Super cheap phono pre?

madmax

I just received one of these to play with.
http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Fidelity-V-LPS-Phono-Stage/dp/B001W2IJJO
I'm anxious to see what differences I hear between this one and mine which costs over 50 times more. Later it will move into another room (probably a closet:D) to play low quality vinyl.

I like the idea behind it which is to concentrate all costs to the circuitry and house it cheaply.
madmax

steveinaz

MF's "V series" DAC got a good review from Stereophile.

dorokusai

The Cambridge Audio DacMagic sounded as good as the Bryston I demo'd with it. I kept the Cambridge. Sometimes it doesn't have to be expensive....sometimes it does.

madmax

xcapri79 wrote: »

Cheap is all relative. Amazon sells it for $132 which may not be cheap for what it is for some.
I would consider this to be cheap. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2573420#

Ha ha, I had one of those back in the 70's that cost me $29.99 (same price today as it was 40 yrs ago) and it looked just like that one! This is the one I have now, so yeah, everything is relative.
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/steelheadrc.html

Systems

http://www.hagtech.com/bugle.html

madmax

I looked up the SL-Q6 and believe it or not there are some youtube videos of them playing a record. People must be bored these days, I've never even considered taking a video like that. My earlier player was a pioneer but I don't remember the number. It will be interesting to throw this VPS in the chain to see what it does.

madmax

GV#27 wrote: »

http://www.hagtech.com/bugle.html

Oh yeah, I've looked at the bugle.:)

hoosier21

well? how does it sound Chuck?

interested in how close it comes to your steelhead

madmax

I just got it today and had to get some work done so haven't hooked it up yet. I read somewhere it has to be burned in for a few weeks to loose some edginess. I'll give it a trial spin tonight.

hearingimpared

madmax wrote: »

Ha ha, I had one of those back in the 70's that cost me $29.99 (same price today as it was 40 yrs ago) and it looked just like that one! This is the one I have now, so yeah, everything is relative.
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/steelheadrc.html

I'm going to own a Steelhead someday.

Face

Check out the Cambridge 640P.

hoosier21

Face wrote: »

Check out the Cambridge 640P.

got one already lol

hearingimpared

Thanks Mike I gotta check the Cambridge out. I am currentlyusing a Spectral DMC 10G as my phono pre and it is no slouch. However great it is, it is '80s high end technology. With the very low output MC cart I use I'm getting a hiss because I have to keep the gain between 56 & 60 db.

hearingimpared

hoosier21 wrote: »

got one already lol

How is it Russ?

hoosier21

hearingimpared wrote: »

How is it Russ?

judging from how it rattles around in the unopenned box, very nice.

my stereo is torn down do to well many things so I have not heard it, or the Shrimp pre, or the Monarchy monos, or the A/D/Ss with the rebuilt tweeters, when this dust clears, I will have a whole new system to listen too.

hearingimpared

hoosier21 wrote: »

judging from how it rattles around in the unopenned box, very nice.
my stereo is torn down do to well many things so i have not heard it, or the shrimp pre, or the monarchy monos, or the a/d/ss with the rebuilt tweeters, when this dust clears, i will have a whole new system to listen too.

lol!

madmax

dibs on the shrimp pre.
madmax

Face

I called dibs a month or two ago.

madmax

Maybe in a few months he will either ship it back out or open the box and try it.

I listened to the MF VPS phono pre last night. Obviously it needs time to break in then I need time to listen. Although this means nothing yet my initial thoughts were clean controlled sound, very low noise level even with preamp turned up all the way, flubby low resolution bass (with the wall wart supply, supposed to be better with a battery or higher current supply), more surface noise and less ambience retrival than I'm used to, lack of a lush full and big presentation. Its real attribute seems to be PRaT which some say is toe tappability, some say quickness and others say PRaT is BS all together. To me it means non-sluggish sound that is "with it" or all tied together. This is probably the reason for the stereophile recommendation. Also, it didn't bring out the weird beauty of my cartridge creating illusions in front of me. A much cheaper cartridge will probably be a plus in this situation.

I guess that is a lot of info for a meaningless evaluation. I have decided it would not be respectful to MF to compare directly to the steelhead preamp. Not because performance is bad (its not) but because if I compared everything it would be interpreted as a bad review. As a matter of fact I found the PRaT aspect quite enjoyable. I have to focus on this while I listen just to see how good it is. Also, nothing was way out of line to really catch my attention, except maybe the flubby bass. So far, so good!
madmax

madmax

I listened to a couple of LP's last night with my senheiser 600 headphones and nothing annoyed me while using the VPS pre. Actually I didn't really give much thought to what the system setup was, just wanted to listen to some music. Then I threw in a CD I wanted to hear. Much like previous times going from LP to CD I found the sound to be somewhat distasteful. This was a revelation to me. I totally expected the LP sound with the VPS to be more in line with the CD, maybe even a little worse. This is when I realized it was this PRaT thing again. The CD was not musically correct like the LP/VPS combo.

I think I can firmly recommend the VPS even before letting it burn in, etc. I could live with this pre and remain happy with vinyl. Obviously if you have plenty of money go for the best gear you can afford. Its nice to know that it isn't necessary to spend a ton on a phono pre to get better sound than CD.
madmax

vc69

Thanks for your thoughts. This looks like it may be an option for me. I'm still sussing out the viability of a tt in my rig and I appreciate your candor.

TroyD

madmax wrote: »

dibs on the shrimp pre.
madmax

y'all are a day late and a dollar short on calling dibs on anything that Russ has.

I have a revolving charge account and preferred customer status at Abernathy Audio.

BDT

bleboozender

Thanks for the suggestion--and the review. Mine arrived last Friday; expecting it to be an improvement over my adcom pre (which I only hung onto cuz of the phono input that the newer preamp is missing).

madmax

My plan now is to let the VPS burn in for awhile then I will try a battery or high current supply rather than the wall wart. I've read this will tighten up the bass somewhat. The bass is certainly somewhat flubby but doesn't seem to detract too much from the sound unless you concentrate on it.
madmax

Music Joe

What table-n-cartridge(s)?

madmax

Music Joe wrote: »

What table-n-cartridge(s)?

The table is a Michell Orbe and the cartridge is a Benz Ruby 3. The benifits of this table and cart cannot be realized with the use of the MF phono pre. A much lesser quality setup would be more in line with the pre.
madmax

Music Joe

10-4 Great way to hear if the v-lp is 'decent-great' or 'just ok'.

I'm interested to see how it turns out. There's not a ton of write-ups on these MF units. I thought would be many more by now...or I'm not looking hard enough.

I may be shopping for a good budget phono-p for dynavector 10x5/Scout combo. Always a market for a good but cheap phono-p

You using highly efficient speakers?

madmax

Music Joe wrote: »

You using highly efficient speakers?

Yeah, efficient buys a lot of dynamics.

madmax

Now that I've become used to hearing the VPI I replaced it with the steelhead. I noticed many things. Every area was expanded upon. Bass deeper, soundstage wider and deeper, more resolution and lets admit it, the magic fairy dust which turned into a glorious dust storm.

With everything being expanded upon there was one thing which remained consistent between the two, and this is very important. It was the overall character of both the steelhead and VPI. I've had several expensive phono preamps $400 to $1200 out of which each clearly had its own strongpoint and weakness. With the VPI and steelhead nothing really stands out to any extreme and there is the PRaT thing accredited to both. Is one really worth 50 times more than the other? Yeah, if you have the best associated equipment. Is the other one 50 times worse? No, not really. It has a very enjoyable sound which one could enjoy for years. Is it in the best bang for the buck range? Most definitely, in spades.
madmax

Music Joe

I'm hearing budget spinners can rejoice this is good news.

It handled the low output Benz decent then.

madmax

Music Joe wrote: »

It handled the low output Benz decent then.

Yes, suprisingly enough it did. The volume knob was set 20% higher than with the steelhead but because of the low noise it didn't cause any problem.
madmax