An Easter Egg for Vincenzo
- Thread starter A.N.T.
- Start date
Sure, that looks like a big power amp, this is a phono preamp.
Anyways, power consumption of phono preamps based on tubes is a lot more than this one, though... like at least 30-60 times more.
So, another good thing related to this Kora 3T phono preamp is that it delivers a tube-like sound but without needing all that power (and without the problem of regularly replacing the tubes which wear off).
In fact, this afternoon I played again Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" but listening to it quite loud and, hey, it was pure enjoyment!!!
I've listened to it while sitting in the sweet spot with my eyes closed and it was simply great!
I've never listened to this same vinyl LP in a so good way before! (and, of course, the best CD version of the same album doesn't even come close).
Cheers,
Vince.
Anyways, power consumption of phono preamps based on tubes is a lot more than this one, though... like at least 30-60 times more.
So, another good thing related to this Kora 3T phono preamp is that it delivers a tube-like sound but without needing all that power (and without the problem of regularly replacing the tubes which wear off).
In fact, this afternoon I played again Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" but listening to it quite loud and, hey, it was pure enjoyment!!!
I've listened to it while sitting in the sweet spot with my eyes closed and it was simply great!
I've never listened to this same vinyl LP in a so good way before! (and, of course, the best CD version of the same album doesn't even come close).
Cheers,
Vince.
an interesting (but obvious) update...
this phono preamp Alex made for me is for MM cartridges, and I do have/use a few different ones like:
Audio Technica AT-VM95 (it's nice that I can simply swap any of the needles of this series without needing to re-setup, since the alignment and the VTF is the same for them all and, at now, I own the green "E" elliptical stylus and the blue "C" conical stylus... will probably buy the red "ML" microline stylus or the brown "SH" shibata stylus for it, sooner or later)
Shure M97xE
Shure M92E (which I keep on a headshell where I've aligned the cart to only cover the area of 7 inches records, a trick which lowers tracking distortion by a lot, but if I go and play a 12 inch record at the external grooves, then outside of the 7 inches area, tracking distortion would be just high... so, this cart is used to play 7 inches only, and it mades a nice work on them!)
of course, any of these carts has its own sound but, till now, while swapping the "C" and the "E" stylus on the AT-VM95, I used to detect a few differences but not some truly substancial ones... i.e. the conical "C" needle is great to play older/slightly worn records because it's more forgiving and it has fuller bass but some less treble definition (treble details stay slightly on the back) while the elliptical "E" needle is a small bit less full on the bass but it has better treble definition (treble details are more in front)... anyways, not a day/night difference to clearly justify a marked preference so that, for example, the "C" conical needle (at its very low price point) results into an interesting buy.
But now, with this new phono preamp by Alex, I was listening with the "E" stylus and just now I switched to the "C" stylus and the kind of differences between these two needles are still the same BUT now the difference is noticeably more marked.
In my book, this simply means that this new phono preamp is considerably more revealing than what I was using before!
It's the same principle as when, i.e., you go and switch to a better cartridge/needle... i.e. a basic conical will make all records sound within a certain average sound and when you switch, i.e., to an elliptical one the better records will sound noticeably better while the less good records will be evidently less good... then the vinyl playback system got more revealing.
Btw, with this new phono preamp, not only the difference between different needles (even on the same cartridge body) are more evident but also the differences between vinyl records are more evident now... meaning that all of them sound better than before but the better one do sound simply awesome!
Anyways, I still didn't start experimenting with the bias knob, which I suspect it would need to be optimized for both different needles also when I am using the same cartridge body.
Cheers,
Vince.
PS: btw, I finally made the needle cable and attached the phono preamp to the 24V rechargeable battery.... it's a 24 V 6000 mAh LiFePO4 battery as shown at the beginning of this same thread... with a single charge, it will be able to keep the preamp on for a WHOLE LOT of hours.
this phono preamp Alex made for me is for MM cartridges, and I do have/use a few different ones like:
Audio Technica AT-VM95 (it's nice that I can simply swap any of the needles of this series without needing to re-setup, since the alignment and the VTF is the same for them all and, at now, I own the green "E" elliptical stylus and the blue "C" conical stylus... will probably buy the red "ML" microline stylus or the brown "SH" shibata stylus for it, sooner or later)
Shure M97xE
Shure M92E (which I keep on a headshell where I've aligned the cart to only cover the area of 7 inches records, a trick which lowers tracking distortion by a lot, but if I go and play a 12 inch record at the external grooves, then outside of the 7 inches area, tracking distortion would be just high... so, this cart is used to play 7 inches only, and it mades a nice work on them!)
of course, any of these carts has its own sound but, till now, while swapping the "C" and the "E" stylus on the AT-VM95, I used to detect a few differences but not some truly substancial ones... i.e. the conical "C" needle is great to play older/slightly worn records because it's more forgiving and it has fuller bass but some less treble definition (treble details stay slightly on the back) while the elliptical "E" needle is a small bit less full on the bass but it has better treble definition (treble details are more in front)... anyways, not a day/night difference to clearly justify a marked preference so that, for example, the "C" conical needle (at its very low price point) results into an interesting buy.
But now, with this new phono preamp by Alex, I was listening with the "E" stylus and just now I switched to the "C" stylus and the kind of differences between these two needles are still the same BUT now the difference is noticeably more marked.
In my book, this simply means that this new phono preamp is considerably more revealing than what I was using before!
It's the same principle as when, i.e., you go and switch to a better cartridge/needle... i.e. a basic conical will make all records sound within a certain average sound and when you switch, i.e., to an elliptical one the better records will sound noticeably better while the less good records will be evidently less good... then the vinyl playback system got more revealing.
Btw, with this new phono preamp, not only the difference between different needles (even on the same cartridge body) are more evident but also the differences between vinyl records are more evident now... meaning that all of them sound better than before but the better one do sound simply awesome!
Anyways, I still didn't start experimenting with the bias knob, which I suspect it would need to be optimized for both different needles also when I am using the same cartridge body.
Cheers,
Vince.
PS: btw, I finally made the needle cable and attached the phono preamp to the 24V rechargeable battery.... it's a 24 V 6000 mAh LiFePO4 battery as shown at the beginning of this same thread... with a single charge, it will be able to keep the preamp on for a WHOLE LOT of hours.
The more I listen to it, the more I do notice and appreciate its qualities...
This night I've played a first italian press of Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July" (1980) ... this vinyl LP, as many italian pressings, doesn't show any strong treble (actually it's a bit the opposite) BUT... playing it with the Kora 3T, it delivered a delicious warmth and smoothness and some VERY INTERESTING fast and musical bass frequencies... all things I had not really noticed so clearly before on this same vinyl LP!
Incidentally, I've also captured it on 24/96 digital and played the captured file on the computer and, hey, on my foobar2000's, I've never seen before the RMS/average meters moving so fast with the music... that's a nice confirm about what I had noticed by ears about the fast bass response... but the nice thing is that the bass are fast and warm at the same time! WOW!
Then, I've played again Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" and, hey, not only the typical wide soundstage of this wonderfully recorded album, but there were (IIRC, on the song "School") some shaker percussions which seemed to come far outside from the terrace I have in front of me... then from well behind my loudspeakers!
This night I've played a first italian press of Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July" (1980) ... this vinyl LP, as many italian pressings, doesn't show any strong treble (actually it's a bit the opposite) BUT... playing it with the Kora 3T, it delivered a delicious warmth and smoothness and some VERY INTERESTING fast and musical bass frequencies... all things I had not really noticed so clearly before on this same vinyl LP!
Incidentally, I've also captured it on 24/96 digital and played the captured file on the computer and, hey, on my foobar2000's, I've never seen before the RMS/average meters moving so fast with the music... that's a nice confirm about what I had noticed by ears about the fast bass response... but the nice thing is that the bass are fast and warm at the same time! WOW!
Then, I've played again Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" and, hey, not only the typical wide soundstage of this wonderfully recorded album, but there were (IIRC, on the song "School") some shaker percussions which seemed to come far outside from the terrace I have in front of me... then from well behind my loudspeakers!
In fact, day by day, vinyl record by vinyl record, I am discovering more and more NICE surprises!
The first night I had powered it on and tried it, the very first thing which jumped to my ears was the ability to render the "attack" of the sounds/instruments in a much stronger but, at the same time, natural/lifelike and pleasant way... like removing a blanket from the recording itself (not simply from the loudspeakers but just from the source recording) and getting closer to the live instruments playing in the room. (playing instruments since my childhood, it wasn't difficult to detect this).
And, on the first impressions of the other night, in particular, the sound of the acoustic piano was so real that I doubt I had ever listened to it like that on ANY recordings before... it was the closest thing to listening directly to the old guy at the first picture of this post of mine , which is the very first instrument I've started to play as a child (must have it properly tuned, sooner or later, so that I can finally restart playing it after a few decades).
Cheers,
Vince.
The first night I had powered it on and tried it, the very first thing which jumped to my ears was the ability to render the "attack" of the sounds/instruments in a much stronger but, at the same time, natural/lifelike and pleasant way... like removing a blanket from the recording itself (not simply from the loudspeakers but just from the source recording) and getting closer to the live instruments playing in the room. (playing instruments since my childhood, it wasn't difficult to detect this).
And, on the first impressions of the other night, in particular, the sound of the acoustic piano was so real that I doubt I had ever listened to it like that on ANY recordings before... it was the closest thing to listening directly to the old guy at the first picture of this post of mine , which is the very first instrument I've started to play as a child (must have it properly tuned, sooner or later, so that I can finally restart playing it after a few decades).
Cheers,
Vince.
Today, I've spent the sunday afternoon and evening while playing some vinyl, something like 7-8 LPs... (yes, listening to vinyl on this preamp is like a drug as it makes you heavily addicted! )
Anyways, this time I put back the inexpensive blue "C" conical needle on the AT-VM95 cart, because I wanted to play a few of those worn/damaged LPs I had bought when I was 6 or 7 years old and which, back then, were mishandled, misused and played almost to death on a very old (late 50's) big portable Motorola stereo turntable, all made with tubes, but with one of those heavy metal tonearms and nasty double-face plug-in needles... and God only knows how many times I had flipped the needle to the 78 RPM side and put it on a microgroove record?
Funny that I've found a video at youtube of the exact same model, but mine had was light green, not brown... basicly, all of the vinyl records I've bought from age 6 to age 10, some more some less, got quickly worn to totally destroyed on that old Motorola trap which my older brother-in-law used to call "La Motozappa" (the motor hoe).
So, today I've selected a few of the "a bit less destroyed" LPs from my childhood and listened to them again, after 40 years (but I gave them a good clean, of course).
The cheap blue "C" needle of this cart turned out to be particularly forgiving on such worn grooves, even more than I expected (maybe, being a 6 mil conical, it touches the grooves at a less ruined place of those groove walls?) , but the preamp made of them a truly enjoyable listening... the instruments and voices brought back to life by the Kora 3T automatically made a lot easier to ignore the noises and occasional distortions due to the wear and the obvious scratches, because this time there is something much better than the noises asking for attention.... and it was nice to bring back my memories straight to my childhood by playing just these old LPs!
Then, this little great box named Kora 3T is turning out to be nice to also enjoy sub-par worn records played with an inexpesive conical needle!
Anything which gets processed by this phono preamp turns out to perform better than it should, including the stuff you would normally consider quite too basic (the inexpensive conical needle) or simply unplayable trash (the old and worn-out LPs from my childhood).
Keeping being deeply impressed...
But, tomorrow I should put back an elliptical cart and finally try to play Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" which, quite surprisingly, I still didn't try on this magic preamplifier.
Cheers,
Vince.
)Anyways, this time I put back the inexpensive blue "C" conical needle on the AT-VM95 cart, because I wanted to play a few of those worn/damaged LPs I had bought when I was 6 or 7 years old and which, back then, were mishandled, misused and played almost to death on a very old (late 50's) big portable Motorola stereo turntable, all made with tubes, but with one of those heavy metal tonearms and nasty double-face plug-in needles... and God only knows how many times I had flipped the needle to the 78 RPM side and put it on a microgroove record?
Funny that I've found a video at youtube of the exact same model, but mine had was light green, not brown... basicly, all of the vinyl records I've bought from age 6 to age 10, some more some less, got quickly worn to totally destroyed on that old Motorola trap which my older brother-in-law used to call "La Motozappa" (the motor hoe).
So, today I've selected a few of the "a bit less destroyed" LPs from my childhood and listened to them again, after 40 years (but I gave them a good clean, of course).
The cheap blue "C" needle of this cart turned out to be particularly forgiving on such worn grooves, even more than I expected (maybe, being a 6 mil conical, it touches the grooves at a less ruined place of those groove walls?) , but the preamp made of them a truly enjoyable listening... the instruments and voices brought back to life by the Kora 3T automatically made a lot easier to ignore the noises and occasional distortions due to the wear and the obvious scratches, because this time there is something much better than the noises asking for attention.... and it was nice to bring back my memories straight to my childhood by playing just these old LPs!
Then, this little great box named Kora 3T is turning out to be nice to also enjoy sub-par worn records played with an inexpesive conical needle!
Anything which gets processed by this phono preamp turns out to perform better than it should, including the stuff you would normally consider quite too basic (the inexpensive conical needle) or simply unplayable trash (the old and worn-out LPs from my childhood).
Keeping being deeply impressed...
But, tomorrow I should put back an elliptical cart and finally try to play Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" which, quite surprisingly, I still didn't try on this magic preamplifier.
Cheers,
Vince.
yesterday night, my (3 yrs older) brother came here and I've played some vinyl with this new magic phono preamp, which he hadn't listened yet.
I let him sit in the sweet spot and put the needle on a few songs he just knew well... and he was just IMPRESSED like I also did.
Moreover, after these few days the preamp is always on, I have the impression it got even better and it gained some more (and very welcome) bass which, now, it's both powerful, warm, fast and well controlled at the same time... WOW!
anyways, then I've played a couple cassettes as well and, after all these years my brother looks at my big collection of cassette decks without showing much intererest, he told "I should try to find a cassette deck to add to the HiFi system I have here below at my shop/laboratory".
Of course, my reply was... "what should you find? Do you see how many decks I have here? This one is yours!"
So, at now, I am making a new/fresh check/serviceing on a nice Technics RS-B555 which, since he needs it only to play his old cassettes (and new ones I'll record for him from my vinyl collection with this magic phono preamp), it's just what he needs... a truly nice sounding and reliable 2 heads deck.
I am just glad that, finally, he is starting sharing the cassettes passion with me again... because, when we were kids back in the old days, we always used to share and enjoy such kind of things together!
I let him sit in the sweet spot and put the needle on a few songs he just knew well... and he was just IMPRESSED like I also did.
Moreover, after these few days the preamp is always on, I have the impression it got even better and it gained some more (and very welcome) bass which, now, it's both powerful, warm, fast and well controlled at the same time... WOW!
anyways, then I've played a couple cassettes as well and, after all these years my brother looks at my big collection of cassette decks without showing much intererest, he told "I should try to find a cassette deck to add to the HiFi system I have here below at my shop/laboratory".
Of course, my reply was... "what should you find? Do you see how many decks I have here? This one is yours!"
So, at now, I am making a new/fresh check/serviceing on a nice Technics RS-B555 which, since he needs it only to play his old cassettes (and new ones I'll record for him from my vinyl collection with this magic phono preamp), it's just what he needs... a truly nice sounding and reliable 2 heads deck.
I am just glad that, finally, he is starting sharing the cassettes passion with me again... because, when we were kids back in the old days, we always used to share and enjoy such kind of things together!
actually, in the old days, we could enjoy a good piece of gear and the good sound but, about music, his tastes were too "easy" then he didn't like what i liked to listen and viceversa.
But, to my surprise, 3-4 yrs ago, he finally started to like some good old rock he never enjoyed before... one day he writes me a what's app message asking: "do you perhaps have the CD of Deep Purple's Made in Japan?"
My reply was: "no, but I have it on vinyl and, 30 yrs ago when you listened to that crappy house music, you heard it many times coming from my room but, hey, it's nice that finally at 50 yrs old you are starting to like it... better late than never" LOL
So, most likely, from now on we might also finally share some music tastes as well, even if i know the most "difficult" things i use to also listen myself might still be a bit too much for him...
Anyways, seeing him discovering, i.e., the Deep Purple at 50 by himself was funny (I listened to them when I was around 15)....
For a possible next step further, I will record some early Black Sabbath on tape for him... my first USA press of Black Sabbath's first album on green WB labels always sounded terrific but I still need to check it again with the new preamp... it might sound just incredible now... like having the band playing in my room even more than before.
But, to my surprise, 3-4 yrs ago, he finally started to like some good old rock he never enjoyed before... one day he writes me a what's app message asking: "do you perhaps have the CD of Deep Purple's Made in Japan?"
My reply was: "no, but I have it on vinyl and, 30 yrs ago when you listened to that crappy house music, you heard it many times coming from my room but, hey, it's nice that finally at 50 yrs old you are starting to like it... better late than never" LOL
So, most likely, from now on we might also finally share some music tastes as well, even if i know the most "difficult" things i use to also listen myself might still be a bit too much for him...
Anyways, seeing him discovering, i.e., the Deep Purple at 50 by himself was funny (I listened to them when I was around 15)....
For a possible next step further, I will record some early Black Sabbath on tape for him... my first USA press of Black Sabbath's first album on green WB labels always sounded terrific but I still need to check it again with the new preamp... it might sound just incredible now... like having the band playing in my room even more than before.
Just finished overhauling the Technics RS-B555 for my brother (also replaced the head with a new one) and I am just satisfied, to the point that I would be tempted to keep it for myself (joking... I am just HAPPY to give my brother something which sounds just GOOD).
Also, I've recorded a cassette to give him together with the deck (the first of a long series of recorded cassettes) , sourced from vinyl with this magic Kora 3T preamp, this time powered with the rechargeable battery (first tape I've ever recorded with this preamp)... it's a nice Sony UX-S from 1988-89 and my trusted ANT-modded Technics RS-B965MF made a WONDERFUL job on it... Then I've played it on my brother's RS-B555 and it sounds simply GREAT! Must definitely record an identical one for myself, too.
I guess my brother will be just IMPRESSED by the deck with this recorded cassette... and all of this is just because of the Kora 3T preamp which acts just like a sort of Mida's touch! How could I wait all these years before getting it? It's a true game changer in my whole HiFi system!
Also, I've recorded a cassette to give him together with the deck (the first of a long series of recorded cassettes) , sourced from vinyl with this magic Kora 3T preamp, this time powered with the rechargeable battery (first tape I've ever recorded with this preamp)... it's a nice Sony UX-S from 1988-89 and my trusted ANT-modded Technics RS-B965MF made a WONDERFUL job on it... Then I've played it on my brother's RS-B555 and it sounds simply GREAT! Must definitely record an identical one for myself, too.
I guess my brother will be just IMPRESSED by the deck with this recorded cassette... and all of this is just because of the Kora 3T preamp which acts just like a sort of Mida's touch! How could I wait all these years before getting it? It's a true game changer in my whole HiFi system!