I'd want better performance for my money. Mind you a friend of mine has the full 5-box pass labs phono and pre setup and he loves it.
Footnote 3: See youtu.be/BoSpkQz4jXo. All Monica Mk3 buyers receive a vinyl copy of the album.
u tube video does not werk, fer me ....
u tube video does not werk, fer me ....
Looks to me like the transformer balanced output is not loaded by an RC network. The rising HF is typical of the inherent capacitive coupling between primary and secondary of any transformer.
Hard to believe though with such an otherwise excellent design it would have such a short coming.
" and with the Engström a slight hum was audible from the listening position 12' away."
Not good with any audio component, let alone a $60,000 preamplifier.
And this was after the first sample was returned for loud hum.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/engström-monica-mk3-line-preamplifier-page-2
Not good with any audio component, let alone a $60,000 preamplifier.
And this was after the first sample was returned for loud hum.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/engström-monica-mk3-line-preamplifier-page-2
Good news is if he sells one of em he prob makes back the reach cost and the development cost and then some.
The best April fools day joke I pulled was on my younger brother.
I thought of it months earlier and had to go through the anguish of waiting for the right day.
I got a spare windshield washer tank and ran the hose through the firewall and up the steering column of his car. Pointed the end at the lap of the driver.
Primed the tube so there would be instant water. Connected the sprayer motor to the starter on lead.
Worked like a charm when he started in the morning.
Cost me nothing - priceless.
I thought of it months earlier and had to go through the anguish of waiting for the right day.
I got a spare windshield washer tank and ran the hose through the firewall and up the steering column of his car. Pointed the end at the lap of the driver.
Primed the tube so there would be instant water. Connected the sprayer motor to the starter on lead.
Worked like a charm when he started in the morning.
Cost me nothing - priceless.
Yes - output txfmr not RC loaded. Pretty elementary stuff. I think JVS must have been on the bungie while listening to that thing - he’s admitted he partakes of the herbs every now and then in one of his YT videos. I find about half a bottle of good red wine opens things up for me. Sound stage, top end, mid-range smoothness etc 🤣
A very odd jump in distortion at ,3 volts. It would have been interesting to see the distortion waveform.
I once read an article in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society about producing bass with high efficiency without large magnets. The author proposed to detect the envelope of the bass, use it to modulate a carrier at the resonant frequency of the loudspeaker, mix it with the mid and the treble and apply it to the loudspeaker. It sounded good in listening tests.
I read the article with amazement because this totally messes up the harmonic relation between the bass and the rest, until I saw that the AES had received the manuscript on 1 April. I sent the author an e-mail to congratulate him with his successful April Fool's joke, and got a rather angry reply, because it wasn't a joke after all...
I read the article with amazement because this totally messes up the harmonic relation between the bass and the rest, until I saw that the AES had received the manuscript on 1 April. I sent the author an e-mail to congratulate him with his successful April Fool's joke, and got a rather angry reply, because it wasn't a joke after all...
RC loading transformers with such a severe peak never sounded good to me. It fixes measurements but the sound suffers. Alternatively, it is a very poor match between transformer parasitics and the output stage output impedance. Whatever the case it is either poor transformer design, or a very bad engineering choice. Absolutely no excuse for a premium product.