Mike - did you try the non carbon arm tube to prove that this is where you issue is?
DaVa FC-A1 a field coil contender
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Mike - did you try the non carbon arm tube to prove that this is where you issue is?
I used a carbon headshell, which seems would be no different than a carbon arm tube, and I added no additional grounds and had no noise. Maybe it’s something else?
That is my gut feel too hence asking so this gets ruled out. I think it is the grounding between SUT and phono or phono and pre.
not an option on my 2 Tosca's. i will contemplate trying it on the aluminum wood wrapped FCL arm tube. that was not my plan. i want it on the Tosca.
It is just to find out whether the arm tube is the issue, which I strongly doubt myself. Once confirmed, you can go back to Tosca.
In FarEast we give word of hearty support to a friend going through bumpy road saying "Fighting."
So, "Fighting!" Mike.
Good sound never come easy. Hopefully you hear some promising heavenly sound from this cart to make it worth the effort. None of my vintage cart was a smooth ride from the start. I went through bumpy road on all of them but one. Just never wrote about it in forum. I really wish you best finding the solution and get a rewarding sound.
he can take dc wire straight out from cart to psu, not along arm at all to test if unshielded signal wires in carbon armtube is issue..don´t need to play to test
Mike is hum there even with DaVa psu off? on full throttle to get a little gain even without dc?
in my vinyl upgrade thread, i mentioned last night my EMIA MC Trio (with the silver 1:50 SUT on board) arrived and has improved my DaVa performance. i figured DaVa focused listening feedback should be in this thread.
first off the quick switching from arm to arm allowed me for the first time to really compare things easily......which has been fun. i could tell my Etsuro Gold's were both better set-up than the DaVa. to begin with the new transformers were a bit thick and tight, but with some listening last night and tonight things are better. with the better performance i was able to more closely dial in the DaVa Ref set-up; raised the VTA a bit (was level, now slightly up in the back), and raised the VTF to 3.60 grams. this seemed to open up things quite a bit. right now i likely only have around 10 hours on it. i'm sure i'm in for some ups and downs. right now it's up....way up.
the combo of the Saskia, Tosca and the DaVa Ref is giving me a glimpse of things to come. some pressings that have impressed tonight are Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, My Point Of View (Herbie Hancock) and Joscho Stephan Trio, Paris-Berlin. i am really enjoying the bass, tonality, and life force and flow. it seems to capture the wild and raw unfiltered energy of the music like i've not heard reproduced music before.
the sound is really enveloping and immersive. and what i was looking for from the DaVa. thanks to all for the hand holding.
first off the quick switching from arm to arm allowed me for the first time to really compare things easily......which has been fun. i could tell my Etsuro Gold's were both better set-up than the DaVa. to begin with the new transformers were a bit thick and tight, but with some listening last night and tonight things are better. with the better performance i was able to more closely dial in the DaVa Ref set-up; raised the VTA a bit (was level, now slightly up in the back), and raised the VTF to 3.60 grams. this seemed to open up things quite a bit. right now i likely only have around 10 hours on it. i'm sure i'm in for some ups and downs. right now it's up....way up.
the combo of the Saskia, Tosca and the DaVa Ref is giving me a glimpse of things to come. some pressings that have impressed tonight are Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, My Point Of View (Herbie Hancock) and Joscho Stephan Trio, Paris-Berlin. i am really enjoying the bass, tonality, and life force and flow. it seems to capture the wild and raw unfiltered energy of the music like i've not heard reproduced music before.
the sound is really enveloping and immersive. and what i was looking for from the DaVa. thanks to all for the hand holding.
in my vinyl upgrade thread, i mentioned last night my EMIA MC Trio (with the silver 1:50 SUT on board) arrived and has improved my DaVa performance. i figured DaVa focused listening feedback should be in this thread.
first off the quick switching from arm to arm allowed me for the first time to really compare things easily......which has been fun. i could tell my Etsuro Gold's were both better set-up than the DaVa. to begin with the new transformers were a bit thick and tight, but with some listening last night and tonight things are better. with the better performance i was able to more closely dial in the DaVa Ref set-up; raised the VTA a bit (was level, now slightly up in the back), and raised the VTF to 3.60 grams. this seemed to open up things quite a bit. right now i likely only have around 10 hours on it. i'm sure i'm in for some ups and downs. right now it's up....way up.
the combo of the Saskia, Tosca and the DaVa Ref is giving me a glimpse of things to come. some pressings that have impressed tonight are Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, My Point Of View (Herbie Hancock) and Joscho Stephan Trio, Paris-Berlin. i am really enjoying the bass, tonality, and life force and flow. it seems to capture the wild and raw unfiltered energy of the music like i've not heard reproduced music before.
the sound is really enveloping and immersive. and what i was looking for from the DaVa. thanks to all for the hand holding.
Hi Mike,
It is very much worth continuing to fettle all the parameters as I am sure you will. VTA is particularly important as is the voltage you are giving it. It is more challenging than normal carts but is worth the time investment.
Unfortunately I managed to give mine 31V last weekend and wondered why it was sounding so brittle. I think I have fried the coil so mine is flying back to Lithuania now
Glad to read you're on trackin my vinyl upgrade thread, i mentioned last night my EMIA MC Trio (with the silver 1:50 SUT on board) arrived and has improved my DaVa performance. i figured DaVa focused listening feedback should be in this thread.
first off the quick switching from arm to arm allowed me for the first time to really compare things easily......which has been fun. i could tell my Etsuro Gold's were both better set-up than the DaVa. to begin with the new transformers were a bit thick and tight, but with some listening last night and tonight things are better. with the better performance i was able to more closely dial in the DaVa Ref set-up; raised the VTA a bit (was level, now slightly up in the back), and raised the VTF to 3.60 grams. this seemed to open up things quite a bit. right now i likely only have around 10 hours on it. i'm sure i'm in for some ups and downs. right now it's up....way up.
the combo of the Saskia, Tosca and the DaVa Ref is giving me a glimpse of things to come. some pressings that have impressed tonight are Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, My Point Of View (Herbie Hancock) and Joscho Stephan Trio, Paris-Berlin. i am really enjoying the bass, tonality, and life force and flow. it seems to capture the wild and raw unfiltered energy of the music like i've not heard reproduced music before.
the sound is really enveloping and immersive. and what i was looking for from the DaVa. thanks to all for the hand holding.
The suspension needs 20 hours to loosen up. Then I'd revert to 3,50g. Your VTA will then be correct with parallell instead of raised
Best
Leif
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it sounds as if the pickup coils were magnetized. the same effect occurs when you carry out an dc ohm measurement on a sut. the best way to degauss play a sweep lp 20hz to 20khz 10 -15 repetition with a bit lower fieldcoil voltage. if it doesn't sound better after that, a service will probably be necessary, good luckHi Mike,
It is very much worth continuing to fettle all the parameters as I am sure you will. VTA is particularly important as is the voltage you are giving it. It is more challenging than normal carts but is worth the time investment.
Unfortunately I managed to give mine 31V last weekend and wondered why it was sounding so brittle. I think I have fried the coil so mine is flying back to Lithuania now
Hi Bill,Hi Mike,
It is very much worth continuing to fettle all the parameters as I am sure you will. VTA is particularly important as is the voltage you are giving it. It is more challenging than normal carts but is worth the time investment.
Unfortunately I managed to give mine 31V last weekend and wondered why it was sounding so brittle. I think I have fried the coil so mine is flying back to Lithuania now
How did you manage to give the DaVa 31v....? And how do you know the exact voltage? This is quite concerning. Gives us DaVa owners a bit of a pause....
I paralleled the impedance of the load by having both carts plugged in. I know it was 31v cos I measured it with my meter.
So this happened because you had both mono and stereo Davas plugged into the dual tube psu, right? I have the same psu and am planning on getting the mono DaVa eventually, so it sounds like only one cart at a time should be plugged into the dual psu.....
tonight, finally, hum 100% resolved. i sorta stumbled into it. the last week or two the hum had receded quite a bit. but it was still there.
took a ground lead from each side of the LFD phono cable (Raptor rca i.c.) and grounded both of them together onto a screw on top of the DaVa power supply along with a ground to the dart pre.
i had replaced a Primary Control din phono i had been trying with the DaVa with my LFD Raptor plus an LFD 'super' Dongle (i will have details soon to post about). now the hum was worse than it has been lately.....as i upset the progress i had made. then attached the Dongle ground to the EMIA corrector ground. then tried those other I.C. grounds onto the PS chassis screw.....and 'poof'......no more hum. i mean zero.
aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....
i have removed the LFD Raptor rca i.c. from the EMIA -> dart pre spot to be used together with the Dongle as the phono for the DaVa, and replaced it from the EMIA corrector -> dart pre with a 1.5m rca WBC Gotham as a temporary place-holder. i have a skunkworks set of 1.5m rca's being built for that spot.
so now all three of my arms have LFD phono cables all into the EMIA, then they share the same i.c. to the dart pre. at least it's fair to each. but according to Mik, the Dongle -> Raptor is another level beyond the other two, which first impressions seem to confirm. the Dongle is very stiff and must have stress relief to not be harmed, so it only fits with the Saskia/Tosca as i have things currently set up. so for now it can only be used with the DaVa.
today i purchased 3 clamp posts to be able to provide stress relief for all three LFD phono's. they look pretty funky.....with velcro and zip tie hangers removing any stress on the DIN connectors.
Last edited:
tonight, finally, hum 100% resolved. i sorta stumbled into it. the last week or two the hum had receded quite a bit. but it was still there.
took a ground lead from each side of the LFD phono cable (Raptor rca i.c.) and grounded both of them together onto a screw on top of the DaVa power supply along with a ground to the dart pre.
i had replaced a Primary Control din phono i had been trying with the DaVa with my LFD Raptor plus an LFD 'super' Dongle (i will have details soon to post about). now the hum was worse than it has been lately.....as i upset the progress i had made. then attached the Dongle ground to the EMIA corrector ground. then tried those other I.C. grounds onto the PS chassis screw.....and 'poof'......no more hum. i mean zero.
aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....
i have removed the LFD Raptor rca i.c. from the EMIA -> dart pre spot to be used together with the Dongle as the phono for the DaVa, and replaced it from the EMIA corrector -> dart pre with a 1.5m rca WBC Gotham as a temporary place-holder. i have a skunkworks set of 1.5m rca's being built for that spot.
so now all three of my arms have LFD phono cables all into the EMIA, then they share the same i.c. to the dart pre. at least it's fair to each. but according to Mik, the Dongle -> Raptor is another level beyond the other two, which first impressions seem to confirm. the Dongle is very stiff and must have stress relief to not be harmed, so it only fits with the Saskia/Tosca as i have things currently set up. so for now it can only be used with the DaVa.
today i purchased 3 clamp posts to be able to provide stress relief for all three LFD phono's. they look pretty funky.....with velcro and zip tie hangers removing any stress on the DIN connectors.
Glad you have zero hum, Mike. When you get around to inserting another filter cap, the noise floor improves again.
glad you´re rid of the hum
now you start enjoying the DaVa Ref in full
always risky to recommend anything, but this is a NO-BRAINER IMO
best
Leif
now you start enjoying the DaVa Ref in full
always risky to recommend anything, but this is a NO-BRAINER IMO
best
Leif