I guess the beauty of the Solstice is that its designed as a one piece so you don’t have as many concerns/issues. Whilst it may not rival some of the very best combos the simplicity of the system is somewhat appealing.
@Dunc obviously quite far apart in terms of cost but whats the difference between the p10 and Aura vs what you have now? I guess the Rega set up was about ⅓ of the cost right?
That’s probably the reason and me being inpatient
Yes any complete package like the solstice is designed to be plug and play and as long as you like what it does, then off you go.
I believe I have already mentioned the rega earlier in this thread and might give you 5he answers
Perhaps an X-QUISITE SUT? (I suspect this won’t be at a bargain price either).
I’ve just looked it up, ouch.
Going to run with this cartridge now as I have committed myself and trust what the dealer and a few owners have told me.
That’s the step up transformer made to match the cartridge and for about the same price.
After my last stylus replacement I started a spreadsheet to track stylus playing time. Clicker/counters are also available, but a spreadsheet, assuming 20 mins a side, is good enough for me to keep rough track. It’s just online so I simply update it on my phone every time I play something, which isn’t exactly onerous to do. It’s not a groundbreaking suggestion I know 
Thales dealer has once again come up trumps, after sending me the RCM phono stage to try and help eliminate my tron as being the culprit, all for nothing, as in posting costs etc. He sent me a message today saying, he would send me down a EMT 128 phono stage to try, as this has been designed for the exquisite product, won’t be for a few weeks yet as they aren’t available, but should be once again interesting to see how they work together, hopefully it will be a very nice result.
Also was told of a few reviews coming out and with very good results, so hopefully all is looking very bright (probably not the best word for this lol) for the future
@gthack I’m sad enough as well to do this, but manually with a pencil/piece of card kept nearby. I like to be all analogue! I do allow 24 minutes a side as my average 
I shall update the constant in my spreadsheet 
Show off 
Step-up transformers are fascinating devices. Due to incurable problems with every MC phono stage I am running my Transfiguration Temper via step-up into a MM input. Troublefree and coherent in a very convincing way.
Don’t fancy going down the step up transformer rabbit hole, especially now I know that emt have the new special built phono stage for the exquisite, that I will be trying soon.
But last night the cartridge/arm/cable went into a new stage of burn in sound, bass has left the building somewhat, not as harsh on them trouble tracks I have mentioned, still there but t doesn’t make your hair stand on end now. So it’s definitely still bedding in, which I guess is a good thing.
Well the last week I have been trying to play as much vinyl as I can, the dCS hasn’t been used once and remains in standby mode.
Happy to say things are getting better, got the tron in low gain (18db / 735 ohms) as this works best as the high gain (24db / 184 ohms) makes it too bright and bass light, but the cartridge is slowly starting to come on song, which does make me slightly happier as was getting worried. Tonight it’s sounding the best it has so far and really enjoying it, I know it still has a way to go, but great to hear its going the right way at last.
But in a twist of things, I have a superline that I can try from a fellow naim member, no supercap unfortunately, so would have to power it from my 552, not sure if its worth the 70 miles round trip to just it, but again it would be fun to hear the difference over the tron, but without a supercap it’s not going to be at its best is it
No. But it’ll give you a feel for the comparative sound signatures, and then who knows!
Superline powered from the NAC552 is very good - the 552PS provides dedicated windings and rails here. I reckon it’s better than even a dedicated HICAP. However, a dedicated Supercap is undoubtedly best, but at a price.
I have had a superline before and ran it with a hicap and supercap and I think I might have tried it from the 552, but that would have been non DR and I definitely had the supercap at the time, so it wouldn’t have been what I would have run it like.
I do know sort off what to expect and only got rid off the superline because I found the rega aura a better match for the rega P10, this superline is up for sale and it got me thinking, as my system is very different now since the superline left, but at the same time I now have the tron severn GT phono stage, which is very good and without maxing out the superline its not a fair fight and I feel the superline is going to need it. So unless I can borrow a supercap DR from somewhere close I doing think I am going to try it
Well after many months, I am happy to report that the exquisite ST cartridge is certainly producing the goods now and happy that I stuck with it.
The only slight problem could be my tron seven gt phono stage, as its got the adjustment to work correctly with my cartridge and last year I was told that EMT would be producing a special tuned phono stage to work perfectly with the exquisite ST cartridge and pleased to say it arrived today.
So just plugged it in and going to leave it a few days to warm up etc, but it just fits on the fraim, quite heavy for its size and machined out of a solid lump of billet alloy, it certainly is quality and hope for even more off everything with it, as reports say the combo is simply stunning so we will see
Sorry picture has gone
