If you check out the samples I posted at the start of this thread, The Doors - The End in particular, you’ll hear what it can do, it’s a marvel!
The Sugarcube is remarkable. There are samples on the Sugarcube thread (I think maybe DigMyGroove meant to link to them?) and many samples on Youtube. As it happens, I don't have any beat up records! Which in a way, because most of mine are excellent/mint, makes the odd pop even more annoying. I would say it has transformed my enjoyment of listening to records since I got it. I love it. There is a slight problem in that some records trigger a little fault that causes the Sugarcube itself to actually add a clicking sound, which requires the device to be rebooted. I don't think that affects the latest models though.
Thanks for that. The 'crackle' is definitely reduced. Wonder how it would cope with one-off pops, clicks and scratches?
But you get a lot more low frequency background noise instead! Do you prefer that over the 'crackle' ? I don't.
Nope. They're labeled correctly. I suspect that I goofed by not using the Shure stylus brush before recording the first clip ('with magic'). Possibly increasing the low-level noise a bit on that clip relative to the following 'sans magic' clip.
I recently got a new turntable. EAT C sharp. It was packaged with a EAT cartridge which is essentially an Ortophon black quintet. A low output MC. .3mV. When I first set it up, the gain was still set on the Puffin for the previous cartridge. I could barely hear it. My first thought was, rut row, what did I do wrong. Then I remembered the gain. I just kept stepping up the Puffin until the cartridge really popped. Tried slightly hirer. No too much. Settled on 64db. The whole process took a couple of minutes. The ability to use a low output cartridge without worry about the need to use a step up transformer is a huge plus. Once again the Puffin impressed me.
I shot a video recording of a particularly rough condition record that I had. The Puffin actually graded it an F, but with the magic setting turned on, it sounds quite playable. Obviously my mediocre phone recording compressed to youtube doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea. The noise is dramatically removed, and the dynamics are mostly intact. Hopefully, they don't take the video down.
This preamp is excellent. The magic setting works really well. I am pretty amazed by it every time I use it. I really love my setup now.
I'm still waiting on my back-ordered TT, so I brought the Puffin out into the living room to swap with the Bellari VP129 I have out there with my wife's Dad's old TT. Does anyone have recommended settings for an old Pickering XV-15 cartridge? The stylus is a "D-II-S" clone that I'm pretty sure I got from KAB. Starting with default... Thanks!
As soon as I started to flash the new firmware I realized noooo I forgot to write down my settings. Doh
this grading feature is so much fun to play with. first test was with my RL cut LZ2 that i bought as vg+ and visually is NM but has some slight crackle which most of these will have the puffin grades it at vg- so this is really strict on its gradings based on crackle. Now the fun of giving it an ultrasonic bath and see if it makes a difference since this was originally just vacuum cleaned on a vpi This might be super useful to remove subjectivity from grading as it's measuring the record digitally.
I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on a Puffin. I already have two nice phono stages (Jasmine LP2.0SE and Graham Slee Reflex M). If I get the Puffin, I'll eventually compare it to my current phono stages, but I'm thinking of using only for its EQ and click/pop removal features on recordings and LPs that need it. For recordings that don't need it, I'd just as soon not have another device in the signal path. Thinking it through, I think if I connect it as a "tape recorder" in one of my preamp tape loops, I can selectively use it only as needed with the tape monitor function. Anyone see any flaws in my thinking?
Upgraded to the puffin after my 651p shorted on me last week. Was going to upgrade to the TubeBox DS, but at the last minute took a plunge on the puffin. WOW! Already loving it after making slight tweaks on the dial. I can picture countless hours enjoying records with this thing. Highly recommend.
My preferences are different than Shannon's. I don't hear any effect with the room adjustment settings, and I actually miss some musical bass with the new derumble on, so I set that off. I also set my low to 20Hz instead of 25. I suspect Shannon may have a slightly worn or rumbly table setup. Thinking of doing the coax mod, so I can send through Modi multibit, although his DAC is pretty good.
I just ordered a Puffin with Coax upgrade. I have been unhappy with my Ortofon 2M Black and Lounge combo with my high sensitive speakers. I have tried to reduce gain with attenuators, but the gain and surface noise is still too high for my taste so have just focused on my digital chain over the past couple years where I can control gain much easier via Oppo. Hopefully this will reinvigorate my turntable enjoyment. Having a wealth of settings to tinker with thrills me to know end.
So just ordered the Puffin. Very excited about it. Running a Phono Box Project now for a while, started to upgrade my set up recently. Changed my element to a 2M blue and got my dad's old KEF iQ3 speakers. Very curious how much better the Puffing is going to be. What can i expect????
I ordered one too and mine will arrive tomorrow. Initially, I will be using it in the tape loop as an optional EQ, pop/click remover, CD pre-emphasis corrector, and just to improve the sound of subpar recordings. Eventually, if I find myself not using it so much on CD’s or for streaming, I may try it as the phono preamp itself, but I like the idea of having a pure analog chain for well recorded LPs, as well as the option to use it to improve more than just vinyl.
I've had my Puffin for a little over 24hrs and probably put 3-4 hours on it of active listening. As mentioned in the last post, I'm using this in the tape loop as a sound enhancer, not as a phono stage. First thing I wanted to test was whether the A->D and D-> process had an effect on the sound by itself, so I set it flat (Line In, 0db gain, no EQ effects active at all) so the DSP wasn't doing anything. I used a well recorded LP (Music Matters: Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue). At first, I thought I detected a <5% loss of some air/dimension, but after trying to test myself and see whether I could tell whether it was in the loop or out (using the tape monitor button to bring it in or take it out), I couldn't reliably tell, so that tells me it's essentially transparent to me sonically at moderate volumes. The feature I was really curious about was the new Magic click/pop suppressor. It works really well! I tried one LP that is likely just dirty and has a lot of small crackles during the lead-in and first part of the first track, a first pressing of Bill Evans Sunday at the Village Vanguard that has frequent clicks/pops of various size due to age, and a Monk LP that had some serious scratches across a couple of tracks. For the light stuff, it takes it out almost entirely. For the heavier/severe stuff, it seems to take out some of it and what it doesn't take out, it suppresses in volume and harshness by 70-80+%. So you hear that it's there, but it's not bothersome. For an add-on feature not in the scope of the original feature set, it's actually really impressive. I do feel that it has some small effect on the sound - like the processed result isn't quite as dynamic, with a slight veil/polishing of the edges. But if given the choice to hear a largely noise free slightly less dynamic version instead of a noisy/distracting more dynamic version, I'd choose the former for sure. For the really serious stuff, even though it doesn't take out everything, at some point you wonder whether you should play it anyway due to possible negative effects on your stylus. But if you're willing to play it, it will be much much more tolerable. I also played with the Tilt and Air features for the purpose of livening up duller sounding records. The two I used were the Mofi SACD of the Pretenders S/T album, which has always been a disappointment to me. Very dead sounding at moderate volumes and seems like it's rolled off at the top. Not quite as bad, but also disappointing to me was the redbook CD of Norah Jones Day Breaks album. At first I used Tilt only at the +2 level, then played around with adding some additional high end with the Air set at +2. It definitely livened both albums up and improved the sound. On Day Breaks, it went from vocals and percussion being buried in the mix to them being significantly more detailed and able to be appreciated for the subtleties in the performance. My preamp is a Mac C35, which has a five-band EQ, as well as variable loudness. I like variable loudness a lot for adding some warmth/meat to thinner sounding recordings without having to tweak individual EQ bands. But you can't really go in the opposite direction with that and help dead recordings sound more lively. Using some combination of the higher frequency EQ knobs, I perhaps could have livened up the recordings similarly, but I'm not yet sure whether I could achieve the same result. Even if I could, it's easier to remember that a certain album requires a +2 Tilt to optimize vs remembering that I need to be at 2 o'clock on the 1500hz knob and 3 o'clock on the 10kHz knob. I also have a couple of old CDs that have pre-emphasis, but the flags aren't in the typical places and I don't have a CD player that will detect and de-emphasize them properly, so they sound thin and tinny with over-emphasized high frequencies. I tried the custom EQ settings that Shannon Parks suggested and that definitely took away that effect. Likely because I'm used to hearing them so tinny/thin, the custom EQ actually made them sound a bit darker than I thought was ideal, but I backed off on the rolloff control and it didn't sound as dark. I still have a lot more playing with this to do, but if it does nothing more for me that what I've experienced in the first 3-4 hours, I'd consider it a purchase that was very well worth the price. The vast majority of my music collection is in really good condition and is mastered reasonably well, but it's great to be able to address the 5-10% that needs help or indulge my "inner mastering engineer" desires when I feel like tweaking things. At some point, I'll try to get together with a friend and use the Puffin as a phono preamp and compare it against some other products. Between us, we have a few options (Clearaudio Nano, Graham Slee Reflex M, a couple of Jasmine models), but we still have to figure out whether we can find a test configuration that enables us to switch phono stages in real time vs having to take out one and install another. And wait for this virus thing to blow over.
Very nice review. I'm curious, if you get a chance, and are able to use it as a phono pre, if you find the Magic behavior the same? I would expect it would be, but just curious.
It’ll be awhile and likely in the context of a shootout with other phono preamps, but when I do this, I will update. I do think it’ll be the same since I couldn’t detect any difference (between Puffin with no processing and no Puffin) in the tape loop. But happy to update when I do!
First time posting, please be gentle I bought a Puffin about a week ago due to the endless tweaking possibilities and the spdif output. I was lucky getting hold of an almost unused Puffin second hand and the spdif modification was straight forward. I also added a bit of bitumen to the chassis and some o-rings to decouple the circuit board from the chassis. The measured noise floor was lowered a bit, so hopefully the tweak doesn't hurt the performance. My main system consists of Kii Three with Control and a Technics SL1000 mk2 with an EPA 100 mk2 tonearm. I've been testing the Puffin with a 2M Black. The Kii Control has, amongst others, a coaxial input, the speakers balanced inputs. The speakers are active with DSP wizardry included, so the purist analogue signal path isn't possible. Straight out of the box the Puffin sounds impressive. It's easily on par with my former riaa, the ASR Mini Basis Mk2, just with less background noise. I'm looking forward to comparing it to my newly acquired Gold Note PH-10 with external PSU. Hopefully it's David against Goliath all over again, could save me a lot of money. I will also add an Audio Technica Signet MK112E to my setup, trying out the MC capabilities of both of them. I'll report back when the testing is done.
Mine arrived on Saturday and have been playing with it since. It is a ton of fun, and I think for casual listening, it makes my LPs sound cleaner. When I first got it, I did a comparison with my Lounge. The Lounge has more presence and those small queues and airiness are something I haven't been able to achieve with the Puffin yet. I don’t know if it is because running it DSP loses those queues and airiness (like Mr. Morin states) or if I just need to dial it in more. My setup is a Pro-Ject 1Xpression III with Ortofon 2M Black, short Morrow PH-2 to preamp, longer Morrow MA-1 from preamp to Parasound Halo Integrated then to Tekton Double Impact speakers. While I have played many LPs over these couple days, My main A/B test track is the following: David Bowie - "Width Of a Circle" on Man Who Sold the World (US RCA AFL1-4816 black label) - This is my go-to torture track due to the heavy bass on the intro right before he starts singing. It can get muddy really quick where you can’t hear the plucks. The Puffin did good on this, but there wasn’t as much depth as on the Lounge. Also, the room-filling acoustic “shimmer” about 4:15 in (right before the tape damage) was absent going through the Puffin. The features on this things are spot on cool. These are some of the features I have relied on thus far: - Magic and Grade: I always keep it on. This is one of the main draws for me. It makes every LP I own sound so good and clean. @captouch is spot on in his review on the level of clean this makes it, but for some albums it seems to adapt in favor of sounding great! My RL LZII got a grade of D+, and it did a pretty good job of cleaning it up. I will still go for the Diament CD on this title. - Mode: The mono feature is really great! You can select it to fold the two groove walls or choose the right or left--depending on the wall's condition. I haven't tried to choose which groove wall I want, but I have a Streisand S/T mono that has a bad groove wall so look forward to trying it out. For my Art Blakey - Drum Suite (CL 1002 6-eye mono), it sounded unbelievable even though the Puffin graded it a D- for side A and a C+ for side B. Absolutely incredible! This was a $1 Goodwill score and will be in frequent rotation now. Again, for casual listening, I adore this feature. I think every used record store and DJ should own one of these. - Volume: My Tekton DIs are rated 98.8db and very sensitive to everything upstream. Paired with the Parasound, it can get loud real quick. My digital chain is managed by the adjustable volume on the DAC (Oppo-205), but I really wanted something to manage my analog chain. I can keep the Puffin at 100%, but the manual also suggests keeping it at 50% then dialing it in when needed. Over the past three days, I found that 50% is ideal. - Gain: I initially kept this between 36db and 40db and relied on the Volume setting because I felt it was less detrimental to the sound. But as of right now, I have put the Lounge back in as preamp and use the Puffin in line to take advantage of its DSP features. Therefore gain is set at -4db. Tomorrow I will be able to split the line out of the Lounge and A/B the sound with the Puffin in the chain and out. Hopefully I will be able to get that air back. Right now I am too busy listening to wreckids to care about A/B'ing. I will report back once I am able A/B the Lounge with/without the Puffin in the chain to see if I can retrieve that air. Perhaps I will be able to use the EQ features to retrieve it. But right now, I am super glad I made the purchase! I look forward to buying one for my son who is exclusively vinyl and doesn't practice good LP hygiene. This will keep the joy for him without me being a harping father on him cleaning his LPs! I hope this helps fellow members who are living vicariously through these posts (like I did before buying one). Cheers!
You know what would be cool? Every time you grade an LP side (click “go!”), it adds a counter in a separate feature. These collect and you can count how many LP sides you have played so that you can monitor stylus wear!
