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What a monster! This thing is chunky.It sounds very good right out of the box - I'm sure it'll get even better in the next few weeks.
Now just need to get a blue dot morch armwand for the zyx - and I'm set (for a couple of years, that is...)
Follow Ups:
Looks like a great design .... I would have been leery of the volume pot inline if it weren't for the following bufferstage & trannies ..." ... inclusion of a volume control allows for direct connection to a power amp in one-source systems. To avoid cable-dependent high frequency response, a highly linear buffer stage follows the volume control, using an output transformer which provides balanced or single-ended output at a low impedance which can effortlessly drive long cables... "
Cool. Iron in, Iron out , choice of single or balanced drive, and a mono switch.
Do update as you get it burned in. Congrats
...of the volume pot, but i agree that the buffer & trannies help reduce the problems. the volume pot -- all volume pots -- are big areas for loss of signal quality. my concern would simply be that folks who have another preamp (or an amp w/ volume control) would then have a SECOND volume pot/control.this is all moot if one is using this to run directly to an amp that does not have volume control.
i have the opposite situation: a phono stage (which is a phono-only preamp) with no volume control or switches, feeding an amplifier with volume control.
The volume pot is actually a good thing. The 88PB has a lot of gain, more than the specs suggest. With the volume pot at 2:00, the EAR has as much gain as my CJ Premier 15-2 with Jensen step-up - 75 dB! The volume pot lets you match the phono to other sources. See my review.You could easily jumper it out of the circuit, but I doubt it would be sonically significant to do so, especially because EAR recommends NOT using the volume control wide open.
Mine is currently with Mitch Sugarman getting his mod. Can't wait!
Happy listening.
Hey Jerry - Can you spare some info about the mods? Also, when you get it back - I'd love to hear from you what difference they made!
The issue is that all volume pots degrade the sound (in varying degrees, to be sure) -- they are a necessary evil.Whether the volume pot sounds best at 1/2, 2/3 or fully-open is a bit irrelevant -- that's just the point of lowest loss from the designer's perspective.
The bigger issue I was pointing out (maybe not so well) was using equipment with multiple volume pots/controls, e.g., a volume control on the EAR, plus one on a preamp, plus one on an amp in the worst case.
If one was running the EAR into an amp directly, there's no issue. In my case, I use a phono stage (no switches or volume control) directly into an amp with a volume control.
I suspect that some people might wind up with 2 volume controls in their system, which is one too many.
Volume pots, more than other small parts, have an audible affect on the sound (and not just on the volume ;-)).
!
I don't understand the ad copy of the website but the unit looks fantastic.This is taken from the Ear/Yoshino site's description of the 88PB:
"Its specification is a perfect match of essential flexibility with cost-conscious simplicity. Two inputs cater for the growing number of vinyl-lovers with more than one turntable or arm. Both inputs accept moving magnet cartridge inputs, while one is also switchable for moving coil types - naturally using de Paravicini’s famed input transformers for lowest noise and highest fidelity. MC input impedance is adjustable internally."
The part I don't really understand is how a $5000 phono preamp would include "cost-conscious simplicity" as a feature. Simplicity for sonic reasons I most certainly understand. Perhaps it is nothing more than marketing speak run amok.
I do respect Mr. de Paravincini's designs and I hope you find many years of happiness with your deluxe, new preamp!
What tube types does it use?
--
Al G
Born To Tinker!
Agree on the "cost concious simplicity..." stuff.
Anyway, the manual says "Both inputs are suitable for both MM and MC cartridges" which was a surprize to me.
It uses 4 7DJ8 but "can accomodate any of the 6DJ8/6922 family" according to the 10 Audio review (the EAR 4 page users manual is a bad joke). Haven't opened it yet so dunno which stock tubes they put on it.
Does tube rolling affect these amps notably?
i wonder how many people use this unit as an input into a line-level preamplifier...and, therefore, wind up with 2 volume controls.(i use an amp with volume control and switch cables from my phono pre (no volume control) to my CDP when necessary; not a big deal since i'm listening to vinyl 95+% of the time.)
Makes me wonder why they don't put basic-but-hi-quality Input Selectors on power amps.Could do minimal, like 3-source switching, and be defeatable with a bypass....
Then each source.... Like this Analog-optimized one, or a digital one with digi-domain volume, etc ....
Could suit itself best and tailor it's output best, re attenuation and impedance.
Does this make sense or is it one of my 'yeah but only if you ignore important dealbreakers '.... sorta things ?
...the kondo ongaku.do you have a remote in your system? how often do you listen to multiple sources in one session?
if you answered "no" and "infrequently", then it's actually pretty trivial to just switch the cable from one source to another. i play a CD about 1x/month, so i very rarely switch the cables, and it means that i go from the phono stage (no volume control) directly to my amp.
I've had the EAR 324 for a number of years. It just sits there and does its job. When I had decent, but not top-notch carts, I thought the 324 was "pretty good." But now that we've used a Koetsu Jade Platinum, maybe the 324 is better than we previously gave it credit for.Whether or not you've used a 324, I'm still very interested to learn from your experience with the 88PB.
-Lummy The Seahorse
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