I think I have had enough time with this phono stage now to make a few remarks about it.  In keeping with the spirit of this website I am not recommending this component, just reporting on it.

I got my unit off AudioGon after keeping my eyes peeled for a while.  Normally the designer, Kevin Carter, sells kits and finished stuff directly from his own website, and he is also the US rep for Lundahl transformers.

To my knowledge, all of the K&K phono stages are hybrid tube/ss cascode gain with ss power supplies.  My unit is mm only, 46 dB net gain and it was modified to use 6DJ8 tubes, 1 per channel, with the tubes’ internal gain pairs run in a parafeed configuration.  My unit also has switches for +/- mono or stereo, and a mute, and it has the “Cardas Cap upgrade”, although I cannot address if/how that may factor in.  My unit also uses “amorphous core” transformers throughout, which is another topic, I suppose.  There are 1 pair/each of RCA and balanced inputs and outputs.  I use the RCAs.

Since I changed my pre-amp at the same time I installed this phono stage lots of time has been spent sorting out what part of the new sound was which.

One of the main reasons I went from pure tubes to ss/hybrid was to see if I could get away from a certain “splashy” sound in the upper mids/lower treble that dogged me with all the all-tube phono stages I’ve tried.  Also, I hoped to avoid the sort of “collapse” I had gotten on loud, complex music.   Although I did escape the splash and the “collapse”, there was instead at first a somewhat reticent and slightly foggy quality that I immediately wanted to change.

I know it’s lame, and I’m sorry to say it, but changing tubes (to NOS Telefunkens in this case) and changing the stock Kimber parafeed coupling caps to Mundorf silver/golds took care of business immediately.  Initially I tried 3.3 uF in place of the stock 4 uF, but it was not enough.  I added .82 uF and I am going to go up to 4.7 uF in order to better balance the sound spectrum and also preserve ambient cues at both ends of the spectrum.

Note (again) that I use an Ortofon MC 3000 II cartridge along with its dedicated T-3000 transformer.  I also use a tweaked (basically, weighted-down) Well Tempered Reference arm on a Sota vacuum holddown ‘table.  Pre-amp is the Bent TAP TVC and amps are Lamm ML2s.  Speakers are tricked-out Diamond Edition BassZillas, which use tamed Lowther DX-4s high-passed in 2’X6’ OBs(plus folded, tapered "wings" to equal > 3' net width) over 15” Audax woofers in LEAP-derived BR bins, and I use naked Audaphon ribbons over 10k Hz.  Speakers are about 96 dB efficient, with great imaging possible.

The sound of my cartridge is as tape-like as any I have heard, and the K&K is probably more “neutral” and plainly accurate than most folks would want.  It might be slightly kind to recordings, but you can hear all the “engineering” along with the playing, for better or for worse.  Dynamics are as good as I’ve heard, apart from the Boulder 2008.  Pitch, timbre, weight and scale are as good as I’ve heard, meaning as “accurate”.  The sound was all over the place wiht 3.3 uF but with more output capacitance things have settled down along with a critical-for-me sense of “artistry” and “ensemble” that IMO makes or breaks a hi-fi system, and this sense is conveyed on quiet and loud passages, and even on “obscured” passages, with all types of music.

I need to comment on image density because this is a strong feature of the K&K.  Images are pretty damn solid, and the right sounds come from the voices and instruments themselves.  There is very little of the usual sense of “air”, since any sense of space becomes the actual listening room.  In other words, instead of the more-usual high-end "air", the K&K somehow blends HF with LF ambience and gets throughout the room.  The unit also allows music to “charge” the room, but I am not sure if the K&K “creates” this phenomenon or if it just "allows" it.

The K&K is not purely analytical, because it does make plenty of music.  But it also lets you hear into how the music was made, which is not something I was/am after, really. This does not usually detract from the music, but occasionally it does.  It works especially well on the old Mercurys and RCA shaded dogs, and also on many old Blue Notes, some old Vanguards, etc., etc!  Basically, it is wonderful with great recordings and where there is a great performance along with a great recording, it is Heaven!  Ah, Tosca!

As soon as someone points me to a great “massed strings” recording that is “realistic”, then I will comment on the K&K’s performance in that area.  So far, large scale works are as likely to be satisfying as smaller works, but I have to say that “fluff” has mostly been pretty boring.  OTOH, using Romy’s instructions for speaker placement has been working its own wonders, and I will go back and try some Beatles, etc. soon, to see/hear if that can still be fun with the K&K.  So far I have been enjoying "important" music too much to be playing around!

I will be keeping and using this phono stage for the foreseeable future because it does most of what I want from a phono stage.  It could be more “transparent”, but I would not give up anything it does to get that.

Best regards,
Paul S

Perhaps I should have mentioned before that the K&K is another spin-off of the well-received Arthur Loesch RIAA network.  Also, the K&K's gain scheme is based on "classic" microphone circuits.  While I am not saying any of this amounts to a hill of beans in and of itself, I am passing on the info because these "facts" interested me over the course of my own search for a viable phono stage.

Stereo separation is very strong, indeed, which contributes to spectacular imaging with great recordiings, but it also clearly reveals poor recording techniques.  Again, fortunately, in most cases musical value tends to survive poor recordings via the K&K.

Another thing I shoud have mentioned is that the unit is quiet, just a little tube "rush" at ear/speaker-busting gain settings.  No, it's not as quiet as the Boulder...

Best regards,
Paul S

Since the “Hunan Style” phonostage-chasses is coming to me and will host my 7788-7721 (64dB) corrector (that I love) I was wondering where I can get an extra 10-20dB to run .2mV cartridges. You mentioned the Lundahl “amorphous core” transformers… perhaps I should try them – they cost little money and small. As an alternative options Jim Hagerman just released his active moving coil pre-preamplifier:

http://www.hagtech.com/piccolo.html

if it is small enough and can to sound OK then it might be a good idea to stick it inside of the “Hunan Style” phonostage’s input.

Functionally, these are the same caps I already replaced once/twice (and wrote about) before, namely the big "parafeed" couplers.  The unit came with bypassed 4 uF Kimbers, which were fuzzy and slow, so I replaced them with 3.3 uF Mundorf Silver and Golds; then I added .82 uF Mundorfs/channel  because the 3.3s weren't big enough, although they were otherwise lots better than the Kimbers.  I wanted to add still more capacitance, to go farther in the direction I had just gone, and I figured I'd just give the Cardas caps a try (600V, 4.7 uF), based solely on KC's deadpan description/comparison of the Cardas versus the Mundorf S&Gs.  But he also said the Mundorfs are "close", which is funny, sort of, because psychos like us gladly spend thousands to get this kind and level of improvements.

And you are right, I had no reason to "believe" that the big, expensive Cardas "Golden Something-or-Other" caps would be worth a crap.  To say I took a flyer on this is an understatement.

Since I absolutely dismiss the root Cardas "scientific premise", I have no idea why these caps would/should work so damned well in this application.  But remember that I am not as put off as you are by stupid claims and misbegotten egotism on the part of rinky-dink, stuck-on-a-trick audio parts purveyors.

In fact, I am a mindless slut, and I will as always simply accept and take this for all it's worth, thankyouverymuch.

If you or anyone else gives a rat's ass (I know I don't...), the Big Deal with these particular caps is supposed to be some sort of co-mingled dielectric (Teflon and PVC, I think) that somehow "disipates energy each at the rate of its own dielectric constant", or some such unintelligible-to-me (and presumed to be bullshit) language.  Really, I can't even be bothered to look it up.

I have to say that the Cardas House Talk puts me off rather than attracting me to their stuff, and I have never even thought to use any of their other stuff anywhere in my system before, ever, apart from various smaller Cardas caps that already inhabited the interior of my phonostage when I got it.  I've actually never given them a second thought, one way or the other, past noticing they are there.

But I would not hesitate to try these particular Cardas (coupling) caps again in a similar application, or output RC.

Best regards,
Paul S

I'am not a big fun of the entire parafeed idea as I feel that it is a way a duplicate of DC blocking but anyhow: if your preamp uses it then what are you problem with that parafeed cap? You were writing about your changing and bypassing different caps but you never said why you do it and I never heard you expressed what was wrong with Sound with the old cap and in which direction you would like to go, at least with that cap. How do you know that the atomic sonic problems that you discribed were coming from the cap that you changed but not from the rest of the circuit? In trims of sound of the parts, a circuit sounds with characteristics of the worst and the most colored element. So if you got some problem with sound while you changed the cap then are you sure that it was the cap? Also, what do you mean the 3uF were not enough? Did you actually hear LF truncation? The cut off might be calculated by:

F = 1/(2 * pi * C * R)

How much you have now?

Anyhow, if you would like then you might try the caps that I use for all my coupling. Try to found the Elecrocube 950B or 950D. Do not even touch any other Elecrocubes – they are not worthy.

http://www.electrocube.com/pdf/cap12.pdf

If you are not wiling to buy $500 then you can check leftover inventory (it supports the wild key search):

http://www.electrocube.com/stockcheck/

The Cubes 950B/D does not need any bypass. They do as good as a cap need to be and they are not large and not expensive. You might try them if you wish. I do not underwrite that you will like them but if I have the amp and if I would like to learns hot it sound I would put the 950B in there what whatever is left I would accept as the preamp’ sound.

I discover the Cubes 950B/D through Lamm – he used them in his amps as coupling caps. I got some of them tried them and like them. Then over the years I tried a large number of different, including some exotic and expensive, caps but I always went go back to the Cubes 950B/D – they have a different level of neutrality then anything else I have tried, very different from all that “immediately impressive” Hi-Fi crap…

BTW, one more thing – where the hell you found 600V in your preamp? Your 6DJ8 is a low voltage tube with probably 150-175V on plate and you have no voltage on other side. It sounds that 200V would be fine there. With 600V cap you have more dielectric in there, why do you need it?

Paul S wrote:

Regarding the Electrocubes, can I actually buy one or two Bs or Ds directly from the source?  I have not found a retail source for the B or D…

I'm afraid I lack the savvy and/or the patience to figure out from those links how to buy just two matched Electrocube 950Ds, since all the distributors seem to be geared to industrial purchasing protocols.

But if someone wants to send me a matched pair of 4.7 uF 950-Ds, I will compare them to the Cardas "Golden Ratio", post my impressions and send back the caps.

Of course, it would only tell about use for that particular application...


Best regards,
Paul

An unprecedented three straight sessions now with no "power problems", including hot weekday and weekend listening. This newfound stability happens to coincide with the bigger caps.  Although I refuse to draw any conclusions about this I am secretly wondering if there is a connection.  I also made some interesting discoveries with the ML2s in conjunction with the cap-related changes, and I am also posting on this, as well.

Best regards,
Paul S

Paul S wrote:

But the big-capped K&K is NOT immune to power problems, by any means!

Paul S wrote:

Noise in general is reduced and clarity and bass are improved, with no penalty.

Yes, the bass was better immediately after making the swap and, being OCD, I swapped again to confirm.

The "Theory" is that 60 Hz and sub-set LF noises are cleared out of the circuit when all hum is banished ,so pre-amp can send better bass music.

The "Hedge" is that AC was generally better than it's been for quite a while today, but there were the usual sudden lapses throughout the session.  So maybe the AC just happened to get worse during the 2X when I had the 3-prong plug in the outlet.

I'm also guessing ML2s appreciate any help with my bass bins, including less LF noise at inputs.

Don't worry, though, I'm not claiming "World Class Bass", anyway.

However, improvement does include more "downward-developing" harmonics for better wieight, which I like and would take even more of.

Nothing earth-shaking, but certainly worth doing.

Best regards,
Paul S

As a weekend-only listener, it can take me eons to break in some of my most stubborn components.  In the case of the K&K, things seem to have reached +/- tonic equalibrium.

I may have have mentioned it in passing, but at some point a while back I changed IC, putting shielded Placette cables from the tranny to the K&K, and I put a DIY "twisted pair" of cotton wrapped 26 ga. soild OCC silver from the K&K to the TAP.  I didn't discuss it in this context because I thought I had this stuff aurally sorted out, at least with respect to the K&K.  But, maybe it was more of a factor than I'd thought...

The last few listening sessions have been notable in that I have had a substantial increase in downward-developing harmonics, along with far less in the way of HF noise passing itself off as as upwardly-mobile harmonics and up-tilted balance.  The net effect of this "downward" trend in balance has been that I find myself more and more comfortable listening to music that "should" be loud at previously-for-me absurdly loud volumes, well up into the 90s.  No, this is not really loud, but remember what I'm using for speakers and amps.  The amazing thing here is that with the cleaner, better balanced signal, the music is still MUSIC at these much higher volumes, and (oddly?) the quietest passages and pauses are actually musically enhanced with the increase in volume.

Another great thing is that I have found a lot more life in my "fading" cartridge since I discovered it (and its arm) had mysteriously sprung all loose (see A Cautionary Tale).  I am also pleased to report that although VTA is as audible as ever, it has become less of an "issue", per se since "The Settling", at least when the AC is OK

One great "test" of a cartridge/system is the best recordings of the best operatic tenors.  If you ever socialize with opera singers, you know that it takes very little in the way of wine and encouragement to get them going.  And you also know how astoundingly LOUD they can sing, with the top tenors 1/2 again as loud as the rest.  Anyway, I am pleased indeed to report that my present system tracks Jussi Bjoerling at close to full tilt.

Once again, I do not use the stock 6N1P tubes in my unit, so I cannot say how the stock unit might develop with respect to pitch and/or harmonics, etc.  I am not recommending the 6DJ8s, especially since the good ones are getting so scarce, and it has taken a lot of work to put to good use their typically over-analytical rendering.  I am pleased to say, however, that the MOSFET/JFET "tails" seem to have quieted the usual-for-these-tubes lower treble noise and sonic "implosion" with loud signals, meaning there is none that I can tie to this source.

Paul S

Paul S wrote:

One great "test" of a cartridge/system is the best recordings of the best operatic tenors.