Extremely interested to hear your findings. Been putting off this same update for months for no real reason. How long was several months, six?
Aesthetix Io Users Group
- Thread starter audioquest4life
- Start date
Yes , 6mos.
Not sure what the delay was. However, I said I wasn't in a real hurry - I was expecting 3 mos or so. They were always responsive, my understanding is that Jim is the only one that works on the Io's.
I can only imagine they are busy building new pieces and have a service back log.
It's a very small company- when I sent my 3 boxes down, I got the Fedex response that Jim White signed for them-- that gives you an idea for what a small outfit they are. It's not everywhere that the CEO signs for shipments at the loading dock. At the end of the day, I am glad that the guy that designed them .. made the modifications, tested them and probably boxed them. That doesn't happen everywhere either.
Hifi by the pound/kilo! I understand from Glenn that every serviced piece spends time on a burn rack and then gets a listen to in the house system. These things take time. (Well spent)
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Kcin,
Eager to get your impressions on these updates. When I had.the very same done to my Io, the difference was immediately noticeable. And improved as those new capacitors settled in.
Enjoy!
Sorry for the delay - didn't see this until now.
I figured out the 6922 when I had a Rhea. I had replaced all the 12ax7's with tele's and still wasn't happy with the sound - It wasn't very transparent and was dull and muddy. On a whim, I replaced the stock 6922's with a tele's and the the sky opened up. I later found out that the 6922 is the output tube so what ever you do prior to that will be masked by that tube if its not right. The 6922 is used the same way in the io so the same holds true. Through experience with the io, I found that the 6SN7 is somewhat similar to the 6922 as it controls the over all flavor.
Well initial impressions here.
After cleaning all my tube pins ,all 32 of them, I turned on the system after having the DaVa in with the Klyne.
It was a disappointment- flat, one dimensional. Not at all what I was expecting. Fast forward at just about 100 hrs of burn in with a RIAA level CD - it is opening up!
First thing I noticed - was- nothing, no noise, stone silent surreal. No hum, or superfluous white noise whatsoever. Sounds just flow and appear in space. The Io was already good at this but the PS mod has really benefited the unit to an order of magnitude .
This lower noise flow allows more detail to be present and more sense of ambience.
The bass sounds more prolific- I need to be careful with this- I run a pair of RELs. It has been my experience that the bass locks in last with the infinicaps being out of commission for so long. I may have a ways to go on tuning the bass just yet and I anticipate having to adjust my sub levels given the new upgrade. For now I am going to run it for another 100 hrs and see what happens next.
Very impressive so far! It is a no brainer and the improvements are real and not debatable. If I were considering this I would have to get some sort of assurance from Aesthetix on reasonable turn-a-round. Even then, if phono is important to you, you may want to have a spare phono stage on hand to have during the upgrade process.
More after another week or so of run-in.
I have experienced some of what you speak of with my latest Aesthetix Rhea Eclipse upgrade.
After the upgrade Aesthetix does their usual burn-in and listen before shipping. And I trust that. When my phonostage arrived home I put it on my own (home spun) burn rack, a Hagerman inverse RIAA card iRIAA2 driven by a CD line level input, and a solidstate headphone amp on the output to a newish set of ZMF cans that additionally had use for some further running in. Gave the Rhea about 250 hours with stock tubes insitu. This smoothed the performance out and gave a really nice and stable midrange to upper frequency presentation. I assumed the bass had come in too as it was better than the previous Signature level. Though it had not, and upon playing for possibly another hundred hours in the kit, all of a sudden the bass grew enormously in depth and tone, with vastly greater articulation. WoW!
Anyway, to my point, an emphatical YES to the idea that these Stealthcap™ have a need to a rather long run in before truly delivering just what they are capable of. And it shocked me just how much of a move they made performance wise. I literally put on a record one day played A side, when I flipped it over to play side B, the whole mix of the album sounded more full bodied and meaty to the point that I had to flip back to side A for a reality check. Side A now played with an improved authority in bottom end, that just a moment ago it didn’t have… Now everything I play highlights this characteristic.
Very cool
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Don't just keep it for upgrades, a Aesthetix owner needs to keep extras for all the months it is broken down and waiting for repairs too !
Trying to have mine fixed at the moment, findings someone qualified locally is hard, the best repair guys here don't want to touch it, one told me "you start repairing it in one end, and something breaks in the other ! The circuit boards are crap, badly designed, sell it as fast as you can, it will keep breaking" another elaborated " the circuit board design has high power and low power too close to each other just a little humidity and dust can short circuit it some places " none of them wanted to repair a Io again. That said, i had mine running with just one channel playing yesterday to mark the broken power supply for a future repair guy, and the left channel sounded great, my foot was tapping and bass lines where amazing, i am not giving up, i am apparently a masochist It must be possible to find one brave man in the Kingdom of Denmark !
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That’s frustrating, sorry you’ve had a bad experience. Have owned two IO’s over that last 20 years (original Signature and now Eclipse) and have never experienced and issue…knock on wood.Don't just keep it for upgrades, a Aesthetix owner needs to keep extras for all the months it is broken down and waiting for repairs too !
20 years with a tube phono without any kind of issue, wow you are a lucky man !
Maybe it’s a sign to buy that lottery ticket! But truly, other than a few tube issues nothing of note20 years with a tube phono without any kind of issue, wow you are a lucky man !
Mine has waiting for repairs or being repaired longer than i have been able to use it, half of the warranty time was spent this way, and that is not counting the last year and a half i have been to disgusted to even have it repaired again. Maybe 4'th time is the charm and it behaves this time, but i doubt it. I am hoping to find a friendly local repair man willing to take a couple of thousand dollars of my money every year and cut down on transportation/ wait time. But it seems as hard as finding a virgin on Tinder !
I’ve owned a Calypso and Rhea Signature for over a decade, no issues. Now replaced Calypso for a Metis and Eclipsed the Rhea, no issues so far. Have a dear friend with the first Io three box and a Callisto three box and no issues there either through a couple decades… sorry you are having trouble.
Maybe we are getting b-stock in Europe, a few members with Io's in England, Germany Denmark and Norway have had problem, most have moved on and bought other phonos.
Post in thread 'Best phono stage?'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/best-phono-stage.14815/post-941732
Post in thread 'Best phono stage?'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/best-phono-stage.14815/post-941740
Post in thread 'Best phono stage?'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/best-phono-stage.14815/post-941741
I have had my Io now in some iteration of Signature or Partial/Eclipse for probably 20 years +. This is really the first time I had to send it away. Once self inflicted tube rolling concern- however, that was solved with another tube by me.
My only concern this time was the time to re- work it. It really has been remarkably stable for all this time given the 3 boxes. Sorry, you are having troubles Milan.
I have been running mine now 24hrs a day for almost 2 weeks and when I sit down to listen it just blows me away.
My only concern this time was the time to re- work it. It really has been remarkably stable for all this time given the 3 boxes. Sorry, you are having troubles Milan.
I have been running mine now 24hrs a day for almost 2 weeks and when I sit down to listen it just blows me away.
It does sound fantastic, best phono i ever heard, now i just need to find that reliable repair guy to put on speed dial !
I like the Io so much that I am considering getting another set as back up! But at the same time, I am questioning my sanity
That's what Leif had for awhile, before he became a horn man !I like the Io so much that I am considering getting another set as back up! But at the same time, I am questioning my sanity
The power supplies should do the job at the voltage they are made for, but who knows. Maybe summer heat in Europe is less likely to be fixed with air conditioning than in the US, mine broke down in June the last time, i will start tracking breakdowns, too find out when the Io has its "period". Prefer SS in the summer anyway, hate to listen to music in my underwear !
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