A pair of 911mk. 3's is a wonderful thing

[Tonepub]

I think whether you would choose the 077 or the 808 would be your personal taste, sound of your present system and what you are trying to achieve.

[Talk2me]

Originally Posted by tonepub

I think whether you would choose the 077 or the 808 would be your personal taste, sound of your present system and WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE.

A little bit of heaven.

[murrayp]

Hi Jeff,

I see you list an 011 in your set up. I guess you run your Paganini through it. Do you find any significant difference in sound vs direct to 911's? I need a phono stage and the 011 seems the logical choice but I run no preamp at all at the moment and any pre I've tried up to now has been a step backwards. btw I guess you ar running the dCS and 011 balanced?

thanks and regards

[Tonepub]

Running everything balanced. Personally, I still prefer a line stage in the system to straight out of the dCS. It's a bit more open and dynamic. The onboard phono stage in the 011 is fair but not outstanding. I would put it on par with most of the solid state phono stages in the $1000 - $1500 range, no more. So if you are doing a modest analog setup it will be good but if you want an all out assault on phono, you'll need more.

I've had excellent luck with the Shelter 501, the Grado Master and the Denon DL-103, it definitely mates well with the warmer sounding cartridges.

[Talk2me]

Originally Posted by tonepub

Running everything balanced. Personally, I still prefer a line stage in the system to straight out of the dCS. It's a bit more open and dynamic. The onboard phono stage in the 011 is fair but not outstanding. I would put it on par with most of the solid state phono stages in the $1000 - $1500 range, no more. So if you are doing a modest analog setup it will be good but if you want an all out assault on phono, you'll need more.

I've had excellent luck with the Shelter 501, the Grado Master and the Denon DL-103, it definitely mates well with the warmer sounding cartridges.

I understand the, "It's a bit more open and dynamic", but what about the extra interconnects and such. Is there no degradation added by this?

[Tonepub]

Not in my system. I've tried the dCS stack sans preamplifier with about a dozen different amp/preamp combinations and I still prefer it with a great linestage instead of none.

[Talk2me]

Originally Posted by tonepub

Not in my system. I've tried the dCS stack sans preamplifier with about a dozen different amp/preamp combinations and I still prefer it with a great linestage instead of none.

Pray tell, in one of your esteemed and intriguing articles I hope?

"I think whether you would choose the 077 or the 808 would be your personal taste, sound of your present system and what you are trying to achieve."
I think whether you choose Miss America or Miss USA would be your personal taste, eyes in your present head and what you are trying to achieve- fixed

[Tonepub]

I mentioned it briefly in the Pag review, but just a lot of my own listening time really.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by tonepub

Running everything balanced. Personally, I still prefer a line stage in the system to straight out of the dCS. It's a bit more open and dynamic. The onboard phono stage in the 011 is fair but not outstanding. I would put it on par with most of the solid state phono stages in the $1000 - $1500 range, no more. So if you are doing a modest analog setup it will be good but if you want an all out assault on phono, you'll need more.

I've had excellent luck with the Shelter 501, the Grado Master and the Denon DL-103, it definitely mates well with the warmer sounding cartridges.

Jeff not to hijack but have you played with a BlackBird? I'm sure JP hasn't sent you one :red-19: , but I wonder if you've had the opportunity to put one through it's paces and what you think.

[Tonepub]

Oh yeah. We gave it a great review a while back (about two years ago) and it's one of my favorite reasonably priced cartridges. I've used one as a reference forever, and just moved up to a Pearwood. But the Blackbird is NOT a good match for the onboard phono in the 011, at least for me. Too forward sounding with the Burmester.

I've had awesome results with the Blackbird and a slightly warmer phono stage like the ARC PH3SE or the EAR 834. The Blackbird has also provided excellent synergy with the C2300 and C500 preamps from McIntosh.

I'd say my favorite (approx) $1000 carts are really the Blackbird, the Shelter 501II, the Lyra Dorian (which I think is now discontinued) and the Dynavector 17D3.

I've probably owned a Blackbird on and off for the last 8 years or so...