Today is August 5th - the EAR MC-4 finally arrived! Hoorah!
I had a chance to insert the MC-4 into my system and change my phono stage by re-setting the resistance back to the stock 47kohms and switching to MM mode. The results - dead quiet.
Now, the line stage still needs to be up around the same gain value for similar volume levels as before - I didn't "gain" any additional gain, if that made any sense. I swapped out 20 dB of JFET for 20 dB of EAR MC-4.
The difference is that I replaced a 1994 year old JFET (Bill Thalmann completely modded the phono stage, but, of course, did not replace the 15 year old JFET) with a 2009 SUT. Very quiet.
Another very welcome, but unexpected benefit is that the sound is markedly improved. I realize it is trite and overused, but it is as if a "veil" has been removed. Listening to just a few albums suggests a more natural sound, as if I was present at a concert.
While I had no intention of buying an SUT and did not want to spend the $$, I am very pleased with the purchase and cannot speak highly enough of EAR's work and Tim de Paravicini's absolute attention to customer service and build quality.
Brent
I had a chance to insert the MC-4 into my system and change my phono stage by re-setting the resistance back to the stock 47kohms and switching to MM mode. The results - dead quiet.
Now, the line stage still needs to be up around the same gain value for similar volume levels as before - I didn't "gain" any additional gain, if that made any sense. I swapped out 20 dB of JFET for 20 dB of EAR MC-4.
The difference is that I replaced a 1994 year old JFET (Bill Thalmann completely modded the phono stage, but, of course, did not replace the 15 year old JFET) with a 2009 SUT. Very quiet.
Another very welcome, but unexpected benefit is that the sound is markedly improved. I realize it is trite and overused, but it is as if a "veil" has been removed. Listening to just a few albums suggests a more natural sound, as if I was present at a concert.
While I had no intention of buying an SUT and did not want to spend the $$, I am very pleased with the purchase and cannot speak highly enough of EAR's work and Tim de Paravicini's absolute attention to customer service and build quality.
Brent