About 60 hours into a new Goldring 1042 stylus, after a service by Deco audio, and a new Roksan cable from Audio Republic, this is really singing! Ironically as it’s an evening for Mike Oldfield
Of course it’s not singing on its own, Stageline N into XS3 and out via NACA5 into Neat SX3s. I’m sure it can be bettered, but right now it’s sounding sublime, lovely naturalness and great imaging. Hearing things in Tubular Bells I’ve not heard before either. Just goes to show, sometimes no new kit required!
No apologies for the choice of track either, love the story behind it and, oh my, the classical guitar on the left channel sounds as natural an instrument as my kids practicing their guitar in the same room. What a great piece of music.
I am! I cannot make up my mind between the two. Which probably says a lot for the internal stage
I bought the stageline to give me options on amp upgrades, there’s either a ND5 XS2 or Supernait planned in the medium term, with the stageline I might do SN2 and ND5XS2 if the price is right.
When you do the comparison, remember to disconnect the Stageline from the AUX2 when listening to the Supernait’s internal phono stage, that way it will be able to perform at its very best.
I was planning a new amp, and couldn’t decide between a XS2 or XS3. Whilst I was deciding a lateish serial number Stageline came up for a good price, so I bought it to give me flexibility both in the short term for the XS2/3 decision, and longer term for SN2/3 flexibility.
I then spoke with my dealer about the amp upgrade, they gave me good price options on XS2 and XS3s, plus a great trade in price on my NAIT3. I decided on a new XS3 from them.
Since then I have swapped between internal stage and Stageline (I do disconnect it from the XS3 when using the internal stage), but spent significantly more time with the Stageline. I slightly prefer it, but honestly I don’t tell much difference, and also, the internal stage hasn’t had all that many hours use as a result, so could well settle down more. All I would say is the difference isn’t massive. So, yes, pretty much on a par, to my ears.
Sorry for the long answer, not come across anyone choosing to run a Stageline with an XS3, at least for MM duties, so felt like I needed to explain myself
Also, I’m aware my economic logic probably isn’t (logical)
Thanks for the excellent reply, your logic sounds fine to me.
I went for the XS2 as I already have an excellent phono stage with my Puresound P10 , which does work very well with the Nait XS2 .
I think I would probably have to get the superline to better it.