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Reflex (a sort of a review) |
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tg [RIP]
Moderator Group Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Location: Sydney Status: Offline Points: 1866 |
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Posted: 21 Sep 2010 at 9:49am |
Nice TT setup you have, good to hear you are pleased with the Reflex, I love mine, or at least I love how it lets my records sound. |
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Marsh
New Member Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Status: Offline Points: 7 |
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Hi all out there,
Very interesting reading concerning the Reflex M - here's my initial thoughts.
I've had my Reflex M a few weeks now and am, unsurprisingly, delighted with it. It is teamed with an Orbe, OL Encounter and MM III. It replaced a quite nice, but over-warm sounding, vavle phono stage from Leicester which conked out (it cost more than the Reflex and is, IMHO, inferior by a fair margin in terms of build and sound).
I won't go into loads of detail - no doubt that's been done many times before in the Forum - all I will say is that the Reflex just seems to get it 'right' with vinyl reply - it's all there, with the bonus that it keeps record surface noise to a minimum and is very quiet in terms of hum etc.
A couple of additional points:
It is connected to my pre-amp by a recently acquired Cusat50 interconnect that sounded truly horrible straight out of the packaging but thankfully didn't take too long to loosen up - it does indeed compliment the Reflex's abilities and is another firm recommendation.
The purchase of the Reflex M has made me start wet cleaning all my vinyl again - only 427 to go.......
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Graham Slee
Admin Group Retired Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: South Yorkshire Status: Offline Points: 16298 |
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The "green" Reflex like the "green" Solo has been a pilot scheme used to evaluate the circuit modifications required to accommodate a switched mode power supply in place of the usual PSU1. Now who would want to do a thing like that? I would only previously have used such a power supply as a last resort, but that last resort is being forced upon us by politicians world-wide. The best place for a phonostage power supply is outside the phonostage - as far away as is practicable - to prevent its magnetic fields and charging currents influencing the music. That power supply then quite neatly falls into their trap because it is an external power supply, or as they call it, EPS. EPS and BC (their shorthand for battery chargers) are responsible world-wide for consuming the output of 20 power stations and power stations "are destroying the planet by putting too much carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere". Just how a gas that is heavier than air can ascend to such incredible heights is beyond me, and it looks like it is beyond them because they have not offered an explanation as to why anywhere I have looked. I can see that the jet engine is capable of doing so, but so far they evade that point. The witch hunt has gathered against the external power supply and that's that! The final EU study has been done and we just have to wait and see if it is made European law. I obviously have to act now just in case. Therefore I have developed the Reflex and Solo designs to return an equal performance to that obtained using the PSU1, but using a tiny switch mode external power supply. But instead of just claiming "it works just the same" we ran a pilot scheme where we offered the products at an advantageous price so that a broad cross-section of users could have their say. It seems I may have got the recipe right from what is being said by the participants on this community and in other forums. What I now have to do is merge the existing and the "green" designs in such a way that the customer has the option of buying the same product in "green" or standard issue (by offering it with the SM-PS or the PSU1), and then one day, if the law is brought in, the only option will be the "green". However, this will have been done without changing the performance. But just in case the "green" version, in the opinion of the user, does not quite reach the heady heights of performance the PSU1 powered product does, it will be offered at a lower price than the PSU1 powered version commensurate with the price difference we pay. I believe that world-wide legislation will eventually be brought in to effectively ban all linear external PSU's as it is in California State USA, and as such I am designing all our new products to perform to our high standards using SM-PS as well as the PSU1. |
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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps
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Graham Slee
Admin Group Retired Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: South Yorkshire Status: Offline Points: 16298 |
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Hi Olaf,
I had to jump to defend the design because some would-be customers get very twitchy indeed about the slightest issue, and in forum land, before you know it, a witch hunt attitude can easily set in. It is only recently that some reviewers have refrained from writing negative things about us. One editor entirely rewrote a contributor's glowing review on the Era Gold V in such a way as to make it an advert for the Trichord Dino! What was worse is that he'd never heard the Era Gold V! I will not name names - he knows who he is, and I don't forget, but I have the capacity to forgive. I would say your comment about the Reflex "For me it is the best MM Preamp I have ever heard" is shared by most every owner and I am grateful you said it. Many find it hard to grasp that it can be done at the Reflexes price - most believe that this performance level is only achieved in products costing 10 times the price. We do it at this price because I'm a "no-nonsense" type. I am not easily led by the mythology that surrounds hi-fi, in fact, as you have noticed, I actively try to break these myths that are there to force people to spend inordinate amounts of money only to be left disappointed in many cases. I would even go as far as saying such practices are grand-theft. We try to apply the science in a very practical way and in doing so we make "dream audio" (that is audio for listening, not for looks) affordable to more people. |
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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps
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olli_1963
New Member Joined: 26 Feb 2008 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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Hi Graham,
my experience is that the mains cable I use (a shielded one for only 60,-- EUR) is really better than the delivered one. It doesn't make the Reflex a new equipment but it is noticeable slightly better. Others who did the same (I posted the tip in a german forum) made the same experience. But I don't blame you for it. Because of this experience I guessed that the cable from the PSU to the Reflex may influence the sound quality as well. Sorry that you might have got the impression I would doubt your know-how. You have designed a beautiful preamp. For me it is the best MM Preamp I have ever heard. What is the green Reflex? Is there a sound difference to the normal Reflex? |
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best regards, Olaf Garrard 401, Syrinx PU3, Grado Reference, gsp Reflex Ayon Spark, Ayon Butterfly |
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Graham Slee
Admin Group Retired Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: South Yorkshire Status: Offline Points: 16298 |
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Ivan, where there are strong radio frequencies the Nordost would have injected RFI back into the Reflex as well as into your amp, and at some point in the combined circuits, the program being carried by the RF would have been "detected" and you'd have heard a radio broadcast as well as the music. Worse still, if a TV channel were to be detected, there would have been lots of hum or buzz from the framing signal which being amplitude modulated (AM) is far more easily detected.
The splashy treble is testament to RF pick-up which is putting weak radio frequencies both ways - into the Reflex output to its input via its negative feedback network and into the amp the usual way (into its input). The splashy treble is due to oscillations being set up in either or both circuits, which means they are not operating as their respective designers intended (one of them being me). This is not a telling off! I am only mentioning this for the benefit of other readers to balance the "argument". I am finding all this very useful and I thank you on behalf of others visiting here who wish to learn all these useful things. I encourage you and everybody else to continue and keep writing this stuff. When you make the CT100 cable remember to "relax" or get the insulation to unstick itself from the conductor by some means of manipulation as it does (and is scientifically proven) improve the cable's high frequency or I should say harmonic performance. Also, please orientate it so the signal direction (source to amp) is in the direction of the print on the cable (or as we have adopted the saying "run of the mill" in this instance). Then please report back with your findings between it and the Nordost. |
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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps
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IvanM
Regular Joined: 16 Jan 2008 Location: Sheffield UK Status: Offline Points: 87 |
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Hello tg
I am talking about the leads from the Reflex to the amp. From the arm to the reflex is some VDH stuff I put on about 6 years ago, which was better than the original Linn stuff but harder to dress. In fact dressing the cable so it doesn't di#% around with the suspension is a good insentive not to change it. I resorted to removing all three springs and throwing them down the room, before refitting them, when I set it the deck back up a few weeks back (probably needs new springs to be honest). I haven't come across the Extreme stuff before but checking their website looks it all looks pretty interesting.
Your post reminded me that I had wired my cartridge with 4 ropey old leads that came from god knows where as the one I took off had captives, so I need to get those sorted out too - cheers for that.
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I'd like to agree with you but then we'd both be wrong.
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