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Reflex M + PSU 1 In Home Audition

Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Turntable Audio
Forum Name: Write A Review
Forum Description: Satisfied with your Graham Slee phono preamp? - share your experiences here
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4623
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 11:18pm
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Topic: Reflex M + PSU 1 In Home Audition
Posted By: patientot
Subject: Reflex M + PSU 1 In Home Audition
Date 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. 





Replies:
Posted By: Richardl60
Date 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 .







Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date 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.


Posted By: patientot
Date 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. 


Posted By: patientot
Date 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. 


Posted By: Richardl60
Date 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.




Posted By: patientot
Date 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. 


Posted By: Richardl60
Date Posted: 17 Dec 2018 at 9:00pm
Did think about stereo Pet Sounds buy very disappointed with Holland.

Probably have a similar number to you...


Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2018 at 4:16pm
The Reflex M isn't out of place with & can do justice to some costly high output cartridges.



-------------
Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2018 at 9:28pm
Originally posted by Richardl60 Richardl60 wrote:

Did think about stereo Pet Sounds buy very disappointed with Holland.

Probably have a similar number to you...

Sorry to hear you were disappointed with Holland. My mono Pet Sounds is great. I thought about getting their hybrid SACD that has both the stereo and mono versions but never got around to it. As it stands I have an older CD that has both versions of the album so that is tiding me over. 

I do have my eye on the Hendrix hybrid SACDs for an purchase next year though. 


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2018 at 9:29pm
Originally posted by RichW RichW wrote:

The Reflex M isn't out of place with & can do justice to some costly high output cartridges.


I would imagine that to be the case with London Decca cartridges and such. 

The only other really high output cart I have here besides the Goldring is a Shure M35X (6 MV). I need another headshell before I can mount that on the JVC though. Right now it's set up for a different turntable that takes proprietary headshells. 


Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2018 at 8:30am
Originally posted by patientot patientot wrote:

Originally posted by RichW RichW wrote:

The Reflex M isn't out of place with & can do justice to some costly high output cartridges.


I would imagine that to be the case with London Decca cartridges and such. 

The only other really high output cart I have here besides the Goldring is a Shure M35X (6 MV). I need another headshell before I can mount that on the JVC though. Right now it's set up for a different turntable that takes proprietary headshells. 

Len Gregory's Music Maker MI cartridges also work particularly well with the Reflex M, David.
Without wishing to bang on about it too much, LG's MusicMaster - a refinement of the standard
cart is a corker - very strong on acoustic & classical & a lot else. A costly cart though.



-------------
Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2018 at 4:56pm
Originally posted by RichW RichW wrote:


Len Gregory's Music Maker MI cartridges also work particularly well with the Reflex M, David.
Without wishing to bang on about it too much, LG's MusicMaster - a refinement of the standard
cart is a corker - very strong on acoustic & classical & a lot else. A costly cart though.


Never heard one, only read about them. Costly is right - well outside of my price range. My understanding is that he uses the Grado Prestige design as a base and heavily modifies it. People that have them or review them seem to say great things. Grado has their own very expensive cartridges now - I believe some cost up to $12,000 USD. Out of my league. 

It would not surprise me at all that the Reflex M works great with these very expensive handmade cartridges. 


Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2018 at 9:20am
I still remember the put-down I got from some trumpet on a forum for suggesting
it is a modified Grado. Smile
Heavily modified it is - to the extent of using only the original body.
They do sound excellent though.



-------------
Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2018 at 6:19pm
Originally posted by RichW RichW wrote:

I still remember the put-down I got from some trumpet on a forum for suggesting
it is a modified Grado. Smile
Heavily modified it is - to the extent of using only the original body.
They do sound excellent though.


I can imagine. Does Len wind his own coils as well? Am I right to assume he still uses an MI design for these cartridges, or are they something else? 


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2018 at 8:02pm
To try the Reflex M with some bass-heavy music I selected some reggae records from my collection:

Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution ('78 U.S. Mango)

Wailing Souls - Inchpinchers (Recent RE Greensleeves)

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Dread Beat An' Blood ('81 Heartbeat)

The Heptones - Nightfood ('76 Island)

On each record, the bass was smooth and deep, never too bloated or too thin. 


Posted By: Richardl60
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2018 at 8:58pm
The even handedness is what I would have expected from your Reflex;  in line with my experiences of the revelation incarnation which was even handed to all sources; indeed more so than the Era gold V in itself very good.


Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 21 Dec 2018 at 7:44am

I can imagine. Does Len wind his own coils as well? Am I right to assume he still uses an MI design for these cartridges, or are they something else? 
[/QUOTE]
Yes, Len does wind his own coils & they are MI designs.

Some phono stages struggle with bass - the Reflex M has no problem here.




-------------
Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 21 Dec 2018 at 7:43pm
How the Reflex M fares with Classic Rock, Hard Rock, and Blues Rock: 


I picked out these four LPs from my collection:

Jimi Hendrix Cry of Love (2014 Legacy U.S. RE, mastered by Bernie Grundman)

Jeff Beck - Truth (70s U.S. Epic 2-fer RE w/Beck-Ola)

Steve Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather ('84 U.S. Epic)

Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties (70s U.S. Columbia)


Spoiler: the Reflex M performed very well on all these albums.

The Reflex did a very good job conveying the richness of Jimi's voice and the heaviness and clarity of his guitar work. Where the recording of a particular song allowed it, cymbals were also very detailed as on other albums.

For Truth, Rod's voice is way out front compared to Jimi's and of course his vocal style is totally different. He has more of a scratchy soul singer's voice. Beck's guitar tone is also totally different - not as heavy and more of a slashing sound. This was also played back very well with the Reflex.

On the SRV LP, the standout track is "Tin Pan Alley". This sounds very different to the rest of the LP, as  https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/members/92820/ - @bever70  noted, it's a spacious slow-burner covered in reverb. You can hear the separation of the instruments very clearly on this track. The Reflex again reproduces the bass lines very well in a smooth and deep manner. SRV's guitar is clear as a bell here, and the attack and decay when he suddenly hits his strings hard is quite jaw dropping. I had to stand directly in front of the speakers for this one.

For Secret Treaties, the main takeaway here is that the Reflex doesn't add any unnecessary bloat to the album's sound. If you know this album, you know the production is tight and compact, not bloated and leaden like a lot of 70s hard rock. Detail again is excellent.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2018 at 9:23pm
How the Reflex M Fares With Jazz:

I have been listening to the Reflex with jazz since I started the loan period but wanted to do some more concentrated listening. Frankly jazz encompasses so much I struggled with what records to use, but I ended up selecting these from my collection:

Sonny Rollins - What's New? - ORG RE 2015

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder – U.S. 70s BN RE, RVG plates

Herbie Hancock – Empyrean Isles - Music Matters RE, 33rpm 2015

Frank Lowe – Fresh – U.S. Arista Freedom 1975

Dave Holland – Conference of The Birds – U.S. ECM 1973

Shoji Yokouchi Trio Plus Yuri Tashiro ‎– Greensleeves – Impex RE 2017


First up is Sonny. If you don't know this album, it's unique in that it features the percussionist Candido doing some work on bongos and congas. Although I love listening to Sonny play I probably focused more on these percussion sections which sound astoundingly lifelike here. In terms of how it conveys Sonny's Sax, I think it does an excellent job with tone and texture.

Next up, one of the most popular BN albums. Lee's horn slices through the mix very sharply. Even though RVG was said to cut his lacquers with some roll-off to accommodate for the limitations of average equipment at the time, I don't think the Reflex is adding an additional roll-off. It just portrays what's on the record.

Empyrean Isles is one of my favorite jazz albums and by far my favorite Herbie album. This particular LP wasn't cut with many compromises to my ears. Everything is very clear and defined with no romantic roll-off. The first thing I notice is the detail in the drums, which is running theme with the Reflex. Ron Carter's bass is deep and clear, Hancocks piano sounds great, and Hubbard's horn is fiery. I've played back this album many times on both of my turntables with different phono stages and cartridges but I don't think it's ever sounded this powerful.

Next is something totally different. A mid-70s free jazz album by Frank Lowe. There are a couple of Monk tunes on this LP, but they are almost barely recognizable once they get going. This is screech and skronk with zero concessions to accessibility. Not much to say here other than the Reflex portrays harshness very well.

The effect is the same with Conference of the Birds. If you know the ECM label primarily for its more soothing sounds and atmospheric albums, this one might be a curve ball for you. It's a free jazz album featuring Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton. It ranges from spacious and moody to sudden bursts of harshness. There are some sections with a sudden rush of cymbal work that my Goldring 1042 had trouble keeping up with. To be fair, it might be a challenge for most cartridges outside of the very best trackers.

Shifting gears again, I moved to a melodic jazz guitar album originally released on the Three Blind Mice label in the late 70s. If you've never heard it before, I'll just say this is one of the best recorded and pressed records I own. Here, the guitar work and drums are very detailed and the Reflex doesn't gloss over the deep tones of the Hammond organ or the bass.


Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 01 Jan 2019 at 5:31pm
How the Reflex M Fares with Electronic Music: 

For this grouping I selected these albums from my collection: 

Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa, 2011)

Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel (Mute UK 2005)

Clock DVA - Buried Dreams (Wax Trax, 1989 U.S.)


Like all the other groupings, the Reflex continues to impress. The theme here is bass reproduction and detail. 

For Isolee, we're talking about contemporary computer music production in the form of experimental house music. The artist behind this project, Rajko Muller, was one of the pioneers of the microhouse genre back in the late 90s and this album is one of the most complex, textured pieces I've heard from him. The Reflex obscures nothing when playing back this album. 

Playing the Angel is one of my favorite albums by Depeche Mode, but audiophiles in particular have always complained about the production and mastering on this record. The CD edition was brickwalled to death and this 2005 LP is cut very LOUD. The Reflex handles it as well as can be expected, not adding any extra distortion or glossing over any of the detail in the production. My copy of this was not cared for by the previous owner, so there are some pops and scratches here and there even after two or three RCM cleanings. The Reflex pushes those well away from the foreground to where they're barely noticeable.

Buried Dreams is a very different kind of album than the other two, made during a time when outboard gear had to be relied on almost exclusively for electronic music. For its time, this was a fairly advanced album and it still sounds great today. The sharpness of the synth stabs and the detail of the different sequenced elements is conveyed with a great level of detail by the Reflex. Basslines and kick drums are rock solid and not muddy.


Posted By: BAK
Date Posted: 04 Jan 2019 at 6:25am
David, you are describing everything I love about the Reflex M.Wink

Enjoy!




-------------
Bruce
AT-14SA, Pickering XV-15, Hana EL, Technics SL-1600MK2, Lautus, Majestic DAC, Technics SH-8055 spectrum analyzer, Eminence Beta8A custom cabs; Proprius & Reflex M or C, Enjoy Life your way!



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