av2k

Responses from av2k

Cartridge for older Thorens TD 165C
Found something that improved the sound. I replaced the fancy aftermarket turntable mat with the original rubber mat and surprise! Sounds much better. Apparently, the greater thickness of the aftermarket mat negatively affected the VTA.I still bel... 
Cartridge for older Thorens TD 165C
Thanks for the response. I increased the tracking force to two grams which decreased the distortion to some degree. Shure recommends tracking at 1 gram which makes me think this is not the ideal match to the tone arm. The distortion I hear is simi... 
Hearing above 15kHz
Good point Mlsstl. I cound probably disconnect the ribbon tweeter in the Helicon and not notice any difference. But if the balance of the speaker sounds great, that's all that really matters.Perhaps, as mentioned above, we can sense quick rise-tim... 
Shouldn't the Bass be felt? Duh
You didn't mention your room size. If it's rather small, a good sub will help pressurize the environment. If you want to rock the house, then you'll need either the aforementioned monitors or a pair of large floor standers with a sub for each chan... 
Need an Entry Level Phono Preamp
Thought I'd try the Bellari after all. I haven't listened to tubes since my old LEAK preamp/amp. Gain is only 30dB but this should be OK for a 3.6 mV output Shure V15 VMR.With only 250 LPs I'm not sure if I'll need to go upscale from here, unless ... 
Need an Entry Level Phono Preamp
I heard back from Bryston about a phono stage for the BP25. They do the mod at the factory for $600 plus shipping costs. That seems fair but I just had my BP25 serviced and tested in July. It's perfect. I'd rather not part with it at this point. S... 
Need an Entry Level Phono Preamp
I don't believe Bryston has a phono board for the BP25. I checked their website and couldn't find anything.At the moment, I have my Shure V-15 VMR installed in my old Thorens TD-165. The question is to try tubes or go SS in a phono stage. Does any... 
Need an Entry Level Phono Preamp
Thanks so much for the feedback! Before I make a move I'll check to see what Bryston has in the way of a phono board. 
Vincent Products
Thank you all for the input. My plan would be to use the Vincent CD-S1.1 as a CD transport for my Benchmark DAC1 and listen to HDCDs via the Vincent's hybrid output on balanced outputs.I gave up on finding a good used HDCD player with balanced out... 
Electrical properties of cables
Gregm,Thank you for the advice. I'm looking into a new set of Neutriks XX series to do just that. There is too much clearance in the female end of the vdH connectors. Hope this upgrade works. 
Electrical properties of cables
I finally measured the output of the Benchmark and found at full gain it puts out approx. 21 Vrms! This makes sence when you consider dBu = 20Log(Vrms/.7746). That's very high (for professional applications driving an amp without a preamp) when yo... 
Electrical properties of cables
I think my problem is more than a cable. I repeated this test by playing a 1kHz tone off a test disc through the Benchmark and into the Bryston. Everything sounded OK! Since I'm using the variable output on the Benchmark I tried increasing the out... 
Electrical properties of cables
I considered a cold solder joint when I checked for continuity from pin to pin on each leg. Everything checks OK. But your right, contact must have been compromised somewhere at the connectors. I'll have to e-mail Van den Hul.Thanks! 
Jitter issues with dacs....
According to Benchmark Media several months ago, the DAC 1 upsamples to 24/110 via Analog Devices AD1896. They planned to increase the frequency to 192kHz once they were satisfied with the sound. The unit I received two months ago was marked as a ... 
Organ CDs with really deep bass
There are many books written on pipe construction, some very technical. Take a look at the Organ Historical Society Website, www.ohscatalog.org. They have quite a few books available on-line. You might want to call them for a recommendation. A sub...