DaVa FC-A1 a field coil contender

[Kcin]

This evening I added the aircraft dc connector for the power supply and tacked in the Audio Note Kansei cap at the output of the power supply.

I mounted and set up geometry & VTF for the cartridge - then tested the PS - success. - I will run Analog Magik this week and see how the cartridge does.

No playing this evening as I need to be totally in snyc and energized to make the small adjustments necessary to dial in a cartridge.

More to come

 

[bonzo75]

This evening I added the aircraft dc connector for the power supply and tacked in the Audio Note Kansei cap at the output of the power supply.

I mounted and set up geometry & VTF for the cartridge - then tested the PS - success. - I will run Analog Magik this week and see how the cartridge does.

No playing this evening as I need to be totally in snyc and energized to make the small adjustments necessary to dial in a cartridge.

More to come

Do you have a SUT for this?

 

[Kcin]

Do you have a SUT for this?

Yes,

I have several and will try direct to Io as well as it has tons of gain and have used Koetsu and others with this kind of output. My favourite SUT now if I had to use one, ( I'm not particularly partial to them for various reasons) is the silver wound toroidial Lux SUT from the the late 70's. Its hammered some really fine SUTs here. Its quite flexible with different modules for gain.

 

[bravi]

Following Audiophile Bill's approach to attachingBlack gate caps, I did a slightly modified one. I had a 4.7mfd 50V (Nos) lying around. I trimmed the lead length, soldered it to the cartridge connector of power supply input and tucked the capacitor under the headshell. Did an update on tracking weight by increasing it marginally to 2.4gms. While the capacitor has some way to run in fully, even the initial improvement was fantastic. I listen to LPs using my souped up Marant7 pre, feeding a Hafler 220 amp and Real requisite headphone ( all electronics on vibration isolators using symposium roller blocks) . Very resolving and you can gauge the improvements clearly. They are: much lower click and pops and the slight high frequency ringing is gone. Now, the handclaps in live performance, always a tricky. one, are reproduced very naturally. Absolutely chuffed with this tweak!
For those without Black Gates lying around, you could check out the Kansai non polar caps.
Thanks Bill for this tweak.

 

[XV-1]

Leif said the difference between A1 and reference is extension and resolution. I think basic DaVa is competitive, but price difference in the two is very low. ps: I don't think other carts are competitive with DaVa. A lot of the premiumness is just retail margin and they are just sideways compared to what DaVa is doing.

Regarding DS Optical, it is a higher resolution cart than most and is different like the DaVa. whether you like it or think is digital is going to be system/taste specific. There is also no way to use any phono with it which you can with the DaVa, and the cost of DS optical is just too high. But I will say that both are higher resolution than others.

That's not entirely correct.

One can buy the Japanese Soulnote E2 phono stage. 3 x MM or MC + one input that plays DS optical carts.
Friend of mine got one this week.

SOULNOTE E-2

www.kcsr.co.jp

 

[bonzo75]

That's not entirely correct.

One can buy the Japanese Soulnote E2 phono stage. 3 x MM or MC + one input that plays DS optical carts.
Friend of mine got one this week.

SOULNOTE E-2

www.kcsr.co.jp

Interesting, so a phono stage has been made that can take other carts and DS?

Then question is how does it sound compared to using DS’ own encoder plus, how does it compare to other phonos with other carts.
One is therefore still restricted to using a particular phono, now two instead of 1, rather than being able to choose in a wide variety of phonos like us normally done with other carts.

 

[XV-1]

Interesting, so a phono stage has been made that can take other carts and DS?

Then question is how does it sound compared to using DS’ own encoder plus, how does it compare to other phonos with other carts.
One is therefore still restricted to using a particular phono, now two instead of 1, rather than being able to choose in a wide variety of phonos like us normally done with other carts.

Ked

How anything sounds is always the question and especially hard to get a handle of performance based on a small user base.
I believe DS audio may have had a hand in the optical input.

My friend is very happy using it with a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration 2.
He is ordering a DS-003 cart for the optical input.
I am sure Ian may comment after he has used the phono for a while.

Hopefully a few more users will come out.

 

[bonzo75]

Ked

How anything sounds is always the question

My point is normally you can choose a phono based on your research for any cart. For you it can be Accuphase, Esoteric, etc. For someone else it could be EMT, Thomas Mayer, Allnic, EMIA, FM acoustics, Aesthetix, many lower priced ones, etc. As long as gain and impedance are fine. Or add a SUT. Many possibilities.

With DS first it was you could not use another phono apart from the DS box. Now you can use the DS or this Japanese one. That is still a restriction.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

enjoying this DaVa thread now, while playing Lena Horne I feel so smoochie on mono DaVa through custom DaVa x50 mono SUT....

 

[tima]

Finally I got around to install my new darling, the Lithuanian fieldcoil cart that´s about to cause a HUGE STIR in the analogue world
Based on the Neumann DST principle from 1962 and with fieldcoil magnet and a cactus cantilever tipped with a 0,5 conical gem, it´s in the exotic category
I´s a heavy beast of 26g, puts out a hefty 0,15-0,2v depending of supplied voltage and needs a high mass arm to match it´s low compliance
more voltage equals more gain, but the temp of the cart rises proportionally, so there´s a tradeoff point in the 14v/60c territority
mine is now mounted in my 29g eff mass Groovemaster Titanium in a Audiosilente graphite headshell on my shot at the Garrardzilla and sounds totally sensational, even with the semishitty ss experimental psu suplied by the designer Darius Valiunas
he´s shortly launching a tube rectified version and a friend of mine and I are aiming at a LCLC tube psu, but it really needs to be QUIET....
I´ll leave you with a few pics and you can drool over them for a few days until I conclude more solidly....
too be continued

Thanks for this interesting thread, Leif. Given all the bits discussed in this thread, how much difference to the sound results from the electromagnet? Absent a version with a permanent magnet for contrast, I realize the question asks for speculation. Do you have sense of it?

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

not sure, but asked D just now what elecromagnet does for measured performance and sound
brb

 

[tima]

not sure, but asked D just now what elecromagnet does for measured performance and sound
brb

I found this comment by Audiophile Bill in a different thread:

The DaVa can be voiced a few ways. It can be made to sound very nuanced, fast and neutral (higher voltages on the ps and battery ps) through to more tonally fully and saturated with lower voltages and valve ps. My gut says you’ll end up with it in your main system when you hear what it can do.

From this I'll say one difference using an electromagnet makes comes from the ability to vary the amount of voltage/current that feeds it, which can vary the magnetic field strength (flux density). Bill gives an example of the sonic effect from doing that.

I'd still like to learn what Darius says.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

ok I´m no scientist, but will try to relay what D said:
when the coil generates energy, the magnetic field weakens and creates micro-unlinearities
a fc magnet is more stable due to the seperate psu, the stiffer, the better....less sagging, less influence on linearity
here´s probably the cause of psu influence on sound
as an example he says a 30gram magnet sounds very close to fc magnet...i.e. the fc simulates a bigger more powerful magnet
then in addition he´s got a secret or two up his sleeve
hope this clarifies things

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

more on fc´s

Field Coils Are The Future!!!

Anyone who's been an audiophile for a long time knows the irony in the title of this blog. Nonetheless, I believe it's true. But, what is a field coil? Why do they sound so damn good, and why the hell aren't there more speaker manufacturers using them?I've been obsessed. Obsessed with my first...

www.tweekgeek.com

 

[Kcin]

I had to take a break from the run in of the DaVa- experienced some hum issues and tried a few different strategies. My headshell - although it looked conductive was non- conductive so I polished the backside to bare metal.

I mean who doesn't like a bare polished backside? Lol

Also, I've added a 3' 36 gauge wire from the negative PS clip to be used in my grounding experiments on the next go round.

It will have all go back together , perhaps latter this week. On another note, I was curious on the Darius supplied SUTs and made an inquiry. SUT manufacturing is temporarily suspended according to Darius because of an overrun on DaVa reference cartridges. The "new" F1 is suspended too.

What SUTs are everyone using ? and what ratios ? If you know the gain in db and input impedance you're running the SUT into (i.e., 47K) that would be helpful in my math exercise to see if I'm on the right track with what I've got on hand - or the DaVa doesn't necessarily respond like an normal cartridge into normal loads with the incredibly high 1:50 ratio I've been reading about.

Thanks.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

the only reason I ordered both my DaVa SUTs X50, is that my system is solely TVC based, without an active preamp, thus the sources drives the amps
best
Leif

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I had to take a break from the run in of the DaVa- experienced some hum issues and tried a few different strategies. My headshell - although it looked conductive was non- conductive so I polished the backside to bare metal.

I mean who doesn't like a bare polished backside? Lol

Also, I've added a 3' 36 gauge wire from the negative PS clip to be used in my grounding experiments on the next go round.

It will have all go back together , perhaps latter this week. On another note, I was curious on the Darius supplied SUTs and made an inquiry. SUT manufacturing is temporarily suspended according to Darius because of an overrun on DaVa reference cartridges. The "new" F1 is suspended too.

What SUTs are everyone using ? and what ratios ? If you know the gain in db and input impedance you're running the SUT into (i.e., 47K) that would be helpful in my math exercise to see if I'm on the right track with what I've got on hand - or the DaVa doesn't necessarily respond like an normal cartridge into normal loads with the incredibly high 1:50 ratio I've been reading about.

Thanks.

my breakthru on the hum issue involved realization (looking back on why what i did worked) that the Durand Tosca might not ground the DIN connector. so grounding the phono cable left and right neutral leads to the DaVa PS chassis and that combo ground to my dart preamp did the trick. no more hum, like turning a switch on and off. on the DaVa PS chassis only particular chassis screws seemed to work for this. i sort of stumbled onto this when i installed my LFD Dongle and the Raptor interconnects had these grounds attached to the neutral leads so i tried it.....and boom....done. i had been trying every possible grounding combination up till that point and had limited success.

my guess is that every tone arm deals with grounding the DIN connector in their own unique way. might be the key issue here on hum problems? of course i'm guessing.

maybe these thoughts will help. good luck.

 

[Kcin]

the only reason I ordered both my DaVa SUTs X50, is that my system is solely TVC based, without an active preamp, thus the sources drives the amps
best
Leif

Fair enough, do you know what your phono stage gain is?- surely it provides gain. I also use the silver slagle autoformer - so no gain for me on a subsequent line stage either. x50 will provide havoc with the load the DaVa sees ---very low if II with 47Kohms- gain will be adversely affected as well .


Thanks,

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Not sure but around 46-48 db as far as I remember
built it in 2004 or so, replacing an Aesthetix IO volume Signature
custom choke input psu designed by my friend Gary Dews at Borderpatrol: 4 separate LC-LC on both pos and neg legs, one for each tube
weighs in at 47kg....

 

[bonzo75]

One more of Per’s videos. EMT 927, DaVa reference, Nat magnetic, Nord Class D amp, marten speakers