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Reflex M + PSU 1 In Home Audition

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    Posted: 14 Dec 2018 at 8:34pm
My audition of this unit is still in progress but I wanted to post some thoughts here now that I've had the opportunity to do some careful listening with different types of music and records.

In short - I am very impressed with the Reflex M. 

As some of you know, I had some issues with the Goldring 1042 cartridge. I've had this cartridge for a few months and it has grated on my nerves. I thought I got a defective cartridge as no amount of fiddling with it appeared to be excess sibilance and distortion. Well, I figured out it's not the cartridge.

The problem was my current phono preamp (not a GS unit). It simply couldn't take the output of the 1042, which is 6.5MV +/- 1.5MV. As a result it was creating grainy distortion that was especially noticeable with dynamic peaks, sibilant sections, and loudly cut records. Frankly some albums were unlistenable to me and I'd have to turn them off midway. 

Not so with the Reflex M. It takes the output of the 1042 with no problem. Not only that, but the responsiveness and detail on this unit are incredible. Drums in particular have never sounded more realistic and detailed. 

This morning I was listening to Art Farmer + Jim Hall - Big Blues (UK Pure Pleasure reissue). Now this is a very good recording to begin with and this particular reissue is very well done. However, the level of detail I can hear with the Reflex + 1042 is astounding. All the subtleties of the cymbals come alive. When Farmer blasts his trumpet and suddenly stops it on a dime one song - you can hear exactly what is going on there. The other phono preamps I have here would just gloss this over. 

On less than perfect music, the Reflex does well also. I'll post some more on that later. 

Right now I'm listening to Cat Stevens' Teaser and the Firecat (U.S. 70s pressing). There are some tracks on the first side where Stevens strums his guitar quite aggressively. The amount of clarity I can hear in those passages is unreal. Rather than wanting to turn it off, I want to turn it up louder, stop what I'm doing, and listen even more closely to the music. 

Again, I'm very impressed. 

I've heard people say that the Accession is even better than the Reflex but I'm having a hard time imagining how that would be possible. 




Edited by patientot - 14 Dec 2018 at 8:35pm
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Richardl60 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Richardl60 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Dec 2018 at 9:59pm
good to hear it is resolving your goldring issue. Your cat Stevens was a show demo album in the 1970s great music and recording .





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Dec 2018 at 3:37pm
All well that ends well.
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote patientot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Dec 2018 at 7:55pm
So I promised I would post my impressions of some less than well recorded music through my system with the Reflex. 

Yesterday I put on DRI's Dealing With It LP (1985 U.S. Pressing). If you don't know this album, it's a mixture of hardcore punk and thrash. It was recorded in a real studio but is not a high end recording by any stretch. It definitely sounded quite powerful with more "oomph" than my current phono pre. DRI plays very fast on many of the songs (24 tracks in 34 min.) but I could still pick out most of the instruments pretty well even on the fastest parts. 

Taking things up a notch, how about some contemporary death metal? Tomb Mold's latest album, Manor of Infinite Forms (2018 pressing), was another one I tested yesterday. The recording is very murky with a good deal of compression and such like most contemporary metal albums. Still, it sounded pretty good, limitations of the recording not withstanding. Here and there I could pick out some detail on the cymbals and some growling bass lines. 

From a completely different angle, I put on Wall of Voodoo's Call of the West LP (80s U.S. pressing). The recording itself doesn't seem too compressed but the record is definitely cut a little hot and the production sounds quite lo-fi at times. It didn't sound too bad at all either. 

So I guess the take away here is that the Reflex works well with both well recorded music and poorly recorded, non-hi-fi music. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote patientot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Dec 2018 at 7:58pm
Originally posted by Richardl60 Richardl60 wrote:

good to hear it is resolving your goldring issue. Your cat Stevens was a show demo album in the 1970s great music and recording .

Very interesting. I did not know that. Agree that it's a great album and very well recorded. At some point I need to pick up the Analogue Productions reissue of Tea for the Tillerman. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Richardl60 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Dec 2018 at 8:36pm
do you have any/many AP albums?  The jury is out with. Me, very quiet pressings but can be a bit too warm and cuddly and if the source recoding isn't great I.e it is rolled off at one or both ends this appears that compound matters.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote patientot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Dec 2018 at 8:45pm
Originally posted by Richardl60 Richardl60 wrote:

do you have any/many AP albums?  The jury is out with. Me, very quiet pressings but can be a bit too warm and cuddly and if the source recoding isn't great I.e it is rolled off at one or both ends this appears that compound matters.



I've got around half a dozen of them, so not a lot. Most of mine are jazz reissues. The only one that's not is a mono reissue of Pet Sounds. I haven't really had any issues with these albums but my sample size is small. I've heard that people sometimes run into pressing issues if they buy a lot of the AP releases. I have had a couple duds from QRP, the plant owned by the same parent company, which is also where all AP releases are pressed these days. 
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