Hello From Birmingham (Alabama) not England
Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Find what you're looking for here!
Forum Name: New Members Corner
Forum Description: Introduce yourself here
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5818
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 12:15am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Hello From Birmingham (Alabama) not England
Posted By: ric-4044
Subject: Hello From Birmingham (Alabama) not England
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2025 at 4:17am
| I just wanted to say Hi. I am participating in the loaner program and have a Reflex phono preamp and a couple of cusat50 cables I'm trying out. I also have a Parasound XRM phono preamp, as well as a P******t Phono box S3 B that I'm comparing. My turntable is a Technics sl1200 mk7 with an Audio Technica vm540 ml cart. I'm enjoying myself like a 7 yr old kid on Christmas day. I just wanted to say hi and thanks to everyone that keeps the loaner program going. |
Replies:
Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2025 at 8:58pm
|
Hi Ric. I've no doubt you will enjoy the Reflex. I have one and I'm well pleased with it. ------------- Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze. |
Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2025 at 9:00pm
|
Welcome aboard Ric. ------------- 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: ric-4044
Date Posted: 23 Aug 2025 at 7:26pm
| Thanks everyone. I’ll keep everyone posted as I dive into my testing. |
Posted By: ric-4044
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2025 at 10:43pm
I don't see how some folks do it. I have spent a couple of days swapping between phono preamps and also rca interconnects. There are some subtle differences, but nothing that is like a night/day difference that I notice. I would be hard pressed to tell any difference if I weren't just A/B/C testing equipment back to back to back. It's enough to drive a person mad; but I can't stop.  . This is hard trying to determine the subtle differences.
|
Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2025 at 5:49pm
|
My tip is to use a mixture of music. ------------- 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: ric-4044
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2025 at 1:45am
| I've been mixing it up with regular jazz, modern jazz, some r&b and pop. It's still hard to understand if you're really hearing differences or if its just in my head. I'm still listening. |
Posted By: Chris Firth
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2025 at 10:28am
|
Hi Ric Which PSU are you using with the Reflex?
|
Posted By: ric-4044
Date Posted: 01 Sep 2025 at 4:23am
| The PSU1. |
Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 11 Sep 2025 at 12:03am
|
I wouldn't recommend swapping stuff back and forth like that. It's not a good way to approach things IME. My advice is to plug in the GS gear and leave it plugged in and just listen to that for 2 weeks. All three phono stages you have including the loaner have different amounts of gain and are likely very different designs, FWIW. ------------- SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM610 MONO, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges. |
Posted By: toypadlock
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2026 at 5:12pm
| Hi Ric! What did you end up going with in the end? I have that cartridge, and I'm thinking about the Reflex but worried it might be overkill (my TT is only a Rega P2) |
Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2026 at 5:31pm
I would recommend buying the best you can afford, or doing the trial program and going from there. GS phono stages work very well with AT MM cartridges (my daily drivers for years). As for the TT, the P2 can be upgraded, either by swapping out parts (very common with Rega owners) or by getting a new turntable further down the line. I used my Reflex (with AT carts and others) with older vintage turntables before I got my current turntable. Of course everything sounds better now, but even with the old turntables I was getting sound that was better than my prior phono stages. As for the OP on this thread, I'm not sure what they ended up deciding. I always tell folks to make decisions based on their own situation as there may be a number of factors that are different from the OP. ------------- SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM610 MONO, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges. |
toypadlock wrote:Posted By: ric-4044
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2026 at 3:36am
| Hi. I ended up keeping the P******t S3 b and the P******t S3 power box. I ended getting both on open box for around $500 total. The Reflex might have sounded slightly better; in fact all 3 were pretty close. The Parasound xrm is a bargain at its price point; but the P******t was the middle child that did nothing wrong. I plan to go Mc carts in the future so this made more sense to me. It’s was half the price of the Graham Slee reflex. It had a few more adjustable options over the Parasound. I think the more worthwhile purchase is a better cart. We can split hairs on phono preamps all day; but the cart probably males a bigger difference in how things sound. |
Posted By: toypadlock
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2026 at 11:06am
thank you - i'm currently using the decent built-in phono stage in my Arcam A25. i was originally planning to go with a more modest upgrade, but it does seem like getting something better now would set me up for significantly longer. basically i finally got round to upgrading the cartridge at christmas, and the audio-technica ML is *so* much better than the elys i had on before that records sound, to me, better than digital. and so other upgrade paths seem more worth it than they did before, sigh.
|
Posted By: toypadlock
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2026 at 11:12am
thank you! yep, i have a really great decent cart now, to the extent where i feel other upgrades are actually now worth it
|
Posted By: patientot
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2026 at 11:46am
Many people end up with Rega MM cartridges when they buy their turntable as part of a package. A huge portion of these people IME end up switching to an AT or Ortofon cartridge when the stylus wears down. There are likely several reasons for that. The Rega cartridges I've heard didn't impress me too much so I'm not surprised you are getting better sound now. ------------- SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM610 MONO, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges. |