Graham Slee Accession phono stage(m.m)

I have used a Slee Gold Era V for a couple of years now,and have been more than satisfied with the performance of said.
I have been offered(from a very reliable source) a barely run in Accession at a sensible and to me affordable cost.
All the on line reviews I have read seem positive, but are there any good folk here with "hands on" experience of this phono stage?

 

It’s the best phono preamp that Graham Slee has ever made, bar none AFAIC. It’s also an improvement over the Revelation of course. However, your Era Gold V is still also very good in comparison.

I sold my own Revelation M in favor of an Accession late last year and have no regrets at all. I alternate it with a Simaudio Moon 310LP.

 

Love my Reflex M. The volume knob would be nice if you run a vinyl only rig.

 

So 310LP is better than Accession? I saw people went the other way around.

 

I have both, and the Accession is a noticeable improvement over the Gold. This says a lot since the Era-Gold is a damn nice phonostage.

 

No. The Accession I have is the “M” version - for moving magnet (and high output MC and MI) cartridges. When I’m running a Dynavector DV XX2 MKII (low output MC) in my Linn LP12, the 310LP is a perfect match to my ears for that MC cartridge (and better to my ears than the Accession C which I tries for a week). But, when I’m running a Goldring 2500 on the Linn, the Accession M is a better choice (I tried the 310LP with the Goldring and to my ears the Accession M was clearly a better and superb match.

The other problem is that while Moon 310LP is very versatile, it has to be opened up to get at the jumpers. No external switches. It’s a phono preamp designed to set & forget. Opening it up every few weeks when I change cartridges means disconnection from the system, removing the case, reconnection, etc. The way I see it, that’s hard on cables, increases the possibility of external scratches on case, and it’s a PITA. Besides that - and more important - the combo of the DV XX2 MKII and the 310LP is magical. The Accession is connected to the same system (Yamaha A-S2100, Linn LP12, TEAC ND-505, Falcon Acoustics LA3/5A and Totem Signature One).

Similarly, the combo of the Goldring 2500 and the Accession M is one the best MM setups I’ve ever heard in my Den or anywhere else. Magical again.

I hate handling cables. Period. The less often that interconnects are connected and disconnected, the quieter the system and more hassle-free the system. Since the early ‘70s when I first started seriously mucking around with this stuff, I’ve traced more system noise problems in my own systems and those of friends, colleagues and clients to over-handled interconnects and bad ground designs than all other causes out together. That applies to interconnects at all price points from Monoprice specials all the way up to multi-thousand dollar Nordost and Siltech firehoses and everything in between. I digress, sorry, but that’s yet another reason to find, for example, a great phono preamp/MM cartridge match and stick with it religiously and to the exclusion of all competing enticements until such time as (e.g., for an MC cart) a second combo can be afforded.

 

@frimleygreener , how long is this "deal" available? If it is not urgent to jump on the deal, you could try doing an in-home trial direct through GS and compare directly to your EGV.

If it is urgent, I'd say buy it. Worse case if you don't like you sell it and lose very little other than time. I'd imagine it would sell very quickly if it came to that.

 

Thanks all..I do have a trial unit cominjg via the Graham Slee loan programme....so both options are open!

 

Agitator..that is exactly the conditions that apply at home....going "m.c" would involve a near total system rebuild( I tried a Sumiko Blue Point Special,admitedly high gain) and was less than impressed compared to my Goldring G1042 mm, so have stuck with m.m and merely trying to take that format to maximum my budget will stretch to

 

I am very happy with mine. I can’t see possibly feeling a need to look for another phono stage unless I ever decide to go to MC or all-tube (neither of which am I considering in the near future). Even going MC, I may feel inclined to either use the Accession with a SUT or try the MC version of the Accession. I just can’t find any faults in the Accession.

 

I was the very first customer for the Accession prior to its launch & several years later I can still find no fault. Graham Slee actually tried to sell it to me at a considerably lower price after I had borrowed it for a couple of weeks and didn't want to return it - I had to talk him UP, such was the impression it made on me (still does)! Even at current retail, it has to be one of the great analogue audio bargains.

This product is completely unique & patented in the way it "EQ's" the cartridge first & then the record's contribution secondly.

It is absolutely neutral sounding, handles transients extremely well and in common with the other Slee phono stages I have owned (Era Gold/Reflex M) it seems to suppress background noise/pops/clicks and put them into a different plane to the music, almost as if out of phase. In my system, percussion also takes on a very silky, sophisticated and alluring 'shimmer'... almost electrostatic in its transparency.

The OP mentions the Goldring 1042 & I regularly use the Accession with an AN IQ3, Roksan Corus Black or Goldring cartridge - the 1042 stylus fits them all and is a superb match.

 

I have used my Accession M with a couple of different step-up transformers when experimenting with a variety of low-output MC cartridges. The only problem with SUT experiments is that they’re a whole new money pit and another layer of electronics to learn for those not already familiar with them.

I think there is no way to go wrong with Goldring MM cartridges. My 2500 is astonishingly good. I’ve heard the 1042 as well - also wonderful when precisely set up.

 

Another fan of the Accession MM. I tried a Reflex M through the loaner program and was very impressed with its performance. At that time the Accession was just coming on the market so I asked Graham (via email) if I could expect an appreciable improvement over the Reflex. Not surprisingly, the answer was yes. Given how much I was enjoying the Reflex, I went ahead and ordered the Accession. That turned out to be a good decision. The Reflex had bettered my Bryston BP 25 built in phono stage by quite a bit, but the Accession was a significant step up from the excellent Reflex. More of everything. Dynamics, width and depth of sound stage, and a more detailed presentation in general. I have no plan to go to MC cartridges, so the Accession is my end game phono stage.

 

I bit the bullet and bought an Accession. All plumbed in and ready to go.....but...it has a "capacitance loading" switch assembly, something I have never encountered before.
The recommendations from Graham Slee are that this capacitance should be set at "from 75 to 100 pf subtracted from the cartridge manufacturers stated capacitance to allow for tone arm wire and cable wire capacitance".
Two little problems: despite a good few on line searches I cannot find anywhere the "capacitance" of a Rega Exact m.m cartridge. Would running the Accession with no capacitance loading be detrimental to the performance of the unit?
Last but not least.....what damn record do I cue up first?
Thanks in advance for any pointers!

 

Congrats, and welcome to the club!

Rega’s refusal to ever publish any specs may make this slightly frustrating, but the good news is you can play with this setting and just see what sounds best to you. I think the most common setting is going to be 100pF. The Accession manual kind of explains what effect the different capacitance options will have on the sound, so I would (and have) just use that as a guide. You may or may not find it makes a noticeable difference, depending on how sensitive the cartridge is to capacitance. You may also find some help on the Graham Slee forum, maybe somebody there has used it with a Rega MM (Exact or otherwise) cartridge?

As for first record, just the first thing that comes to mind looking at your profile, if you have a good copy of Strange Days and are in the mood for it, I think that album shows off some of what the Accession can do.

 

Rega's own Fono moving magnet phono pre has input loading of 100pF and they presumably optimise it to work with their own cartridges, so I'd assume that your new Slee Accession should be set at 100pF too. Happy listening!

 

Thanks....will go for a 100pF for the debut disc this evening....and report back

 

I have used a wide variety of MM carts with the Accession, including (for a time) on an RP6 using Regas fixed wiring. In almost every case where I played around with loadings I returned to 100pf as sounding most natural.

These days it's paired with a Technics SL1200G/AN IQ3 using 0.6m of Graham Slee CuSat interconnect (having only 55pf capacitance itself). At 100pf this sounds damn near perfect!

(I've never been a fan of Rega cartridges so can't comment on those).

 

Had a small window to grab my "first listen" last night...I set the Accession to 100 pf....,British and flat. M y listening window was limited to about 45 minutes..first on the turntable the half speed Abbey Road remaster of Blind Faith and "Can't find my way home"...then Van Morrison's "Sweet thing", Weather Reports "Black Market" from the album of the same name, and "I see you" from the debut album by Yes.
Not given to hyperbole,but if I had to apply an adjective it would be "astonishing".

 

I am curious about your decision to set it to British and flat. Did you receive the manual along with the Accession, which explains the setting options? I ask because, for the records you listed, I would expect the ideal setting to be EQ and RIAA (both switches all the way down). By setting it to flat, you are bypassing the correction curve, and so not even applying the British curve, but I would assume all the records you listed were mastered using the RIAA curve. My understanding is “flat” would be used if you are somehow applying your own RIAA correction, and the “British” and “American” curves are for pre-RIAA masters.

 

I t was late.... I will check again when I get home....I thought I had it set to the Slee recommendations....perhaps not...but I recall when I selected "eq" it seemed far too bass heavy, and toggling the switch to "flat" seemed to bring it alive.....more work needed obviously with a clear head and better reading of the destructions!

 

I always use RIAA (only changed settings for a few very old Blues pressings)

 

I think on reflection I must have selected RIAA....surely?

 

I did....both switches "down"...not going doolally...looking forward to some critical listening this coming evening!

 

Yep, think software based RIAA for a needledrop.