Anybody see this.... True Point Audio (true-point.audio) The Midas Plus 250VA Toridal Transformer for their PSU's. Thoughts.....?
It seems to use the Never Connected approach that Trichord Research pioneered first in their Delphini Phono Stage, which was itself a collaboration with Michell. I have wondered in the past why they did not use this on PSUs. If I recall correctly Trichords NC PSUs for their current line-up of Phono Stages go for between £500 and £800. That might be a useful benchmark.
Yikes one thing I did notice on the updated Michell website is the price increases! HR upto £700, That was around £500 for however long. Orbe Clamp up from £100(ish) to £150. Sign of the times. Springs are interesting but not quite the update I was expecting. Not sure I'd ever go back to the springs from the pylons now.
The HR PSU was £585 when I bought it in January 2020 and the Orbe Spindle upgrade was £125 when I bought it in 2019. Prices do go up, the relive amount simply depends on when you set the baseline!
The price of the coated springs £100 seems a bit of a rip off to be honest. I know the Hi-Fi world is a rip off in general but I thought they'd be around £50 at most. What is annoying is the price of vinyl. Not new pressings which I understand may be more costly to produce and transport with the current high oil prices etc, but Amazon have albums on sale which were around £10-£15 a few years ago being sold for £30/£40 now. Albums they must have had in stock on their shelves for years and years. I've cut down on buying new vinyl a lot now. I'm not paying £25/£30 for a single album especially when it's probably not a great pressing.
I bought a Tom Evans PSU for the Gyrodec years ago. Made a massive difference. I bought it based on one review on audioasylum where the person said he found it maintained the HF sparkle and air he liked, but which he felt the HR supply reduced somewhat. I took a chance and I've been very happy with it but have never compared it to the Michell version.
Fact of the matter is Michell have kept their prices low for ages- however we are now entering the post Michell world of new products coming on line..... agree, the prices are creeping up pretty fast but it is the world now. @MickJ7 That TE PSU sounds interesting- could you tell us more about it?
I confess that I am intrigued by the idea that £100 for the springs is too much, especially considering the pricing of Pete's Pylons. IIRC when the last spring upgrade was released in the late-1990s/early-2000s they were about £50, given the passage of time and the rampant HiFi inflation of the last few years, £100 actually sounds quite reasonable to me. (For clarity, I also do not really see Pete's Pylons as being overpriced, it is what it is.)
This is true but a few months ago the HR was circa £550 on average. To suddenly go to £700 is quite the jump it's at least 30%. It don't blame them for putting prices up I'm just surprised at them when you look in percentage terms it is a steep increase. This is the problem when firms keep pricing low for too long and then have to do a substantial increase. Been after the Clamp and VTA adjusters a while, managed to pick them up at the old pricing at the last few places that had not gone up, thanks to this thread alerting me to it.
TBF, and as I wrote, the HR PSU was £585 when I bought mine in January 2020 direct from Michell (I checked just now). This makes their first price rise in aeons just less than 20% for the HT PSU. The increase from £125 to £150 for the Orbe clamp kit is just under 17%. If you could find it at £550 then you were looking harder than I was and any slight discount was on the part of the seller not the manufacturer. IMO the price rises simply make Michell kit slightly less of a bargain than it was pre-price rises and I will most certainly not castigate a company for trying to keep their prices low for as long as possible.
They come in a nice box which must add to cost and are still quite a bit cheaper than the alternatives. Half the price of an AP UHQR 45 rpm pressing at present. Everything is relative and everything in the audiophile and hi-fi field has been overpriced for some years now. An Orbe is round £900 more than I paid over 5 years ago.
Yeah I understand what you're saying but still seems a bit steep. An AP UHQR is probably a piece of art and quite rare, and likely to go up in value but I get your point.
Which arm? If I can remember where it is I do have a Rega board I could measure or scan for you, the Rega and SME boards are by far the most common.
And Michell do offer Rega, Linn, SME, Moerch arm plates for a not-unreasonable price. Non-standard patterns are obviously a bit more.
As far as I know Michell will still make any arm board you want, I assumed the request for measurements might be related to experimenting with other materials as like you say their prices are very reasonable, especially compared to how much some other companies charge for a lesser board, though US pricing may be higher due to distributor margins.
Would you please give me Rega armboard sizes? I want to make armboard for Saec 407 and it seems most suitable is Rega board. The problem is that currently I do not have Gyro, just bought it and it's still on the way.
BTW the SAEC 407 weight without shell is 700 grams as far as I know we should keep armbase + tonearm equal 1 kg. So this armabase should be 300 grams. How important is it? What error is allowed?
I believe that Michell make each arm board a different weight so that the board and arm combined weigh the same, or close to regardless of arm employed and the deck remains balanced, you will need the weight of the arm board as well, this is why you see metal weights inserted into acrylic boards for Michell. I packed everything away while my amps were off getting serviced/repaired and haven't put everything back yet, but as long as the Rega board is where I think I should be able to find it this week.
The belt on my Gyro SE went from less than optimal to unusable almost overnight, mainly, because I was in a headspace which said make do, don't fuss and get on with it. That was the result of getting fed up with the vinyl section of my system after a good few years of trouble free listening, which has happened as the result of not being happy with the replacements for my defunct Sumiko Evo3 BP. Anyway, I'm based in Italy, but could not get hold of a belt locally. Tried the importer in Milan, said he did not have any and did not hold out hope of getting any in any time soon. Basically said I was flogging a dead horse. Nice guy, sureal conversation. What, no belt, no Gyro? Trying online proved his point. Tough going, mostly sold out everywhere, even in the UK, tried Analogue Seduction, same story. Finally bought one from a seller in Germany. Fiasco. Can't be bothered blaming and shaming, but a month, excuses about delays due to illness, the blooming thing arrives ' cept it is the wrong one. Too thick, too tight and won't keep to 33. I would have done without the third. Bit embarrassed really, but gave Michell a ring and to get to the point, spoke to Julie who said that yes there was a problem, but she would try to sort me out. That was about a week ago, so fingers crossed the belt arrives soon by registered post. Anyway, thought I would pass the experience on and say maybe it is worth having a spare tucked away. Crazy to think of everything brought to a halt for a 30 Euros worth of rubber. The thing is the break from the Gyro has left me less depressed about the Cartridge situation, and I have spent the time with Tidal, CDs and my trusty Rega P3. The coming holidays will be a chance to hopefully sort something out
