As I have said recently I dont do much fiddling and tweeking on my TT these days . . . it does what I want. However, 'never say never', I got inspired talking wood the other day, spacificaly 'balsawood'. We have had some discussion on aftermarket Rega Sub Platter, they all seem to have some sort of 'standoff' arangement, mine has 3 brass inserts at 1.6mm. I have long over riden these with 2mm hard rubber stand offs. My thought 'what if I replaced the rubber with balsawood' . . . so whilst in the man cave yesterday I cut three 6mm x 6mm x 2mm balsa stand offs. A two miniute job to cut and five miniuts to install, a small change resulted that I like, on lesser equipment, I doubt the change could be heard, but a change there is, a tad warmer, the sort of effect 'wood' introduces to the sound. Nothing radical but I appreciate it as a worth while simple change.
Whilst I have been listening recently and adding those lead shilds to my valve amp I noticed the rectifier valve was loose. Investigation showed the adhesive that glued the bakerlite base to the glass tube hade crumbled away! New tube rquired, looked in my stock, replaced it with a suposed upgrade. I lost the warm sound to a 'sharp, detailed slightly sabiliant' sound, not terible but edging towards the modern presentation I do not like.
On to eBay, rooted around and found a replacement, two infact, one a direct 247B change and another 5Z3PA made by Shuguang as an alternative. Neither were expensive, so I orderd both, the direct replacement arived in fairly short order, all was sweetess and light again. The alternative valve took longer as it had to come from China, I would normaly put it in the cuboard as stock. This time I thought 'try it' . . . a little flat perhaps, although I could hear there might be something there?
The new Shuguang has about 10 hours under its belt, not long by runing in times for valves. I have been listening to Spotify today up to now whilst on the computer. Time to have a cuppa, listen to the Archers, then get the vinyle out, the new valve is coming to life, foot tapping drive, with a richness and clarity that is not what I would associate with Spotify, and a very strong, clean base line.
Watch this space, a bonus, the 5Z3PA was only £8.50, a third of the price of the direct replacement!
CJSF
Whilst I have been listening recently and adding those lead shilds to my valve amp I noticed the rectifier valve was loose. Investigation showed the adhesive that glued the bakerlite base to the glass tube hade crumbled away! New tube rquired, looked in my stock, replaced it with a suposed upgrade. I lost the warm sound to a 'sharp, detailed slightly sabiliant' sound, not terible but edging towards the modern presentation I do not like.
On to eBay, rooted around and found a replacement, two infact, one a direct 247B change and another 5Z3PA made by Shuguang as an alternative. Neither were expensive, so I orderd both, the direct replacement arived in fairly short order, all was sweetess and light again. The alternative valve took longer as it had to come from China, I would normaly put it in the cuboard as stock. This time I thought 'try it' . . . a little flat perhaps, although I could hear there might be something there?
The new Shuguang has about 10 hours under its belt, not long by runing in times for valves. I have been listening to Spotify today up to now whilst on the computer. Time to have a cuppa, listen to the Archers, then get the vinyle out, the new valve is coming to life, foot tapping drive, with a richness and clarity that is not what I would associate with Spotify, and a very strong, clean base line.
Watch this space, a bonus, the 5Z3PA was only £8.50, a third of the price of the direct replacement!
CJSF