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@tryitfirst Great job and thank you for your feedback on the upgrade. I've received a few oscillators from DigiKey and a skillful friend has kindly offered to help me with the modification. Fingers crossed, hopefully we won't kill the Puffin trying to upgrade it.
Shannon has announced he is working on a cartridge hours tracker for next year's update. He works tirelessly improving this gem, and the beauty is most improvements can be acquired through a simple firmware update!
I have a general question for anyone who can answer? I was thinking about the above mentioned cartridge tracker, and was wondering if most of you have your puffin plugged into an "always on" power outlet. Mine is currently plugged into a switched outlet on a power center. Would this not allow me track my cartridge hours? Due to loss of the power source.
From his Facebook page: "Several folks have requested a cartridge hours tracker. So I'm working on a simple-to-use stopwatch function for next year's update that only logs time when playing music. Should be a super accurate method to track stylus wear." Additionally, a user saves their settings to non-volatile flash memory which, I would assume, is where the hours tracked would be stored.
An hours logger would be great. It needs two kinds of logbook time: time spent playing music and time spent sitting in the outro groove playing 'glitch...glitch...glitch'. I suspect the wear from these two modes is different, the outro being worse as the angle/contact points don't vary.
My old setup was an all analog preamp with an outboard analog phono preamp (Musical Surroundings Nova II). My new NAD M12 (main preamp) turns everything into digital. I am thinking about going with a Puffin since it is already digital. Would it be a step back going from the Nova II to a Puffin?
You can purchase a Puffin via Amazon with a no-questions-asked 30-day return window. I wrote with Shannon Parks about his Puffin months ago, and he recommended that I do so. He told me, “I bet you won’t want to return it.” He was right. Good luck, Bill
That Musical Surroundings Nova II is a great phono preamp. I'd be impressed if the Puffin sounds anywhere near as good. (Of course the Puffin also adds all those digital features, including click removal.)
The click removal feature (Magic) is incredible. I’ve clicked it on and off dozens and dozens of times while listening on headphones. The clicks and surface noise almost entirely disappear, with no audible difference in music quality. It is truly awesome.
I'll second that. It is very difficult, if not impossible to discern whether the click-removing 'magic' filter is on, and if you have some less than well kept records it makes a very fair fist of removing a lot of the most irritating noise. Generally I keep it off, but for some records it's a godsend.
I think I am going to sell the Nova II and go with the Puffin (Toslink/optical out). I like the idea of being able to adjust and tinker. At least I think I do.
I just plugged the Puffin into a Fisher 400 today. The solid-state agility, muscle, and DSP flexibility powering through the holographic all-tube receiver is simply the best of both worlds!
I'm the proud owner of a Puffin ($550) . Before this i was using a simple Project pre amp. As i'm spending time on the upgrade trail i was wondering how anybody would compare the Puffin to a: Lounge LCR III Gold ($720) Parasound JC3 Jr ($1500, second hand) Croft RIAA ($700) What would a big step up from the Puffin be with a budget of around a 1000 bucks.
I'm using a £2k Linn Uphorik and it is not a big step up from the Puffin. I preferred Uphorik over a Brinkmann Fein and an Esoteric E-03. You have to spend serious money to beat a Puffin.
I ordered a Puffin via Amazon with the help of a gift card. I’m looking forward to trying it out and grading my LPs.
I'm still interested in hearing some comparisons with phono's around $750. So Puffin compared to a: iFi Phono 2/3 Graham Slee Reflex/Golden Era Jolida Project Tube Box Arcam rPhono Lehmann Audio Black Cube Will pick up a demo Croft RIAA tomorrow and will write down my experience.
Using the Grade feature on Beck’s Odelay is funny. Beck puts a lot of noise on some tracks (like side 2’s “Minus”), and Puffin can’t help but pick up on it and lower the grade (momentarily, since the rest of the track is “clean.”). Of all the features, I mess around with Grade regularly. What else would I do after I’ve dialed in preferred settings? I suppose I could just listen to music, but Grade is just too much fun.
Look what’s presumably coming to the Puffin with the next firmware upgrade... A speed accuracy gauge!! Stay tuned!!
