Don't know the "Blue Cornet", but I have a Cornet Classic (as opposed to the Cornet2), and feel it's a good value, especially with a cap upgrade. Very open and musical, excellent surface noise killer if you're a thrift shop buyer. On the negative side the bass is a bit tubby.
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I have the Cornet 2. I differ from the poster before me. The bass or anything else from this preamp depends on the right tubes in the right system. Please see my review here.. http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=30819.0 cheers |
Amandarae, just read your review.. maybe I'm reading this wrong but seems like you specifically pointed to bass being the weak area of the Cornet in comparison to your Trumpet? My tubby bass comment was from direct comparison to my 3x more expensive K&K phono pre, which is not fair to the excellent value Cornet. I run the Cornet with Vcaps and Sovtek 12ax7's. The Vcaps really bumped up the sound (and price!) into a far higher level. (neutral and faster.. less tubby?) |
I used a blue Cornet for a while with a Cary SLI-80. It was my first separate phono stage. The Cornet was a vast improvement over a NAD phono stage that I was using. It was also much better than the phono stage that was built into my previous integrated amp, a Musical Fidelity A-300. The Cornet exhibited much better soundstage depth and width. The timbre of instruments and the 3-dimensionality of images were quite nice. That said, I thought it was rather noisy (a constant hiss in the background). It could have been the tubes, though. |
Thaluza - I'm using a Cary SLI-80 too. Sounds like you've since moved on from the Blue Cornet (and maybe the Cary, as well). Did you try any other phonostages that you like better with the SLI-80? And was the background noise more of "hisss" or more like a feedback "hummm"? I've had some problems with the latter. |
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