New toys: Parasound JC3 phono preamp & Lyra Delos cartridge

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The first thing I did with the boxes was drill the holes and mount the soldering posts and the RCA jack. The green wire you see in one picture is to connect the shield in the input wire to the box itself so that the aluminum box shields the contents from RF.





Next I added the input wire to the box. I was unhappy with the strain reliefs as they would have crimped the everloving snot out of the wire. I didn't want to do that so I drilled them out, allowing the wire to pass through, and used some glue instead to hold the wire in place. The strain reliefs became more like a gasket. I also ran the wire connections to the RCA jack. Extra observant Hoffmanites will notice the black wire on the input cable becomes blue. I had to spice an extension on it. Cut it too short! Oops.





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Now I'm ready to add the resistors. If you look carefully, you'll see that this box is a mirror image of the first one I showed you. The reason for that will become clear shortly.



Here are the two boxes, side by side. It's easy to see they are mirrors of each other.



I did have something I didn't like about the boxes. The nuts and studs for the soldering posts stick out the bottom, just asking to scratch stuff.



I also have a perfect place to put the attenuator on a shelf right by the JC3 but it means the boxes have to be stacked. I could solve both problems with a piece of scrap redwood I had laying around. I cut, stained and varnished a small piece.



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By using a little silicon cement, I could glue the wood between the boxes, having the two bottoms face each other. This both hid the studs and nuts and stacked the boxes. Now you see why mirror imaged them. The bottom box is upside down.



Felt feet, colored electrical tape on the plugs and writing on the box were the finishing touches.



Here is the attenuator on the shelf next to the JC3.



Don't sneer at that Monster Cable wire hooked up into the attenuator. It's a Reference 2 from the early 1990s, designed by Bruce Brisson before he left Monster to start MIT Cables. It was revolutionary at the time and sounds very sweet. In fact, it's a bit on the romantic side as wires go and has been a go-to wire for me for decades. You sometimes find them for cheap on Ebay because people don't know what they've got. If you do, buy it. You won't be sorry.

This brings up one last issue. I had to turn the Reference 2 cable around. It is directional, as are many of the cables we use nowadays. Like most of them, the shield is only hooked up at one end. This is normally the source end of the interconnect but that wouldn't work here. The shield of the Cardas input wire, which is connected to the aluminum box, runs to the JC3. The shield is not hooked up to the output jack of the attenuator. If I want to shield the wire running from the attenuator to my integrated amp, I had to flip it around so that the shield was connected to the Plinius. If this is confusing, imagine an interconnect with the shield attached at both ends but broken in the middle. It would still perfectly protect the cable from stray RF and is essentially what I have here.

So how does it sound? How is the realigned Delos cartridge? Does the attenuator solve my overload problem?

I'm not telling...yet. This was enough posting for one day.

 

Nice writeup. Thanks.

 

+1 Well done.

 

Thank you. You're welcome. It's the old stereo salesman in me.

 

Great thread! I have a Delos mounted up on a classic and experienced the same bright or brittle sound at first. For me the issue was alignment as I simply could not get it in with the VPI jig. Once I used a Custom Mint Best Protractor for my VPI and a great deal of patience setting it up to get it perfectly aligned and then I used my Fozgometer to set the azimuth is when the magic happened for me. It was night and day difference for my set up and I absolutely love my Delos. Congrats on your bench queen by the way!

 

There is nothing better than coming home after a long trip.

Let's go right to the top of the news: My high frequency problem is gone. It is no more. Success. Big yeah!

Whether that is because of the attenuator or the trip to Japan, I don't know and it will be a few days until I try to find out. That's because of a real surprise.

I have to break in this cartridge all over again.

While I immediately heard the high frequency problem had been solved, initially the cartridge was lifeless. I thought it might be set-up but during the third record I played, an RL cut of The Band, I could hear the cartridge breaking in before my ears. That pressing defines rock'n'roll deep bass and I heard the sound get bassier from the first groove to the last. The cartridge has only gotten better since then, extending its response in all directions. Dynamics, clarity, bass, depth, they are all improving. This won't take long, a few days at the most. No Tubular Bells this time through. It's now fun to play this cartridge. I'm having a great time listening to it evolve. It's starting to sound good. I will enjoy hearing where it ends up.

One thing is obvious. Lyra did more to my cartridge that just tweak it. There has been a major mechanical change. I'd like to find out what happened to it at the factory. Audioquest's head of customer service described the cartridge as repaired. What does that mean? Was my cartridge defective?

So I listen to music. Tough job. Right now I'm playing a live record by Oregon, In Performance. Side Three switches to Carnegie Hall. Wow. The sound is very powerful. This cartridge isn't breaking in as much as growing up, getting taller, bigger, faster and stronger. Meat is being added to its bones. I can already tell it will be a handsome, strapping lad.

 

I was hoping for some Delos pics.

 

Cool thread. Jonathan is a very good guy, informative, not defensive when questions come up. My experience, now somewhat dated, with Lyras is that they are extremely VTA sensitive and very tiny changes in arm height can make a huge difference in the sound of the cartridge. Obviously, as it breaks in, you have to revisit your settings for that reason.

 

Just from looking at the way the headshell screws are lined up in the headshell, I can see that the alignment is perfect for that cartridge. Good job.

M~

 

Great report - and a good job on the attenuators.

 

Very impressive!

I'm glad you got it all to work together!

 

The over hang in the last pic is shows the same as mine as well, where the previous pics show the cart more forward on the headshell. This cart as already mentioned by others on here is very picky with settings. You will know right away if some is off and I have found that as the temperature changes ( things are starting to warm up here ) so has the VTF so I check it monthly and then while I am at it just go ahead and check all other settings.
Enjoy the cart!

Jeff

 

It's only over the last few records that tone arm height has even made a difference. Yes, I had to get it roughly parallel with the record but the small changes were inaudible. I agree, Bill, that after the cartridge breaks in I'll reset everything.

Thank you, everyone, for the all too kind remarks. It's been a blast for me, too.

I can tell you one other thing which is a joy and that's a proper cartridge/tone arm match. The Koetsu Black I was using as a stand in was absolutely the wrong cartridge for the VPI arm. It needed a much heavier or damped tone arm. I tried playing a Best of Sam & Dave album on Atlantic. A combination of the record being out of round with a sharp warp caused the Koetsu to literally jump out of the groove. Having to move both outward and up quickly caused it to skip back at the beginning of the album. It wouldn't even play. Not only does the Delos/VPI combo track this record perfectly, it does it inaudibly. I can't hear the warp. Lovely. There is a real synergy between the Lyra Delos and the VPI tone arm.

 

hi res version

It's been a week and the cartridge is broken in. My stereo sounds magnificent. I am completely blown away with the Lyra Delos/Parasound JC3 combo when using my home built attenuator.

The Delos is the best cartridge I've owned in decades. My favorite cartridge ever was a Signet TK10 ML, a moving magnet I owned in the 1980s which just wowed me. That was 30 years ago and on a completely different system but I get the same visceral impact with the Delos. It moves me. I feel it. I'm not playing music. The music is playing me.

It's the midrange beauty of this cartridge which is so impressive. I have never heard a cartridge reveal the inner tones of an electric guitar quite like this one. Not only is it easy to hear differences between guitars, say a Gibson SG and a Fender Telecaster, but also more subtle qualities. I listened to the Grateful Dead from Europe '72 Vol. 2 and was floored by Garcia's tone on his Strat. I felt I was hearing Jerry define his guitar tone on this record. It's a coarser version of the sound he achieved on his later Alembic rigs but still, it's all there. I've been listening to Jerry Garcia's guitar since the early 1970s. I heard that guitar live over 100 times. Never have I heard Garcia's guitar better reproduced than with the Lyra Delos.

The Delos does everything else well. The bass is tight and goes down deep. The highs are smooth and extended. There is excellent depth, even at the far left/right edges of the soundstage. Of course, all of this could also be said of the JC3. I heard a great soundstage and bass with the Koetsu Black I was using as a fill-in. Its highs sucked but that may have been in part because of a tone arm/cartridge mismatch I had going on. High frequencies are glorious with Delos. I had a "live in my living room" moment the other night with a record which had bells and chimes. But it's how everything hangs together, the coherency of this cartridge, that is so impressive. Listening to Ralph Towner's first solo record, Trios/Solos from 1972, I am impressed with the totality of Towner's acoustic guitar. It helps that the album has that classic ECM sound, but it's all there. The soft pick of Ralph's fingers, the jangle of the strings, which then beat against each other as they ring through the studio. His guitar becomes a real, three dimensional object.

That all of this comes through should be totally credited to my home built attenuator. I removed the attenuator from the signal path for an album side and everything fell apart. The bass was mushy. There was no depth. The highs were harsh. Dynamics were constricted. My system sounded poor. I put the attenuator back in and everything was golden again.

I am completely happy with my sound right now and should leave well enough alone but that would be no fun. I'm all into fun. A question remains: how much does the attenuator negatively affect the tone? I know it has a lot of positive benefits but what does it do wrong? I have come up with a methodology that should allow me to listen to the Delos/JC3 combo with and without the attenuator and not have the sound fall apart. This test should reveal any negative impacts of the attenuator.

That's tonight's project.

 

Undoubtedly the finest series of audiophile records I own are my complete collection of the Sheffield Labs recordings.



You older audiophiles know these records but they are so out of fashion today, many younger Hoffmanites may never have heard of them.

These were a series of direct to disc recordings, where the music was mixed down straight to stereo and recorded right onto vinyl. No tape. Produced by Lincoln Mayorga and mastered by his business partner and childhood friend, Doug Sax, they were the go-to standard for sound quality in the 1970s and '80s. This may seem crazy to a hipster but back then we rarely read the dead wax on a record, just choosing to buy whatever was in the bins, and instead fretted over these sometimes musically questionable but always superb sounding albums.

To check out the attenuator, I need a recording that won't overload my Plinius preamp. I immediately thought of the Sheffield Labs records. One, they generally were mastered at a lower volume level. Doug Sax had no second chance. Everything was live. He had to master at a lower level to keep the peaks from clipping. Two, they are very dynamic. I knew I could find quieter cuts that would keep the levels down. Softer passages should not need the attenuator. Add the quality of the recordings, which would make any degradation caused by the attenuator totally apparent, and there was no second choice as to what to use to evaluate the sound of my attenuator. Sheffield Lab it is.

For my test I used the Harry James big band recording, King James Edition. Specifically, I played the last cut, "Blues Stay Away From Me." I listened to it with and without the attenuator in the signal path. There were differences. I heard a slight softening of the transient attack. It was noticeable on all the instruments, from Harry's trumpet to the piano and the drums. There was also a little reduction in depth and air. Some of the space was gone. The edges of the studio seemed less defined. The differences weren't great and with the attenuator in the circuit the result was still very musical but I could easily hear the difference.

I was afraid this would happen. When I decided to build the attenuator, I kept looking at the Vishay VAR series Z-foil resistors. They seemed to be the best. Everyone raved about them, especially over on DIYAudio.com. But they are expensive. $16 a piece expensive. Wowsah. I thought the Riken resistors I bought were pricey at $4 each. The Vishays would double the overall cost of my attenuator.

Guess who's ordering up twelve Vishay VAS resistors today?

I consider the attenuator project so far to be a rousing success. One, what I built proves the validity of my solution. It works very well. The basic design decisions I made are correct. Two, I deliberately built it so that it would be easy to change out the resistors. Three, I'm learning. When you consider the cost of education nowadays, the approximately $50 I spent on the Riken resistors is cheap. Actually, a more likely way for me to learn a lesson is from a kick in the balls. While I did feel that pain two months ago when I first hooked up the JC3 and the Delos, since then my journey has been groin injury free. In fact, it's been enlightening.

What more could I ask for?

Parts Connexion is in Canada and is a bit clunky in their billing and shipping policies but also very friendly. One caveat you should know about ordering from them is that they don't take returns. I will have to make sure the Vishays I buy are the correct ones. This is another reason I didn't order them the first time around. But by now, my situation the old joke: What's the difference between the way a pig and a chicken view breakfast?

The chicken contributes. The pig is committed.

 

You 're missing one though
The Moscow Sessions box set. It is one of my favorite Sheffield Labs' recordings.

 

I was under the impression that while this was produced and recorded by Doug and Lincoln, it wasn't a direct to disc recording. Am I wrong?

 

I only have one of those Sheffield Labs Direct to Disk recordings - the Thelma Houston. At the time, it was the only one that interested me. But it was the jewel in my collection for demonstrating what was possible from an LP record. Just spectacular.

By the way, Ric Schultz (Tweak Audio - EVS) who modified my XA777ES so long ago swears by "nude Vishays". Nude and damped - he claims. He is a very tweaky builder but has been doing it for a long time.

 

I am not sure. I don't have the set in front of me right now as I am at work, but I seem to remember that this might have been a two track analogue recording.
I searched on google but it gives me conflicting info.

 

That Larry McNeely Confederation is amazing if you like bluegrass (and I do!) - great sound and fantastic performance. I like it so much I want a backup

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you $192 in Vishay VAS Z-Foil metal foil resistors.



At this price, I just hope the Borg are wrong and that resistance is not futile.

These are tiny things.



I received the Vishay resistors on Friday, a day after I ordered them. That comment I made upthread about Parts Connexion's shipping and billing process being cumbersome? It's not the case when you call in the order and pay for the expedited shipping. It cost me $22 to have these travel by UPS from Ontario, Canada to Minnesota, USA in a day. That was both great service and an excellent value.

On Saturday I replaced the Riken resistors in my attenuator with the Vishays.



Immediately I was impressed on how the sound speeded up. Things were much faster than before. The difference was striking. Quick was the word of the day.

The tone was a little bright. I tried to imagine how a dozen resistors might needed to burn in. I failed. I mean, really, resistors need to run for a while to sound good? I've drunk enough audiophile Kool-Aid over the years to recognize that sometimes it's laced with psilocybin. It seems like I've just had some kind of mushroom and my mind is moving low. Instead, audiophile obsessions have caused me to play tricks on myself. My weak mind has often stretched the limits of my credibility, convincing me I was hearing things that weren't real. But burning in resistors? How foolish do I think I am?

Pretty damn foolish.

So I played my stereo all Sunday. By the end of the day, the bright high end had gone away and my stereo had never sounded better. It definitely seemed more dynamic than before, especially in the bass. I had some friends over Sunday afternoon just to play records. We pulled out the 25th anniversary remaster of Paul Simon's Graceland. It was like we'd never heard the songs before. Of course, we'd played them to death. It was just the record was all brand spankin' new again. On Saturday, I played the MFSL version of the Grateful Dead's In The Dark. For the first time I heard that Garcia's vocal in "West LA Fadeaway" was flanged. I've listened to that recording at least 100 times over the years. Never before was Garcia's vocal flanged. On Saturday it was. How did that happen?

Now that everything is working well, I can easily say the Delos/JC3 combo is one the most significant improvements I've ever made to any hi-fi I've owned.

Tonight I tried my Sheffield Labs evaluation procedure, taking the attenuator in and out of the system to hear what changes it makes. Playing both the Harry James song I used before and a classical guitar piece on Sheffield Lab 16, Italian Pleasures, the answer is practically zip. It very possibly could have no sonic signature at all now. The lack of transients I heard with the Riken resistors has disappeared. Maybe, just maybe, the image moves a little forward. Depth might be a hair less but the sound is also more present. Or maybe that difference wasn't there. I certainly would be guessing if you played the stereo for me and challenged me to tell you if the attenuator was in or out of the signal path.

I have at least one more post for this thread, detailing the final circuit, cost and parts list for the attenuator. That will wait for tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to engage in auditory hallucinations, letting my stereo take me to Wonderland. If anybody asks, tell them a hookah smokin' caterpillar has given me the call.

 

Something here is very Vishay...

 

Now you just have to hope you don't get the Duelund CAST or Silver/Carbon bug. Could cost quite a bit more than $192.

"Standard sizes 0,47 ohm - 50 ohm other values available on request."

http://www.duelundaudio.com/Resistors.asp