[immtbiker]

You mean I wasn't super cool before? I am really bummed by this statement.

 

[shaizada]

It's easy to do things for oneself. It's actions that you do for the benefit of others that wins me over. 'nuff said

 

[Skylab]

That is a HECK of an offer on a REALLY nice cartridge!

 

[Audio Addict]

I would agree. I really like the Benz line of cartridges and the trade in policy is really tough to beat.

 

[immtbiker]

Larry and I worked out a deal that should benefit both of our audio needs!

Sort of makes up for the tougher times

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by immtbiker /img/forum/go_quote.gif Larry and I worked out a deal that should benefit both of our audio needs! Sort of makes up for the tougher times

I just can't believe how hard it was to work a trade, because you already have everything you could ever want or need!

So, I will get the new/used BENZ ACE RED cart installed either this weekend or Monday, and see how that goes. Thanks Aaron!

 

[immtbiker]

You're most welcome. It's better that it has a good home than sitting in a dusty corner. She sure is mighty purdy.

 

[tomjtx]

Well, my Nighthawk has over a 100 hrs on it now and is sounding great.

I'm too busy listening to go into all the audiophile detail ...............OK.................I'm lazy

I urge anyone considering a phono stage to give this a try.
I have heard way more expensive stages I don't like as well.

 

[Bones13]

I am in the midst of listening to this phono stage. It was burned in for 3 days prior to mailing to me, so I have about 100 hours on the one I am listening to also. I have not noticed any changes over the weekend that I listened to it.

A super piece of equipment, and its tiny.

Hard to think how much one would have to pay to get better.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

I got the BENZ ACE RED L cart installed today, and I only had a brief moment to listen before dinner tonight. I want to listen a little more later tonight if I can swing it.

The BENZ works well with any of the highest/loudest 4 gain levels on the Nighthawk, and I settled for two clicks down from max for now. It also seems to work with any loading, from 10 ohm to 47K ohm, while the Ortofon Blue only worked with 47K ohm and anything lower killed the high end. But I am finding 500 ohm might sound a little fuller, although 100 ohm and 1K ohm are good too. I need to look up the recommendations for that.

The dynamics or transients are better vs the Ortofon and there might be a little more depth of stage as well, but the BENZ is still somewhat new and only has about 5 albums on it. I still need to break it in before I can comment more fully. I'm hoping after 20-30 hours it will be broken in enough, but it will still take me a couple of weeks to get there, or more. So far I am liking what I hear better now, so I think this was a good move.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

I posted some of this in Rays vendor thread, but now that I have upgraded my cartridge to a BENZ ACE RED L (instead of Ortofon Blue M2) I can hear a much bigger improvement using the Nighthawk. It's been two days now of burning in the BENZ a couple of hours a day. Prior to the BENZ I was hearing the Nighthawk open up with burn-in using the Granite Audio phono preamp burn-in CD, and it wasn't making much in the way of changes by the time I installed the new cart (maybe 150-200 hours total on F-117 by then).

The Ortofon cart had to have been a bottleneck before, as the differences between my cheap GEMsound preamp and the Nighthawk were very noticeable but not huge. But with the BENZ ACE RED there is so much more musical information being pulled off the vinyl and revealed by the Nighthawk, which the GEMsound preamp just doesn't present to me at all. And, the GEMsound is less dynamic and less involving to listen to, even though with the Ortofon it sounded identical to an NAD PP2 preamp I had for 3 weeks. Now with the new cart, it's like comparing a $99 portable amp to a $1200 desktop amp.

I kept saying before that I wasn't all that excited about the effort of cleaning LPs and flipping discs for the sound that I was getting, but at least now I have better idea just how much more information is on the vinyl that I was missing.

I was into vinyl from the mid 70's (actually 1974 with Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen") to 1991 when my Harmon Kardon TT died. There was a 7 year overlap with owning CD's starting in 1984 when I got my first $800 Technics CDP when I graduated college (I won money in Vegas). So, I didn't bother to replace the dead TT because I liked the better signal to noise ratio and continuous 70 minutes of play with CDs. When the TT died I didn't have high enough resolution gear to appreciate the vinyl vs CD comparison, as my Quad ESL-57, MK Sub and Heathkit 250-watt amp were also gone, and I was driving Polk SDA CRS speakers with a 40 watt Kenwood (they really like a big room an a lot of power). With a Woo WES and Stax O2 Mk1 or HE60 (or ZDT with HD800) I am hearing every little detail.

I'm still unsure about how much I like cleaning LP's and flipping them over after 2-6 songs (depending on RPM and pressing). IF I hadn't also recently upgraded to a Perfectwave DAC which sounds beautiful with 24/96 hi-res downloads, I think the Nighthawk/BENZ combo would be on top vs my Digital Link III or mini-DAC, despite all the work involved to listen properly. I'm still afraid my TT rig will just be for show, or for showing off when I have someone over, and that it wont get used that much for actually enjoying my listening.

Regardless, Ray has a fantastic product here, which one must be aware is limited by the associated gear like cartridge, tonearm, turntable, interconnects, and vinyl - it seems to me that the better the cart or other gear is, the better the Nighthawk can show off what it is really capable of doing.

 

[Skylab]

Using a record-cleaning machine actually really solved that issue for me - no need to clean the records each time you play them. I clean them once when I get them, and then they are ready to be played anytime with no muss or fuss.

And when I am really sitting down to listen to music, it's actually kind of nice to play a whole album side at once

 

[Gopher]

is it possible to get a survey of cartridges you guys feel did particular well when driven by the Nighthawk?

I just sold off my Koetsu and am on the hunt. Using a Nagoaka MP-50 for now with a Soundsmith The Voice on order. I'm getting mighty curious about the Shelter cartridges though... a 901 or 90x may be calling my name.

 

[immtbiker]

What's your price range (and then of course, double it)?

 

[Gopher]

I don't really know. I guess I want to keep it under $2000 new or used, but don't necessarily want to max out budget. I want a dynamics and coherence--maybe a splash of warmth, but not at the sake of transparency (like in the case of the syrupy Koetsu I just kicked to the curb).

My strongest considerations have been: Dynavector XV1-S, Soundsmith "The Voice" and the Shelter 901.

I'm using a Nagoaka cartridge right now which is a pretty nice filler, but I haven't dialed it in 100% and suspect even if I did it wouldn't have the same magic as a real high end cart.

FWIW my table/arm is a Well Tempered Reference.