A few weeks ago, The Tracking Angle posted a YouTube video comparing two turntables, using the same arm, cartridge and phono preamp.
The two unit sounded surprisingly different to my ear, given the only change was the actual device holding and spinning the LP (assuming, of course, that when the arm was moved it was properly set up; given Michael Fremer was the one performing the test, it seems a good assumption).
But that gave me an idea. Since I had a few cartridges, turntables and preamps here, I thought I would perform the same experiment. I sourced the same LP from Japan, bought an A/D converter (the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen), and made seven recordings, with various combinations of Turntable, Phono Preamp and Cartridge. I also stripped the audio out of the Tracking Angle's YouTube video, for a total of nine recordings of the same track.
But rather than show what equipment was being compared, I took those nine completely blind and anonomized recordings and posted them to Mastodon, asking people to provide their rankings and impressions without knowing what was what.
Thanks
Before I provide the summary information, I wanted to thank the people who took the time to participate in the experiment. The recordings, all told, take about 55 minutes to listen to, and often people made multiple passes to decide on their rankings. Hopefully it was as fun for them as it was for me.
Caveat
As I indicated in the "toot", the various recordings were not level-matched. I did the best I could in the analog domain, but in general the output of the preamps were high enough that the Focusrite couldn't "drop" the level any lower. I didn't want to manipulate things in the digital domain, so I left it to listeners to level-match.
My own rankings were not included in the test, since there was no "real" way for me to listen blind...and I was well aware of all the telltale indications of what was what after doing all the recordings. I tried shuffling the playback order and making multiple passes that way, but I couldn't eliminate bias, so...
Results
Given the caveat above, these results don't necessarily correspond to my rankings. Rather, they're the average of the rankings provided by the participants. And there's no "right" or "wrong" answer!
With that in mind:
- Sample F, ranking 2.33 - Aesthetix Rhea Signature phono preamplifier, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, Bang & Olufsen MMC20CL cartridge from 1981.
A bit of a surprise, frankly! The Rhea is an all-tube phono preamplifier that's quite well regarded, and it was well matched with the vintage 1972 turntable and cartridge.
- Sample B, ranking 3.17 - Brinkmann Edison Mk II phono preamplifier, Brinkmann Taurus direct-drive turntable, Brinkmann 12.1 arm, Audio-Technica AT-ART1000 Moving Coil Cartridge.
The Edison is a hybrid Tube/SS design, with a solid state initial gain stage and a tube output stage.
- Sample A, ranking 3.5 - Brinkmann Edison Mk II phono preamplifier, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, MMC20CL cartridge from 1981.
- Sample H, ranking 3.66 - MoFi MasterPhono - Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, Bang & Olufsen MMC20CL cartridge from 1981.
The MoFi is a recently released solid state Phono Preamp. This particular recording lowered the peak levels (gain) compared to sample C, featured later, but was otherwise identical.
- Sample G - ranking 4.43 - CH Precision P10 phono preamplifier, TechDAS AirForce III Premium turntable, SAT CF-12 tonearm, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL cartridge.
This recording came from the YouTube video, and is the less expensive of the two Tracking Angle setups...at around $300K.
- Sample I - ranking 5 - Aesthetix Rhea Signature phono preamplifier, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, Bang & Olufsen MMC20CL cartridge from 1981.
A shock to me! Sample I is identical to the winner, Sample F - except it's uncompressed, whereas Sample F is encoded with high-bit-rate AAC. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
- Sample E - ranking 6.25 - MoFi MasterPhono - Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, Soundsmith SMMC20CL+ cartridge.
The Soundsmith cartridge is a modern, drop-in replacement for the vintage MMC20CL, made by Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith. (It's one down from their top-of-the-line SMMC20CLV.)
- Sample C - ranking 6.6 - MoFi MasterPhono, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 linear-tracking turntable, Bang & Olufsen MMC20CL cartridge from 1981.
Identical to 6 save for the cartridge.
- Sample G - ranking 7.2 - CH Precision P10 phono preamplifier, OMA3 turntable, SAT CF-12 tonearm, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL cartridge.
This recording came from the YouTube video, and is the more expensive of the two Tracking Angle setups...at around $600K.
I found these results extremely interesting. In general, people seemed to prefer the tube preamps to the solid state ones. Given the LP is cut quite hot, I'm guessing that there was a preference for the sound of the tubes at the margins, vs Solid State. The tube amps were all set to their lowest available gain levels for the high-output Moving Iron cartridges and appropriately for Moving Coil; the MasterPhono was set, using a test record, for the correct 0dB level at 1kHz.
The vintage Beogram turntable did remarkably well in the public rankings, despite its age, as did the vintage cartridge. In identical setups, the newer Soundsmith version ranked better...but it was close. Overall I thought all the B&O cartridges had a bit of a mid-bass boost, and, as mentioned above, are quite high output. Sample H was an attempt to keep the peak levels a bit lower and give things a tad more headroom.
Finally, the extremely expensive Tracking Angle combos didn't perform as well as expected with the pubic, despite their excellent reputations and reviewed performance. I'm not sure that means anything, since experts indicate they're some of the finest combinations of equipment ever made.
But, what it does show is that you don't necessarily need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a setup that you'll enjoy... and enjoyment, after all, is the point.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
