Jlegg

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Damn I'd do that Hot Water Music 4xLP for under $30 shipped with the code if it still worked. Here's to hoping for another one soon...

Code MUSIC7IL38 for 20% off puts it at $29.33 shipped.

That's no good. I've read applying a little downward pressure to the clamp before tightening the top part helps.

I'd really like to see a picture of this. From what I am imagining, though, clean your records before playing?

I wish this would hurry and ship already! Oh, and ordered the red and the black, because reasons.

I grabbed a black/black J.A. Michelle clamp from eBay, same seller in sure, at $62.90 shipped. I have one record that I paid $130 for and I recieved it with a bowl warp. "NM" lol... It'll be the first record I try out with this clamp.

It seems there is a lot that needs to be done to these for optimal quality. How hard is it all for someone with next to zero soldering experience? Tube audio has peeked my interest lately. Is the newer version any better on the voltage? The old ones seems to be quite a bit high, according to some other forums talking about it.

My soldering experience with electronics before getting this thing was very minimal. What I did was purchased it and used it for a bit while I waited on my materials to come in. In the mean time I practiced soldering. I watched a few videos and just generally messed around with a cheap soldering iron and some old equipment that was broken for practice. This gave me time to get familiar with the sound of the amp and allow for a little tube burn in.

The only things I've done that required soldering was replacing two capacitors, making a tube shield out of wire mesh, running a ground wire from the shield to the boards ground and soldering it in, and I made an adapter to be able to use an American rectifier tube. Aside from making the adapter, these were very very easy to accomplish.

Making the rectifier tube adapter is not necessary, or really even recommended by me.

As far as voltage, mine is a bit high. Within "acceptable" range at least. What should be 110 V reads ~117, so what 5-6% over. I'm certainly not an EE, but I don't think this affects much other than maybe shorten tube life? (I've tried reading about it, but have mostly came to the conclusion this was common with older tube gear)

A couple of the other mods from the past model are no longer required as far as I understand. The pin 9 ground has been done for us, as well as gain reduction (via an onboard switch), and the RIAA curve should be significantly better though I do not own the proper testing equipment to tell you with any certainty.

I learned a lot about electronics and tube audio since I've recieved this thing and continue to learn a ton so it has been really fun for me.

Just grabbed a JA Mitchell record clamp, to hopefully flatten out a few warped records I've gotten lately and to flatten out everything a bit better. It's a pretty interesting system, since it using it's screw mechanism instead of weight to keep the record flat against the platter. Hopefully my new mat arrives tomorrow so I can test it out, since my current mat has dots that will not work with the clamp.

I have been eyeballing one of those as well. I'm interested to see how it works out for you. I've read nothing but awesome things about them.

Someone on the audiokarma thread had a good idea for that. They use some of that cabinet lining, which is water repellent on the squeaky clean's platter, and wipe the water off between sides.

Ahhh. That is a good idea. Might have to go ahead and jump on it.

Clearly using a Spin Clean before this vacuum wouldn't hurt, and would only help.

 

Well, it seems like I would still have to dry it with towels after using the spin clean and before using this, because if not, the support for the record would get wet and so every time you flipped the record over the dry side would get again. 

 

I guess it certainly wouldn't hurt to use the spin clean process before, but if this is superior, why mess with the spin clean at all?

Yeah, but it's on sale. Normally its $399.95. At $349.95,you'd have to a moron NOT to jump on this.

I have been looking into getting a vacuum RCM for a little while and this seems like the best deal for the price. Might have to go for it.

I just wish I could still somehow make use of my spin clean in conjunction with it, but it doesn't seem feasible.

I'm on the fence about a yaqin ms-23b. It seems ideal but anyone familiar with it?

 

It has decent reviews from what I understand, certainly looks nicer than the Little Bear. With that being said, I believe it is a hybrid and not a true full tube preamp. I only found one link discussing the two.  http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=77932

I may hit you up and buy them from you if I get a preamp. Think it'd be an upgrade to the phono stage on my Marantz 2225?

I haven't had any experience with you're turntable so I can't give you a fully honest answer. What I can say is that any on board preamp I have heard has been pretty rubbish and in my experience a stand alone preamp is far superior to a built in turntable pre. I have heard some tube amo's with decent phono stages, but that's it.

I'm biased. I bought this preamp after reading a ton of positive reviews and think it is definitely the most bang for my buck out of every system component I have purchased. I wholeheartedly recommend it. If you can spring for the pro, do it. What I li about it so much is that I spent the same amount for a Music Hall preamp and it blew it out of the water out of the box. The cheap DIY upgrades just completely take it that much further.

If you do decide to go for it, I bought 8 extra caps, and am willing to send them out completely free of charge. If you want to cover shipping, that would be great, but certainly not necessary. What's a few bucks, you know? And that goes for anyone here with this preamp. I even have some extra materials to help you along with some of the other mods. Just pm me and we can work something out.

It's not shipping costs, even though they are bad, as much as it is our dollar right now.  A $75USD used preamp + shipping ($15~) would turn into $120 CAD.

Ahhh, I see. Seems like the most logical thing to do is just move to America...

Living in Canada changes everything though.  If Amazon Prime Canada doesn't carry it, it won't be cheap for me.

Hmm. What about stuff from eBay? How much more is it to ship stuff from America to America, than America to Canada would you figure?

Grabbed that for $22 with 2 day shipping off Amazon.ca just to use until I get around to getting a better one.  Thanks.  I found some old Harman Kardon speakers in my parents crawl space that they said I could take and pair with the HK receiver.  I think they are the HKTS 7 model.  As long as they make a sound, they'll do find until I find a better set/can afford a better set.

I've heard that pre and it definitely does the job(it does what a pre amp is supposed to do, maybe poorly, but it works), but there are way better used pre's you can find for not much more. Music Hall has the PA 1.2 for $175, which is way over priced, but certainly way worth it if you buy used for like $75 or so.

I'd rather take an ass kicking than watch an anime.

Come on, mate. There is some pretty decent anime out there. There's way more shitty anime, but if you can get into any tv show you can surely get into a few series that are out there.

What's the cap change do?

I couple of things actually. First I noticed a reduction in hum. Not as drastic as some of the other things you can do on the cheap to improve this amp if you are into DIY, but it was significant.

Second, I noticed a significant improvement in clarity between each instrument. The pre amp itself represented a huge improvement over my last preamp in this department, but changing out those caps took it to another level. I feel like I can hear each individual instrument separate from the recording as a whole, if that makes sense.

I definitely notice it more on some of my better mastered records, but it was definitely worth the $5 I put into that particular improvement.

I guess it's been about a month and a half since I recoeved mine and still love it. I rolled the tubes with some Russian military grade just because it was cheap and I'm happy with them.

Big enhancement for me came from changing out the input stage capacitors. I changed them out with some Russian paper in oil caps. I very highly recommend if you have any sort of electrical inclination at all and can operate a soldering iron. They are pretty cheap, but take forever to come in from Russia.

If anyone is interested in the capacitor change I bought plenty extra and wouldn't mind sending a few out to whoever wants them. I can even send a how to.

Speed box sold. Still have preamp, less than a year old.

"Seriously can let these go pretty cheap, make an offer" bump

Saturday morning bump.

I thought to myself, why in the hell would anyone want a Relient K album, but then I realized they were once nominated for a Grammy for "Best Rock Gospel" and I was still left wondering why anyone would want any of their LP's.

I like the nearly $8 shipping for a lot of the 45's. Pretty slick.