Tír Na HiFi

I use an Ortifon 2M Blue now. It's a fine sounding high output moving magnet type cart.
I have been making a turntable and tone arm myself as well as regularly using my refurbed Thorens 160 with a Thorens arm or a Rega/Michell weighted/rewired arm that I got from Fran.
So I bought that particular Ortofon because it's well reviewed, perceived good value and, in particular, easily set up. It is easy to handle, align etc. Which is great for a butterfingers like me.
There's also a good upgrade path along the range.

How good or bad it is really ?
I don't know 'til I sort out the phono stage.

Cloney Audio have a Croft Elite Pre for sale in the used section for €450.00....it could be the one I used to own. If it is then the phono stage is the business....

Tomorrow 10-2pm I should be around Ivor? - I will PM you my address. Not much opportunity for me to be social though, what with it being Mothers Day and all! :-) Enough time for a few tracks if you want to bring some vinyl though, LOL!

Richard

Dowser wrote:Tomorrow 10-2pm I should be around Ivor? - I will PM you my address. Not much opportunity for me to be social though, what with it being Mothers Day and all! :-) Enough time for a few tracks if you want to bring some vinyl though, LOL!

Richard

It will be about 12 so but I'll be on my way somewhere else on speaker related matters so it will be a 'hit & run' call.

No worries - I've PM'ed my address and mobile.

Note that the MS-12B is a full pre-amp though - 1 line level input, and one MM phono input. It also has 2 outputs, low and high...make sure you use the high (SQ worse through low).

See you, Richard

Ivor wrote:

Dowser wrote:Tomorrow 10-2pm I should be around Ivor? - I will PM you my address. Not much opportunity for me to be social though, what with it being Mothers Day and all! :-) Enough time for a few tracks if you want to bring some vinyl though, LOL!

Richard

It will be about 12 so but I'll be on my way somewhere else on speaker related matters so it will be a 'hit & run' call.[/quote]

Heard that before! A friend of mine used the exact same expression when he visited Cloneys and ended up forking out €20,000 for a pair of speakers!?!?

Gerry D wrote:Hey Lads.
Richard can I have a look at that if it doesn't suit Ivor ?
I'm wanting to replace a lowly Project phono box.
Apart from the mediocre sound quality of the Project, there's a serious
hum. Rega tone arm-project phone-SET amp = nasty hum that I can't resolve.
Maybe the Yaqin would be better ?

IIRC, I had quite a bit of hum using one of these with a RB300 on a planar 3 and Grado Reference Platinum.
Not an ideal combo, I know!

DancingPriest wrote:

Gerry D wrote:Hey Lads.
Richard can I have a look at that if it doesn't suit Ivor ?
I'm wanting to replace a lowly Project phono box.
Apart from the mediocre sound quality of the Project, there's a serious
hum. Rega tone arm-project phone-SET amp = nasty hum that I can't resolve.
Maybe the Yaqin would be better ?

IIRC, I had quite a bit of hum using one of these with a RB300 on a planar 3 and Grado Reference Platinum.
Not an ideal combo, I know!

I gave it a good listen last night and there's no hum. It's a crackin' little amp, lovely detail and clean all though the frequencies but it's probably not a keeper for me. I'm really looking to "nail" my vinyl playback for once and for all and while this is really really good it's not quite the sound I'm looking for. I'll continue listening for another few evenings and maybe we'll get closer.

I gave it a good listen last night and there's no hum. It's a crackin' little amp, lovely detail and clean all though the frequencies but it's probably not a keeper for me. I'm really looking to "nail" my vinyl playback for once and for all and while this is really really good it's not quite the sound I'm looking for. I'll continue listening for another few evenings and maybe we'll get closer

I'm not surprised. I should have made clear that the Yaqin is the only part of that system I kept!
IMO the hum came from a combination of the following;

1- The Grado wood bodied carts have poor shielding.
2- The Planar has a 'noisy' motor
3- The RB300 doesn't have a proper earth.

There was no way the Yaqin could have helped that perfect storm, so I just changed everything else!
It's a great amp!

Hi Ivor - I'm not surprised. As mentioned, it is a relatively cheap design - and your budget means you can do (much!) better. I'd be interested to see your thoughts on all the different models you try - if you like I can also lend you my Croft Micro II to try (but again a full pre-amp) - but then I'd need the Yaqin back or I'd be without tunes!

If I had kept it I would have ripped it's insides out to make it a phono stage only - several have done this with good results according t'web. The Croft I ended up getting just made it all unnecessary!

Gerry D - if you want to try it, no problem. But note that I have someone on PFM who wants to buy it, so would appreciate if it could be done by the weekend? I'd rather it went local, so no problem with a delay...but a finite one please ;-)

And just to re-itterate; this is a pre-amp, it has one line level input, and one MM phono input. If you want to use it as a phono stage only at the moment you'd need to feed it's output into a spare line input on your pre and use the volume control to set level (and suffer the additional Yaqin line stage/volume control in the signal path).

Richard