insightfulman
Minor Hero
Have you seen the 6 fingered man?
Posts: 48
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Post by insightfulman on Mar 12, 2015 2:40:23 GMT -5
My Musical Surroundings Nova II came in today. Haven't had chance to listen to it. I'm letting the battery charge overnight and will give it a go tomorrow. I was told to give it time to burn in but my thoughts on that is much like pink elephant in the sky so either I'll like it or won't hear any difference - either way I'll post my thoughts.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2015 22:26:16 GMT -5
Thoughts?
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novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
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Post by novisnick on Mar 15, 2015 22:36:57 GMT -5
I've just reread this thread and I've listened to a few TT and pre's. I really think that the cartridge makes a bigger difference then the pre. It may just be me, mind you I've never heard or used any tubes in my TT system but have found great variances in the cartridge used and the response I've gotten.
Just my two cents, but considering that I am a vinyl lover I'd just chime in a little. 8)
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Post by vneal on Mar 16, 2015 10:16:07 GMT -5
I bought the Parasound Z Phono. Under $200 and it sounds better than the Music Fidelity V LPS and the Emotiva Phono Pre to my ears. More detailed with better bass. The Emotiva is a close second. As to cartridges making a bigger difference I would generally say yes but between the 3 I listened to each sounded different
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insightfulman
Minor Hero
Have you seen the 6 fingered man?
Posts: 48
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Post by insightfulman on Mar 17, 2015 23:40:49 GMT -5
After letting it charge overnight, I have been listening to my Musical Surroundings Nova II everyday sine I received the unit late last week.
I am writing this on my phone so I'll make this brief. Setting up a turntable for optimal performance takes lot of work, perhaps even too much work for the single digit percentage improvement in sound quality. With a $900 cartridge, a cartridge alignment tool, digital stylus force gauge, LP vacuum cleaning machine, static gun, anti static brush, stylus cleaner, turntable vibration isolation platform etc. all adding up the cost of squeezing out every possible drop of performance from vinyl -many at times - my recently purchased Emotiva ERC-3 sounds better overall and for those time when the early 80s CDs sound a bit too harsh I feed it through for a tube buffer and I'm set.
So what about the Nova II preamp? When I went from Magnepan MMG to 1.6 there was a immediate noticible wow difference. When I added a REL subwoofer there was a "wow" difference as well. When I went from Magnepan 1.6 to 1.7 the difference was barely noticeable. Likewise, going from the built-in phono stage of the XSP-1 to Nova II was similar- improvement- yes.- WOW difference - No!!
How do I describe what I heard through the Nova II as compared to the built in? Let's see if I can sound like a audio reviewer: The Nova II had lower-l background noise- I guess the battery does indeed make some difference but then if I wanted to listen to silence I think turning off stereo would equally accomplish the black background hype :-). Seriously though, I don't know if this blackness had anything to do with it but the Nova II had sweeter, smoother midrange and treble and overall more relaxed, mellow sound. The soundstage also seemed to have better depth with more impactful bass transients. So yes I like the sound from Nova II better- but $1200 better? I'm jot sure if my system is capable of squeezing more out. Perhaps if I had an MC cartridge like DYNAVECTOR - 17D3 KARAT Or Goldring Legacy I would say "wow" to what I heard from Nova II but with my Clearaudio Virtuoso it wasn't quite the magical upgrade I was hoping for. I think if the Nova II was at $749 like the Phenomenon II+ I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it but at $1200 I would say give it a shot if you can afford it and more importantly only if you have more capable system than mine.
Me, I'll keep it for bit longer and may get one of the two MC cartridges I mentioned above and see the I can get that "wow" effect. I just don't think phono preamps have as detrimental effect on sound as I expected so I doubt spending even more would achieve much more ROI if at all. Even if I don't get the MC cartridge right away I may still keep th Nova II just because I do like the sound better and have comfort knowing that this is probably as good as it gets - just wish it was cheaper. :-)
Now only if I were smarter I would've spent the money trading in my XPA-2 with a pair of XPA-1s.
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Post by stads77 on Mar 18, 2015 7:37:53 GMT -5
I just bought a Lounge Audio LCR MM Phono Stage, I will let you all know my thoughts on this very well reviewed $300 pre.
Sorry to hear your improvements are not giving you that wonderful feeling of "money well spent," I to have found that there have been very few of those moments in my audio journey, there have been some but not as many as my wallet would like.
Maybe this is why I have gone through quite a few phono pre's in the 150-600 dollar range, finding none of them really "wowed" me over the others. My hope is that this phono will be slightly better then others I have tried, thus ending my journey for a while as i am very happy with my Nagaoka mp-500 and Pro-ject RM5SE turntable combo.
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