Zanden 1200 Signature

[Marcus]

Wow!

 

[Marcus]

New 1200 Signature units will come with two additional upgrades that first few samples didn’t have - a subsonic filter and Ortofon 4th time constant option. More on this in the link below...

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/zanden-1200-mk3-2020.31332/

 

[LL21]

Will be interesting to see post-Jinpu and now this...what happens after the AE Zanden digital comes out...will 5000Signature get an upgrade like this? !

 

[Marcus]

As you know Lloyd, the 5000 Signature has been discontinued long time ago, so I doubt it will be upgraded. Nevertheless we can speculate a new generation of Zanden digital products may be at the horizon after the Seikoh is introduced but my personal opinion is that there will be no digital from Zanden even after the Seikoh. Would be glad though if Yamada-san found a substitution for the legendary Philips TDA1541A S1 Double Crown chip and CDM-Pro2 Transport that he found irreplaceable until now...

 

[LL21]

As you know Lloyd, the 5000 Signature has been discontinued long time ago, so I doubt it will be upgraded. Nevertheless we can speculate a new generation of Zanden digital products may be at the horizon after the Seikoh is introduced but my personal opinion is that there will be no digital from Zanden even after the Seikoh. Would be glad though if Yamada-san found a substitution for the legendary Philips TDA1541A S1 Double Crown chip and CDM-Pro2 Transport that he found irreplaceable until now...

Yes, that all makes sense. And I remember speaking with Eric Pheils of Zanden a few years ago who did say that after so many years of investigation and detailed design, the 4-box digital was in Yamada-San's view (at that time 3-4 years ago) the best that he could get redbook.

 

[Marcus]

Enough just talking about this beastie. It’s time for some action...

 

[LL21]

Yours? Congrats!

 

[Marcus]

Yes. Thanks.

 

[Marcus]

 

[kodomo]

plug it and review it so that we can lust after one (as if we were not doing already)

 

[djsina2]

Interesting knobs...

 

[LL21]

Fantastic! Congrats Marcus! A thing of beauty. I know the chassis well from the Zanden DAC and its PSU. Look forward to reading all about it!

 

[howiebrou]

View attachment 70512View attachment 70513View attachment 70514

Congrats. So is this a MC only phono amp? Can you use a SUT with it?

 

[Marcus]

Congrats. So is this a MC only phono amp? Can you use a SUT with it?

Yes it’s a MC phono amp but don’t think it needs any help with external SUT. I used cartridges with 0,3mV and less and had enough gain with low (54dB) gain setting and then there’s a high gain (64dB) option...Here’s a photo of tech. specs. that may help.

 

[tima]

Here’s a photo of tech. specs. that may help.

You indicated the circuitry is fully balanced? You don't see many phonostages with XLR inputs. That's pretty cool. Since most cartridges are balanced devices, it gives the opportunity for a complete balanced system if other components are. Do you know if it has a 4 Pole volume control? I see you took the RCA option, which is fine. Do you run all single-ended Clear Beyond through to the Art?

64dB gain is near optimal, imo, and 54db would be fine with something like a 1.1mv output Master Sig. Several others offer 60db low and 70db high, the latter is on the too high side.

And plenty of opportunity for tube rolling (should you wish to get into that) with the 6DJ8-family.

Looks really nice, Marcus - congratulations. I'd like to try your new phono with your Zanden linestage and the Clear Beyond in my own system someday.

 

[microstrip]

Considering that it looks like a double 1200 mk3 (see https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/zanden-1200-mk3-2020.31332/post-673436 ) it is probably fully balanced. I can't see however why having a RCA input - why not a XLR input? Although we can have a fully balanced system with a floating RCA input and a custom tonearm cable it is much less elegant. And there is always the risk that some people will use it incorrectly.

 

[Marcus]

You indicated the circuitry is fully balanced? You don't see many phonostages with XLR inputs. That's pretty cool. Since most cartridges are balanced devices, it gives the opportunity for a complete balanced system if other components are. Do you know if it has a 4 Pole volume control? I see you took the RCA option, which is fine. Do you run all single-ended Clear Beyond through to the Art?

64dB gain is near optimal, imo, and 54db would be fine with something like a 1.1mv output Master Sig. Several others offer 60db low and 70db high, the latter is on the too high side.

And plenty of opportunity for tube rolling (should you wish to get into that) with the 6DJ8-family.

Looks really nice, Marcus - congratulations. I'd like to try your new phono with your Zanden linestage and the Clear Beyond in my own system someday.

Thanks Tim,
Yes it’s fully balanced and originaly comes with XLR inputs and XLR/RCA output (see photo below). I agree that ultimately it needs a completely balanced system but I took the RCA option since I use RCA terminated tonearm cable and the 3000 line stage is not fully balanced (just transformer coupled), and cj ART monos are also SE. So don’t think it’s time to go the fully XLR route yet. Nevertheless just for fun and out of curiosity, I’ll make a comparison with RCA/XLR interconnects in the near future and will report my findings...

Yes, I use SE Clear Beyond cables exclusively in my system, only the tonearm cable is Clear.

Re. the 4 pole volume control...it doesn’t have a volume control but if you have the 3000 mk2 line stage in mind, I don’t know.

 

[Marcus]

64dB gain is near optimal, imo, and 54db would be fine with something like a 1.1mv output Master Sig. Several others offer 60db low and 70db high, the latter is on the too high side.

There is of course a difference in gain between low and high options, but I always choose the high (480ohm) input impedance (low - 54dB gain) input because it simply sounds better - cleaner to me and also don’t feel any need for more gain. Benz LP-S and Kuzma CAR 60 sound best (to me) with a bit higher (500-2000 ohm) impedance. But that’s only my opinion, other might think differently. I know one 1200 Mk3 ownwer that prefers the low (35ohm) impedance (high -60dB gain) position...

The input selector in this phono stage shows impedance not gain. So if you choose “high” (impedance) it means low gain.

 

[kodomo]

Hey Marcus, How is it going with the 1200 signature, let us know!

 

[Marcus]

Will do. Give me a week or two...