 |
|
|
To start our review, we removed the previously mentioned Stick from the phono interconnect and connected the Phono Booster with the included wire that has a banana plug on one end and a small spade on the other. This went to the signal ground of the phono amp to which the ground lead of the turntable connected already. On the Trafomatic, this ground post is a pretty large affair and the small spade of the cable can not be placed over its centre. That small spade was better off with a small chassis screw. So the Phono Booster cable got connected but not plugged in yet. First we listened in this disconnected way to the Feickert turntable and Trafomatic phono preamp into our Audio Note Meishu running WE 300B tubes driving a pair of Bastanis Sagarmatha Duo open baffle loudspeakers. A pair of Abacus 60-120 Dolifet monos came off the Meishu's pre-out to drove a pair of Bastanis 2 x 18” subwoofers. These Bastanis speakers are configured as dipole for all 5 drivers per side.
|
 |
Larry Carlton with Discovery was the opener of the listening session. This is a very transparent clean production and a bit on the edge of (too) smooth jazz GRP style. Next was Jan Akkerman with Claus Ogermann and large orchestra on Aranjuez followed by Leonard Cohen You Want it Darker. When we had a nice impression of the sound of this configuration, we put the cable into the Phono Booster and started playing the same records again. Some two minutes into the first track of the Carlton release, the Booster was notably kicking in. Already an open and clean recording, the openness was further enhanced while the rough edges on the high transients of the drums were gone. Especially on the tearjerker Her Favorite Song where Larry plays an acoustic guitar through a Roland Midi Converter, the glissandos were less metallic and lighter on the ear. On the 1978 Akkerman recording, the orchestra had a much more realistic size, not so much in width but depth. Though the pressing of the final recording of the late Canadian bard is not his best, it too gained in quality with the Booster cleaning up things on the phono ground.
|
|
|
|
|
A much better recording and pressing is by another Cohen—Avishai—with From Darkness (how's that for coincidence?). Here the master bassist's trio seemed to better timed between each other. Previously with this album, we noticed at times a wandering off where things got blurry. Now with the little Dutch box in place, the trio sounded more alert and as listeners, we felt less distracted from the music beause the timing was better.
|
 |
Once again we had to give credit to the creative brains at Akiko for creating yet another audio accessory that matters. Cleaning up the ground on sensitive equipment that must detect very small voltage differences like in a phono stage proved to be important. These signal voltages are magnitudes smaller than the power voltages of the same phono stage. After separating signal ground and chassis ground from power ground, cleaning up the signal ground improved the sound quality notably. As usual, we sent the raw review text for to the manufacturer for a once over. Akiko stated that from now on, the Phono Booster will rest on soft anti-slip footers.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
