Ceramic phono stage anyone?

[steve s]

After playing around with the chip amps in the living room i tried the same cd in the px 25 system, that put an end to playing with chip amps for the moment as i revelled in what the px25 does...
The christmas break has left me feeling empty and i have the bug to do something else
So. after a couple of years of collecting various ceramic cartridges, i got around last night to finishing a pre amp stage for them.

I chap i know demo'd a few to me a few years ago and i was impressed.
Well impressed enough to do some research and buy a few cartrides,

I had started a build a while ago, last night i got it working and fitted a cartridge.

The cartridge i picked on was a sonotone 9ta hc, i have more than a few NOS

As usual after any new build the sound was cold and recessed, but after a couple of hours use it slowly came to life ...

I will probably regret saying this but I went to bed thinking it was better than my mid spec spu /ear 834 combo... The joy of a new build and how it affects your listening skills?...

The pre had far too much gain and hum (nothing new there?) i need to change the valves in it for much less gain, and add some more smoothing... But I can see its worth playing with.
Sound wise its very similar to the old Shure M3D i was playing with a few years ago and many will have heard, but much better tracking but not as full in the bass,
The arm needs setting up more accurately, and the work on the pre my help ?

But not tonight... All the best to you all

[Cressy Snr]

Sonotone 9TAHC,
Is that the sort of goldish coloured one that looks a bit like those Ortofon OM series cartridges but flatter and wider at the tip? Tracks at 3-5g?

I had one of those in 1973 if its the right one. It was in a Garrard SP25 MkIII turntable. It sounded nice and was the first cart I played DSOTM with.
I also had a Bib Groove-Kleen dust bug thing to go with it.

I thought I had the world.

[steve s]

Sonotone 9TAHC,

I thought I had the world.

I think you had,

To be fair this one is possibly in better company in terms of tone arm deck etc than yours in 73 ?
What amazed me was the sweetness, it is very musical

The reason i wanted to check out ceramics is the lack of gain needed in the pre
I tend to play all cds at the moment. My whole system has only gain two stages, when i tried the record player with the mc / phono (3 gain stages and a massive (what is in effect a tone control ) bass boost ) i could really hear the drop in quality,
the ceramics only need straight gain of around 10x. So have a head start in my book. And the high impedance is much more suited to valves.

[Paul Barker]

You are not alone.

I also really like the sound of ceramic carts. Who cares if they aren't flat across the reange. They exude life.

[steve s]

That was one of my concerns paul, its the upper bass thats the issue.
I swapped out the valves to lower the gain (ml4) the sound seemed to improve with those,

I need to sort out the the tone arm to make sure the cart is set to get the best from it.

[Paul Barker]

Sometimes the enjoyment is more important than the perfection of FR.

Using modern materials and electronics it is more possible to get the FR correct than it has ever been.

But when I used to go to the National Vintage Radio collectors Fair (or whatever it was called) I loved to hear the wind up 78 players with paper trumpets playing their raw imperfect impression of the 78 and WOW! What personal enjoyment that gave me. Leave your spectrum analyser at home!

I only bother to do any of this for my personal enjoyment now and don't make it to compete with anyone, to sell to anyone or to desire positive affirmations from anyone..

So I may well have a go too for the fun and enjoyment of it.

Is the Decca FSS Ceramic? Or is it moving iron? Looks too pricy though for a bit of fun.

[steve s]

So true paul,
Its about enjoyment.. And i enjoy playing around with what was the better stuff of the day, thats how i got into px4's ... Just trying things out

The fss is not ceramic, to me its closer sound wise to a shure v15 than ceramic i have a decca blue..
I have a few decca derams and a complete arcos hi light tone arm with modified deram cart, they are next in the list but i'll see how i get on with the sonotone
The daughter has a few local gigs this weekend so im quite a busy roadie and time is in short supply

[steve s]

Lesleys been out tonight so i have a good listening session,

I had a bit of a messing getiing the tone arn to line up and track ok

This is a high compliance version but still needs 2-4 grams to keep it in the grove.its running at 2 3/4 at the moment.. Its on the edge though

I had it a FR light alloy headshell but moved it onto a heavy AT headshell, it seems to track better and getting the cart more level by spacing has brought up the bass up a little
Sound wise there are some beautiful mids and top end,.. very clear and silky smooth , as good a sound as I've head from my record player.. Well that i can remember anyway ?
But some odd tracks just dont seem quite right, the bass is really good on some records but others dont quite cut it..
Im listening to KD lang (thanks simon) and its really fantastic, but the beetles red album did not sound so good in comparison, where my cd version is is very good
Tracy chapman, susanne vega and eddie reader have all been very good too
To be honest im a little mixed up, i could really do to put the spu back in to try but it so much hassle i cant really be arsed tonight

But at least its still in and i can live with the sound i have at the moment, so thats promising. I picked this 'new' old cart up for £5 and comparing it to a£1.2k spu is not what i expected through

[simon]

Im listening to KD lang (thanks simon)

You're welcome, Ingenue's a lovely album glad you're getting some enjoyment from it.

Interesting stuff. That it even competes with a spu is encouraging.