Cock-ups With Ceramics

So how does it sound this time?

I'm using an old Gram Amp 2 Communicator and I think it has the NE5532 op-amp, so is sweet sounding in the upper mids, and I'm playing "Milagro" by Santana, which is a quiet recording, and so the Majestic preamp is up at 12 o'clock.

The hissy brightness is gone.

In fact, I'd call it smooth with extra o's.

Does it trawl the bass? No, it's slightly light, but the bass is definitely there, but lacking a little authority.

I've built the "Velocitone" on a piece of parallel tag strip, and I'll photograph it later so you can see how simple it is. It's all scrap box apart from the resistors and capacitors being new stock.

Perhaps I should do as I say and let it age a few days.

Update on SQ.

I ought to have used brand new phono sockets as the LHC kept cutting out. A goodly amount of "exercising it" seems to have made it make better contact, but there is obviously that lingering doubt. I will have to use a plastic box and machine it for the "PCB" type pressed metal sockets we use on products the next time. Some think them inferior, and the gold plated single screw on sockets superior, but I've got news for them...

The sound quality, i.e. tonal quality, improved with use. The bass became fuller. Just leaving it on won't improve it simply because it is a passive circuit. Current has to flow for a circuit of electronic components to age, and so it can only age through use.

The next vinyl to play was "To Our Children's Children" by the Moody Blues.

The intro didn't sound as dramatic as I'm used to and was tonally all over the place, but here I'm nit picking.

There is a definite stereo image, and I think it will give perspective and be lucid. However, some of that felt a bit restrained, but might be because of the "nudity" of the cartridge. If I remember correctly, some removed the metal jacket in a bid to make the cartridge sound less tinny. Obviously they were not using the Velocitone into a good MM phono stage.

Downforce is set to 2.5g (mn) and very little bias. VTA might be out and I will have to try magnification to see the stylus tip angle. It should be 20 degrees to the vertical and I think it might be shallower.

I am using two Technics 2g head shell weights, without which the arm will not balance within its range.

I got a new aftermarket replacement stylus from "Get The Needle" run by a chap called Tony Hughes, who says he has a number of 9TA stylus left. I have yet to try the new stylus. It's an LP/LP flip over.