Well I got the machine home on Thursday and finally got to listen for all of an hour as I am with my wife this weekend in Carmel/Monterey so wont be able to listen until tommorow. Initial observations are a far more dynamic, better midrange and high end, an apparently better defined soundstage and clearly a better bottom end. With respect to the bottom end however , although diferent, it sounded slightly bloated to me. I havent had a chance to relisten but further thoughts tomorrow. One of the issues that I have with the unit is the use of coupling capacitors at least the output caps. I know some have upgraded to Mundorf and Myles even recommended Dualund copper caps. In researching the matter re coupling caps as well as talking to Charles he says that the output coupling caps can be removed and are there as a comfort blanket to him in protecting the tape heads. However several have bought this unit without the output coupling caps and it works just fine. I also spoke to Rich Brown (U-47) yesterday about the issue and he told me that someone is running the CK with no input OR output caps and it performs just fine.
BTW if anyone living in the SF Bay area and is looking to add a bypass switch on their machine for the sake of preserving the original stock components and to use a head amp pleas e PM me. I looked all over and short of bringing Ki Choi to the SF Bay area to do mine, I finally was turned onto this gentleman who did an absolutely professional job on my unit. He inserted a circuit into my Studer which he designed which with a flick of the switch allows me to either run stock Studer or the head amp.
Darn i miss those VU meters moving however when in the bypass mode
Mike, i know you eliminated the output coupling caps to allow for the DartZeel 50 ohm connection and you suggested also that the sound is better without those output caps
Stay tuned