As it says on the tin
The first two things I need to say are;
1: LP's - yes those 12inch discs with a wiggly groove on each side that were supposed to be extinct, but never really went away, despite the onslaught of 'modern' technology.
2: Valves (or as our American friends say 'tubes') - yes those glowing glass bottles you thought were also extinct.
I'm very fortunate to have my own dedicated space to enjoy both music and films and although I call it 'The Shed' it is a rather substantial detached brick building at the bottom of the garden.
The source!
Well as stated above I'm firmly an 'analogue' die-hard and there is nothing better than getting the an LP out and putting it on the turntable, a quick clean, lower the stylus tip into the groove and wonder what on earth all the fuss is about digital - of course that is until the stylus jumps or you finally realise that the same LP you bought 40 years ago probably needs replacing. Then its time to 'get a new needle' but of course many quality cartridges don't have replaceable needles and you either have to send the cartridge away for exchange of join the waiting list for a 're-tip'! Now I will be the first to admit that if I was starting from scratch, then I probable wouldn't even consider a turntable and LP's, but the thing is I have a couple of thousand LP's and many contain music that may never be released digitally, so for me the turntable remains my first source of music.
The turntable itself is a German made Acoustic Signature Challenger, though mine is kitted out with three tonearms; an SME M2-12, a Roksan NIMA unipivot and the ubiquitous Rega RB300. Why three, well as stated above cartridges/styli do wear and some of my records are less than pristine so one arm holds a low priced budget cartridge, another a better one for better records and the third has a dedicated MONO cartridge at the moment. 04/2015 update - recently decided to see what all the fuss was about Ortofon SPU cartridges, so have added a forth arm (not for the first time) as this cartridges requirements are somewhat specific (higher mass arm, 4grm tracking weight...) will put some thoughts on this into the "What's going on" section later. Well it has been a number of years since I provided an update! See pictures in the Galleries under;
Random Audio Equipment Pictures
So the 'new' arm to replace the RB300 is a 12 inch Jelco, these are wonderfully made Japanese arms (made by the ICHIKAWA JEWEL CO., LTD and have been in continuous production for many years, so have a proven design pedigree. So my current line up for the three cartridge/arms is as follows;
Amplification:
Well as the turntable has three arms, I needed either three Phono pre-amplifiers, or on phono pre-amplifier that has three inputs and it this latter option I use in the guise of a Sugden Masterclass unit. This is the earlier incarnation with the thick almost art deco style faceplate. For the main amplification I use a selection of Bottlehead Kit units; the Quickie (battery) pre-amplifier, now superseded by the DHT Smash Paramour II mono-block power amps (no longer in production) which were all assembled by me and clicking on the highlighted names will take you to the build gallery(s) in the DIY Hi-Fi Builds section. The amplifiers are very low power direct heated Single Ended Triodes (SET) using 2A3 valves pumping out (a magnificent sounding) just over 3 watts - but linked to my speakers these can provide deafening levels.
Latterly, the Sugden phonostage has been replaced by a three input 'step-up transformer' with variable impedance settings and this now feeds my old Bottlehead Seduction phonostage - the very first valve based bit of DIY audio kit I ever made.
So the current line up is;
Speakers:
As with the amplification the speakers are hand made by me based on a design by Wayne Parham of Pi Speakers, the particular model mine are based on are the 7 Pi corner horns. These use a 15 inch bass unit, 10 inch for the mid-range and a 1 inch compression driver for the treble - all horn loaded and able to produce huge dynamic swings from the quietest orchestral passage through to the thunderous sections such as the canon shots in the 1812 overture (not that I listen to this at all). Once again clicking on the link will take you to the build gallery, where as I'm sure you can see these will never win any prizes for looks, just as well they sound so good and they don't get used in the main house!
As well as the above system I also run along side this a complete Quad 44 pre with FM4 (FM tuner) into a fully restored 405 mkII power amp which in turn powers a pair of vintage Videoton Minimax speakers - this is my background music system.
1: LP's - yes those 12inch discs with a wiggly groove on each side that were supposed to be extinct, but never really went away, despite the onslaught of 'modern' technology.
2: Valves (or as our American friends say 'tubes') - yes those glowing glass bottles you thought were also extinct.
I'm very fortunate to have my own dedicated space to enjoy both music and films and although I call it 'The Shed' it is a rather substantial detached brick building at the bottom of the garden.
The source!
Well as stated above I'm firmly an 'analogue' die-hard and there is nothing better than getting the an LP out and putting it on the turntable, a quick clean, lower the stylus tip into the groove and wonder what on earth all the fuss is about digital - of course that is until the stylus jumps or you finally realise that the same LP you bought 40 years ago probably needs replacing. Then its time to 'get a new needle' but of course many quality cartridges don't have replaceable needles and you either have to send the cartridge away for exchange of join the waiting list for a 're-tip'! Now I will be the first to admit that if I was starting from scratch, then I probable wouldn't even consider a turntable and LP's, but the thing is I have a couple of thousand LP's and many contain music that may never be released digitally, so for me the turntable remains my first source of music.
The turntable itself is a German made Acoustic Signature Challenger, though mine is kitted out with three tonearms; an SME M2-12, a Roksan NIMA unipivot and the ubiquitous Rega RB300. Why three, well as stated above cartridges/styli do wear and some of my records are less than pristine so one arm holds a low priced budget cartridge, another a better one for better records and the third has a dedicated MONO cartridge at the moment. 04/2015 update - recently decided to see what all the fuss was about Ortofon SPU cartridges, so have added a forth arm (not for the first time) as this cartridges requirements are somewhat specific (higher mass arm, 4grm tracking weight...) will put some thoughts on this into the "What's going on" section later. Well it has been a number of years since I provided an update! See pictures in the Galleries under;
Random Audio Equipment Pictures
So the 'new' arm to replace the RB300 is a 12 inch Jelco, these are wonderfully made Japanese arms (made by the ICHIKAWA JEWEL CO., LTD and have been in continuous production for many years, so have a proven design pedigree. So my current line up for the three cartridge/arms is as follows;
- Roksan NIMA with Decca London Grey (moving iron cartridge no longer in production but fully rebuilt by John Wright)
- SME M2-12 with Goldring Excel-GS (moving coil cartridge, no longer in production but fully rebuilt by Goldring)
- Jelco SA-750L with Ortofon SPU Classic NE (moving coil cartridge - current production)
Amplification:
Well as the turntable has three arms, I needed either three Phono pre-amplifiers, or on phono pre-amplifier that has three inputs and it this latter option I use in the guise of a Sugden Masterclass unit. This is the earlier incarnation with the thick almost art deco style faceplate. For the main amplification I use a selection of Bottlehead Kit units; the Quickie (battery) pre-amplifier, now superseded by the DHT Smash Paramour II mono-block power amps (no longer in production) which were all assembled by me and clicking on the highlighted names will take you to the build gallery(s) in the DIY Hi-Fi Builds section. The amplifiers are very low power direct heated Single Ended Triodes (SET) using 2A3 valves pumping out (a magnificent sounding) just over 3 watts - but linked to my speakers these can provide deafening levels.
Latterly, the Sugden phonostage has been replaced by a three input 'step-up transformer' with variable impedance settings and this now feeds my old Bottlehead Seduction phonostage - the very first valve based bit of DIY audio kit I ever made.
So the current line up is;
- The three cartridges into an Entre ET-100 Step-up MC transformer.
- Transformer to Bottlehead Seduction Moving Magnet Phonostage
- Phonostage to Bottlehead Smash Pre-amplifier
- Pre-amplifier to two Bottlehead Paramour 2A3 mono-blocks
Speakers:
As with the amplification the speakers are hand made by me based on a design by Wayne Parham of Pi Speakers, the particular model mine are based on are the 7 Pi corner horns. These use a 15 inch bass unit, 10 inch for the mid-range and a 1 inch compression driver for the treble - all horn loaded and able to produce huge dynamic swings from the quietest orchestral passage through to the thunderous sections such as the canon shots in the 1812 overture (not that I listen to this at all). Once again clicking on the link will take you to the build gallery, where as I'm sure you can see these will never win any prizes for looks, just as well they sound so good and they don't get used in the main house!
As well as the above system I also run along side this a complete Quad 44 pre with FM4 (FM tuner) into a fully restored 405 mkII power amp which in turn powers a pair of vintage Videoton Minimax speakers - this is my background music system.