Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
EDIT: If you don't have the patience or time to read through all the posts, be aware that I've been adding new pictures throughout the thread, all the way up to the end, and I'm continuing to do so. If that's what you're mostly interested in, there's a lot more than just what's in this first post, including more pictures of records, some of my turntable, and a bunch of tubes.
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I have an embarrassing confession to make, but I'm going to get it over with now:
I moved to a new house back in March '10, and for a variety of reasons I just never got around to bringing either of my turntables from where they're being stored. In the last year I've gotten really caught up in the excitement of my systems digital aspect, namely CDs played on very nice CD players. As fun as this was, lately I've been getting the itch, the strong itch, to once again enjoy all the things I've invested so much time, money, and energy into, that have sat unused for so long.
My confession is that it's being roughly one year since either of my turntables have seen any action. You all may now scold me, I deserve it.
So today (Thanksgiving), I packed up the Thorens TD125 MKII, all the tools I'd left behind, some more records (most remain stored at a family member's house for now), and headed home.
I decided that, since it's been such a long time, now would be the perfect time to put my Grado Silver back into action. Despite moving up to what I consider practically another universe of high performance cartridges in recent years, I still have the urge to hear all kinds of cartridges at all different price points, and I still thoroughly enjoy reading peoples' experiences and opinions on all kinds of cartridges here on AK, from the cheapest, to, well, whatever. I got as much enjoyment as from anything on AK following the recent thread about an AK member's recent acquisition of a Shure M97XE. In reality, going from an outstanding cartridge (see signature) back down to more entry-level ones can be disappointing, as one would expect. But it's been so long since I've played records I figured I wouldn't notice what's missing, at least not enough to distract me from listening to music.
And it worked! Right now I have the Grado Silver installed on the Thorens. The battery in my digital scale has died, so I had to use the old Shure VTF scale. It felt just like when I first started to get into all this stuff. To honor George Wright's memory - and because I miss it
- I'm starting with the Wright 200C tube phono preamp. For those of you who missed all my thoughts the first time around, I've attached some photos, and I'll just say that this is simply a wonderful phono preamp, all tube from end to end, even the power supply. And I've got a NOS tube collection to do it justice, which has also been collecting dust. Let's look at the 200C real quick:
Hmm, the copper chassis really needs to be polished. :scratch2:
I haven't even begun to break out the Herbie's tube dampers yet, nor have I experimented with footers, but I will.
I think I have a pretty nice record collection. Last night before going to bed I flipped through a couple crates of lps I'd just brought home. Apparently a couple years ago I went a little nuts with buying new lps, a lot of jazz, some classical - I swear to you I don't remember buying a good fifth of them! Shopaholic blackout? Maybe that's a bit much. :nutz: This sealed the deal: I was bring the Thorens home. I actually had trouble sleeping. :drool:
Amid these wonderful records of mysterious origins are some original and/or old pressings. Here's a couple of those, the first had the honor of starting off the session:
As for the Herbie Hancock, for some reason my brain decided to rearrange my memory of buying it, and I was convinced it was a reissue until I realized I'd bought it at a local record store a couple years ago, and it's an original. Sounds great too.
Of course there's classical as well, this is playing right now:
Oh sweet development of tension, and glorious climax!
Which brings me to the performance of the Grado. How is the old silver doing now that I've experienced the rich, lifelike harmonic textures of the Benz Glider, and the liquid, almost epic presentation and dead silent background of the ZYX Yatra? :tears:
Putting all that behind me, I will say this: The Silver sounds wonderful, it really does. Strong, striking, and exciting dynamics, enough three-dimensionality to be entertaining, and of course, the full, luscious midrange many of us adore with Grado cartridges. I know, that last one's become such a cliche, but it's true. There's more presence in the midrange, it's a smidge warm, and missing something at the top end. But it's holding it's own, and showing me a good time, so to speak. Here's the Silver playing in the shadows - I had a heck of a time trying to get a decent picture due to lighting issues, and so I didn't
:
I should add that I'm currently listening through headphones. Also, I'm using Grover Huffman's phono interconnects. I'll use no others now. I went through about 15 different makes and models of interconnects, and his is the best, and blocks out all but the most stubborn hum (inaudible even with headphones unless there's no music playing and I crank the volume). This cable, btw, was specifically designed for use between a turntable and phono stage, with the teeny tiny little signal coming from the cartridge kept in mind, and maybe that's what makes the difference.
Also, I've got Cardas Myrtle wood blocks under the Thorens, and I'm using the Mapleshade Audio Ionoclast, which performs the same task as a Zerostat. Here's the lp I just zapped and put on:
A reissue, one of the really good ones, and it was cheap too ($10.99). This is a nice live recording, you get a sense of depth with the drums behind the main players, dynamics that pop, and plenty of tone color a la the various brass instruments. Yes.
So there it is. I'll probably be hanging around this forum more often now, like I used to. Feel free to offer comments, advice, mockery (actually don't because you'll piss off the moderators and possibly send me running back into the arms of my Cd players
ara, and what have you. I couldn't tell you how long I'll keep this setup as it is, probably at least a couple weeks to enjoy some time with the Silver. Next will be the Dynavector 10X5, which I "nuded" a while back but then didn't test afterward, so that should be interesting. The Zyx and the Glider - I'm kind of afraid to handle them since they're irreplaceable to me now, literally. Those probably won't see action any time soon.
Thanks for your attention.
***********************************************************************************************************************
I have an embarrassing confession to make, but I'm going to get it over with now:
I moved to a new house back in March '10, and for a variety of reasons I just never got around to bringing either of my turntables from where they're being stored. In the last year I've gotten really caught up in the excitement of my systems digital aspect, namely CDs played on very nice CD players. As fun as this was, lately I've been getting the itch, the strong itch, to once again enjoy all the things I've invested so much time, money, and energy into, that have sat unused for so long.
My confession is that it's being roughly one year since either of my turntables have seen any action. You all may now scold me, I deserve it.
So today (Thanksgiving), I packed up the Thorens TD125 MKII, all the tools I'd left behind, some more records (most remain stored at a family member's house for now), and headed home.
I decided that, since it's been such a long time, now would be the perfect time to put my Grado Silver back into action. Despite moving up to what I consider practically another universe of high performance cartridges in recent years, I still have the urge to hear all kinds of cartridges at all different price points, and I still thoroughly enjoy reading peoples' experiences and opinions on all kinds of cartridges here on AK, from the cheapest, to, well, whatever. I got as much enjoyment as from anything on AK following the recent thread about an AK member's recent acquisition of a Shure M97XE. In reality, going from an outstanding cartridge (see signature) back down to more entry-level ones can be disappointing, as one would expect. But it's been so long since I've played records I figured I wouldn't notice what's missing, at least not enough to distract me from listening to music.
And it worked! Right now I have the Grado Silver installed on the Thorens. The battery in my digital scale has died, so I had to use the old Shure VTF scale. It felt just like when I first started to get into all this stuff. To honor George Wright's memory - and because I miss it
- I'm starting with the Wright 200C tube phono preamp. For those of you who missed all my thoughts the first time around, I've attached some photos, and I'll just say that this is simply a wonderful phono preamp, all tube from end to end, even the power supply. And I've got a NOS tube collection to do it justice, which has also been collecting dust. Let's look at the 200C real quick:
Hmm, the copper chassis really needs to be polished. :scratch2:
I haven't even begun to break out the Herbie's tube dampers yet, nor have I experimented with footers, but I will.
I think I have a pretty nice record collection. Last night before going to bed I flipped through a couple crates of lps I'd just brought home. Apparently a couple years ago I went a little nuts with buying new lps, a lot of jazz, some classical - I swear to you I don't remember buying a good fifth of them! Shopaholic blackout? Maybe that's a bit much. :nutz: This sealed the deal: I was bring the Thorens home. I actually had trouble sleeping. :drool:
Amid these wonderful records of mysterious origins are some original and/or old pressings. Here's a couple of those, the first had the honor of starting off the session:
As for the Herbie Hancock, for some reason my brain decided to rearrange my memory of buying it, and I was convinced it was a reissue until I realized I'd bought it at a local record store a couple years ago, and it's an original. Sounds great too.
Of course there's classical as well, this is playing right now:
Oh sweet development of tension, and glorious climax!
Which brings me to the performance of the Grado. How is the old silver doing now that I've experienced the rich, lifelike harmonic textures of the Benz Glider, and the liquid, almost epic presentation and dead silent background of the ZYX Yatra? :tears:
Putting all that behind me, I will say this: The Silver sounds wonderful, it really does. Strong, striking, and exciting dynamics, enough three-dimensionality to be entertaining, and of course, the full, luscious midrange many of us adore with Grado cartridges. I know, that last one's become such a cliche, but it's true. There's more presence in the midrange, it's a smidge warm, and missing something at the top end. But it's holding it's own, and showing me a good time, so to speak. Here's the Silver playing in the shadows - I had a heck of a time trying to get a decent picture due to lighting issues, and so I didn't
:
I should add that I'm currently listening through headphones. Also, I'm using Grover Huffman's phono interconnects. I'll use no others now. I went through about 15 different makes and models of interconnects, and his is the best, and blocks out all but the most stubborn hum (inaudible even with headphones unless there's no music playing and I crank the volume). This cable, btw, was specifically designed for use between a turntable and phono stage, with the teeny tiny little signal coming from the cartridge kept in mind, and maybe that's what makes the difference.
Also, I've got Cardas Myrtle wood blocks under the Thorens, and I'm using the Mapleshade Audio Ionoclast, which performs the same task as a Zerostat. Here's the lp I just zapped and put on:
A reissue, one of the really good ones, and it was cheap too ($10.99). This is a nice live recording, you get a sense of depth with the drums behind the main players, dynamics that pop, and plenty of tone color a la the various brass instruments. Yes.
So there it is. I'll probably be hanging around this forum more often now, like I used to. Feel free to offer comments, advice, mockery (actually don't because you'll piss off the moderators and possibly send me running back into the arms of my Cd players
ara, and what have you. I couldn't tell you how long I'll keep this setup as it is, probably at least a couple weeks to enjoy some time with the Silver. Next will be the Dynavector 10X5, which I "nuded" a while back but then didn't test afterward, so that should be interesting. The Zyx and the Glider - I'm kind of afraid to handle them since they're irreplaceable to me now, literally. Those probably won't see action any time soon. Thanks for your attention.
Last edited:
:thmbsp: :tresbon:
