Phonosophie

Posted by: Stuart Frazer on 27 January 2002

I have the chance to purchase a s/h standard unit. This particular one is cut for an Aro with the standard Phonosophie power supply. The owner got the chance to switch to a s/h LP12 with an Armeggedon and has put the Aro it did have on the LP12. He describes it as being more dynamic than the LP12 without the bass bloat.

Am seriously considering purchasing the unit to use as a secondary souce to my CD player (CDS on the way). Have always fancied getting a decent s/h t/t and building up my record collection.

Question is does anyone know much about these decks and how they compare to other t/t's LP12 etc. I would wish to put a cheaper arm on it for the moment (I am thinking s/h here). Does anyone know if it works well with other arms? until I saved some dosh for a s/h Aro and maybe eventually the Naim power supply.

Any information would be much appreciated.

Posted on: 28 January 2002 by Dev B

Stuart,

Sorry for not replying to this earlier. I used to own a Phonosophie P3 / Naim PS / Aro / Prefix / Arkiv 2, and I wrote this email at the time to some friends to describe the sound. Since then I have also tried a Well Tempered turntable and am back to the LP12 which is working really well. Please bear in mind that I now feel that my old LP12 did not well at all in my old flat (due to the floor, etc) but the new one works brilliantly (better than the WT and Ph.3) in my new location. Also it is worth mentioning that the last time I communicated with the new owner of the Ph.3 he was delighted (this was a while ago). He used it with a Troika.

Here's the original message from me.
....

As some of you may know, I recently sold my LP12 and have moved over to the Phonosophie P3 as my main analogue source. It is equipped with an Aro, Naim P3 powersupply, Prefix and Linn Arkiv B cartridge.

Until very recently the LP12 had been my main LP source and moving over to the P3 has been quite an experience, not all of it positive I might add.

I am sure I am comparing the sound of the decks as the other variables (arm,cartridge, setup) have remained constant. The only thing that changed in the changeover was that I got the Prefix rewired with the black SNAIC after
being pleasantly surprised by the improvement that a black burndy brought to my 52 (I was very sceptical about the black burndy but it does give more detail). So some of the improvements listed here may be due to the prefix
rewire (I'm not so sure though - opinions?)

These are main differences from the LP12.

1) It is more detailed and the stereo separation is better - I can clearly hear more information being revealed from my records. I know it's a cliché but on some records I can hear stuff that wasn't being fully revealed by the LP12.

2) The bass is tighter and the bass notes start and stop in a much more precise way than the LP12. In fact, the bass on the LP12 seems overblown in comparison (and b4 I got the P3 I thought the bass on the LP12 was more than
acceptable - maybe becasue I had no other reference. I dunno). I would say the improvement is rather like what adding a Mana table does to the bass of any source component that is placed on it (I think I can comment from experience here as I've owned lots of Mana in the past and I am very familiar with what it does/does not do).

3) It is not as warm sounding as the LP12.

4) It is significantly brighter sounding than the LP12, so much so that it's a bit irritating on poorly recorded records. This is the bit that is pissing me off a bit. Some of my records (not brilliantly recorded ones) now sound like there's a bit of an edge to voices which I find distracting. The LP12 used to flatter them a bit, maybe becasue it wasn't so revealing. I'm not sure. I have been fiddling with tonearm height, tracking etc, and have (I think I've achieved a reasonable set up so I don't think it's due to
installation issues, I think it's the basic character of the deck (however, I will caveat that by saying that it, and the recently fettled prefix, is still in "warm up" mode so I expect this aspect of it's character to improve, but it is still intrinsically brighter than the Linn).

I think this is also a characteristic sound of what Germans tend to like in HiFi. From what I have read and heard, the majority tend to like a
'brighter' sound than we tend to, kind of like how the Americans like it all soft and warm.

5) On a like for like recording (e.g. Art Davis's 'A time remembered' where the CD and LP were done of the same master tape etc) I think it sounds a bit more open that the CDS2, but this is a very slight "open" to be honest I could live happily with the CD version.

6) It's much easier to set up than the LP12, but it isn't like a rega P3 for simplicity, it adjusts from the top but you still need to get the bounce right, but becasue you don't have to fiddle around from the bottom like the
LP12, this is quite easy to achieve.

7) Ironically, I bought the ArkivB to replace my Troika on the Linn, as the warmish character of the Troika was too much on the Linn after I got the CDS2 (it's amazing how you learn to live with a particular "sound" and all it takes is a new component to come along and you realise the "wrongs" that previously were previously perfectly acceptable...) and I thought the Arkiv
B brought a more balanced tonality to the Linn (as well as more detail).

I still don't like the Dynavector XX1, Robert Ritchie has one on an Aro and I've tried it on the Ph.3 and while I can hear what it does I don't find the sound attractive enough.

Anyway, apologies my thoughts come across as a bit random, I just thought these notes might be useful as no one has ever described the sound of the P3 before (or that I've read anyway).

Dev.