Phono Pre: ART DJPRE II vs. DB Systems DB-8

[Un-filtrd]

I agree, but a poor recording will not allow equipment to fully demonstrate its capabilities, and would be a wasted opportunity in this case. Garbage in, garbage out.

In this same vein, and the rationale for my earlier enquiry, it may be best to use a 12VDC power supply with a known good baseline of empirical as well as measured or at least specified performance, especially hum, ripple and noise, otherwise any comparisons to pure DC battery power may be inconclusive.

While I applaud Muddywaters for such an undertaking, as well as beatcomber for running tests with the Pangea P-100, I believe it would be beneficial to know a little more about the power supplies that will be used in the comparisons.

 

[beatcomber]

While I applaud Muddywaters for such an undertaking, as well as beatcomber for running tests with the Pangea P-100, I believe it would be beneficial to know a little more about the power supplies that will be used in the comparisons.

Over my head, sorry!

 

[royphil345]

I got my charger today. My cable from China is already in Chicago and I guess my battery shouldn't be much longer. Can't wait to try this out!

 

[Un-filtrd]

Thanks beatcomber... and no problem. BTW, I just called Audio Advisor for specs on the Pangea, and they had no information on output ripple and noise, which is surprising as this is an important measure of quality for a DC power supply.

 

[beatcomber]

BTW, I just called Audio Advisor for specs on the Pangea, and they had no information on output ripple

I'd stay away from Ripple if I were you...

 

[Un-filtrd]

I'd stay away from Ripple if I were you...

Ha, you’re indeed a veritable fountain of good advice, beatcomber!

 

[Muddywaters]

I'd stay away from Ripple if I were you...

:lmao::lmao::lmao:

In this same vein, and the rationale for my earlier enquiry, it may be best to use a 12VDC power supply with a known good baseline of empirical as well as measured or at least specified performance, especially hum, ripple and noise, otherwise any comparisons to pure DC battery power may be inconclusive.

While I applaud Muddywaters for such an undertaking, as well as beatcomber for running tests with the Pangea P-100, I believe it would be beneficial to know a little more about the power supplies that will be used in the comparisons.

I appreciate your inquiry. BTW WELCOME!

I can't find any specs on one sorry and the other has a limited amount I'm not sure whether they fully disclose what you are seeking to know entirely. I won't reveal them anyway until everyone gets time to analyze the clips with their ears. I think that is the best way to go into the excercise.

I would entertain buying the same ps you recommend if I can get it here fast enough to include it in the test and it wasn't too expensive. As an alternative perhaps you can link me to one on Amazon that meets your standards and I'll order it with my prime account and get it here Friday.

Maybe eBay has one you could suggest?

 

[Un-filtrd]

I appreciate your inquiry. BTW WELCOME!

Thanks Scott!

While it’s unfortunate these measurements have proven difficult to obtain, I don’t think it’s a showstopper at this point. Perhaps after this comparison is complete, we can take a closer look at the various power supplies available, including those being marketed as “audiophile grade”, for the benefit of those who’d rather not deal with batteries but still wish to approximate the performance of pure DC.

Please note I appreciate and admire your willingness to secure another power supply, however, you’re already going above and beyond so I’d hate to add yet another layer of complexity to your comparison, especially considering the tight schedule you’re on.

 

[Muddywaters]

Info on your ps?

Thanks Scott!

While it’s unfortunate these measurements have proven difficult to obtain, I don’t think it’s a showstopper at this point. Perhaps after this comparison is complete, we can take a closer look at the various power supplies available, including those being marketed as “audiophile grade”, for the benefit of those who’d rather not deal with batteries but still wish to approximate the performance of pure DC.

Please note I appreciate and admire your willingness to secure another power supply, however, you’re already going above and beyond so I’d hate to add yet another layer of complexity to your comparison, especially considering the tight schedule you’re on.

I think it would be wonderful to get your ps into the testing even if it takes a little longer. What mfg, model, 12v, 1A or 2A etc and vendor/source and price let me see what I can come up with.

I follow your hypothesis on using a quality power supply. Neither of the supplies I have would qualify as "audiophile grade". The specs that are given on one I have don't list noise but have OUTPUT RIPPLE: lS0mV RMS and LOAD REGULATION: 2.S%(280mV P.P)MAX if that is helpful to you. Forgot: OUTPUT VOLTAGE 13.8VDC ± O.3V

Sutherland builds some spendy battery powered phono stages like the Hubble and discuss their power supply design in their manual:

http://www.sutherlandengineering.com/sites/default/files/HUBBLE manual.pdf

I'll have to chase down some more battery powered equipment info

 

[Muddywaters]

test tracks

I am plowing ahead with recording phase 2 with different phono stages and ps Here are two tracks (names changed to protect the innocent) :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pnbrzmppb0eor37/a.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qcjjxf7ov4hxnbh/2.wav

With apologies to Hoodie :tears: I felt the Brubeck album would in inject too much surface noise clouding subtleties we might be attempting to discern thus I choose to use the Art Pepper. Let me know if these are ok.

Back to work.

* battery and charger show tracking out for delivery. ***will the batt need a long time to charge properly?

 

[arcorob]

I get an error not found on both?

I am plowing ahead with recording phase 2 with different phono stages and ps Here are two tracks (names changed to protect the innocent) :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pnbrzmppb0eor37/a.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qcjjxf7ov4hxnbh/2.wav

With apologies to Hoodie :tears: I felt the Brubeck album would in inject too much surface noise clouding subtleties we might be attempting to discern thus I choose to use the Art Pepper. Let me know if these are ok.

Back to work.

* battery and charger show tracking out for delivery. ***will the batt need a long time to charge properly?

Wonder why ?

 

[Muddywaters]

Wonder why ?

Just tried going to the dropbox website and get an error maybe the site is down?

Bummer

 

[arcorob]

No worries...

Just tried going to the dropbox website and get an error maybe the site is down?

Bummer

So when the site is up, we'll check it out !!!

 

[Muddywaters]

So when the site is up, we'll check it out !!!

When you get the error message it has links to home, forums, and help center which don't work either. I haven't used this much so can't say if this a rare event.

 

[Muddywaters]

Dropbox is back up

Give the tracks a try.

arcorob, beatcomber when I get the battery today and charger how long to make sure it is charged and ready?

 

[weverb]

Give the tracks a try.

arcorob, beatcomber when I get the battery today and charger how long to make sure it is charged and ready?

The 12v batteries I have received in the past come already charged. Just check the voltage before use.

 

[arcorob]

Still good to give at least 3 hours

Give the tracks a try.

arcorob, beatcomber when I get the battery today and charger how long to make sure it is charged and ready?

You want these things to be prepped right...they will actually measure OVER 12vdc.

So if it arrives, check the voltage. Charge for an hour and check again...if its up to snuff, you can always do your test then charge overnight to be sure...Inadequate charge = resistance

 

[arcorob]

The tracks

Hey bud...couple of things...

1) the gain is very low on both...can you increase ?
2) You used two different cuts so really hard to do a compare

 

[jkilla]

You want these things to be prepped right...they will actually measure OVER 12vdc.

So if it arrives, check the voltage. Charge for an hour and check again...if its up to snuff, you can always do your test then charge overnight to be sure...Inadequate charge = resistance

Charging my 12VDC as we speak. UPS will arrive later today, so I should be able to get up and running right away

 

[Muddywaters]

Hey bud...couple of things...

1) the gain is very low on both...can you increase ?
2) You used two different cuts so really hard to do a compare

1) Peaks of some parts of the tracks is around -3dbfs should be plenty. I wanted to make sure there wasn't any clipping. I've got no problem achieving 95+ db on my system playing back the files and preamp gain is not maxed. foobar/Musiland USB/Northstar Dac. My wife just came in and yelled at me testing it What are you listening to them on?

2) They weren't posted to compare we'll get to that just so peeps could get a taste and see if the Art Pepper was ok with Hoodie