@rauliruegas , I am as neurotic as you are and do my best to choose the best performing equipment I can given the information I can obtain. Channel D lists the Seta L's A weighted SNR at 71 dB down but 67 is still better than the Boulder's 64. However, look at that Seta L20! But the sad fact of the matter is that vinyl is inherently imperfect and generally much worse than the equipment we use to "read" it. So, I would not be so harsh on lewm. It is just a different way of viewing the same problem. Ours is also perfectly valid, neurotic but valid.
Phono Stage upgrade to complement Dohmann Helix One Mk 2
Thanks to the recommendations from many users on this Audiogon blog, I think I was able to make a more informed purchase of a turntable, the Dohmann Helix One Mk 2. I've really been enjoying the turntable for the past month!
The next phase of my system now needs attention: the phono stage. Currently, I'm using a Manley Steelhead v2 running into an Ypsilon PST-100 Mk2 SE pre-amplifier (into Ypsilon Hyperion monoblocks, into Sound Lab M745PX electrostatic speakers).
I've been told that I could really improve my system by upgrading the phono stage from the Manley Steelhead (although I've also been told that the Manley Steelhead is one of the best phono stages ever made).
Interestingly, two of the top phono stages that I'm considering require a step-up transformer (SUT). I'm not fully informed about any inherent advantages or disadvantages of using an SUT versus connecting directly to the phono stage itself.
I suppose my current top two considerations for a phono stage are the Ypsilon VPS-100 and the EM/IA LR Phono Corrector, both of which utilize an SUT. I don't have a particular price range, but I find it hard to spend $100k on stereo components, so I'm probably looking in the $15k - $70k price range.
Thanks.
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“Harsh”? Harsh would be if I were actually “imagining “ the RIAA issue, and by the way I said nothing about S/N ratio. I suggest to Raul that he read up on the history of the RIAA correction. Do you think RCA and Columbia LPs adhered to the exact same spec and with the same accuracy, once they both finally adopted RIAA? That level of perfection was not even required by the NAB, which is the reason I quoted the +/-2db spec. Plus, I was not arguing that it is not a good idea for a modern phono stage to be very accurate, only that at some point quibbling over hundredths of a db becomes mental masturbation. |
Dear @drbond : Whatever be your phono stage decision you have to think that with stand alone phono stage units as the FMA the next stage where the signal must goes is a line preamps and you need at least the same quality design levels for that signal been quality preserved.
In the other side and is only an opinion and knowing very well your speakers it's a must to change your amplifiers for those Soundlabs great speakers really shines as never before.
You don't need to buy a boutique amplifiers, my recomendation is to go for the JC1+ monobloks. I listened Soundlabs/JC1s and are outstanding mate and the JC1+ set you back almost ten times lower price that your today monoblocks:
https://parasound.com/jc1+.php R. |
That is not at all how the curve was specified by RIAA or any of the standards organizations. It’s possible that some manufacturers allowed this tolerance, but it would have been a pretty sloppy tolerance, even then.
None of that has anything to do with the RIAA curve, which is applied pretty much at the end of the chain, just before cutting the disc. Any errors in microphones or recording equipment would be corrected as needed in the mixdown and mastering, before the RIAA curve is applied. |
I did not mean to imply that +/-2 db was the actual permissible margin for error back in the late 1950s. But I did search for that sort of information, and in the course of that search this is the only number I could come up with. In my last two posts I tried to make it clear that I was not claiming that the error was precisely that wide which I agree is unlikely to be the case. My only point is that when you are arguing over hundredths of decibels with respect to RIAA, in comparing one phono stage to another, eventually you get to the point where tiny differences could make no audible difference, and I still maintain that LPs from the early era and maybe up till now from different manufacturers will themselves exhibit different levels of adherence to the RIAA curve. And I would posit that such differences exceed +/-0.1db, which I think is probably as good as you ever need in a phono stage. |
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