After many hours of listening to my new stage I have come to the following conclusions.
The humble phono stage is one of the most important links in the chain, it is the first stage after the cart, if the sound is changed in anyway or any unwanted noise or artifacts included it will go through the rest of the system like that.
So our aim is to have the lowest noise and the most accurate unadulterated sound possible.
I think my search is over for this elusive beast, the stage talked about here is as close as I think I can come to lifting all those veils from the sound and having the most natural sound possible.
Noise is so low that you can crank up the volume and hear nothing until the needle drops, you have this black background, you only hear the music. On newer albums this is eerie on older ones even the surface noise is not distracting. That's why I like batteries so much, you don't have to worry about hum or mains noise creeping in. Problems with noise and hum that are present when using a mains PSU have been eliminated.
The detail is astounding, one of my tests for detail is those little sounds at the start of the first track on The Love album by The Beatles. There are birds singing and fluttering, there is also a fly that buzzes, don't ask me why they put this in but it's there. I can hear that fly now as clear as clear, my other stages can let me hear what I think is a fly but now it's so clear and distinct. Like I said all the veils have been lifted and the picture has been brought into focus.
Soundstage is as wide as I have heard and front to back, voices seem to float in the air in between the speakers. Every instrument is separated, there is no smearing at all.
Bass, midrange and highs are all equal, nothing stands out.
When I was trying different output caps I had too much detail which leads to harshness and then it was too smooth which had too little detail, I have it right in the middle now, smoothness and detail in harmony.
As I have said before you set it up to suit the particular cart you are using, which is a good thing as the gain and loadings are perfect for your cart.
On a scale of one to ten, I give it an eleven.
:guitar:
