Hi Albert,

I've purchased a NOS pair of the Bendix 6106 Red Bank rectifier tubes to try in the H5000. I should have them here sometime next week and I will give them a try. Although I hate to change anything because the analog front end is sounding so good right and I still only have 9 hours of playing time on the H5000.

babybear December 13, 2013 13:09

I too am interested in what the Bendix rectifiers bring to the sound. I have a pair but have not listened to them.

albertporter December 13, 2013 01:14

Christian, I bet you will be happy to have the H5000 back in your system.

I will also be curious to learn what you think of those Bendix rectifier tubes.

babybear December 12, 2013 23:32

I just got the HA3000 today. My H5000 doesn't arrive back until tomorrow. I plan on trying the HA-3000 with my SS Pass XP-25 tonight just out of curiosity. Tubes and SS...should make an interesting combo.

rockitman December 12, 2013 20:29

Hi Christian,

Definitely agree with you that loading (or no loading adjustment) doesn't seem to be a problem with the 3 cartridges that i have heard so far with the H5000. It will be interesting to learn what you think of the Allnic HA 3000 in front of the H5000 and how the sound compares with and without.

Arnie

babybear December 12, 2013 13:24

Yes loading is interesting as the gain/turnover knobs are the only adjustment. I feel that these transformers have a wide latitude and will work well with most LOMC carts. If one decides to use the headlamp via the 48k MM inputs, loading can be done more precisely but of course you bypass the transformer completely. I was concerned that running via transformer, loading would be an issue. It is not.

rockitman December 11, 2013 14:43

Hi Pradeep,

That is an interesting question. The H5000 has adjustable gain settings the same as the H3000 does. But unlike the H3000, it does not have any cartridge loading control for moving coil cartridges. You set the gain and that is it. Both cartridges that I am using sound superb with the H5000 (using different gain settings). The gain is set by the knobs on top of the 2 step up transformers. There are 4 gain settings to choose from. Since there is no cover on top of the unit, you can easily change the gain for different cartridges - just mute the H5000, turn the knobs and you are done.

Arnie

babybear December 11, 2013 13:39

Arnie
Many thanks for your detailed description of the DHT 5000. What about cart loading etc can you do this on the fly from the front panel ? This is an important aspect for me and the flexibility of running 3 arms.
Cheers
Pradeep

sunnyboy1956 December 11, 2013 12:59

Hi Christian,

Thanks very much.

Its hard to describe how good the H5000 sounds so I am glad that you are hearing the same things as I do and are enjoying what you hear.

Let me know what you think of the HA-3000 paired with the H5000. Its hard to imagine that it can get much better and I only have about 6 hours of actual playing time on the H5000.

Arnie

babybear December 10, 2013 23:20

Love the black look of the Adona stand and the H5000 Arnie. I completely agree with your assessment. It will be interesting to see how this unit sounds with the HA-3000 Nuvistor head amp added in the chain. I will report back when I get mine in a week or two.

rockitman December 10, 2013 19:21

Hi Pradeep,

Thanks very much.

The Allnic H3000 is a really, really good phono stage. But having said that, the H5000 is a very significant jump in performance. I was expecting it to be better given its price, but I wasn't really prepared for how much better it was. I only have about 6 hours of actual playing time on the H5000 so a long way to go before it is really broken in, but here is what I am hearing so far.

1. The H5000 is completely effortless sounding regardless of what type of music you are listening to or what volume you are playing at. There just doesn't seem to be any strain at all to the music.

2. It is more transparent sounding top to bottom than the H3000 with more clarity and purity to the sound.

3. It is harmonically richer sounding than the H3000 with very dense and more realistic sounding images of performers that are more fully resolved than with the H3000. Everything that I have listened to so far just sounds more complete and fleshed out than with the H3000. This is hard for me to explain but easy to hear.

4. The H5000 always seems in control. There is an continuity to what you are hearing that is again hard to explain but is easy to hear that I have not heard before in my system with the H3000.

I am not sure I am doing a good job of explaining how good the H5000 really is. Last night, I listened and the combo of the Schroeder LT arm, the Lyra Atlas and the H5000 was the absolute best that I have heard my system sound by a fairly large margin.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

Arnie

babybear December 10, 2013 15:26

Hi 11flat6,

The Minus K in and of itself doesn't seem to present any problem to have the LT arm work perfectly. But when you make the final arm adjustments, you do want to insure that the Minus K floating platform or the Vibraplane floating platform is as level as you can make it and more importantly, that it maintains that same position consistently. I use ballast weights on the Minus K floating platform to get the total weight up to as close to the maximum load that I can. I then position these weights to achieve the best leveling of the platform as possible.

A handy tool to have when setting up the arm is a completely blank side of an LP. You can check how well the arm is set up by lowering the arm/cartridge towards the outer edge of the blank record, and then gently blow on the cartridge from the outside. The arm should then start to slowly move inwards toward the center of the record and maintain a constant speed while doing so. If it does this, the arm should perform perfectly.

Arnie

babybear December 10, 2013 14:08

Hi Arnie
Congrats on your new jewels. What are your initial impressions of the Allnic 5000 vs the 3000 ?
Best
Pradeep

sunnyboy1956 December 10, 2013 13:26

hi Arnie,

thks for the cartridge installation details. I'll need to set this arm up when it arrives, so your description (as well as that of others) has been very helpful.

my TT sits atop a passive (& non self-leveling) Vibraplane platform, so I'll definitely need to address this "softly suspended deck" issue before attempting to set up the arm.

btw, did the Minus K platform present any leveling issues?

11flat6 December 10, 2013 06:55

Frank Schroeder has posted some good information about the LT arm on the WBF forum. I took the liberty to repost some of that here because I find it interesting and useful information about the arm.

Also, for anyone interested in reading it, here is the link to the US patent that was granted on November 5, 2013 to Frank Schroeder for his LT tonearm. It is also protected by the design copyright law in the EU.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8576687.html

Here is the info from Frank that was posted:

"The use of this arm on any softly suspended deck(like a Linn LP12, Oracle Delphi, Voyd....) is less than optimal. Just like any tonearm - and airbearing tonearms in particular - the arm needs to be levelled(a provision for which is "hidden" in the arm base) or else the advantage of no side thrust generation(lack of skating force) will be jeopardized as, similar the an air bearing "sled", the pivoted arm will find a gravitational "null" or resting position. It's not as pronounced an issue as with airbearing arms as the mass displacement is a lot smaller, but still...

Tangency is maintained through a vector addition. Lateral tonearm displacement (and frictional pull) will move the fixed outrigger underneath the main arm bearing to which a magnet is attached. That magnet always maintains minimum proximity to the ferromagnetic "guide-rail" above, yet never touches it. So for any given angle that the main tonearm assumes, the pivoting bar is forced to move so that the magnet stays as close to the bar as possible.
Yes, that mechanism needs excellent, in fact, the very best bearings one can buy. The total bearing friction in the lateral plane(<3,5mN) is lower than ANY other conventional tonearm with captive bearings. In the vertical bearings, friction is ZERO, as in unmeasurable/waaay below what the wiring is contributing.
The slightest whiff will move the arm across a blank record, and a hair, gently put on the headshell while the arm is in equilibrum, will displace it. Yet there is NO play in any of the bearings in operation.

No skating compensation is required, even if set up with a little less care than what one should apply, side thrust on the cantilever can be brought down to unprescedented low levels. This means that it now takes the same amount of force to displace the cantilever laterally in either direction from center(all bass below 80-100Hz is mono on LPs), increasing linearity/dynamics/extension.

The eff. length was not chosen arbitrarily, but yields the best combination of geometry and associated forces. Longer wouldn't result in less tracing error(so why do it?), shorter forces the displacement of the pivoting bar to increase, requiring more force."

Thanks Arnie

babybear December 09, 2013 14:24

Hi Dev,

It's great to hear that you are very happy with the AF-1 and Elite arm combo. That setup should make some beautiful music. Congratulations. Enjoying what you are hearing is what it's all about.

Arnie

babybear December 09, 2013 13:45

Thx for the detailed reply - appears to be substantial.

Another arm that peaks my interest is the DaVinci Master Reference Virtu - any choice is for a second slot on my AF-1. Apparently TechDAS is also working on a arm but haven't released any info. so that should also be interesting. It's great to see these manufactures doing such. TechDAS has already released a very nice cart that peaks my interest, very positive remarks from Jack and his brother Jim "Philippines" who both have amazing systems and already done some comparisons.

I'm currently enjoying Bob Graham's soon to be released Elite arm which I currently have a A90 installed - look forward to hearing some other carts paired up with it. Could always take my My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent BC cart off my REED and install.

The AF-1 and Elite combo has me grinning from ear to ear :) very happy indeed.

dev December 08, 2013 20:35

Hi Dev,

Thanks very much.

Here are my impressions of the improvements that I hear with the LT arm compared to the Reed arm.

1. There is no inner groove distortion that I can hear at all. I used several LP's just playing the inner grooves, the middle grooves and the outer grooves. I could not hear any degradation in sound on any of them. This is one of the advantages of the LT arm that I was expecting and it delivered perfectly.

2. The improvement in bass is startling. There is a large increase in bass power, punch and slam (use your favorite adjective). I used 3 LP's to verify what I heard in this regard - Lyle Lovett's Release Me - track 1 - Garfield's Blackberry Blossom, Dave Brubeck's Time Out - Take Five and Cantante Domino the first few tracks of Side 2. In particular, the pipe organ on Cantante Domino took such a leap forward in power in the very lowest registers it was amazing. I have never heard any of these LP's sound as stunning as I heard them with the LT arm.

3. In the midrange and upper frequencies there is a clarity and purity to the sound that is very easy to hear. At the same time, there is a wonderful refinement to the sound. One of the LP's that I used to verify this is the second side of Cantante Domino. When you hear the soloist soaring above the choir in such a pure and refined voice it is simply amazing.

4. There is an increase in resolution that surprised me as well. On the same Cantante Domino LP, there is one spot on the second track of the second side where the female soloist really soars above the choir. It is my favorite cut on the LP and each time that I have listened to it, at the height of her solo there is what I thought was a slight distortion in her voice for about a second. Since I never heard that anywhere else I just assumed it was the pressing. With the LT arm, I realized it wasn't distortion at all but a tick in the record pressing as I could clearly hear her voice separate from the tick now.

5. There is an overall sense of ease and naturalness to the sound - it just sounds less strained than what I had been hearing previously.

Hope that helps,

Arnie

babybear December 08, 2013 14:10

Hi 11flat6,

You're welcome.

Congratulations on getting the LT arm. You will love it and it will sound special with the Olympos. Installing and setting up the arm is more involved than swapping cartridges. The basic idea with the setting up the cartridge is to square the front of the cartridge with the front of the headshell. With the Olympos or the Atlas this is very simple to do and just by eyeballing it you will be 98% done. You then use the protractor and line up the stylus on the straight line that runs from the outer edge to the inner edge. The last step is to check to make sure that the cantilever is parallel to one of the lines that run perpendicular from the straight that you have put the stylus on. With a cartridge like the Olympos where the cantilever is visible it is simple to do. Set VTF and you are done.

babybear December 08, 2013 13:51

hi Arnie, thks for the detailed reply & analogy!

i'm eagerly waiting for my LT arm to ship & therefore gathering feedback / knowledge. plan to pair mine with an Olympos on a Micro Seiki table.

hope cartridge swaps are easy (shouldn't be many parameters to set once this arm has been mounted & leveled).

11flat6 December 08, 2013 04:46

Congrats on your arrival of your LT and latest being the 5000, curious what is your opinion in comparing the REED and Schroeder LT arm.

What difference's are you hearing

dev December 07, 2013 23:17

Hi 11flat6,

Thanks very much.

While I haven't tried changing cartridges yet on the LT arm, I would guess that it would take me about 15 minutes to install and correctly setup a different cartridge on the LT arm the first time that I did it (perhaps faster than that once I did it once or twice).

I haven't directly compared the Olympos SL to the Atlas on the Schroeder LT arm. They are both wonderful cartridges. But I have a very good idea of the differences between the cartridges. The analogy that I would use to compare them is that the Olympos SL is more like using a high quality Mullard 6201 gold pin 12AT7 input tube on my amps. It has a slightly more seductive midrange, a little more colored sounding in the upper frequencies, less transparent sounding and not quite as tight bass. The Atlas on the other hand, is more analogous to a Valvo 6201 gold pin input tube on my amp. It has a more evenly balanced sound across the frequency spectrum, more open and lively in the upper frequencies, greater transparency and tighter and more textured bass. Also, the Atlas throws a wider soundstage than the Olympos SL.

Hope that helps,

Arnie

babybear December 07, 2013 22:59

hi babybear. very impressive system. Rockports are fantastic!
anyway I was wondering if cartridge swaps are relatively quick & easy on the Schroder LT? have you had the opportunity to compare Olympos & Atlas on the Schroder? i'd be most interested to learn of your impressions. thks.

11flat6 December 07, 2013 11:14

System edited: The Allnic H5000 DHT phono stage is in the system now.

babybear December 07, 2013 00:04

I had a great visit with Albert yesterday and I had a chance to hear his wonderful system. I am looking forward to visiting him again very soon and to do a longer listening session.

I also got to meet KS Park the man behind Allnic Audio. KS is obviously a brilliant audio designer but at the same time a true gentleman and a very humble person.

babybear December 06, 2013 01:52