Vinyl Asylum

Posted by frogman (P) on December 23, 2009 at 22:40:21

Hi guys, and Happy Holidays:

I just got my EAR 834P back from Mitch Singerman, who did his level 2 mod to it. It has been a pleasure to deal with Mitch; patient, knowlegeable, and professional. He guarantees the work.

I am aware of the fact that the unit needs a lengthy break-in after the mods. I will try to describe what I am hearing after only a couple of hours of use, and please tell me if any of you have experienced this:

In MM mode, it sounds as I expected it to sound: closed in, lacking in highs, with reduced soundstage width; almost to the point of sounding as if in mono. Tonally, however, it is fairly well balanced; except for the closed in highs. I have enough experience with upgrading caps in speaker x-overs, to know what new caps in need of break-in sound like. In MC mode (SUT's in), however, the sound is really weird. Almost as if out of phase. Midrange is sucked out and very distant, and there is VERY LITTLE bass. I don't understand why the tonal balance in MM mode would differ so much from that in MC mode. I experience this using the same cartridge (Shelter 901) in both modes. Obviously, the two modes do sound somewhat different, and there is also the issue of gain, but the difference in sound is well beyond anything I experienced before having the unit modded. If anything, I would have expected the reverse to be the case, since the Shelter needs the extra gain of MC mode. I did speak to Mitch, and while he stands behind his work, and will even refund the cost of the mod if I am not happy, he feels it is a break-in issue. But why the VERY dramatic difference in the two modes? Anyone experience this as well?

Thanks for your thoughts.