.....


make sure all valves look alright silvererd top very black and they are on the way out

do not switch on without an expendable 8+ ohm speaker wired up

Chinese KT66 (shuguang) are about £40 quid a matched pair
if the kt66s go bang they can take out the output transformer and the resistors around the valve bases

the small signal valves are not a problem

power it up and leave it for a few hours check for smoke and fire

then listen to some 60s mono stuff

should be good


Dave

I would NEVER use chinese tubes on my equipment. EVER!

Thank's for the tip with the leak.

I think it will probably be OK; I'll just have to go for it!

He was a wireless enthusiast and repaired lots of them.

We have been clearing out literally hundreds of radios.

Quite a few of them were repaired by him.

We have just auctioned off a few of the sets and boxes and boxes of NOS valves.

I saved a lovely 1939 Ecko that is in full working order and it now sits proudly at home.

Jeff wrote:I would NEVER use chinese tubes on my equipment. EVER!

depends who you buy em off

most valves branded by US companies these days are Chinese

Groove Tubes Edicron Harma etc made in china or Russia, and branded for US or European suppliers
Both Russian factories appear to be run by gangsters these days you can't depend on them anymore

shguang valves are 40% owned by Phllips electronics

3 factories in Russia/Europe and 2 in china make valves that are generally for sale in the US and Europe..

doesn't matter whats on the box if it is new production one of them made it

Sovtek supposed to be good
Svetlana used to be good Russian military stock with the C label not SED branded I have run their 6550A and diodes in my amp pretty good
JJ tesla very good ecc83 etc in my pre amp
Shuguang KT 88 EL34 6550A all pretty good I've used the KT88-98 for 6 years matched quad from Uk supplier built to same spec as GEC Gold Lion KT88

and some other Chinese lot not had anything from them


in an ideal world you would run Mullard or GEC but GEC power tubes are 200 quid each NOS. or some NOS German or Dutch valve, Telefunken valvo Siemens etc

but way too expensive


NOS is good stuff but hard to get at sensible prices and how do you know if its been tested and matched

Dave

So here's a question for the true audiophile.

Lets say I could afford this. What kind of difference would I notice over my £60 Goldring? £4k new apparently

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Koetsu-Urushi ... 1a0513680f

don't need to be an Audiophile just need to look at the physics/electronics/mechanics

you wouldn't hear a thing

that's a moving coil cartridge, it makes a signal 100 times smaller than your current cartridge, it wouldn't work with the phono input to your amp

so you would need a special moving coil cartridge preamp or some expensive passive components, transformers mainly, in an expensive shielded box.


if you spent another 1k-2K on top of the cartridge you'd get better soundtageing, better resolution of each line of music and less distortion, clearer treble, more tuneful base, because the stylus is a much more expensive-to-make profile, that tracks the groove better, and is connected to a lighter generator (for want of a better word)

but without an upgrade to the rest of your kit and a room that is set up for listening (practically impossible in narrow boat) possibly not much difference


moving magnet
same as yours, a stick to trace the groove with a magnet on the other end that gets waved about near 2 coils in the cartridge body, all suspended in a tiny rubber doughnut pressed into a copper sleeve

the magnet is weighty so has momentum, it doesn't stop and change direction easily so introduces stuff that wasn't there, it over swings the mark and tries to wag the stylus at the other end.

moving coil

a stick with 2 coils mounted on the end, that gets waved about near some magnets in the cartridge body.

coils:-less mass, but have to link to the output pins, links prone to fatigue. less mass means less momentum, so stylus tracks the groove better. smaller the coil the smaller the signal but the lower the mass.

you could get round this by having a very long cartridge the end of the stick inside the cartridge would be longer so any waggle of coils near a magnet would be bigger and faster hence the signal would be bigger
but you loose the benefit of your nice light coils with a big long stick

and a huge long cartridge weighs a lot
it would give the arm more mass
the arm would be a pig to balance for radial forces on the anti skate mechanism

anti skate mechanism introduce harmonic vibration in the arm which causes distortion.

hence cartridge needs to be small light and easily balanced
stylus cantilever is therefore reasonably short, the coils small and the signal poor in amplitude when compared with a moving magnet.

so you can have small signal that is more accurate but more prone to induced hum

or bigger less accurate signal lower hum cheaper cost.

same principal as, less un-sprung mass makes for better handling, cars and bikes.


an audiophile would say I spent more than you so it must betterer and my plug is gold plated and my turntable is lubricated with magic butter

don't listen to them.


Buy HIFI World at least they tell the truth 72.5% of the time

Dave

Last matched pair of PA tube I bought for my old Yaesu cost me nearly $500. New old stock. Had to have em

its an addiction Jeff

once you start it can get very expensive

Managed to score a pair of these Beauties for £70! They're Sansui SP-X7000s . Were never available in Europe so goodness knows how they ended up over here. Incredible sound and built like battleships!

Managed to score this cracking bit of kit. It's a one-off and must have cost the guy who commissioned it an absolute fortune. The platter and legs have been machined from solid billet - same for the brass pads. The whole plinth frame is also aluminium. Plinth is glass. Platter top is Acrylic. Arm board is wood. Arm is an SME 3009 which go for £350 second hand. I paid less than that for the whole thing including a new Ortofon cartridge. Sound is sublime! Going to strip the whole thing down and give it a damn good polishing. Plinth will be replaced with polished rosewood veneer.