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A Curious Phono Stage...

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Posted on July 2, 2015 at 10:02:44
Yuval
Audiophile

Posts: 43
Location: Herzelia
Joined: January 21, 2011
About 20 years ago, I bought Rega's Elicit MKI integrated amp. I shamefully admit that I bought the unit based on a stellar review in Hi-Fi Choice, without auditioning it at all...I was an Amateur.

This was a dual-mono design with two toroidal transformers (which buzzed quite loudly) and a single 80,000uF(!) electrolitic cap per channel. Of course, it is now well-known that one should use several smaller caps instead.

What preplexed me was that the unit sounded aweful with CD's but glorious with Vinyl..it supported both MM and MC cartridges. I used it with an Ortofon MC 1 Super MC cartridge, which in my opinion (and other's) was one of the best value-for-money cartridges ever made. Although the recommended loading for MC cartridges is 100 Ohm, it sounded aweful with this, so I switched to 47KOhm (via a dip switch on the PCB) and the result was much, much better.

Bottom line: if you want to buy an expensive phono stage, save yourself a lot of money and try to buy this unit for peanuts...just make sure that this is indeed the MK1, original Elicit, which is very rare indeed. Searched for it on both eBay UK and eBay US and got 0 results...

 

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RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 2, 2015 at 22:36:26
MannyE
Audiophile

Posts: 2088
Location: Miami Beach
Joined: March 4, 2001
It's not that... what you are hearing is how awful CDs sound compared to vinyl.

:) :)

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 01:47:23
Yuval
Audiophile

Posts: 43
Location: Herzelia
Joined: January 21, 2011
Hi MannyE,

Over the last 10 years, there has been an incredible inprovement in the sound quality of CD's. The most stellar example of the specimen is Meridian's 808.2 Reference CD player, which sells for a measly :-) $18,000 in the US. Read the reviews on the net, Sony's and Philips' engineers would have turned in their graves had they listened to this unit. But there are much cheaper units that excel at playing CD's, such as the Marantz UD7007 blu-ray player, which also does an excellent job playing SACD's and SACD-R's (Yes, there is a way to "copy" SACD's, please read about it on the net). It is $899 at Ebay, I am enclosing a link.

HOWEVER, the price point for achieving such a quality is very low indeed: There is a USB DAC, The Meridian Explorer 2, which sells for $299, and applies the same technologies that trickled-down from that unit. Not only does it play RBCD files (such as .flac or .alac files) at an astounding quality, it also supports Meridian's MQA, which is the greatest breakthrough in sound quality, ever. Google it and find out why, at a demo of MQA given in California, Audiophiles bursted into tears after auditioning MQA. Meridian invited some professional musicians to play live, and then played their recordings over a pair of Meridian's DSP7200 active loudspeakers (again selling for a measly :-) $34,995 per pair.

MQA is a lossy format that requires the same bandwidth as a standard CD (700MB), and so can be easily streamed over a 100Mb/s internet connection. If one prefers not to stream, the files can be downloaded and stored on a hard disk. Tidal is the first company to stream MQA. What is also Brilliant about this format is that it is backward-compatible with CD players or DAC's, and so the file will playback on them (although with no improvement in sound quality over standard CD's).

Where do you live? If you are a US citizen, you souldn't have a problem auditioing MQA. Your best bet is at Meridian's New York offices.

Well, I guess most of what I wrote belongs in the hi-res groups, so please go ahead and share this with them (if it's possible, I don't know AudioAsylum well enough).

Best,

Yuval

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 02:47:58
PAR
Just to point out that MQA is not really a lossy format. No data is lost like MP3 or AAC. It is more of a data compansion system that enables hi-rez formats to be used within a lo-rez "wrapper". Correct replay requires either a software or firmware installation.

However this is all a bit OT.

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 05:57:26
Yuval
Audiophile

Posts: 43
Location: Herzelia
Joined: January 21, 2011
Sorry about the mistake about MQA being a lossy format. BTW, I've just read that you can listen to MQA at Audio High in Mountain View.

Also, I'm sorry for not understanding the jargon, but what is "OT"?

P.S. At the press conference that Meridian held, they interviewed a chap who said he had 350,000 LP's, and that, after hearing MQA, he is going to sell all of them...This will provide him with enough dough to buy the DSP7200 speakers and the 808.2 Reference CD player. Also, I think we can expect that in the not-to-far future, the price for similarly capable equipment will come down sharply.


Yuval

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 06:26:19
PAR
Ah yes, the jargon; OT = Off Topic ( this is the vinyl forum with a thread about a phono stage and we are talking digital hi-rez).

I would love to make it to Mountain View but it's a bit of a trek for me here in London, England! The last time I was there was in May 1979. BTW. I have heard MQA here and it is wonderful (or , at least what I heard was).

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 07:15:13
Yuval
Audiophile

Posts: 43
Location: Herzelia
Joined: January 21, 2011
Oh, sorry, for a second I thought you were a US citizen...I also traveled to Mountain View about 20 years ago...what a beautiful place! I love California.

May I ask what pieces did you hear in MQA?

Best,

Yuval

 

RE: A Curious Phono Stage..., posted on July 3, 2015 at 07:38:34
PAR
Well this is all making me feel very nostalgic for the Bay area. Thinks, I could just jump on a plane .....

The MQA demonstration was at Metropolis Studios in London. This was heaphone based using two setups, one portable using a modified Meridian Explorer the other a home rig based upon using a modified Meridian Prime. The cans were respectively Beyer Dyanamic T70 and Audeze LCD -X.

I can't remember that much about the repertoire used. The two setups were fed from an i-pad. As a classical music enthusiast there wasn't a lot of choice for me but I selected some string quartets, recordings unfamiliar to me but I think Schubert. So this is why I added the "at least what I heard" caveat. However,whatever the repertoire, I just wanted to listen on and on.

 

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