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hello everyone. I would like some advice with a new phon pre I will be buying and since my 2 choices are fairly budget minded I'm expecting a lot of you aleady have experience with them. I have a Linn LP12, Akito-2 Arm, and currentyl a Goldring Eroica HO cart which will eventually be replaced with an Ortofon 2M bronze.
I was going to go with the Bottlehead, but have since decided on a simpler route with no soldering. My choices are down to either a Bellari or the Jolida. I have actually tried a friends Bellari in my system and it was VERY good, easilly superior to my Musical fidelity X2 can.
the thing that intrigues me about the Jolida is the versatility and also the small/thin form factor. How would a stock Jolida compare to the Bellari on a strictly perfromance basis, is it better? Is it worth the extra $200.?
thanks, Dragan
Follow Ups:
I have a few hundred hours on mine now and the sound is a dramatic improvement over my previous 2k dollar phono section. The improvement was not minor in my book and was confirmed with listening to the Cornet at ScottRT's place and Manfred88's place.
The Cornets deliver everything you need for great stereo phono reproduction. They give you a wide and open sound stage. Excellent dynamics are combined with the quietest noise floor I have heard from any phono section in my experience. This thing is dead silent. You will think it is broken.
More important to me, the timbral accuracy of a clarinet, a saxaphone, or differentiating head strikes on a drum set are all easy to hear.
I like percussion. You can hear the uneven compression of the drum strike and the head shimmer to the blow. This is something you can generally hear easily standing over the drum itself. There are very few phono sections that capture this as life like as the Hagerman.
I am more and more impressed with the unit everytime I listen.
Check one of these out for yourself. It might be the bargain of the century.
I built the Cornet2 for cheap. But he's got a bunch of others.
Nothing but smiles after I built it and soldering to a PCB is so freaking easy.
I dunno, $99. for a PCB, then another $300. in components ,tubes, and enclosure that yuo have to go searching around for all over the net. Then once you finally round up all the pieces you gotta build it yourself. I'm sure it's a great piece, but I want a phono pre-amp, not a 3 month project.I just don't have the time to devote to something like this. Looks like there was one on the Gon but it sold quickly : (
You can get it pre-built.
Yep, the Hagerman stuff costs in time and effort as well as money.
What you get for your time and effort is better than many/most anything you can buy for under $2000. It is better than some stuff that retails for much more.
My lightly modded Cornet2 has gone on a tour of a few of my buddies systems and handily beat a $3500 phono stage while performing so much better than two on your list that one of the owners felt his unit was broken (it wasn't).
I have much less than $500 into my build of the Cornet2 (In real parts cost).
Be careful tho, You might learn something in the process of building one!
--
Al G.
well dammit, is it really that good? I'm not adverse o learning something, but free-time is a big problem. The only appealing thing about it is my existing account with Mouser for parts. trouble is I spend most every saturday in my garage re-buildng CRT video projectors so simply adding another electronics project isn't as simple as it seems. If anyone here is interested in selling their built haggerman phono-pre, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
You need to clarify what you need a phono preamp for. Strictly for MM carts and tonearms? Or will you be upgrading your MM Cart to an MC cart and Upgrading your Akito arm to an Ittok IV arm.
I've been lead to beleive that the MM section of the Bellari is equal to or better than the MM section of the Jolida.
____*Analog fans may be blind-but digital fans are deaf*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82495693@N00/
The Jolida doesn't have a "MM section".
For MM with a JD9 it's a matter of proper setup, i.e. 47k loading (typically) and gain to the lowest setting. Even then there likely would be too much gain for the typical MM so that's where the LO outputs come into play. The LO outputs appear to use a simple trim pot (resistance) for voltage splitting to lower the output voltage.
I've tried it briefly and it appears to work fine but in essence I tend to think of the JD9 as a LO-MC stage with provision for accommodating MM, but that's not the same as saying it has a MM stage in the traditional sense.
Everything matters, don't forget to tweak your placebos!
My JD9 has way too much gain (3 or 4 volume clicks) when used with my Ortofon 2M (5.5mV), Dynavector 10X5 (2.5mV) and even my Denon DL160 (1.6mV). I cannot use the low outputs because I reduced the gain of my Quicksilver LSP to 10 dB.
Since the JD9 is as it is, I have to use my Sutherland Ph3D for all but 3 of my 12 cartridges. Since I seem to collect cartridges I was hoping the JD9 would give me full second system phono capability. I don't know how I overlooked the gain specs., but I did.
that the JD9 is a low output moving coil cartridge preamp. Except that it only goes to 100 Ohms loading as configured, with 70 Ohms loading if you use switches 1, 2, & 3 combined. I would think that with the gain available on this preamp that they would have included load settings down to at least 40 Ohms if not lower.
The JD9 is certainly a very flexible phono stage but it could have been configured better for low output moving coil catridges with loading below 100 Ohms.
Tom
"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable." Mark Twain
thanks, great info. I had no idea the Jolida was set up for that much gain. It sounds like for an HO cart like the 5mv Ortofon 2M Bronze the Bellari would be a better match, no?
I know with the Eroica HO 2.5mv the gain knob on the Bellari needed to be maxed out.
Sorry I wouldn't really know. However I don't imagine that having the gain knob maxed on the Bellari in itself is an indication of a problem, not unless there is excessive noise (hiss).
As for the Jolida you might find you don't need to use the LO outputs but even if you did I can't imagine you being disappointed. Then if you went into a LO-MC you'd be covered; inexpensive MCs are becoming more common it seems, e.g. the Benz-Micro MC20E2, and then there's the Denon DL103 of course.
Everything matters, don't forget to tweak your placebos!
In the December Stereophile issue there is a great review for the new Zu refurnished Denon 103 cart for about the same price as a Dynovector 10x5.
Or just get teh stock Denon for $200.
The Jolida would love that for the money. But would that combination sound better than a an MM Phono cart Dynovector 10x5 or Ofonan Bronze and Bellari MM phonopreamp all on an Akito II tonearm which is really designed for an MM cart. The Ittok was designed for an MC cart.
____*Analog fans may be blind-but digital fans are deaf*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82495693@N00/
.
Everything matters, don't forget to tweak your placebos!
Ohhhh, no wonder the Bellari would outperform the Jolida cleanly for MM use. That makes sense. The Bellari phono preamp is after all a Stereophile Class A phono pre.
It does perform alot better with an upgraded tube btw.
____*Analog fans may be blind-but digital fans are deaf*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82495693@N00/
The VP129 is a Stereophile class B recommended component. Still pretty lofty territory for the price.
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