So my power supply arrived and I have been listening for 2 days now and for those who can’t be bothered to read the rest - wow.
I had discussed for sometime with Darius, the designer behind the DaVa field coil cartridge, what is the optimal power supply. Darius spent considerable time testing every topology under the sun from battery power to rarefied transistors and then a wide gamut of potential tube based supplies. For those of you wanting to get into a DaVa and don’t want have the outlay of cart and big power supply, you should start with the selenium solid state and you’ll be very happy indeed. You can treat the tube supply as an upgrade down the line.
Darius tested all manner of tubes and landed on the EY500a rectifiers, used historically as TV dampers. My other fave amp builder, Thomas Mayer, often uses TV dampers in his designs include my very own 10y preamp. The rest of the circuit is relatively simple but executed with big custom transformers and hand selected capacitors. The supply is reassuringly heavy and has great feel due to the military style switches employed. My unit is dual output covering both my stereo and mono DaVa carts. It also has the ability to change the voltage on the fly with 4 settings from 10,11,12, and 13 volts.
I was a bit apprehensive as to whether there would be any real merit of using such a supply given it was “only” providing the magnetic field for the cart. But at the end of the day, the voltage produced by the power supply produces a magnetic field that is then converted back to voltage as signal. So in some ways, it makes sense that the quality of power for such an application ought to be worth investing in. I am sure this also applies similarly to field coil speakers.
I needn’t have been worried as I never doubt Darius and his knowledge and insights and above all his fastidious attention to creating beautiful audio devices. I knew I was in safe hands when he told me he dreamt of a single mono WE15a with original 555. I am sure one day he will fulfil this dream - I hope so.
The sound. Well firstly the difference in voltage even 1 volt really changed the presentation so you have the ability to really tailor your final sound. I landed on 11 volts as my preferred setting for the stereo DaVa. I am testing mono DaVa soon. Immediately you will recognise a tonal purity, and a peeling back of an electrical haze you didn’t know was there. The space of the recording and the 3-dimensionality are greatly enhanced as a result. The insight into the musicians playing jumped up quite a lot so I was hearing more saturation of tonal colours but also intra note minute details of the string vibrato on Julian Bream playing baroque lute. The bass had more texture and also space to it - it seems to bring more decay and the recording environment. All these differences are wholly captivating and launch you deep into the music itself. It is one of those improvements where you are lost in your heard and then the LP runs out. Everything is just a notch more believable and palpable.
As you can tell, I am very excited and very pleased with this purchase. If you own a DaVa, I urge you to get one of these at some point because you’ll elevate what is my favourite cartridge in standard form to something extraordinary.
