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Cartridge and step up / riaa for TW Acustic Raven

Hi!

I hope you all are well :)

If everything gets together I will buy a TW Acustic Raven One with a Graham Phantom II in the new year. The next step is to buy a cartridge and phono amp.

My equipment consist of Wilson Sophias II, Burmester 032 integrated amp, Burmester 061 cd player, Nordost Tyr interconnects and speaker cables, Thor powerdistributor with Nordost Brahma powerlines. In addition to this I have a Revox B77 mk2 reel to reel player.

The Burmester sound is in many ways similar to McIntosh, but slightly more on the ying side. The sound is clear and open, with a wonderful mids. The treble is smooth and detailed. The bottom is dynamic and deep, but more running with the flow than with a slam. The bigger 911 mk3 amp is more detailed in the bottom. But the price level is different too.

So I have to combine a cartridge and phono amp to this. I play all kind of music, since I am both is a talent buyer for rock pop festivals and a consultant for the national arts council regarding music (all kinds). So I listen a lot to music through the week.

I like dynamic open detailed open sound, but I do not like it overly analytical if that means too much forward in its presentation.

I like the sound in my system at the moment. However, I have to do something with my listening room, but thats another story. Its an ongoing process as we know!

My budget at this point will be approx. USD 3,000 for the phono amp and USD 1,500 for the cartridge. Maybe step later on.

The dealer of TW Acustic has reccommended Koetsu and Air Tight.

Thanks for your help!

Cheeers, ToffenG

toffeng
toffeng OP
41 posts
 
Hi!

Thanks! Have any of you listened to PS Audio GCPH Phono Preamplifier? It has received very good reviews and the price in Norway is not bad at all. And its versatile too.

Cheeers, ToffenG
axelwahl
788 posts
 
Toffeng,
yes I had a GCPH a while ago for some two odd years when I sold it again --- and it is good value for money no doubt.
You will have to spend quite a bit more $$$ (in my estimate as some others have it) in order to get better, --- and as always there is of course.
Also, as you say it is a rather convenient unit.
The "B" rating by Stereophile goes fine in my experience.
Axel
larryi
1,972 posts
 
Toffeng,

No I have not heard the GCPH. I should add another comment about the Aesthetix Rhea. The dealer who had the unit in did not do any swapping of tubes, so I probably did not hear the Rhea at its best. I don't know of a single piece of tube gear that did not require some experimentation with tube choice to match a particular system and to otherwise be at its absolute best. It is impractical for a manufacturer to use anything but current production tubes (availability and ease of supplying replacements), and it does not make sense to supply expensive tubes when the particular system needs of each customer will vary significantly. This is the inherent nature of tube gear.

I am sorry if I gave too negative an opinion about the Rhea. I should know better after hearing so many tube stages that dramatically improved with a different set of tubes (e.g., the Tron phonostage, Hovland phono stage built into their linestage). My own phonostage (Viva Fono) sounds very different too, depending on tube selection.

Of the solid state stages I've heard that are not way up there in price, I would suggest looking into the Tom Evans stage. I only heard it briefly, but it sounded pretty good. I've heard the not too expensive top of the line Sutherland phonostage. It sounded reasonably smooth and musical, but, I thought it was a touch dynamically polite with a cartridge which is far from that (Lyra Titan).
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Dear Toffeng, The GCPH is a bargain at its price, but IMO you should look higher up the ladder for both your phono stage and your cartridge, to do justice to your state of the art turntable and tonearm. As regards the phono stage, you need to decide whether you want to introduce a tube component into your otherwise all-transistor system. I think it would be wise to do so, because your system would seem to lean to the "lean" side in terms of sonic qualities. (You say that yourself, and I would agree.) Finally, I would also urge you to think hard about choosing a true balanced phono stage for use with what will likely be a low output moving coil cartridge. There are sound reasons for doing so, if you will pardon my pun. High quality balanced, tube phono stages include the Atma-sphere MP1, the balanced version of the Einstein, and the Aesthetix Io. You could not go wrong with any of these, based on my own experience. (I currently own an MP1.) If you want to stay all-transistor, I suggest you consider the (balanced) Ayre P5Xe, which I would place above the GCPH but which is not in the megabuck region for cost. For a cartridge, the arguments for one vs another are endless and boring. Just choose a good one based on a consensus of opinions, and start from there with the realization that you will probably want to try more than one before you reach Nirvana. For this reason, second-hand cartridges bought from reliable persons are a good way to go.
rushton's avatar
rushton
2,430 posts
 
Toffeng, you asked about Aesthetix phono stages and received one comment. I'll add a different perspective. I'm an Aesthetix Io Signature owner so I have a definite bias. With that understanding, I will say that I consistently find both the Aesthetix Io and the Aesthetix Rhea exceptionally well balanced and very natural sounding devices for listening to acoustic music. The Signature versions of both are worth the additional cost, but the basic units are still excellent.

I'm listening to the Io Signature now in my own system after spending the afternoon listening to an Aesthetix Rhea (non-Signature version, stock tubes) in a friend's system. In his system, we kept moving back and forth between the Rhea and another well regarded tube phono stage. The Rhea consistently sounded, to all of us, more true to the timbre of the instruments and delivering more extended and complex harmonic overtones. It simply sounded more natural and more involving.

Good luck in your search.
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