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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Initial thoughts about new/old Lamm ML2s
Post Subject: How Better Tubes "Saved My Cartridge"Posted by Paul S on: 9/10/2008
The "better" 5751s got here and I took advantage of wifey's absence to listen at night. It was cool and the electricity was pretty good, just a little "dry", but no "cotton". Lazy boy, I still haven't fixed my DAC, so I have had only vinyl for months now, serving +/- as "its own reference".
Well, I guess I got lucky. The amps were in fine fettle, to the extent that bass depth and power, along with overall clarity, were the best I've gotten from the system to date. Mid/upper bass "tie-in" was also better, with more power. Harmonics were still developing when I shut down, but the quiet-other-than music was also as good as it's ever been, providing a nice sense of the recording sessions with no loss of the music. Very little or no microphonics or self-noise now, and it is now obvious that I have been putting up with at least some of this for some time, since well before it became obvious that the tubes were a source of trouble.
A bonus, like the header proclaims, is that I no longer think I need to replace my cartridge, and when I do, I'll get another just like it, if I can still find one, because it turns out it was better all along than I ever realized (for that matter, so are my speakers). These tubes do not seem to suffer overload (yet...), which I had been attributing to cartrridge mistracking or saturation. Apparently, the cartridge also tracks more and better than I thought, and the tubes do not seem at all flapped by any noise, etc. the cartridge is putting out along with the music, so the results are musical.
Live and learn.
I still want to experiment with IC, but within the fixed limitations of the system, if it stays like this I will be pretty stoked.
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site