[arnaud]

One of the joys of having relocated to Japan: vinyl appears to be very popular here and it was rather easy to get my hands on a nice player and score new japanese pressings at a reasonable price.

I am totally green at this so I read a bit around here at Head-Fi (thanks Memepool and other vinyl addicts), vinyl asylum and the like. In the end, my significant other got me a nice Denon DP-1300mkII for xmas at close to half retail price. I paired it with a Denon 103-R, which I also got a great deal on. The preamp is likely the weak link in the chain (TC-760LC).

Well, well well. I did have some expectations getting into this. That's quite a bit of money right there and I could buy myself some nice CD player or DAC for that kind of money. But the fact is, NEVER has Radiohead sounded that good! Advocates of vynil are not joking when describing how realistic a soundstage (sooooo deep) vinyl can throw.

I also really expected to loose some extension at both ends of the spectrum. Bass slam exceeds what I get from the digital counterpart through the Opera DAC. The highs have actually much more texture / shimmer than through the Opera DAC. Of course the voices are super smooth and natural, it gets spooky.

Additionally, layers and layers of instruments can add up but there's never any sense of compression (I guess the results of good mixing?). You can track each and every instrument regardless of the rest, which can be tricky in digital rig. The overall experience is more natural to my ears, and combine with lots of dynamics (the amplifier does not fail to deliver here!), it is seriously inducing foot tapping syndrome!!

Best of all, I realized that many (if not most) of the records I listen to (Jazz, Rock) are being released or re-released in vinyl!

I have a feeling next year's quest will be toward a nicer phono preamp. Cause I feel the treble could / should be smoother for vinyl and I don't expect this cart to suffer from brightness. I paid attention to the tracking force so I believe it is set-up right. So, I think I will be looking for something transparent but not tinny sounding (which I suspect the current phono preamp does) while maximizing the soundstage potential of the player. I am thinking tube. Out here, the AudioSpace Phono-One is readily available: Line Amplifiers
But there is virtually no information / user reports available in the US. If any one has inputs...

happy listenings, arnaud.

Gear used:
- Digital: Mac, iTunes, lossless > Opera DAC (USB input)
- Amplification: Opera
- Headphones: Ultrasone Edition 9

Music:
- Radiohead: In Rainbows, HTTF, Kid A
- Ben Harper: Lifeline
- Rebecca Pidgeon: Retrospective
- Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
- Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
- Supertramp: Crime of the Century
- Jack Johnson: In Between Dreams
- Oscar Perterson: We Get Requests
- Coltrane: Ballads, Duke Ellington And John Coltrane, John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman
- Sonny Rollins: Way Out West

 

[dcstep]

Congrats on the great Christmas gift and a new direction in your audio hobby.

I don't know your particular phono preamp, but I couldn't be more pleased with my Pro-ject Tube Head. You really owe yourself a nice little tube phono preamp, whether it's Pro-ject or someone else. You can feed it directly into your headphone amp. If you've got a digital source also, then hopefully your headphone amp has more than one input. If not, you'll need to switch cables or buy a line-stage. Anyway, it's worth the effort.

My oldest daughter is a giant RadioHead fan, so I'll need to order their album. (Maybe not, she was so addicted to them that she blew hours every day on their forum. Hmm, sounds familiar

). Oh well, I'll do it, if only to hear for myself.

Enjoy,

Dave

 

[arnaud]

Hi Dave,
Thanks a lot for the advice on the preamp. I had actually my eye on the TubeBox as it is affordable when you compare to the rest of the crowd (on needledoctor website for example).

As for Radiohead, I am that fond of the latest album that I ordered a second DiscBox just for the LPs (as a backup)! I actually tried to get the vinyl only version in Japan but they mentionned that these were only 1LP, not 2. So I am assuming it's a 33RPM/1Disc version, not the 45RPM/2Discs of the boxset.

This album is really my favorite of them all. Beware, you daughter might get you to fly her to their next concert! Unless you're living near a big city, changes are you're gonna have to travel extensively as they've decided to reduce their footprint in terms of carbon emissions for the next concerts. I am just glad they're touring anyway as the only clean solution would have been to scrap the concerts...

Arnaud.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcstep /img/forum/go_quote.gif My oldest daughter is a giant RadioHead fan, so I'll need to order their album.

 

[jsaliga]

I use a TC-760LC with my Rega P7. I bought it a month after I purchased a Cambridge Audio 640P, and mainly did so because it was less than half the price. So I thought it would be fun to compare the two. After an intent listening comparison I decided to sell the Cambridge 640P and keep the TC-760LC.

A couple of months later I had a chance to buy a used Dynavector P75 MKII for $370 (they are $750 new) and I compared that to the TC-760LC. I ended up selling the Dynavector P75. So I think I am done with experimenting with phono preamps.

Now, it could just be that my 48 year old ears are a little tired and can't tell the difference. Or it could be that the differences are so small they aren't even noteworthy. I can't say for sure, but in either case I don't see myself using any other phono preamp for the foreseeable future.

--Jerome

 

[arnaud]

Hi Jerome,

I would tend to believe that the cost of a quality phono-preamp might need to jump significantly from the $100 Cambridge, NAD PP and the like (i.e our clone) in order to get to the next level. I can't speak for the Dynavector, but could it be it IS really entry level and thus has difficult time competing with the bargains mentioned above.

An other factor is probably the associated gear. When listening to my vinyls with the HD650s, I no longer feel the need for the same improvements. The HD650 when driven by the opera and built-in DAC sound really warm, almost treble deficient. When pairing that with the vinyl gear it becomes about perfect, as far as the treble is concerned (for dynamics, it's an other story). Now, when using the Ultrasone Ed.9, it's all good with the internal DAC as a source, but when switching to the phono, you can feel there's some artificial boost of the treble, or something similar that calls for improvements. The Ed. 9 are definitely more revealing cans but they're not tinny headphones so I can't help but think the Preamp might be a little bit "Hi-Fi" sounding.

But well, if I get to go through the same cycle as you did, I will definitely post back with an apologetic message!

Arnaud.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsaliga /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now, it could just be that my 48 year old ears are a little tired and can't tell the difference. Or it could be that the differences are so small they aren't even noteworthy. I can't say for sure, but in either case I don't see myself using any other phono preamp for the foreseeable future. --Jerome

 

[arnaud]

Quick report after 30 hours or so of play time. Well, I am going to take some comments back... I had been told that burnin time for the cart would be 30hours. I understood it as it's definitely a mechanical part that's doing the hard work so it's going to need a few hours to settle in the right course. But, really there was a drastic change after about 25 hours. In particular, records that would sound a bit bright previously have now smoothed quite nicely. And I don't think it's because of record wear as I played some only twice since I got the player!

Still, I feel like the phono preamp might be boosting the highs a tad too much, but really it's no longer an issue now that I have logged in 30 hours on the cart. I still can't believe how much detail you can extract out of such outdated audio format!

Supertramp's Crime of the Century: the old CD version I had plainly sucks in comparison. Depeche Mode's remastered Music for the masses, DITTO. U2's remastered Joshua Tree, DITTO. But, never has money gone so fast in records purchase... Gotta stop subscribing to Acoustic Sounds and Elusive Disc's newsletter

 

[derekbmn]

Congrats !
I see you have found the little secret to really opening up the Senns-Vinyl.
I have been simply amazed at how the 580/600 and 650 sound in well thought out vinyl rigs. They were seemingly made for each other.

Ahhh yes and the other little secret you have found- Supertramp.
Yes if you haven't heard Supertramp on vinyl than YOU HAVE NOT HEARD just how amazing they are..... I'm SERIOUS. I have been spinning "...Famous Last Words..." ALOT lately and love it.Big Supertramp fan here.

It's great too see you are enjoying it so much !

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnaud /img/forum/go_quote.gif my significant other got me a nice Denon DP-1300mkII for xmas at close to half retail price. I paired it with a Denon 103-R, which I also got a great deal on....

nice one. Denon don't even export that model so it's only available in Japan I think. DENON - ƒfƒmƒ“ - Premium Audio Brand [ PRODUCTS/»•iî•ñ/ƒŒƒR[ƒhƒvƒŒ[ƒ„[/DP-900MII ]
I'd love to know how it compares to the Technics as it's one of the few Japanese direct drive turntables still being made.

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by derekbmn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ahhh yes and the other little secret you have found- Supertramp. Yes if you haven't heard Supertramp on vinyl than YOU HAVE NOT HEARD just how amazing they are..... I'm SERIOUS. I have been spinning "...Famous Last Words..." ALOT lately and love it.Big Supertramp fan here.

Thanks for the response! But now, you gonna have to tell me where you get your Supertramp LPs! Apart from Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America, it doesn't seem to be accessible. If only they were to release some 200g pressings from Japan like Universal has been doing recently with other records!

arnaud.

 

[arnaud]

The technics is widely available here but contrary to the us, you seldom have a 30 day return policy in Japan so I am not going to be able to address your question Memepool.

The street price of the Denon is close to 4 times that of the Technics so I sure hope it performs better. Well, the DP1300 surely looks nicer (the DP500 looks really cheaply made in comparison).

I had read that the 1300 was coming to US market in 2008 though? If I have not read that here, it must have been on Audiogon or Vinyl Asylum.

Arnaud,

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool /img/forum/go_quote.gif nice one. Denon don't even export that model so it's only available in Japan I think. DENON - ƒfƒmƒ“ - Premium Audio Brand [ PRODUCTS/»•iî•ñ/ƒŒƒR[ƒhƒvƒŒ[ƒ„[/DP-900MII ] I'd love to know how it compares to the Technics as it's one of the few Japanese direct drive turntables still being made.

 

[derekbmn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnaud /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the response! But now, you gonna have to tell me where you get your Supertramp LPs! Apart from Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America, it doesn't seem to be accessible. If only they were to release some 200g pressings from Japan like Universal has been doing recently with other records! arnaud.

Frequent searching at thrift stores and garage sales.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnaud /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had read that the 1300 was coming to US market in 2008 though? If I have not read that here, it must have been on Audiogon or Vinyl Asylum.

It's not currently available in Europe anyway which is a shame because it looks like a beauty. It's certainly more substantial than the Techincs SL1200at nearly 14kg