Kiseki Purple Heart NS

I recently took the Kiskei off because I estimated the diamond was getting close to end of it's usable hours. So for an experiment I am now running a Hana ML which was half the cost of the Kiseki.

I am surprised by how good it is for the price. Both cartridges are Japanese Moving Coil (MC). I was going to get the Hana Blue because it seemed like a good equivalent to the Kiseki, but I thought the ML would be an interesting to try at half the price. With the Hana I'm running the tonearm height 2mm lower than parallel because Vedran Simunovic suggests this in his review on SoundStageAustralia.com. However he also recommends 2.4g VTF which I tried, but I prefer the Hana recommendation of 2g.

TONE ARM and ALIGNMENT TOOL

Rega RB700

DR FEICKERT Alignment Protractor NG

I invested in this great tool back in 2016 and I am so glad I did. It makes cartridge alignment a breeze because the locator arm places the gauge marks exactly in position. This saves a lot of time, guess work and frustration. Currently using Baerwald alignment.

TURNTABLE

Acoustic Signature Challenger Mk2

Made in Germany. I got this at a reduced price because it was the last one and the shop needed to make way for the Mk3. This beast weighs about 30kg and had it since 2013. Platter mat is thin silicone.

I have three Sorbothane domes on surface with board on top and then turntable on the board. This eliminates all bass feedback.

PHONO PREAMPLIFIER

Icon Audio PS3 mk2

This is British made and has 5 tubes in the amp stage and 4 tubes in the separate power supply. I scored this 2nd hand at half new price and have since replaced the 5 tubes. Note it does not have any loading adjustments at all. The power supply has a long cord which is handy to enable separation from the main unit to prevent hum when using MC cartridges. Has a handy mono switch.

INTEGRATED STEREO AMPLIFIER

Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP

Has 8 power tubes which are currently KT120s. I have used KT150s which are the big brother to the 120s. But I prefer the 120s. The smaller 6 front end tubes are Prima Luna with the exception of the main two which I changed to Genalex because these have the most effect on sound signature. This amp features auto biasing so tubes run optimally all the time and due to the dual power tubes (8 instead of 4) the load is spread so life expectancy is up to 3,000 hours.

SPEAKERS

Martin Logan ESL13a

These are electrostatic hybrid and utilise a see-thru membrane for frequencies above 300Hz and sound comes out the front and the rear of the membrane. The two 10" drivers (forward and rear facing) in each speaker are driven by built in digital amps so this is the only digital part of the entire setup. Speakers are also isolated from wooden floor which helped a lot in correcting bass response.

Bass response has been carefully tuned using the Martin Logan Perfect Bass Kit and ARC software. In the graph the purple is without correction, green is corrected and it sticks pretty closely to the desired black curve.

SUBWOOFER

REL T1

10" active sealed box with active forward driver and passive downward driver. This was a left over from when I was running a pair of Tannoy tower speakers. So it was packed away when I switched to the ML speakers. But one day I thought why not hook it up and it turned out it is great at adding that extra bit of low so I left it hooked up. Dialed in at about 90hz and volume set pretty low and box is spiked to the floor.

ROOM

Living room which is an awkward shape System and speakers sit 2 metres from back wall and listening chair is about 3 metres from speakers. Carpeted floor and wall behind listen chair has curtains which hide some hideous looking cheap acoustic panels. Speakers are toed in exactly as per the Martin Logan torch method which is spot on. I estimate that to be about 5 degrees.

A GREAT SOUNDING RECORD

Vanessa Fernandez – When The Levee Breaks

I purchased this 45rpm three disk record album in July 2016 and it seems to be by far one of the best sounding records on my system. I decided to order it after reading the Analogue Planet review by Michael Fremer he gave it 9 for music and 11 for sound. I think the music is 11. But I am a Led Zeppelin kinda guy and Vanessa and the team reinterpret their songs in a most interesting and entertaining way. While utilising great care for audio quality and recording expertise.

"I’ll put it to you this way: if you play this record really loud and you don’t enjoy what you hear, blame your system!" - Michael Fremer.

Click here to read about my music collecting odessey that started in 1972