pearl phono and DL103

[joe845]

Anyone have tried the pearl phono with DL 103?

Thanks.

Giovanni

[Panelhead]

Originally posted by joe845
Anyone have tried the pearl phono with DL 103?

Thanks.

Giovanni

I tried a DL103R and a Grado Sonata Reference (0.5 mv rated output) with my Pearl. Neither really had enough output to drive it to satsifactory levels. The line stage had to opened almost all the way up to get fairly loud level.
My system is a little different than most, the preamp was very low gain, but the speakers are 100 dB efficient. So overall the sytem gain was close to average.
Tried a couple transformers to step up the Denon into the Pearl. The main one is fairly nice, an AN UK set in a diy box. It did not seem to like the step ups as much as my tubed phono stages.
I finally took the advise of several people here and copied the input stage from the Pearl to make a head amp. The details are available if you search.
The results were outstanding. Much superior to the step up transformers. It only takes a couple 2SK170's and ZTX450 to build. A couple chokes were added to add a little more passive filtration coming off the cap multiplier.
But if you have a high gain preamp, amp, and efficient speakers the Pearl may be fine. But the ouput will be a lot lower than say a disc player.
With the headamp the Pearl has close to the same output level as my Marantz disc player. I never did take a liking to the Grado. I never tried 47K loading, but did try 1100 ohms.
Someday may try 47K input on the headamp, but hum pick from the phono leads may get to be an issue if not loaded down.

Good Luck!
George

[dshoaf]

but I'm using a set of Lundahl step-up transformers. Have not messed around with the loading yet - still have the 47K on the Pearl. Getting plenty of drive from the preamp and the sound is quite excellent.

All I need is more time to spend dialing in the whole tonearm/cart/loading to optomize it.

As for implementing another stage of gain, its certainly easy enough to do but I'd like to see how well I can get the rest of it set up before going to that level.

BTW, I'm using a VPI HP-19MkIII, Rega RB-900 arm with it.

Cheers,

David

[joe845]

Thanks a lot to George and David for their replay.

Now I'm using the 103 with a couple of Sowter transformer and a Conrad Jonson preamp clone.

Giovanni