"HELP" tired Koetsu

Maxgain,

The BPS is just great in the noise department. I've used it with my older Naim gear and my Linn. I know that few audiophiles that frequent this site think highly of Linn but I've got to say that the phono stage is superb in my Wakonda. It would be nice if someone would loan you one of these cartridges to try out. It isn't the best but it just may save you from dumping analog playback. I'm confident that one of the other recommendations made by Twl for a higher output mc (Ortofon X5-MC @ $115) would be superior to the BPS. I agree with you about the price of new lp's. Most do seem to be heavier and more in line with audiophile pressings.

I've lived in Idaho for 15 years now and enjoy the recreational opportunities here but have yet to hook up with anyone that seeks a higher level of playback. We have one rather small high end store in Boise. They suggested the BPS years ago based on my desire to not invest in a step up device and the money I was willing to spend. Until a recent return to home outside of Omaha I had not had a chance to listen to any other offerings.

I'm putting together a "get by" system thanks to the loan of a receiver by Twl and will be listing my current system for sale shortly. Since I have so many albums and haven't grown tired of listening to them I will continue to be vinyl based. I do know that I'll be going the Lowther route and be tube based but I'm really concerned about the phono part of the equation. I'll be leaning heavily on Tom to steer me in the right direction. Unlike a lot of audiophiles I can't afford to make a mistake in doing this.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years. There is undoubtedly a renewed interest in vinyl playback, the digital wars are far from over, copyright protection is in the forefront of the recording executives minds, the Redbook cd is losing it's patent, home theatre is driving the software side of things and I'm scratching my head. I yearn for a return of a simpler time when there were actual record stores filled with generic pressings that were affordable. Until then I will continue to buy small collections of vinyl and live mainly on music that's new to me but older. The listening part of this has been a lot of fun but the cleaning and sorting is a chore. Plus, what to do with the dogs? I hate to throw them in the trash but don't want to save them.

I apologize for the rambling and especially for being off topic but this is the best damn thread I've read in the year and a half I've been visiting this site.

Patrick

Hi, I'm back. Here's a little info from the Audio Note Kondo site on MC Step ups:

"Due to the extremely low output, we do not recommend the use of active moving coil stages for any of the Audio Note cartridges, as they do not offer the linearity and general noise level necessary to get the best yield from the Io cartridges, this requires a transformer."

Now if it's good enough for Kondo-San, it's good enough for me.

I have found that my experiences have also borne out his findings. I use a Cotter Mk2, and I like it. If I could afford the $6k AN silver wound transformers, I'd certainly give them a shot.

What do you guys think?

I understand that the ARC Ref Phono uses the Jensen transformers in it. I admit that my experience with transformers in the past were tainted and most likley loading related. Thanks for giving me some better info to digest. It is opening my eyes a bit. It is easy to come to the wrong conclusion at times with this stuff. I know people do it all the time with speakers and electronics.

The Jensen transformers are pretty good, and are sometimes included in some of the better phono stages to provide the MC input stage.

I think that the transformer should be located as close to the tonearm as possible, to boost the signal at the earliest possible point, so the information losses from these very low level signals traveling along the wire is minimized.

Twl, where can one get raw Jensen transformers? It can't be very hard to build something. All you need are some RCA's, a case, and the transformers, Right?

When you mention Euro cartridges, I assume you are refering to the ClearAudio and Van Den Hul stuff? Do you put Benz in this same group? You seem to like some Ortofon units. A friend just got a Kontrapunkt b he seems to like. Don't get me wrong, there seems to be proponents of all sorts of sounds out there that I don't understand. A great deal of the speakers I hear fall into that group. There seems to be a trend to what I feel are overly bright speakers now, I guess that has been going on for some time. Perhaps this is the same trend that you are pointing to in the Euro cartridge arena. Detail at the expense of all else? I like detail, I just don't want it shoved at me and force fed to me. I think the same may be going on with cables as well.