Incoming! The New Equipment Thread

ngower said:
Placed an order for a Sutherland Insight today. This will be the last piece of my system overhaul. Might grab a cheap cart like a Nagaoka 110 or VM95ML or something but that's likely my hi-fi buying done for a while.
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Has anyone done a comparison between the Sutherland and Darlington Labs phono preamps?
 
The SP8’s are on the way back. Too boomy for my small space and once I started switching between them and the C7’s it wasn’t a fair fight. My speaker journey is over. Happy to answer any questions but not planning on doing any big write up on them.

Changed direction and decided to make one final update before the Decware next year..

I spend 75% of my listening streaming while working and I wanted to explore an upgrade the Node II into the DAC on the D03x.

TMR had a Lumin T1 come in today so I grabbed it to compare.
 
Lee Newman said:
I would think @HiFi Guy could give us some “insight” there.
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mindhead1 said:
Has anyone done a comparison between the Sutherland and Darlington Labs phono preamps?
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I compared the MM-6 to the Duo, and the Duo was better. But the difference wasn’t nearly as much as one might expect given the vast price difference.

I’d think the Darlington and the Insight would be very similar.
 
Lee Newman said:
Hey, how did things go with the Maggie’s?
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They are decent but not blowing my mind
I am going to get the GR Research crossover kits and clean them up a bit
The potential is there
The reviews generally say they are good/great but need a subwoofer
I expected more I guess …not from the bass…but more
For $1k
Finally came up in the MagnaRiser queue and once I upgrade the crossovers I expect they will meet my expectations
 
@ngower - What was your experience with the Alva Duo? I've heard other reports that it's very good phono for its price range.

@Dylanfan253 - I used the Insight for a short time instead of the phono in my resto-modded NAD 1600 preamp with a NAD C272 amplifier and a PLX 1000 turntable. The limitations of the internal NAD phono were vastly exceeded by the Insight. The C272 became exceptionally capable using the Insight with a Bryston preamp. The NAD C 326BEE is likely far more advanced than the 30-year-old 1600 preamp.
 
Angsty said:
@ngower - What was your experience with the Alva Duo? I've heard other reports that it's very good phono for its price range.

@Dylanfan253 - I used the Insight for a short time instead of the phono in my resto-modded NAD 1600 preamp with a NAD C272 amplifier and a PLX 1000 turntable. The limitations of the internal NAD phono were vastly exceeded by the Insight. The C272 became exceptionally capable using the Insight with a Bryston preamp. The NAD C 326BEE is likely far more advanced than the 30-year-old 1600 preamp.
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It was fine when my system was an NAD C356, PSB Image B6, Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC, 2M Blue. I can't say much bad about it but it not having capacitance loading and a perpetual ground hum made me eventually get rid of it.
 
ngower said:
It was fine when my system was an NAD C356, PSB Image B6, Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC, 2M Blue. I can't say much bad about it but it not having capacitance loading and a perpetual ground hum made me eventually get rid of it.
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I never had a ground hum with my Insight; I used it to troubleshoot when a ground hum did appear with other phonos. But, it doesn't have variable capacitance loading. To some degree, tuning the type and length of interconnect cable can perform that function for MM carts. MC carts don't care.
 
Angsty said:
I never had a ground hum with my Insight; I used it to troubleshoot when a ground hum did appear with other phonos. But, it doesn't have variable capacitance loading. To some degree, tuning the type and length of interconnect cable can perform that function for MM carts. MC carts don't care.
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Did you mean to say Alva Duo?
 
ngower said:
Did you mean to say Alva Duo?
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No, I never owned the Alva Duo. My three phono separates have been the Parasound Zphono USB, the Sutherland Insight and the Bryston BP-1.5. The Bryston was the one that had a ground hum before it was serviced by Bryston. The Insight has variable load and gain, but not variable capacitance.
 
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