"Working from home"
Well, everything did get set up Sunday afternoon. Some records were listened to and the cartridge was adjusted. I listened to quite a few records last night, trying to get acquainted with the new tonearm. The lows just seemed slightly more controlled, not quite the upgrade I had been hoping for. Anyhow…
I informed my coworkers that I'd be at home running "data analysis" today. Then I called up a friend of mine to play hooky… JD is a professional (read: employed) recording engineer, with a solid emphasis on software systems. However, I got him set up with a nice analog setup a couple of years ago that nicely compliments his computer driven station. We played records for about 2 ½ hours. First up were tracks 1 and 2 from the new Jack Johnson on the PSE. "Sleep through the static" is one of the best recordings of the year. We then threw on P3 by Portishead, and played "Magic Doors" and "Threads". The PSE had some obvious high end distortion on extended female shrieking. Not at all pleasant. Somewhere between ear splitting and "could you swab the blood out of me ear?"
We then fired up the TTVJHPP with the Sylvania's, and waited about 10 minutes for the tubes to warm up. Notably the ground jack and a volume pot was missing. I know it's a bit controversial, but I'm a pretty rabid reader of Arthur Salvatore. I follow his example, in that when I listen to records I don't want a phono preamp AND a linestage. It's a waste of extra interconnects, jacks, gain, and THEN a volume pot. I have one on my PSE, I have one on my Pass Pearl. If I want to listen to something else when I'm using the stand alone Pearl, I unplug my RCA's from the back of my amp, and plug something else in. My only other source is a Tuner, which also has it's own volume pot. [/rant]
We started with the same two Portishead tracks, or about 30 seconds of the first one. The sounds was pretty flat. The background was blacker, but it was completely monotone. JD pulled out the Mullards. "Let's put these in."
We waited another 10 minutes with the Mullards in… and the magic happened. P3 is a pretty lo fi album. Pure grit. The TTVJHPP smoothed out the vocals, while keeping the dirty feel. There was absolutely no high end distortion. It was purrdy. Jack Johnson went back on. What was beautiful warmth sounded overly tubey. The mid-bass had 'blossomed'. The sound was still magical, just a little too sweet.
In went Sabicas "The Rhythms of Spain" on Decca. The TTVJHPP (even the initials make the name too long) kept up with the maddening flamenco vs castanets in 'Taconco por Soleares.' The attack of the castanets was crystal clear, the fingers beating against the side wood echoed perfectly. I love this record, and the HPP handled it beautifully.
The last record of the afternoon was "A|Day|with|Art|Blakey|1961 Vol. 1" We listened front to back, smiling the whole time. The HPP did not disappoint, even when that random audience member starts trying to clap along at the beginning of moanin', but fails to even keep time. Thankfully someone hushes him and we're left with pure heaven.
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