Adventures in Analogue Part One

In part one of this review, we recount our record playing history and review the Clearaudio Sixstream RB300.

Your scribe was a late convert to digital. Or put it another way, I have had a long affair with the black vinyl disc. And like most affairs, its had its ups and downs, some of which are recounted in the tale that follows.

My analogue adventure started with the budget classic, the Dual 505. Well it actually started with an Alba all in one “stereo”. It may not have been much but with a pair of Koss headphones, it provided me with an vital source of music through my college years. But my relationship with hi fi really started when I purchased a Nagaoka MP10 to replace the OEM Ortofon that came with the 505 as standard. This was real tweakery as you needed both an adaptor for the headshell and an add on disc that screwed to the rear of the 505’s counterweight. Having mastered the intricacies of mounting and aligning the cartridge, I was amazed at the additional music that was liberated from the grooves. Shortly after this epiphany, I discovered Cloney Audio and the potential of real hi fi.

 I subsequently upgraded the Dual to a Linn LP12, going all the way in the arm department, with an Ittok LVII. Unfortunately I was seduced by the myth, widely put about in the press of the time, that almost anything up from a rusty nail cartridge wise would sound glorious in the LP12. As I discovered, following the fitment of a Linn Basik – this was sadly untrue. Having blown all my funds (and more) on the Linn, my options were pretty limited. Gluing the stylus into the Basik (a popular tweak) did little to rectify things, so I soldiered on until the K9 became available. The latter, while hardly a revelation was serviceable enough, especially as my Naim Nait could only accept moving magnet.

However, having sorted the cartridge issue, I was still left with a faint sense of dissatisfaction. I finally pinned this down when I heard the Roksan Xerxes at the Penta Hi Fi show. There was a coherence to the sound that I hadn’t experienced before and the Roksan duly replaced the Linn. At this stage, I had also discovered idiosyncratic charms of the Croft valve amplifiers summed up by the message on Glen Croft’s answering machine which went “hullo (best Brummy accent) I’m the croft acoustics answering machine. Noone will talk to me because I’m full of thermionic devices. If I give you a bleep, will you talk to me?”. Croft produced an affordable, if slightly noisy, MC stepup stage which allowed me to graduate to a low output moving coil cartridge.

That cartridge was the Van Den Hul MC One. A decade later, this cartridge is still available in upgraded form as part of the Van Den Hul Classic Series. If one cast’s ones mind back to the late eighties, the number of high quality moving coils was few in number and in that context, the MC One was an absolute revelation. Regretfully, I passed the MC One on after a few years but, fortunately for its new owner, it provided many more years of sterling service.

 My subsequent record player, a later model Xerxes with Artemiz Arm and Shiraz cartridge never seemed to sound quite as good. Ironically, subsequent experiments suggest that the difficulty lay not with the deck, arm and cartridge, but with the Artaxerxes phono stage, which replaced my Croft setup. Over the past few years, I tried a couple of more recent turntables, but failed to experience the magic of my previous analogue system. In the meantime, I had graduated to the incomparable Wadia 861 CD player which provides a tough challenge for even good analogue. But not an insurmountable challenge, as we shall see.

  So, fast forward to the present. For the past year or so, I have been happily listening to a VPI HW 19 Junior. This is far from a high end turntable, but it is of sufficient quality to show up differences in  components downstream of the “motor unit” itself. This was clearly proved when I took the opportunity to compare the standard Rega RB300 arm I had been using on the deck with an RB300 with Clearaudio’s Sixstream wiring.  I have a long experience of the RB300 having listened to it extensively on Rega’s own decks, on Roksans and latterly, on the VPI. Those listening experiences suggested a paradox. Mechanically, the Rega is a superb arm. Its one piece diecast arm tube and bearing quality are unparalleled, not just at the selling price, but at many multiples of it. And yet the arm, never seemed to sound quite as good as one would have expected it to. This fact has been commented widely on in the hi fi press.  With the growing acknowledgement of the importance of cables in the overall sound of a hi fi system, fingers began pointing to the RB300’s arm cable as a potential Achilles heel. The accusation had some prima facie backing as the RB300s cable is rudimentary at best. It is possible to buy a cable upgrade kit for the RB300, but the mechanical integrity of the RB300 makes it a tricky fit. The Clearaudio arm comes as a complete package which is a simple drop in fit for any deck with a standard Rega mount.

And what difference does a piece of wire make. Well its not at the margins of perception that’s for sure. The standard RB300 has a very rhythmic and dynamic sound – or more accurately, it allows these aspects of the recording to come through in full measure. But it does have a somewhat grainy and slightly crude sound. Timbres take on a whitened quality with a loss of harmonic fullness and complexity. The Clearaudio model is the antithesis of this characterisation. The whitened quality of the standard arm is replaced with a big, lush and harmonically developed sound. In summary, the sound of the system takes one step closer to the real event. I have experimented with both my Roksan Shiraz cartridge and my vintage Koetsu rosewood with the Clearaudio RB300. The arm has proved capable of faithfully revealing the very different characteristics of both – the Koetsu supremely refined, but a little laid back; the Shiraz hugely dynamic, but a little brash. Most significantly, in this comparison perhaps, the Shiraz’s tonality with the standard RB300 can be somewhat wearing over time, whereas with the Clearaudio model, if sounds smoother while losing none of its dynamics.

 I have no doubt that I have yet to hear the best that this arm has to offer. The VPI is an excellent but modest deck and, if the truth be told, both my cartridges are rapidly approaching their “sell by” date. But this renders the arm’s achievements all the more significant. I have no doubt that a better deck and cartridge will reveal new facets of the Clear Audio Sixstream RB300’s performance.

 In the next part of this review, we will explore these and other aspects of the analogue performance. More to follow!…