Cymbal hits have a realistic attack and decay. Quiet passages just above the sound floor are delicate and very loud passages hold together coherently. The soundstage is reasonably wide and deep, extending beyond my speakers and rear wall. The imaging is precise without being feeling artificial. I don't have a similarly priced phono stage to compare this to, but it bested the one in my Marantz PM6007 by a wide margin. Tonally it is very realistic with lots of detail across the spectrum. Oh boy, does this phono stage sound beautiful. Similar character as the Siemens, but more detail and refinement in the top end. Reflektor 6N23P '75 swgp silver shields - I decided to see what the hype was about with this tube and sprung for one that measured well on ebay. The NOS siemens 6922 were fast and bright and worked well for me. Siemens 6922 - V2 is the output driver and contributes less gain, so has less of an impact on overall sound. I also ordered a medical red tip smooth plates that I will compare as a follow-up. These have great dynamics and imaging without being artificial. Telefunken 12AX7 - The Ribbed plates are beautiful, uncompressed, accurate and detailed. Fun, but ultimately still too colored for my taste. I heard some compression in the lower mids that made it more emphasized. Not a good match for my system in V1.Īmperex Bugle Boy 12AX7 - Medical Red Tip - These had a really fun sound. Liquid and 3D are two descriptors that come to mind. Mullard 12AX7 - These had thick warm bass, and were very harmonic in the mid range. Since my speakers - a pair of DIY CSS Audio 2TD-X - have a mid/mid-bass emphasis with slightly smoother top end, I prioritized tubes that were linear and had good top-end detail. I tried a variety of tubes in this phono stage. I also plan on A/B testing the input loading resistors with 2W AN non-magnetic Niobium/Silver ones. I perceived these to be more detailed and open across the spectrum without sacrificing the body of the Jupiters. After about a hundred hours I decided I still wasn't getting quite the clarity that I was after and subbed the input coupling caps with a pair of Duelund CAST tinned copper caps. I was wanting to try out Jupiter copper foil and wax caps for some time, so I replaced both the V1 and V2 coupling caps with these. The kit ships with Audio Note caps which I've read can be on the smoother side. Between Brian's responsiveness, the design of the kit, and the clear instructions, I am confident anyone comfortable with a soldering iron should have similar success. I reached out to Brian a few times during the process to verify my voltages (they are also listed in the instructions). Everything worked as expected on first power on. I only have a basic knowledge of electronics and I found the instructions and test procedures very easy to follow. How did the actual build go? In short, very smoothly. I'm sure these would have worked fine, but I purchased some NOS RelCaps and matched those to. The caps were advertised as 2% RelCaps RTE, but 5% Amtrans AMCH were subbed in since the RelCaps are now out of production. After inventorying everything I was pleased to see that they were all within. Since accuracy was a key goal, I requested that Brian match the parts in the RIAA network to. ![]() TL DR is 1% resistors and 5% caps result in +/. I didn't bother mentioning this to Brian since I was replacing these with WBT inputs anyways.Īs an aside - I found a very interesting analysis about the impact of component tolerance in a similar passive RIAA network. All parts were included per the checklist with the exception of 2 RCA inputs from hificollective. I received all the parts in two shipments, one from him and one from hificollective. Brian shipped my kit right after his published holiday slow down. After speaking with Brian, I decided the ANK 元 Phono V2 fit my criteria, so I ordered a kit close to Christmas. Folks on this forum and elsewhere had great things to say about the performance of the ANK kits, but reviews on the build/customer experience have been.mixed. I also looked at the well-regarded Decware ZP3, but the current 2-3 years wait was a non starter. The 834p is known for it's mid-range "magic" not it's detail and top-end. Not being an EE, I couldn’t say if it was well implemented or if it had any impact on clarity and headroom. However, the feedback used in the RIAA circuit gave me some pause. I gave serious consideration to building an EAR 834p clone based on the Lenovo heaven mods. Initially when deciding which route to go, I was considering buying/building a phono stage in the sub $2,000 range.
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