For now here is what I have done....
I bought a used Jasmine 2.5DU w Mockingbird upgrades as a phono amp, dusted off my old sweetheart Micro Seiki DD40/MA505, and put on a fresh AT440MLB cart.... and as a result, I am spinning my old vinyl again!!!
Definitely a worthwhile experience. Very different (and arguably better) sense of musicality, with a softer, rounder image focus than my digital front end, but still much palpable detail and GREAT imaging... very musical and fun!!!! I did not know this old girl still has this much beautiful music in her!!!! LOL!!!
The cartridge and phono amp pairing definitely are up-tilted in the treble. Some jazz/pop records (e.g. Anita Baker Rapture) can be ear-bleeders! But nice audiophile LP's like MFSL's are in better balance across the range... I guess I will play the cartridge more and hopefully it will settle down when more broken in. Also will rig up a parallel resistor bypass cable to let the cartridge see 33kohms out instead of 47kohms... some report it can help shift the resonant peak of that particular well known cart and calm it down.
Spoke to Dave at Audio Nirvana about one of his restored Thorens and also still surfing A-gon for maybe a used SOTA. May pull trigger on one of these yet! Thanks all for the input.
I bought a used Jasmine 2.5DU w Mockingbird upgrades as a phono amp, dusted off my old sweetheart Micro Seiki DD40/MA505, and put on a fresh AT440MLB cart.... and as a result, I am spinning my old vinyl again!!!
Definitely a worthwhile experience. Very different (and arguably better) sense of musicality, with a softer, rounder image focus than my digital front end, but still much palpable detail and GREAT imaging... very musical and fun!!!! I did not know this old girl still has this much beautiful music in her!!!! LOL!!!
The cartridge and phono amp pairing definitely are up-tilted in the treble. Some jazz/pop records (e.g. Anita Baker Rapture) can be ear-bleeders! But nice audiophile LP's like MFSL's are in better balance across the range... I guess I will play the cartridge more and hopefully it will settle down when more broken in. Also will rig up a parallel resistor bypass cable to let the cartridge see 33kohms out instead of 47kohms... some report it can help shift the resonant peak of that particular well known cart and calm it down.
Spoke to Dave at Audio Nirvana about one of his restored Thorens and also still surfing A-gon for maybe a used SOTA. May pull trigger on one of these yet! Thanks all for the input.