[Rob N]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jatinder Hi Rob, It's a SME 20 (upgraded to 20/2) with a gold selected SME V arm and an Ortofon Jubilee MC needle, cardas wired tonearm, siltech phono-cable feeding a Clearaudio symphono phono stage. Sounds wonderful. Requires no maintenance to speak of - but I really never was very adept at placing the needle on the record etc. --Jatinder

Impressive.

How much better is the cardas and Siltech wiring compared to the standard? Is the siltech phono cable a custom build?

I have an SME IV and will be looking into getting a new phono cable for it at some point in the future

 

[jatinder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob N Impressive. How much better is the cardas and Siltech wiring compared to the standard? Is the siltech phono cable a custom build? I have an SME IV and will be looking into getting a new phono cable for it at some point in the future

Hi Rob,

I "believe" that the cardas/siltech wiring is much better than the standard - although I haven't gotten round to listening to a completely standard model.

The siltech phono cable is a Siltech PH8 I think - a standard DIN-plug to RCAs & ground. It certainly looks good - and yes, was an improvement over the cable that was there.

--Jatinder

 

[Kieran Comito]

Quote:

Originally Posted by agile_one Excellent point, KC, and you cut right to the crux of the argument. My answer is, "No". I will keep my R10's and L3000's to capture the soul of all those many old recordings made prior to the industry's ability to do better (think Elvis, Louis Armstrong, Mario Lanza, Caruso, Billie Holiday, Al Jolson, etc, etc - fill in your personal favorite here). But from the 90's going forward, I don't think it unreasonable to expect well engineered and recorded material. On the other hand, I am just now listening to a 1938 recording of Louis Armstrong doing "ST. James Infirmary" through SA5000's, and it is terrific. Source is a lossless rip to hd played through Chaintech AV710 to Audio Alchemy DDE 1.1 and Ray Samuels SR71 into the SA5K's. Believe it or not, I think the old school AA DAC plays a huge part in the magic.

Wow, you have the best of both worlds and plenty of options with the phones at your disposal.