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In Reply to: RE: The EMPIRE strikes back posted by CometCKO on February 25, 2015 at 14:39:38
Let's see if I can learn how to post a picture here. Bad cell phone image. I have a decent digital camera if I can only figure out where my daughter hid it!
"Knowing what you don't know is, in a sense, omniscience"
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Looks Good - How does it sound NOW as compared to the VPI?
But you might wonder if I can answer that objectively or not given my involvement in its production.
When I spoke to Harry W. he mentioned his affection for Empires and I've heard that his experimentation with them contributed to his design for the Classic, which has some of the same ideas implemented with respect to motor placement relative to platter.
The re-envisioned Empire has more drive -- the 3-phase Papst motors are wonderful turntable motors. This shows up in transient performance improvement and musical engagement. I doubt it's as forceful as the few idler drive tables I've heard (my uncle has/had a Thorens TD-124 I know well). But certainly more than the VPI Scout, despite the use of the SDS -- which BTW really is an upgrade for the Scout.
The tonearm is a big variable however. The carbon fiber Sonik Sircle arm is something of a revelation to me after a few years of listening to the soft, warm SME-3009. The SME doesn't do wonderfully with the moving coils I tried, but the Sonik Sircle is fully competitive with an SME-309 I tried with four different MC cartridges. Better, i think, than the 309.
The VPI's tonearm sounds much better than the Sonik Sircle with a Dynavector DV20xl, but I never got my Shelter 501 to work all that well with the VPI. By contrast, the Sonik Sircle does a wonderful job with the Shelter. I'm loving it and can't stop playing it. But as you probably know, the Shelter lacks a bit in dynamics -- less so in this arm -- but makes it back and then some with liquidity and tonal richness. But still the VPI with the Dynavector is a really nice combo. So it's not clear-cut what the winner really is there.
At the moment, I've delegated the VPI to mono duty using an Ortofon 2M Mono. I'm doing most of my stereo listening with the Empire & the Shelter.
"Knowing what you don't know is, in a sense, omniscience"
Just curious...what kind of output voltage are you getting with the SDS hooked up to that motor?
I know they rate the SDS at 20W, but you might want to look at what temp the heat sink on the output devices is reaching (you will have to remove the top cover to measure this). When I put an SDS on a Lenco (15W) motor, the heatsink exceeded 70°C which means the transistor junction temps were probably near their limit. I'd hate to see you blow up an expensive supply.
I bought a Falcon for my VPI. Like it better than the SDS for that application. Too bad neither it nor the Eagle will drive the Empire.
The SDS manual says 30 watts max. I've never measured it, though the outside of the top is only moderately warm after an evening of 6-10 LP's. the voltage claimed on the front panel display is 84 volts, which may not bear much relationship to what it's actually putting out. The main advantage for me the adjustable frequency, since my Empire runs fast otherwise.
"Knowing what you don't know is, in a sense, omniscience"
I can only warn you about what I've experienced; what you do is up to you.
FYI, the Eagle would run the motor on your turntable just fine; after 20-30 mins, the output amp will reach ~60°C which is the upper limit of the safe operating range and something we're not comfortable with, that's why we don't recommend to do this.
I know the VPI manual says "Don't plug anything into the SDS greater than 30W". That doesn't mean it is rated at 30W. The fact is the SDS has an output transformer rated at 20W. The Eagle has a 25W transformer but you never want to run a device at full rated power for extended periods of time. If you doubt what I'm trying to warn you about, remove the top cover of the SDS and touch the the heatsinks with your hand after 30 mins of operation.
I just measured the SDS output when set for 84VAC into a 20W (resistive) load; it dropped to 72VAC. YMMV.
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