So this Saturday morning I’ve been having a blast, playing the PP-2000 on the Ascona Neo turntable.
As I was setting up the cartridge yesterday, my system was cold and just started after being shut down for the working week. I did test a few vax to see everything was running smoothly, but it didn’t sound right, even though very good for being cold. I really felt it was promising for today.
So this morning I slowly started to spinn some albums and felt pretty soon, that the Phasemation PP-2000 on the Ascona Neo was a whole different ball game compared to the Technics SL-1200G. Not really surprised as the Ascona cost a few cents more than the 1200.
Anyway,
As I sat it up I had the gain set to the same as my Koetsu Blue Lace (72dB), but come to realize that I had to lower it to 70dB to match the output of my two other cartridges. Also as the system now is up to temperature, I had to change the load from 50 to 100 Ohms. Not a huge difference in SQ, but still enough to wanna stick with 100 Ohms.
Also another peculiar thing that accured yesterday as the system was cold, was RF interference in to the phonostage. Funny enough, while playing the Koetsu, the two small ground wires on the tonearm cable on the phonostage side has never needed to attached. Now with the PP-2000, huge interference. After connecting the two wires from the tonearm cable the RF interference was gone, and this morning I was quiet as in a tomb.
Continue playing and investigating the qualities of this cartridge it was soon quite evident that I was in for a roller coaster ride.
So last week on the SL-1200G I felt the PP-2000 wasn’t for heavy metal, but I was soon enough ready to take that back.
Once I had Metallica’s Hardwired album on, the cart played it back to me with authority and meat to the bone so to speak.
Excited I threw Rammstein on to see what would happen. Well It was a bit thin in the bass, so it needed a push to my six-pack subwoofer towers. In two channel this was it. The sound was right on spot and it felt like a Rammstein concert in my room. So I thought, can I do more - Yes I Can - so I switched to 7.4 simulated surround sound, and right away I felt like the FOH (Front Of House) mixing my own Rammstein audioroom concert.
This cartridge is really something. Having it played side by side with the AirTight Opus-1, and the Ortofon MC Diamond, the sound from the PP-2000 is really similar to both of them. Not very much do them all apart in my sence. They all sound beautifully and I could live with either of them at any given day. If there is something that sticks out in my system, it is the midrange of the PP-2000. It is really something to die for. This cartridge really melts my knees when it comes to midrange.
Not as powerful as my Koetsu Blue Lace when it come to sheer force, but the elegance of this cart puts it high on my cartridge list.
The intention of my test, was to implement a nice sounding cartridge to my SL-1200G, so it would complement my Ascona Neo turntable. Now when the PP-2000 sits tight on the Kuzma 4P 11” tonearm on the Ascona Neo, I don’t feel for ever taking it down, it’s that good.
However… as I now know it’s performance on the Ascona and the remarkable performance of this cartridge, it is going down today, and I AM going to set it up on the 1200G once more to see if I can squeeze out some extra juice from the Technics turntable.
(Little) bit more will follow before my test is over… Here is a few pics from this mornings blast - Enjoy
!
/ Jk
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