Old Time Phono Stage

[jbarber]

Made a serious mistake today, I dug out my Marantz 3600 preamp which has been stored for many years. I wanted to see how an old phono stage compares with the one in my Yamaha 2500 receiver. I hooked up my AT pl120 turntable with a Shure m97xe to it and let it rip. I suddenly discovered what I used to love about it, attack and impact and a subtle maybe it is real sound. Now what to do, no room in the rack at the moment and this is not a small component. Went back to the previous hook up but now it will never do. The Yamaha sounded great until---. Just rambling today. Anyone try a Rotel phono preamp RQ-970.

James

 

[hakaplan]

Made a serious mistake today, I dug out my Marantz 3600 preamp which has been stored for many years. I wanted to see how an old phono stage compares with the one in my Yamaha 2500 receiver. I hooked up my AT pl120 turntable with a Shure m97xe to it and let it rip. I suddenly discovered what I used to love about it, attack and impact and a subtle maybe it is real sound. Now what to do, no room in the rack at the moment and this is not a small component. Went back to the previous hook up but now it will never do. The Yamaha sounded great until---. Just rambling today. Anyone try a Rotel phono preamp RQ-970.

James

Do you mean the Yamaha RX-V2500 receiver?

 

[jbarber]

Yes, I do mean the Yamaha RX-V2500. Don't get me wrong, it does sound very good. I had this audio disease many years ago that is why I still have some older stuff packed away, stuff I just couldn't part with. I also have my entire record collection (several hundred) which are literally mint condition since they were only played on a Kenwood marble turntable with an sme arm. I had sold most of my equipment over thirty ago and gave up my audio habit.
I had started again only for surround sound and movies but is creeping back in, that old audio disease.

James

 

[hakaplan]

Yes, I do mean the Yamaha RX-V2500. Don't get me wrong, it does sound very good. I had this audio disease many years ago that is why I still have some older stuff packed away, stuff I just couldn't part with. I also have my entire record collection (several hundred) which are literally mint condition since they were only played on a Kenwood marble turntable with an sme arm. I had sold most of my equipment over thirty ago and gave up my audio habit.
I had started again only for surround sound and movies but is creeping back in, that old audio disease.

James

Yes, then I'm not surprised that your vintage preamp sounds better. The phono stage in contemporary receivers is really an afterthought and seldom intended for audiophile quality. Vintage receivers are different. Back then, other than tape or cassette, phono was the main input device, so phono stages in receivers were much better.

 

[Strawman]

The 3600 is a heck of a nice pre. Welcome BTW.
http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/3600.html

 

[hakaplan]

The 3600 is a heck of a nice pre. Welcome BTW.
http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/3600.html

That is one gorgeous piece of equipment.

 

[jbarber]

Finally just squeezed the 3600 into the system. What is really interesting here is that my turntable system now sounds completely different. I am using a brand new direct drive Audio Technica pl120 table which weighs 23 pounds and is built like a tank with a shure m97xe mounted and using another old relic called a platter matter. The previous sound was smooth and sweet, now it pounds the hell out of my Athena f2.2s, the dynamics are startling and it just sounds like real music. My wife just asked me why the records sound better than the cds. Now I have to redo all of the cds I made from records on my Tascam cd recorder. Hope this sound translates.
To be continued

James