First some corrections from my previous post. The source running the Perraux amp was a Denon, and not a Marantz as I first mentioned. Also, the
other Stax phone, was an SR-404, and not an SR-303 as I previously reported…..
OK, more impressions,
The vinyl Rig….
We had the chance to hear Hirsch’s Vinyl rig yesterday. It consists of the VPI Aries Scout, the JMW-M-9 arm, Dynavector 10X Gold L cartridge. In conjunction with the Xcan V2 phono stage hooked up to the Ear HP4 headamp. One of the beauties of this system is that allows 4 listeners out of the HP4: two from the low/two from high ampedance outs. Indeed great amp for meets. Headphones were HP2s, one pair with the std lab cable, the other with the UWR cable.
The turntable itself is “tweaked”: It sits on a dedicated table with a granite isolation platform. It has an aftermarket counterweight, with a lower gravity center, on the arm. It has been reported that these type of counterweights improve the bass and overall detail. I have not done an A/B, but plan to do it at some point in the future on my Rega P25, where a variety of aftermarket counterweights are available. I think I am trying the Expressimo first. Anyway, in Hirch’s rig, the vertical tracking force is correctly “enforced” on the cartridge in an ingenious way: since the Dyna cartridge low physical mass almost precludes the use of aftermarket counterweights. This issue has been resolved in newer versions of the Dyna, by the addition of a mounting metal surface that it is attached to the cartridge body contributing to the total cart mass. In the case of my Dyna 10 X5 it weights in at about 6.5 grms, I think earlier models like Hirsch’s are at about 4.6 grms. But Hirsch got around the low-mass cartridge issue using a material that, on first impression, looked like a
giant booger attached to the arm head to me. In fact the first time I saw the arm, I thought to myself, man it must take years of devoted practice to come up with such a
beast. My hopes of “tweaking” a turntable in such a way were then in dire-straights…. but gratefully Hirsch was quick to point out that the origin of the mysterious material in none other than a commercial source, similar to silly-putty (to my total relieve)
(j/k). I wish we had a pic to illustrate my comments
I brought over copies of Sigur Ros ( ) on vinyl and on CD. The idea was to do the comparison between the two sounds. Due to time constrains we never got to do this specific showdown. I must mention that this vinyl pressing of ( ) is know to be a noisy pressing (in fact Sigur Ros website does mention this fact). Anyway, other Sigur pressings are supposed to be just pristine sounding
, so I am trying to get my hands on one of those. So as choices to demonstrate the vinyl sound this is not perhaps the quieter pressing, but I think it did served the purpose, read further…...
Hirsch’s vinyl collection is in an outstanding condition, so we selected from other LPs which had virtually zero surface noise. Nice. As noticed by the guys, setting up a vinyl listening session does take a bit more preparation, as cleaning of the stylus, cleaning of the vinyl, shooting the Zerostat gun perhaps…. But I personally not find it an unbearable burden and the reward is well worth it. So we started with ( ), the fluidity of the music it is obvious right from the start, the layers of sounds that come into play during the album are readily identifiable as interlocking facets of a composition. The instrument separation is great. Then we switched to “Bonaparte’s Retreat” by The Chieftans. Here it was a joy to hear the flutes played with such detail. Performers gasping for air, clear sound of lips separating from the instrument, great nuance and detail. Percusion clearly spaced, separated. The voice comes in and knocks you right out of the seat: This is a great album in that many of the tracks are instrumental, deep in melody and meaning, but then all of the sudden there comes a voice when you least expected in some of the songs….. great album. Then we listened to Hendrix, great dynamism, guitar clear, one could envision the strings been plucked… again for me, instrument definition and soundstage are quite remarkable.
The VPI Scout presents an unchallenged warm, defined, detailed sound. In my Rega P25, I find an attack and level of dynamism that I cannot find on the VPI, overall a more upfront sound. However, I find the whole compositions, albums, present a more coherent picture on the VPI, instruments are well 3D-separated but there is a sense of sound-continuity on the image that it is remarkable. The sound is richer. Some would describe the VPI as a “darker”sounding TT, I see it as a warmer rig that intercalates the stage with outstandingly warm sound…..
