Incoming! The New Equipment Thread

Slimwhit33 said:
How’s it sounding? What did you have previously?
Click to expand...
I have gone through an assortment over the years.

AT33 PTG, Sa, ART9XI and my first MC is the DL-103R, which I will be keeping.
I'm sentimental to the Denon cart.
It sent me down the audiophile type vinyl rabbit hole originally and it's freaky warm with some cool sound.
I love it for my vintage vinyl like Pink Floyd.

Hifi Heaven bought the Sa and ART9XI for the same as I paid on these a while back.
Still doesn't make the ART20 cheap but helped push me over the edge.

It's pretty fantastic sounding so far.
Very fast tracking but still musical.

Nothing warm about it.
Very neutral overall but powerful with attack.

I'll give it a few more weeks to break-in.

Overall it seems like a nice match with the G tonearm using stock HS.
Compliance is something crazy like 23cu so a light HS is key it seems.


TA did a pretty good review previously that AT actually shares on their site. Compares it to much more expensive, exotic cart brands.
trackingangle.com

Audio Technica AT-ART20 Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

don't underestimate the "big guys"
trackingangle.com trackingangle.com

I can't really describe much more. So far, it takes the ART9XI, which is impressive reference level and does everything better.
The elastomer undercover is so first class. This cart kills resonance.
 
Slimwhit33 said:
Made it official with Decware today and switched my order from a Torii MKV to the Sarah 300b.

I’m thinking I’ve got another couple years to wait at this point, a few spots away from page 4 on the waitlist…. So.. “incoming”.
Click to expand...
I changed my order from Zen Triode 25 to a Rachel (Zen Integrated). Now you’ve got me thinking I should just go for a Sarah.

I’m on page 3 of the waitlist so I’m thinking I have until sometime later in 2025 to make a decision.
 
mindhead1 said:
I changed my order from Zen Triode 25 to a Rachel (Zen Integrated). Now you’ve got me thinking I should just go for a Sarah.

I’m on page 3 of the waitlist so I’m thinking I have until sometime later in 2025 to make a decision.
Click to expand...
I don’t think you can go wrong. Probably depends on the speakers you want run a little bit.

My plan is to run headphones until I get the Sarah. At that point I’m going to likely try a pair of the Decware Tiny Tots.
 
Slimwhit33 said:
I don’t think you can go wrong. Probably depends on the speakers you want run a little bit.

My plan is to run headphones until I get the Sarah. At that point I’m going to likely try a pair of the Decware Tiny Tots.
Click to expand...
I was very close to pulling the trigger on some Cornwalls IV or Forte IV in anticipation of the Decware. But ended up getting a great deal on a set of Q- Acoustic Concept 50 and went with those. They are 90 DB sensitive so the Rachel at 5-6 Watts maybe able to drive them. I’ll find out one way or another.

Also, instead of the Klipsch speakers I think I’m going to try some open baffle speakers like the the Lii Song ZF15.
 
Jbraswell said:
TA did a pretty good review previously that AT actually shares on their site. Compares it to much more expensive, exotic cart brands.
Click to expand...

I reviewed it for a UK mag at launch. I think it's excellent;
hifiplus.com

Audio Technica AT-ART20

Audio Technica covers the broadest range of analogue products in the business, with everything from extremely affordable accessories to its top-end cartridges. Ed Selley tries the new AT-ART20 moving coil.
hifiplus.com hifiplus.com
 
Ed Selley said:
I reviewed it for a UK mag at launch. I think it's excellent;
hifiplus.com

Audio Technica AT-ART20

Audio Technica covers the broadest range of analogue products in the business, with everything from extremely affordable accessories to its top-end cartridges. Ed Selley tries the new AT-ART20 moving coil.
hifiplus.com hifiplus.com
Click to expand...
Nice write-up! Thanks for sharing as I haven't seen it previously.
The look of this cart is certainly polarizing but the interval design is overwhelming impressive.

I seem to agree with everything in your review about reaching the extreme ends of both frequency range. It doesn't seem to glaze over any note laid down in the music.
 
mindhead1 said:
I was very close to pulling the trigger on some Cornwalls IV or Forte IV in anticipation of the Decware. But ended up getting a great deal on a set of Q- Acoustic Concept 50 and went with those. They are 90 DB sensitive so the Rachel at 5-6 Watts maybe able to drive them. I’ll find out one way or another.

Also, instead of the Klipsch speakers I think I’m going to try some open baffle speakers like the the Lii Song ZF15.
Click to expand...
Those ZF15 look gorgeous. I’m very curious as to what you think of them if you go that route.
 
On the “new-to-me” front I picked up a used Fonolab EQVES-1 step up transformer from our friendly northern neighbor. I think it’s a version 1 as neither it nor its manual state ver. 2 and the faceplate is white. Anyway, I’m using this with my Benz Micro LPS on the Reed 2G arm going to the MM input on my Allnic phono. I’ve tried a few head amps (Lounge Copla and Haggerman Piccolo) and the Allnic has a built in SUT on the MC input. The Fonolab paired with the Benz beautifully. It has a more forceful and richer presentation without being dark at all and seemed to expand the soundstage by a fair bit. Supertramp’s Crime of the Century album is practically surround sound at times. Fabulous pairing.

The location is temporary as I was testing back and forth between the Fonolab and the Haggerman (which is a very good piece, excellent at the price, and very flexible, I’ll keep it for the flexibility it offers alone), but it will end up buried in a cabinet. So here’s a shot of it “in the open.”

IMG_2715.jpeg
 
Last edited:
SnowmaNick said:
On the “new-to-me” front I picked up a used Fonolab EQVES-1 step up transformer from our friendly northern neighbor. I think it’s a version 1 as neither it nor its manual state ver. 2 and the faceplate is white. Anyway, I’m using this with my Benz Micro LPS on the Reed 2G arm going to the MM input on my Allnic phono. I’ve tried a few head amps (Lounge Copla and Haggerman Piccolo) and the Allnic has a built in SUT on the MC input. The Fonolab paired with the Benz beautifully. It has a more forceful and richer presentation without being dark at all and seemed to expand the soundstage by a fair bit. Supertramp’s Crime of the Century album is practically surround sound at times. Fabulous pairing.

The location is temporary as I was testing back and forth between the Fonolab and the Haggerman (which is a very good piece, excellent at the price, and very flexible, I’ll keep it for the flexibility it offers alone), but it will end up buried in a cabinet. So here’s a shot of it “in the open.”

View attachment 221261
Click to expand...
Nice. A lot of people going SUT here lately.🍻
 
So on the theme of SUTs my Lundahl one arrived from Orso audio in the UK yesterday!

Still waiting on the phono to match it to, that likely won’t be here until the new year!

IMG_1682.jpegIMG_1683.jpegIMG_1684.jpegIMG_1685.jpegIMG_1686.jpeg

PS Just messed with the contrast so the photos are better, they were a little dark first time around!
 
Last edited:
mindhead1 said:
I changed my order from Zen Triode 25 to a Rachel (Zen Integrated). Now you’ve got me thinking I should just go for a Sarah.

I’m on page 3 of the waitlist so I’m thinking I have until sometime later in 2025 to make a decision.
Click to expand...
I am am a couple plus years out on the Decware queue
I have not asked, but based on what you are saying you can switch your choice.
Assuming I am alive at that point, that would be a nice option.
So is that a thing ?
 
Have a Pontus II in the house to pair with the Node and Woo.

I was not aware of a potential issue with some Node and Denafrips products having issues via coax connection, so have a USB cable on the way also. Using an optical cable for now.

I will say the Pontus is a lot more substantial of a piece than I was expecting. Very heavy and the casework is really nice.
 
Slimwhit33 said:
Have a Pontus II in the house to pair with the Node and Woo.

I was not aware of a potential issue with some Node and Denafrips products having issues via coax connection, so have a USB cable on the way also. Using an optical cable for now.

I will say the Pontus is a lot more substantial of a piece than I was expecting. Very heavy and the casework is really nice.
Click to expand...
Let me know what you think of the Pontus! I’ve been torn on getting one…have an ares on one of my setups at the moment and enjoying it…
 
Slimwhit33 said:
Have a Pontus II in the house to pair with the Node and Woo.

I was not aware of a potential issue with some Node and Denafrips products having issues via coax connection, so have a USB cable on the way also. Using an optical cable for now.

I will say the Pontus is a lot more substantial of a piece than I was expecting. Very heavy and the casework is really nice.
Click to expand...
I’m using an Iris DDC before my Pontus II-12th i with I2S via HDMI, it provides a nice sound bump if you ever want to try it.
 
I took advantage of the KEF yearned sale and picked up a pair of LS50 Meta’s to replace the Q150’s in a secondary system. Very nice improvement already and I haven’t given them more than a couple minutes positioning. In reality there’s not much to do positioning-wise as the only location is on top of a Kallax stack, but they image surprisingly well. I have them hooked up to a Margules Arch-3 and Auralic Aries Mini and supplemented with a JL Audio D-108 (all of which were from other systems previously).

I first put a system together in here as the components were stored in here and I just figured “why not.” Over time though I started to realize how often I’m in here doing projects and how nice it was having music,

IMG_2754.jpeg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top