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Tubes takes a listen to a Cornet II with the help of a new friend....

Posted by tubesforever (M) on May 14, 2007 at 16:37:35

I took a smooth and easy 220 mile drive on Saturday to visit Scottrt. He had recently built a Hagerman Cornet II and I really wanted to hear one of these units first hand. Scottrt also posts regularly about the Technics SL1600 as a fully automatic option to those who want high quality sound in a very convenient package. I was looking forward to showing off the thread drive and idlers from Rek O Kut.

When I arrived, Scottrt showed me some of the gear he has built from kits or hot rodded. He built a Buggle for the main listening room and also moded a Buggle for a Sansui Receiver.

He also built a very clever 6 position on the fly loading switch for his Benz Ace Lo and this was WAY COOL. I gotta build one of these immediately. Way fun and switching on the fly was a superb way to dial in the sound even with all our tube rolls.

He played the Cornet II for me and then spun in his modified stealth. They sounded very similar since both were using the same AuriCaps. I slightly preferred the Cornet II at this time simply because I love the 3 dimensional sound stage that tubes provide. After some tube rolling the Hagerman came out a clear winner.

I had brought up some of my tubes and Scott grabbed a bunch of his tubes and some he got from MintVinyl who could not attend.

We spun every conceivable combination with music we knew well. I had brought up a note pad so I could write down the slight differences but I did not need it. Every tube made a huge difference in the overall sound. This made it very easy to decide which tube would best complement the electronics and speakers in Scott’s system.

Within just a couple of hours we were really making headway. Then we just listened for a while and eventually we came up with a winning combination.

I brought my Audio Research PH-3 to compare side by side with the Hagerman. I feel the Cornet II is superior in several key areas and fell short in a few others.

First the AR PH-3 was a clear winner in the overall bass contest. It goes lower and has more punch. In fact the low bass of this PH-3 is the best bass I have heard from a phono section in my own listening rooms. It also exhibits incredible dynamic impact. Things go quiet to loud in a convincing way.

However, I find a few things really tough to live with on the PH-3. First, my unit sounds two dimensional compared to the Hagerman and to the C7 all tube phone preamp I owned before.

Second, I find the highs to be rolled off on the PH-3. This is my biggest complaint.

After rolling a variety of tubes on the Hagerman we found a really delicious combination that offered solid bass, a clear midrange with nice depth and very realistic highs. I was really impressed. Scottrt told me that this unit costs about 550 dollars to build.

Now will the Cornet II sound this good in my system? Hard call there….but from what I heard and how every single tube made significant sonic changes to the sound at least I feel I can use tubes to dial in what my system requires.

I like this Cornet II to say that with the proper tube complement I feel it outperformed my AR PH-3 and believe me this retailed at 2,000 dollars when it was new and it is no slouch in creating some fun listening sessions.

I will post more about my trip to Scott’s place. What a guy! He and his wife are really wonderful hosts. I had an awesome time learning more about Scott and his venture back into vinyl.

The Cornet II is for real folks. If you want something clean, clear, musical, involving and good looking this all tube unit will not disappoint you in any way.

The tubes that worked best overall were a pair of Groove Tube Mullard style 12ax7’s, an RCA clear top 12au7 and I cannot remember the rectifier off hand. I am sure Scott will help you here. He is going to try some more as well since the two rectifier tubes most definitely address the bass and bass slam of the units. With the right rectifier tube this thing might eclipse an AR PH-3 and that would be something to crow about.

Speaking for myself I can only say that this is a great hobby and it is really fun to find high value high performance pieces that really get your toes tapping.

More later on the turntables we spun and how these worked with the Cornet II.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

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