Well Schiit

So my Schiit Mani came in the mail, hooked up to my very modest system, (Dual 1019>AT 95E>Sherwood 7200>AT AD700's) even at very low volume the bass was so strong it was distorting, the highs went away and I could hardly touch the volume without everything getting blown out quickly. Anyone else had this experience, do I not run it through the phono input I the stereo anymore? TIA

 

The phono input in a receiver is for plugging a turntable in directly. If you're plugging the turntable into an external phono, then you plug that phono into a regular input on the receiver.

 

OK, upon further review....
Ran the Mani through an AUX input, this worked better.
However.
After sampling a few different albums from different genres, the built in Phono stage for the stereo is MUCH better than the Mani.
The Mani sounds clinical and distant, the built in phono stage feels like being in the front row, with a much more rounded sounded. Cymbals were crisper, stand up bass had far more depth, just better at every level.
Mani goes back on Monday.

 

Receivers of that era tend to have great phono stages.

 

Well, after a few more listens, and back to back comparisons, I sent the Mani back and ate to 20% restocking fee and $16 in postage. I don't mind doing the cost that much as it was good to experience the differences.

 

I'm actually pretty impressed with your "very modest" system-both a fine vintage receiver, and a better-than-fine idler deck. Now that you're happier with the built-in phono stage, I'd maybe look at upgrading your cart, perhaps a Shure M97 or an Ortofon, and just keep fine tuning the maintenance and adjustment of the deck and arm, record cleaning, and maybe cleaning/cap replacement of the Sherwood (if you haven't done that stuff already). If you're a DIY guy, you could even experiment with a high-mass plinth for the Dual ala Lenco/Garrard.

I have no idea what kind of money you've got in your outfit, but I'd wager you've got a much higher sound/cost ratio than many analog newbies putting together a new system from a catalog. I like it.

 

Thank you sir! Next step will be looking at a different cart. Thinking Nagaoka MP110 based off the testing and video Ian from HiViNyws has done recently.

I try to do quite a bit of reading before I made my purchases. I don't have a ton into my system, I have too many other expensive hobbies, and I can't afford another one!

 

I was wondering what other vintage integrated amps from the 70's and early 80's would have a great phono stage similar to the Sherwood? In particular, I am looking at a Rotel RA-840, circa 1982.

 

From Arthur Salvatore's site: http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-PhonoStages.html#Oth

If you already have a line stage, and are now looking for just a phono stage, and also want excellent quality without paying "big bucks", there is an easy solution that you will never read anywhere else;

Just find a top notch used tube preamplifier from the 1980’s or 1990’s at a bargain price! Confused?...


All you have to do is take the audio signal from the preamplifier's "tape outputs", which automatically bypasses the preamplifier’s entire line stage and all of its controls, except the selector switch.

More good news...


There are plenty of excellent choices;
Audio Research Corp. SP-8, SP-6 (later models), SP-10 & SP-11;
Conrad Johnson (not quite as desirable as ARC) PV-5, PV-7, PV-2, PV-1, Premier Two and Premier Three (check the circuit boards carefully for deterioration);
Counterpoint SA-3 and SA-5 series (very desirable);
Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 (all versions);
MFA-Magus and Audible Illusions Modulus II or III series.
The various Melos, Music Reference and the older Paragon and Precision Fidelity models (C-4, C-7, C-8, C-9) are also excellent choices.
If you are on a real tight budget, the Dynaco PAS-2, 3 or 3(X) will work very well (and even try one preamp per channel!).

The point being, these are all end-game preamps from an earlier era, and they still sound good today. Just not 'end game' good. But still, PDG! So if you want a preamp with phono, just disregard the 'tape output' advice above, and plug directly into the phono jacks.

 

Don't know how old this model is, but back in the day when turntables were simply the way to listen to music, a receiver or integrated with a bad phono stage would have been a very bad, very useless box.

 

I never bought a hi-fi receiver. I started with an integrated amp and added a tuner a bit later.

My first hi-fi amp was a Maranz 1060 integrated. The phono stage sounded very good to me. I used a Shure M91E cartridge. I have cassette tapes recorded on a Nakamichi 500 to refresh my memory.

Next I bought a McIntosh C-26 Pre-amp. I used an Ortophon M15E Super cartridge for years. I have cassette tapes from that setup also.

I kept the C-26 and started using a Grado MCX cartridge. After a number of years I bought a line stage and continued to use the C-26 as a phono stage. I would be using that today, if burglars hadn't dropped it and damaged it. (The C-26 had two phono stages, come to think of it.)

I am sure that neither of these are SOTA, but I really liked the way they made music sound. And like Thad E Ginathom said, when LPs were the dominant medium, phono stages were not an afterthought.

 

I never got the tuner. Always seemed too expensive. Would you believe... if I wanted radio through the speakers, I connected the headphone socket on a dirt-cheap radio alarm (really dirt cheap, because it was originally bought for a sailing holiday and I expected it might get wet/ruined) to AUX. And the result (albeit mono, of course) was nothing like as bad as the people who are now cringing might expect!

 

That reminds me of one night I went to my Cousin's house to watch a Rock concert that was being broadcast on TV. (That was an event back then.) He had taken the positive and negative wires off of the TV speaker and soldered them to a RCA jack with a Y-splitter plugged into the AUX on his stereo. My first thought was something like "Oh no!". I was pleasantly surprised that it sounded pretty good.

 

Brilliant. The only thing I ever succeeded in doing inside a TV was exploding a multimeter.

(I did use the headphone socket of the TV too. Your friend's custom jopb must have been quite a while back if it pre-dated them)

 

That's funny-my first 'real' stereo amp was a Marantz 1030-you really high-dollared me with your 1060! Like you I eventually acquired a tuner, in my case a little Nikko. Sounded good to me! And of course back then, amps/receivers almost always had headphone jacks-there was no such thing as a 'headphone amp'!

 

Yeah, quite a while ago. Headphone sockets on TVs didn't exist back then, AFAIK. Stereo TV was a long way off, as well. It was 1970/1971.

 

My first was a a receiver rather than an integrated - a Marantz 2270. I still have it, and it sounds good when serviced (needs servicing every other time I pull it out since that's not very often).

 

That 2270 looks like one of the most desirable Marantz receivers of that era, judging by prices on ebay.

I wonder what the phono stages are like on the lower power/lower cost receivers of that era. (2210, 2220 or 2230).

 

The 2230 was decent. Though with everything I've experienced from the era, MM or high output MC only unless you've got a step-up transformer. I do like a lot of the older designs, but the receivers especially can be fiddly. Recaps aren't the worst, but I'd be fine if I never had to look inside a tuner again.

 

Way back in the old days that we are talking about, when turntables and phono stages were standard, weren't receivers more of a standard thing in USA and integrateds more the norm in UK? Just an impression I have: correct me if I'm wrong.