Before I potentially waste a lot of time and effort, I thought I had best ask the question here.
I have an original UK made Musical Fidelity X - LPS phono stage that I have owned for about 6 years.
After recently reading a couple of articles online where people have claimed to have improved the sound of their equipment by replacing various components with higher quality items I am curious to know if my phono stage could be improved with similar effort.
Is it a worthwhile project? I don't know a great deal about what does what in audio electronics so I would be relying a great deal on advice from users on this forum if folks are willing enough.
There is no schematic available but I think I could produce one with some effort...
I have an original UK made Musical Fidelity X - LPS phono stage that I have owned for about 6 years.
After recently reading a couple of articles online where people have claimed to have improved the sound of their equipment by replacing various components with higher quality items I am curious to know if my phono stage could be improved with similar effort.
Is it a worthwhile project? I don't know a great deal about what does what in audio electronics so I would be relying a great deal on advice from users on this forum if folks are willing enough.
There is no schematic available but I think I could produce one with some effort...
The key word is "claimed." Unless there's a specific performance attribute that you can target where your preamp underperforms, the whole component swapping thing is an exercise in spending money and convincing yourself you did something wonderful despite not really understanding the circuit. It's just as likely (perhaps even more likely) that you'll degrade the circuit by willy-nilly substituting of parts that are sold to you as "higher quality." The fact that the actual sound hasn't changed or perhaps has even deteriorated will not stop you from convincing yourself (or having your audio buddies convince you) that you've done something wonderful and creative.
If the preamp does underperform in one or more ways, the way to "fix" this is to understand the circuit at least as well as the designer, and attacking the actual issues- this will mean circuit changes, not component changes. Or you could build your own phono stage from one of the many excellent designs out there. That's a good first step toward gaining the understanding you need of "what does what in audio electronics" to do something better than a commercial designer.
Yeah I was careful to include "claimed" in my post. I imagine the designer at MF knew what he was doing.
It's a nice unit. The MM stage is very listenable. Through a Ortofon, Grado and now Denon DL110. I gave it a try but the MC stage sounds pretty pants with the Denon though.
If there was a specific area I would like to look at it would be quietening down the power supply. It takes in 12VAC and does create a bit of hum. Is that an area that could be looked at?
It's a nice unit. The MM stage is very listenable. Through a Ortofon, Grado and now Denon DL110. I gave it a try but the MC stage sounds pretty pants with the Denon though.
If there was a specific area I would like to look at it would be quietening down the power supply. It takes in 12VAC and does create a bit of hum. Is that an area that could be looked at?
I am not familiar with that phono stage. Does the MC15 stage have variable gain and loading? He DL110 is a high output moving coil, intended to drive a MM stage. It is likely that the MC stage has much too low load resistance and far too much gain for that cartridge.
Doy you know anything about the power supply? Does it use simple 3-pin IC regulators? If so perhaps it can be "improved", but it is unlikely that hum rejection would be improved much. Like SY said, you need to know whether the hum is a product of the PSU, or whether the unit is faithfully amplifying hum on the inputs.
Try ths:. Disconnect the turntable leads, short the phono stage inputs, turn it on an turn up the volume. Does it still hum?
Make sure you turntable is grounded - often a cause of hum. You should have an earth post on the rear end of your pre and on the T/T a ground wire. Make sure they are connected. To check if the hum is coming from the PSU, short the pre inputs right where they go into the case. You should hear no hum or mains related noise. Make sure of course that the unit is not sitting next to, under or in top of another piece of powered equipment for this test.
If you are getting noise after this, it may be related to your PSU. But, is it then earth loop related (unlikely if it's an MF product) or transformer radiated noise - also not likely, but you never know.
I would take SY's advice. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MF on the whole build decent stuff. Better to try your hand at building something - many designs on the forum and also quite a few kits on ebay.
If you are getting noise after this, it may be related to your PSU. But, is it then earth loop related (unlikely if it's an MF product) or transformer radiated noise - also not likely, but you never know.
I would take SY's advice. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MF on the whole build decent stuff. Better to try your hand at building something - many designs on the forum and also quite a few kits on ebay.
Unless a device is very cheap, it is more likely that the circuit design (not the components) was limited by price. The way to 'improve' something is, as SY says, to start by understanding the circuit even better than the original designer - this is not always as hard as it might seem because some 'designers' appear not to have much circuit understanding! I cannot comment on the actual device you have as I don't know it.
The psychological desire to believe that you're accomplishing something with little effort beyond outlay of money for a good story. For many, that's fun, and there's nothing wrong with fun.
Changing RIAA network components is almost bound to cause a small change in frequency response, due to component value tolerance. This may be audible. It will almost always be interpreted as an improvement even if it degrades the equalisation accuracy.
Changing coupling caps may change LF response by a small amount, due to component value tolerance. This may be audible. As the LF rolloff point is always a compromise between including music and excluding subsonics the change may be for better or worse, but is likely to be interpreted as an improvement.
Note that these effects may be seen by swapping a component for another sample of the same component - especially if it came from a different factory batch.
Inserting huge 'audiophile' coupling caps into a circuit not designed for them will increase stray capacitance. This may cause increased hum and interference pickup (which could be misintepreted as 'warmth' or 'detail' respectively) or reduced HF stability.
You see, there are lots of ways in which 'component rolling' can change sound, none of which rely on 'higher quality'. None of them actually definitely improve sound.
There is one way in which changing a component might genuinely improve sound: if the designer has chosen an inappropriate technology. For example, a slightly non-linear dielectric (e.g. polyester/Mylar?) for the coupling cap which sets the LF rolloff. You might accidentally improve the circuit if you changed all the coupling caps for better ones, but only one of them will actually make any difference.
All this assumes that the new component is nominally the same value as the old one. This is not always the case when people get 'rolling', as they often don't understand why a component has the value it has.
Changing coupling caps may change LF response by a small amount, due to component value tolerance. This may be audible. As the LF rolloff point is always a compromise between including music and excluding subsonics the change may be for better or worse, but is likely to be interpreted as an improvement.
Note that these effects may be seen by swapping a component for another sample of the same component - especially if it came from a different factory batch.
Inserting huge 'audiophile' coupling caps into a circuit not designed for them will increase stray capacitance. This may cause increased hum and interference pickup (which could be misintepreted as 'warmth' or 'detail' respectively) or reduced HF stability.
You see, there are lots of ways in which 'component rolling' can change sound, none of which rely on 'higher quality'. None of them actually definitely improve sound.
There is one way in which changing a component might genuinely improve sound: if the designer has chosen an inappropriate technology. For example, a slightly non-linear dielectric (e.g. polyester/Mylar?) for the coupling cap which sets the LF rolloff. You might accidentally improve the circuit if you changed all the coupling caps for better ones, but only one of them will actually make any difference.
All this assumes that the new component is nominally the same value as the old one. This is not always the case when people get 'rolling', as they often don't understand why a component has the value it has.
A lot of things I had never even considered!
Component rolling, unless you really REALLY know what you are doing, looks to be a pretty bad idea...
As for the hum, I have moved my TT PSU away from the phono stage and it has gone! Dead silent now in fact!
The actual 12VAC adapter, which is the original MF unit does get rather warm and buzzes away to itself but that doesn't make it to the speakers.
Component rolling, unless you really REALLY know what you are doing, looks to be a pretty bad idea...
As for the hum, I have moved my TT PSU away from the phono stage and it has gone! Dead silent now in fact!
The actual 12VAC adapter, which is the original MF unit does get rather warm and buzzes away to itself but that doesn't make it to the speakers.
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