Well, after a massive rethink and change of the system, it’s finally come together.
Unfortunately, one of the tubes didn’t travel very well and whistled, but that’s easily sorted, and a new one will be with me on Monday, hopefully.
Shame as I can’t use it till then, but it certainly looks impressive and should sound equally impressive once the tubes get some hours on them.
But looking forward to having a complete valve front end into my lush class A amp, and then the digital dCS front end to complement it.
Will update on the h7000 once i get it working.
Plus, i also get to play with different tubes going forward, as the standard ones look like they can be easily inpoved on, reading some other owners’ reviews on this.
Got a few cables to get still, as obviously need different ones to what i used before, but its getting there.
Also made my turntable support, as looking at adding an extra arm to set up this year. As the phono amp has 4 inputs, so easy to do now.
Probably going for a sme 12 inch arm, not sure on cartridge yet, but looking for something that will be less dynamic and not so utterly transparent as the exquisiteST is, so i can use that on the records that are spot on.
Looking great Dunc
If you don’t mind sharing- what is the platform for your TT? Looks like it might be a Quadraspire shelf? I may do something similar with my Artesania rack- is the spacing for the uprights standard or did you need to make modifications to line up with the metal cups of the Artesania?Thanks in advance…
ATB,
Mark
Hi
The spikes are indeed quadraspire.
I made the top myself, its solid laminate, very strong, very flat.
I just drilled the holes in it and spayed it black, as it was grey.
Very easy to do really, and very cheap way to achieve the extra shelf, as the artesania one is very expensive, plus i dont like the look of the green glass one.
But they do others i know, but expensive still.
But more importantly for me, i wanted extra space at the rear, so i have room to fix an extra arm pod to the base, as like i said i am looking at adding a sme 12 inch arm, this will require a lot of space and i now have it.
Not the best pic but you will see what i am on about from it
Ok- custom job then. I agree, the Artesania shelfs are too expensive.Thanks for the info.
The H-7000 needs some time to reach ideal operating temp ( 1 hour play time as I hear it ) but is a very special phono pre. I suspect that you will really enjoy it- have fun!
@Dunc- if you don’t mind…what is the size of the Quadrispire uprights that you have used with your shelf and how much clearance do they provide below? Thanks for your help,
Mark
They are the 19mm ones, they give 75mm height, about £50 new, they give 102mm min with the spikes set to the lowest, and the feet pads on the rack also set to the lowest.
The spikes will give extra, but i didn’t see how much.
The culprit has been swapped.
I have music, now it’s time to burn in all the valves, even the power supply has a valve. Apparently about 50 hours, so not that bad
So far, very nice.
I’ve been playing with the gain and load settings. So far, +28db and 75k ohm’s, gives total loading of 110 ohms plus whatever the tonearm cable is.
Sounding very natural and analogue right from the start should gain more lushness as the tubes burn in, which should be nice if that happens.
But it’s very different from all the other phono stages i have had over the years. Even the tron seven gt i had didn’t sound like this, and that was sort off a valve amp.
Anyway certainly enjoying spinning some tunes tonight as its been a while.
Do yours make much difference, mine don’t seem to do much.
Fortunately the gain and load setting works with my cartridge (Ortofon Cadenza Black) but I currently run mine with an external step up transformer into the moving magnet input.
But having said that my gain and load settings on my Kondo KSL SFz (circa 2008) step up transformer don’t seem to do much either
Maybe something @varyat could also answer, do your gain and load settings make much difference on your H7000?
Yes, they are massive differences
4 different gain settings and 4 different load settings. This gives 16 different load settings.
On the tron the 2 different gain settings didn’t do much and just didn’t work with my cartridge at all, then to make things worse, Graham from tron, didn’t want to help me, as he fell out with the guy that sold it to me, and he said that it could be altered, but wasn’t interested in doing it. That’s why i sold it and got the superline, as i could make my own loading, but it just really didn’t do it for me, as the tron had shown me what valves can do.
That’s why i have the h7000, valve’s, and lots of loading to suit just about every cartridge, plus built in sut.
Cheers Dunc, I’ve always wondered if my H7000 needed fixing or whether it was normal.
I’ve always enjoyed mine and it sounds lovely (as you would expect), I also have another valve phono stage that is a bit punchier but the H7000 has a lovely midrange and top end.
