vinyl upgrades; Dava, FCL tone arm, EMIA silver Phono Corrector, MC Trio

three-TTs.jpgi've finished my digital push....and been working on a few odds and ends to fine tune my vinyl. had my 3 tt's for 3 years now, thought long and hard about consolidating the 3 into one 'big-boy' tt, but at the end of the day have decided that the three tt's cover state of the art vinyl rotating and so they are all keepers. i like what each does too much, and nothing else enough, to change. i will likely sell my 4th tt, the EMT948 i got a year ago, as i'm rarely listening to it.

a month ago i ordered the DaVa Ref (field coil) cartridge and did post about that. it's still approximately 3 months away. so May. it will replace one of my 3 Etsuro Gold MC's.

i've been working on a new tone arm for the last couple of months, and did finally order the 12" Primary Control FCL (field coil) tone arm last week. that's also scheduled to arrive in May. my initial plan was to combine the DaVa field coil cart with the field coil arm. but i've learned that is not a good idea. that arm/cart combo not synergistic. so the DaVa will be mounted on one of my Durand Tosca's. the FCL arm will then have one of my Etsuro Gold's.

right now, the plan is to mount the FCL arm on the Wave Kinetics NVS, and keep the Tosca on the Saskia with the Dava cart. but i will have arm boards for both arms, for both turntables. so i can play around with the best combinations. my goal is to have the best jazz/blues arm/cart combo on the Saskia, and the best classical/pop combo on the NVS to compliment the CS Port linear tracker for classical/pop. the Durand Telos which now has my Miyajima Infinity mounted will be moving on, and my other Tosca will now do both my Infinity Mono carts.

lastly; i have ordered today the EMIA Phono Corrector in silver, with 2 power supplies. it will hopefully be here in late April. it will replace my CS Port phono. once the DaVa cartridge arrives; Dave Slagle will work with me to identify the best SUT as a match for it, and Dave will then combine that SUT with a silver SUT for both Etsuro Gold's into an EMIA MC Trio. i'll trade my current pair of silver 1:10 EMIA SUT's in on the MC TRIO. so the Phono Corrector will service all three cartridges, leaving the mono carts for the darTZeel phono. the MC Trio will also have a mono switch, so i can use it for the mono's if i like.

to help pay for all these items, i'll be selling the EMT 948 with Durand Kairos arm, one Etsuro Gold, the CS Port phono, and one of my Studer A-820's (without the head switch and with 1/4" and 1/2" guides and head blocks) i have not been using. so there will be some pain, but not crazy amounts of it. it will be a few months, but i can ride off into the sunset once these things are in place and dialed in.

at least it's a plan. and checks have been written.
 
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Score!!!

No serious listening yet….but…….all three arms are now switchable with the EMIA MC Trio and much lower noise and greater life and dynamics. I think the 1:15 (for the 2 special Etsuro Gold's) and 1:50 (for the DaVa Reference) are spot on. And switching the volume relative to my dart pre gain seems equal. Going upstairs to watch some football, but feeling very good.

:):cool::)

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upon further listening last night, it was such a relief and enjoyable to be able to jump quickly from one tt to another. the 'new' MC Trio is a bit thick and tight, not as open and flowing as my well broken in 1:10's were. yet the added energy from higher gain was evident.

so steady as she goes to get some hours on things. and now that my DaVa is in a better place i can play more with set-up and get it dialed in better. only less than 7-8 total hours on the DaVa so far. not sure the break in time for it.
 
Hi Mike

In your photo what cables are you using from the phono to sut.

Paul
Paul,

those were provided to me by Dave Slagle. so i can't really describe them beyond that.

prior when i had the pair of au 1:10 SUT's he had originally given me 2 sets of short i.c.'s for between my CS Port phono and the SUT's. this current single cable does sound better than those other one's. why i cannot say. maybe Dave will chime in here.

Mike
 
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this morning really enjoying the new EMIA MC Trio and listening to all three choices; using a Philips Beethoven String Quartet (Quartetto Italiano 'Late') and the switching is so seamless and easy. as the hours add up things are better and better.

i can make a case for each musical view. each is distinct in it's attraction.

right now it's the NVS/FCL/Etsuro Gold ultra fine inner lines and micro detail + ease and flow.
 
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this morning really enjoying the new EMIA MC Trio and listening to all three choices; using a Philips Beethoven String Quartet (Quartetto Italiano 'Late') and the switching is so seamless and easy. as the hours add up things are better and better.

i can make a case for each musical view. each is distinct in it's attraction.

right now it's the NVS/FCL/Etsuro Gold ultra fine inner lines and micro detail + ease and flow.

Do you have a consistent preference for a certain genre of music, or does it just differ record to record even for the same genre
 
Do you have a consistent preference for a certain genre of music, or does it just differ record to record even for the same genre
at one point before these new additions i did have a clear hierarchy and expectation, by genre with some exceptions. but after all these changes i'm still sorting that out. and i'm finding that until i warm up all three turntables it's a moving target. now that the DaVa is more dialed in and more refined i have to explore it's capabilities. it's more an all rounder than i first thought. the Saskia still has it's influence though.

Mik is sending me a new cable 'piece' which might upset the ranking again; not sure it will arrive prior to your visit.
 
Added an LFD DIN ‘Dongle’, which is a 12” long super cable that optimizes the DIN connection restriction to phono cables. This is very stiff and requires stress relief. So I acquired 3 clamp posts for all three of my LFD phono cables as the other 2 are also heavy and put lots of strain on the DIN.

my first impressions of this Dongle were very high; special levels of openness, dimensionality and dynamics. but it's brand new and fresh so i need to give it time.

to use the Dongle i needed to appropriate the LFD Raptor 1.5m rca i.c. i was using between the EMIA phono and the dart pre. this LFD Dongle -> LFD Raptor combo is replacing a Primary Control DIN phono cable i had been using on the DaVa. big step up. replacing the LFD Raptor EMIA to dart pre i've temporarily substituted a WBC Gotham 1.5m rca i.c. written about in Tang's thread. hard to say yet how the Gotham will do in that spot. but it will be fair to all three of the set-ups using the EMIA.

btw; last night i did 100% solve my hum problem from the DaVa.

Later Mik will send me additional info on the 'super' Dongle which I will post.
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Oh boy, I am very jealous of Kedar spending the weekend listening to all your delicious gear. I suspect his list of “compares” has him salivating at the airport more so than the delights of airplane cuisine lol.

Looking forward to reading and hearing about the Wadax digital front end even though personally I am not into digital these days.

But above all I await with baited breath his analogue front end compares. Will be interesting to read about the different presentations from direct drive, to belt, to monster idler.

For me personally and for obvious reasons as an owner, I am looking forward to reading about his compare of the DaVa versus the Etsuro. I think it is 1-0 so far to DaVa based on the Vess visit where he preferred DaVa + Thorens 124 to Etsuro + Continuum.

Also want to hear Ked’s impression of Studer A820 verses the other formats again since I own baby brother Studer 812.

Best regards, Mike, and enjoy.
 
Oh boy, I am very jealous of Kedar spending the weekend listening to all your delicious gear. I suspect his list of “compares” has him salivating at the airport more so than the delights of airplane cuisine lol.

Looking forward to reading and hearing about the Wadax digital front end even though personally I am not into digital these days.
i will be curious whether Ked has any interest in the digital. maybe. nothing we have discussed.
But above all I await with baited breath his analogue front end compares. Will be interesting to read about the different presentations from direct drive, to belt, to monster idler.

For me personally and for obvious reasons as an owner, I am looking forward to reading about his compare of the DaVa versus the Etsuro. I think it is 1-0 so far to DaVa based on the Vess visit where he preferred DaVa + Thorens 124 to Etsuro + Continuum.
i solved my DaVa 'hum' issue and installed the 'dongle' on the DaVa tonearm just Wednesday night. so last night i listened to 5 different Lp's switching back and forth on passages with all three turntables. it was very interesting. different shades of wonderful on each one.

ought to be a fun weekend.
Also want to hear Ked’s impression of Studer A820 verses the other formats again since I own baby brother Studer 812.
i'm sure there will be some of that too.
Best regards, Mike, and enjoy.
thanks Bill.
 
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i will be curious whether Ked has any interest in the digital. maybe. nothing we have discussed.

i solved my DaVa 'hum' issue and installed the 'dongle' on the DaVa tonearm just Wednesday night. so last night i listened to 5 different Lp's switching back and forth on passages with all three turntables. it was very interesting. different shades of wonderful on each one.

ought to be a fun weekend.

i'm sure there will be some of that too.

thanks Bill.

When I spoke to him he was very excited indeed and that excitement included hearing the Wadax too.
 

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