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

The ART has arrived! I had it hooked up to my Belkin UPS (12V SLA hooked up to a charger, with on/off switch and everything)

Played it via AC first (bypasses the battery I think) Sounded nice, not bad, bass was a bit muffled, and the overall soundstage felt confined.

Pulled the plug on the AC, which means the UPS will go straight to battery.

WOW it was like a veil was lifted off the speakers. 3D indeed!

More listening required, but this is a very good first impression :D
 
jkilla said:
The ART has arrived! I had it hooked up to my Belkin UPS (12V SLA hooked up to a charger, with on/off switch and everything)

Played it via AC first (bypasses the battery I think) Sounded nice, not bad, bass was a bit muffled, and the overall soundstage felt confined.

Pulled the plug on the AC, which means the UPS will go straight to battery.

WOW it was like a veil was lifted off the speakers. 3D indeed!

More listening required, but this is a very good first impression :D
Click to expand...

Exactly... the DC power just makes everything POP, and in a big way too. I am astounded by the performance I am getting from this cheap set-up, and I am not easily impressed. Arcorob deserves some kind of an award for this discovery!
 
No award needed

beatcomber said:
Exactly... the DC power just makes everything POP, and in a big way too. I am astounded by the performance I am getting from this cheap set-up, and I am not easily impressed. Arcorob deserves some kind of an award for this discovery!
Click to expand...

Cash only payable to...LOL

Serious...I am just glad for the discovery, the ability to share it and the team here that is experimenting with this on other phono stages...truly the idea came from my HTMCPS which ran on 24vdc. I happen to be checking the specs on the ART and saw that it had a separate rating for DC and said "hmm....I wonder"...LOL

Glad folks are getting MAXIMUM gain from this !!!
 
Battery arrived showing 12.75v. Charger will be arriving shortly so I will let it top off and test again later.

Forgot to mention I will be normalizing all the files so people can get maximum enjoyment out of them when I'm finished.:yes:
 
Sorry for Delay

Phase 1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9epbzng9x8wlx19/Art_1.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r018br39vevl16w/Art_2.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6iqbbzejey4bs6/Art_3.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n0cdx1kc5rv5ons/Art_4.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/14a3idmzsezykq6/Art_5.wav

I apologize for getting these up later than I thought it would be. The five clips are done with the standard wall wart supplied with the my Art DJ PreII and arcorobs recommended battery plus two other AC/DC psu. One of the supplies has selectable voltages so I did one clip with 9v and one with 12v. The other supply is a 13.8v +-0.3 3A unit.

See if you can pick out the battery. I think you will find differences and improvement over the stock wall wart. They are in no particular order.

I will be working on three clips with the ART, VLPS, DB Systems DB-8 (with the hard wired external psu option) and a couple other phono stages. I had a bit of a setback Thursday evening when reviewing some of the clips I had already done I noticed some noise (very low level) appeared in some, but not all, of the recordings. After getting frustrated Thursday evening I finally got it tracked down yesterday morning to a usb device I had plugged in during the process of working on things.:sigh:

Pick out the two best and I will use them in the Phase 2 recordings. I hope to have phase two ready for you by Wednesday depending on how long you guys take to come to some consensus of which one(s) you like.
 
Thanks Muddywaters.
I believe I like the ART4 the best and ART3 the least. Art2 and ART5 would come in as #2.
gusten
 
My picks

I too like 4 the best
5 is not bad
1 I think I like the least..sounds harsh and a touch sibilant on the second song

2 is rolled off on the highs , 3 is not bad but maybe a bit muddy in the low to mid ?
 
Thanks much, Muddywaters!

This was tough. I agree with arcorob in thinking that 1 sounded the harshest, and 3 sounded the most muddy in the low end.

But I don't hear much difference between 2, 4, and 5.

4 and 5 have maybe a slight edge over 2...the acoustic guitar in "Morning Has Broken" sounds a bit more three-dimensional on those two clips.
 
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You guys are great for listening and giving opinions!!!

I just home and got a pm that there is a potential issue with the Art wanting a reversed vs normal/typical center pin hot +. So I would suggest I need to do this all over since I had the reverse on all these tests.:nono: Is that correct?

I'm kinda busy the rest of the day today and possibly tomorrow but will probably do them all over with the polarity reversed for the good of us getting a fair listen.

I'll not comment on the responses due this error and try to get this done for us by sometime tomorrow evening. Is the clip ok for your consideration? Maybe I can get this done by late this evening can't promise though.
 
Muddywaters said:
You guys are great for listening and giving opinions!!!

I just home and got a pm that there is a potential issue with the Art wanting a reversed vs normal/typical center pin hot +. So I would suggest I need to do this all over since I had the reverse on all these tests.:nono: Is that correct?

I'm kinda busy the rest of the day today and possibly tomorrow but will probably do them all over with the polarity reversed for the good of us getting a fair listen.

I'll not comment on the responses due this error and try to get this done for us by sometime tomorrow evening. Is the clip ok for your consideration? Maybe I can get this done by late this evening can't promise though.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't sweat it... I opened that whole can of worms. Sorry! After doing some more comparisons of my own, I really think center pin positive sounds better and more open. I have a comparison of a track ready to go. Stock power supply vs battery center pin positive vs center pin negative vs factory CD of the same track. I didn't post it here due to copyright issues... using a whole track and a CD rip. But if anybody wants to hear it, PM me and I'll shoot you a link. I think my vinyl transfer sounds closer to the CD than I've ever come before using the ART and battery, even with the DL-110 I was having trouble making friends with.

Now that I have that squared away, I'm going to download your files. Thanks!!!
 
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Muddywaters said:
You guys are great for listening and giving opinions!!!

I just home and got a pm that there is a potential issue with the Art wanting a reversed vs normal/typical center pin hot +. So I would suggest I need to do this all over since I had the reverse on all these tests.:nono: Is that correct?

I'm kinda busy the rest of the day today and possibly tomorrow but will probably do them all over with the polarity reversed for the good of us getting a fair listen.

I'll not comment on the responses due this error and try to get this done for us by sometime tomorrow evening. Is the clip ok for your consideration? Maybe I can get this done by late this evening can't promise though.
Click to expand...

I would just leave it as is, if You really want to You can do it with just one very small file.
gusten
 
Definitely going with 4 as the most focused recording, it has good range and the vocals are clear and engaging. Easy to hear pick out individual instruments and backing voacals.

#3 was rather muddy and fuzzy.

#5 is not as full in the lower-mid range, although top to bottom the range is nice. Still has good vocal presentation, but overall 4 sounds better by a small margin
 
Yeah... I like #4 and would guess it's the battery. I would guess #1 is the stock wall wart and the others are various grades of higher voltage or better regulated power supplies that can't quite equal the battery.
 
My thought is

if #1 is wall wart and #4 straight battery DC, then we have a pretty good consensus that there is a tangible improvement
 
I like #4 the best. I can hear things there I can not hear in the other tracks (transparency and depth).

I also like 5, but it's seems a bit thinner.

1,2,3 not so much.
 
Drum Roll...

#1 12v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

#2 13.8v Pyramid psu

#3 SLA Battery from Amazon

#4 9v AC stock wall wart

#5 9v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-536

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-532

I will record these over tonight with the polarity reversed and shuffle them again for you to review.

Give us all another go. I don't have time immediately to respond but will be back on later tonight if there are questions.
 
Muddywaters said:
#1 12v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

#2 13.8v Pyramid psu

#3 SLA Battery from Amazon

#4 9v AC stock wall wart

#5 9v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-536

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-532

I will record these over tonight with the polarity reversed and shuffle them again for you to review.

Give us all another go. I don't have time immediately to respond but will be back on later tonight if there are questions.
Click to expand...

wow
 
It seems the ART likes 9VAC, at least I thought #4 and 5 was the best. What do you know.:D
gusten
 
Muddywaters said:
#1 12v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

#2 13.8v Pyramid psu

#3 SLA Battery from Amazon

#4 9v AC stock wall wart

#5 9v psu Parts Express selectable voltages

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-536

https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=120-532

I will record these over tonight with the polarity reversed and shuffle them again for you to review.

Give us all another go. I don't have time immediately to respond but will be back on later tonight if there are questions.
Click to expand...

:lurk:

Been watching this closely as I need a budget phono stage.

I think there is a lesson to learned somewhere. Testing to continue ...

awesome thread.

:lurk:
 
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