Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I am planning to buy a new record player, and a catridge.

My amplifier is a Yamaha AX-397 -
it has a dedicated phono input, and back when I bought the thing I think I read the phono pre-amp is a good one. Sounded good to me when I used it with my last record player.

I never bought / installed a seperate catridge before and now I learn about differences like MM and MC types - and basically my question is: can I use the latter with the amp that I have?

Cheers!

can I use the latter with the amp that I have?

No, the amp specifies MM, a normal MC cartridge won't put out enough voltage. There are some High Output MC cartridges, but normal MC cartridge output is typically a fifth to a tenth of a typical MM cartridge. You'd need a phono stage with corresponding greater gain.

it's MM only so either a step-up transformer, high output moving coil or separate phono stage.

I would go high output MC, theres plenty out there (i have used a few Sumiko's )

Although low output MC carts are (mostly) pretty expensive, so unless you are spending more than £200ish on it it's probably going to be MM or high output MC which will work in a MM stage.

If you did want to use the phono stage with a low output MC cart you could use a step up transformer in between. But again they tend not to be cheap so you would probably be better off buying a separate phono stage that has enough gain for the cart (and bypassing the built in stage)

Also, there are holy wars over whether using step-up transformers and an MM phono stage is better than using a high-gain active MC phono stage, so welcome to that 😁

Thank you all for elaborating!

Yes I did gather browsing around that this topic is an emotional one 🙂

I shall stick with a sub-200 MM one then for now.

Anyone use a graphic eq in their set-up? I have a 70s Yamaha CA600 amp and some 70’s Celestion UL6 speakers, which I love. I love the squishy 70s vibe and the top end detail but getting satisfying low end, especially at lower volumes can be tricky. I know the speakers can dish it out because they do fine when I crank bass-heavy stuff, but I’d like a way of tinkering with the low end EQ a bit. EQ seems to have gone right out fashion, so I was hoping I could find something suitable for a good price. Any recommendations?

Also, I’ve been pissing about with adding a second pair of speakers. Seemed rude not to try as the amp has two speaker outs you can switch and combine. Had some old Wharfdale diamond somethings that had been gathering dust for years and wired them in along side the celestions to see what that did. They definitely added a bit of 100hz thump, but not much below that. I’m looking for some more depth between 8o and 40hz. Perhaps a more bass-friendly second set of speakers might be the ticket?

Pair of monitor audio bronze bx2 for sale on local Facebook. Worth a go for second speakers at £100?

Have a look at MiniDSP, can be used as a powerful software EQ and a crossover to add a sub or two, which is what you need if you want 40-80hz.

Gale 3020 bookshelf speakers and a
Yamaha cd player for free here if anyone needs them (they're not mine but i can justify taking then and will live the serotonin response via you):

https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2292182

Thanks man. Will look into it. I mainly listen to folk, country, jazz, rock etc - not much EDM so no need for trouser-flapping sub really, it's just that when I crank the bass on the amp it seems to push the 100hz thump that lives in a rock kick drum, but i'm just missing that certain something below that for a really warm and enveloping bass sound. Hence my wondering if an EQ might be thing to just boost 60-80hz enough to get me what I want.

Are these extra boxes some kind of power conditioners? Never seen them with Quad stuff before so I assume they're not just standard power supplies?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125571971544?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1GFOPMigITAqVeDLd1RbPMw34&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=125571971544&targetid=1646683156259&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9044978&poi=&campaignid=17206177401&mkgroupid=136851690655&rlsatarget=aud-1657461040468:pla-1646683156259&abcId=9300866&merchantid=6995734&gclid=CjwKCAiA76-dBhByEiwAA0_s9doFrnyYe0qDCa__px_xVA94LNvwiF5bqiH38v01Fzh6kGzXh8G4jhoCR34QAvD_BwE

The Acoustical box is a tone control with high- and low-pass filters, for hiss and rumble reduction. Old school. The Multipack and Clipper units, I’m not sure what the 12V filter stuff would be for. There’s nothing on a Quad amp that uses 12V, so unless the Acoustical tone control is solid state it doesn’t belong with any of that.

Also, obviously excuse me if I’m stating the obvious, do remember that that’s a mono amp and tone control. You’ll need a second one of everything there for stereo 👍

I think the Acoustical is Quad's preamp and supplies power to the power amp - no power circuit in the power amp, I think. But I have no idea what the other boxes are for. Noted that it's mono.

Power supply is onboard on those. Under the two big covers are the power supply and output transformers, the small cover is a smoothing choke or capacitor (or both). Rectifier valve is at the back. The two small valves are the amplification stage and phase splitter for the push-pull. The two big valves are the push-pull output stage. This is just off memory but the voltages are something like 5V for the rectifier heater, 6.3V for the other heaters and the HT is about 450V. It may have a bias tap on the transformer but there’s no 12V line. That’s why I think it might be a solid state preamp / tone control because that would run on low voltage like that.

Gone

Gotcha. The full setup seems to only have one mains cable, going to the preamp, and then two cables come off that, one to each power amp (although this one is mono). Here's a stereo one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285084893694?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=CjwKCAiA76-dBhByEiwAA0_s9aLOqj0JCQXLPXXZYYY81MrLfb3rMJImErmbjtmNFulLLrJC25yLyhoCzo4QAvD_BwE

Would be a waste to stream Spotify through something that lovely, but it's still very tempting.

https://keith-snook.info/quad-22-valve-pre-amp-mods.html#:~:text=The%20QUAD%2022%20is%20very,made%20maximum%20use%20of%20all

Other boxes are model railway controllers, probably just a house clearance person assumed they went with the quad as they are both electrical or something

That's hilarious.

I shall stick with a sub-200 MM one then for now.

I don't think you can beat an Audio Technica VM95ML at that price range

Amazing!

The first thing I thought was "that's an old toy train set controller" and then dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

getting satisfying low end, especially at lower volumes can be tricky

That's what the loudness knob is for. The owners manual on Hifiengine explains how it works. Looks as though you can adjust up to +/- 10db, which should be plenty.

If you can't get good bass at +1odb at lower volumes, then something else is probably the matter.

Other boxes are model railway controllers

Ha! Yes!

I think I’ve been spending WAY too much time looking at oscillators, when my first thought was what would you need to reverse on a power supply, some kind of phase change to trim your Wien bridge at 50hz? Lol.

Waste?
Back in the 90s, I had a pair of Quad IIs that were cabled directly from a 1st gen Harmon Kardon CD player, where the headphone socket’s volume control also changed the output on the phonos. All wrong, but it sounded great : )