Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages

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mgalusha

Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages
« on: 20 Sep 2003, 05:48 pm »
I had the opportunity to listen to Jim Hagerman's Trumpet phono stage and matching step up transformers yesterday in my system.

Wayne Waananen of BOLDER Cables has these on loan from Jim for the upcoming VSAC show in October and was kind enough to bring them over. :) This was not a long audition but we did spend a couple of hours playing with phono stages.

My vinyl setup is quite modest and consists of an MMF-5 with some damping mods, Grado Platinum Reference and a Hagerman Cornet phono stage. The cables on the MMF-5 have been replaced with some low capacitance shielded cable using Eichman Silver Bullet plugs. The stock cable had extremely poor shielding, maybe 50% coverage as a guess.

The rest of the system is a Transcendent Grounded Grid with Mullard CV-4003's, DACT, Auricaps and HexFreds, amps are Odyssey Xtreme monos (the coupling caps have been replaced with BG NX series), speakers are Vandersteen 3A signatures and 2 Vandersteen 2WQ subs with the Q set at .5. All IC's were my DIY 30ga twisted pair with bullet plugs and DIY 30ga coax with bullet plugs. Speaker cables are flat 12ga braid. Amps are plugged into a BPT BP-2.5 Ultra and each source component was connected to it's own transformer in a BPT BP-4 Ultra w/Bybee's.

First up we listened with my Cornet in the system. I chose to build the Cornet with Jensen JT-44K-DX step up transformers inside the case and as such they cannot be bypassed. I mention this as the performance of the transformers is certainly part of the overall sound.

We chose Tin Pan Alley on Stevie Ray Vaughn's Couldn't Stand The Weather LP for our exercise. This is a very well recorded track with lots of low level details and some very dynamic attack. It also has deep, powerful bass.

After the song ended both of us agreed it sounded very good. Very good micro dynamics and great bite and attack on the guitars. It did seem to me that the bass was not as deep as it should be but it wasn't bad by any means.

By coincidence I happened to have the SACD of this in the player so we decided to give that a listen so see how well it stacked up. The SACD of this recording is very good but it paled in comparison to the LP. While the bass was deeper and more powerful, much of the dynamics and open sound was missing from the rest of the music. We only let the SACD play for about a minute and we both agreed it was no contest, the LP was much more enjoyable to listen to.

I then connected up the Trumpet and the step up transformers. We had been letting the Trumpet warm up while listening and talking, so it was ready to go. It took all of about 2 seconds to realize the Trumpet was operating an a considerably higher level than the Cornet. I don't mean signal level, but at a musical level. Everything across the board was better. Bass was now fuller and deeper, the high frequencies were delicate and extended. Cymbal's sounded very good with great decay. For me it was much more emotional. It was no problem to visualize SRV working out his guitar. The subtle vibrato of his fingering and the bite of his pick hitting the strings were presented with great clarity. Very, very nice indeed.

I wanted to try a little tube rolling with the Cornet and find out if the sound could become more like the Trumpet. We connected it back up and swapped out the JJ tubes for some Sovtek 12AX7LPS. I had tried these tubes before and had found that they had provided a fuller bass sound. Indeed, with these in place the bass was much more like the Trumpet but still did not have that last bit of punch. The bass on the Trumpet was also very tight and clean. These tubes also seemed to provide a smoother midrange. Wayne preferred these to the JJ's while I was a little undecided. The Sovtek's were very smooth but the bite of the JJ's on guitar was appealing. Still, the Trumpet was better in every way although this was a little closer.

Finally, we connected up Wayne's recently completed Cornet. Wayne went all out on parts, using Riken Ohm, Elna Cerfines, Jensen coupling caps, his Nitro wire and Bybee's. My Cornet is not quite so fancy. I did use MIT and Auricaps for all the bypass and coupling caps but I used standard metal oxide resistors and inexpensive power supply caps.

At first I was shocked. It did not sound nearly as good as my unit. Everything was recessed and much of the upper frequencies just seemed to be missing. Wayne and I looked at each other and he indicated that it only had about 12 hours of time on it connected to a FryKleaner for break in. We decided to try some different tubes and pulled the tubes from my Cornet and put them in. First we installed the Sovtek's. An amazing difference, the sound came alive and was much better. We then swapped out the rectifier. He was using a NOS Sylvania and I have a NOS RCA, both 5Y3GT. More of the same, it was clear that his tubes were in serious need of some more burn in time. Not only was the sound better with the RCA rectifier but it was also quieter. Next we pulled out the 12AU7. Wayne as a NOS Raytheon and I am using a NOS Mullard CV-4003. It improved again and we both thought it was sounding very good. I believe it was at least as good as my Cornet and will certainly be better once it breaks in a bit more. Part of the difference may be attributed to the step up transformers. The Hagerman step up uses the S&B TX103 transformers. As mentioned earlier, it was impossible to compare them directly to the Jensen transformers since I built mine into the chassis and decided not to install a bypass switch, wanting to keep the signal path as clean as possible. Another part of the differences we heard likely lies with the Riken resistors. As I found when building my Cornet, even changing 1 resistor can have a huge (12db!) effect on the S/N ratio.

The bottom line is that the Hagerman Trumpet was exceptionally nice, very quiet, great sounding and quite attractive. It's not inexpensive, the combo of the Trumpet and the step up transformers is $2790 but it surely did sound sweet.

The good news is the a well built Cornet gives you about 75% of the Trumpet's sound for about 25% of the price. Even if you were to purchase the S&B transformers and use all boutique parts it would still be about 1/3 the price.

Other phono stages I have heard in this system are the Musical Fidelity X-LPS (stock and modified), a tricked out Hagerman Bugle and a VTL TP2.5. IMO the Cornet was better than all of these and cost less than the VTL.

Of course these are just my impressions & thoughts. YMMV and all that. Perhaps Wayne will post some additional comments as no two people hear exactly the same thing, although we tend to agree on many things we hear.

Mike G.

nature boy

Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages
« Reply #1 on: 20 Sep 2003, 08:51 pm »
Mike and Wayne,

Thanks for the comparison of your respective Jim Hagerman Coronet and the Trumpet phono stages.  75% of the sound for 25% of the price seems to make the Coronet another outstanding value in audio.  Sounds like a great excuse for someone with a modest integrated amp lacking phono capabilities or linestage preamp to get back into vinyl.

Me, I wish I didn't have a business conflict so I could boogey out to VSAC for a listen to the trumpet.  Very enticing!

NB

TONEPUB

Re: Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages
« Reply #2 on: 27 Jan 2007, 08:42 am »
Actually, if you hook the Trumpet up to a higher end table and cartridge, you can really hear it's benefit and seriously, it does sound WAY better than the Cornet.  The Cornet is a great budget phono stage, but the Trumpet holds its own with some much more expensive stuff...

I've been using a Trumpet now for about a year in my second system and it has compared favorably to the Ray Samuels XR-10B, The BAT VK-P10 and a couple of others costing quite a bit more.

The only place the Trumpet really falls down is that it only has one input and input impedance is not easily adjustable.

Now that I spend a lot of time often with more than one turntable in for review, the Trumpet has made its way back to my fun system, but I would highly suggest it in terms of quality and value for the price!

Anderson

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Re: Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages
« Reply #3 on: 1 Apr 2010, 01:19 pm »
Being familiar with the signature sound of my Trumpet phono preamp or lack there of, I was intrigued by the reports of people who built the Cornet 2 preamp. The Cornet 2 is one of the mid-price phono preamp (Original Cornet is the other one) in the Hagerman Technology line of phono preamps. According to Mr. Hagerman, it is basically the same as the original Cornet in circuit topology but it deviates from the similarity in a way that several upgrade features for the original were already incorporated to the 2 as standard in the circuit layout namely CCS and stereo/mono switch as notables.

BobM

Re: Hagerman Trumpet & Cornet phono stages
« Reply #4 on: 1 Apr 2010, 01:31 pm »
I had a tricked out Coronet for quite a few years but when the opportunity to get a Trumpet came along I grabbed it. I agree, it trumps the Coronet in every way. My Trumpet is the original wood sided tall-boy. The new ones are definitely a better design so they will fit on a standard shelf.

I did roll some tubes in it and found that this did make a nice improvement over the Sovetek's that come with it, although these do sound very good by themselves. If you're going to roll tubes you probbaly only need to change out the first pair in each grouping for the most significant change (this according to Jim). The second pair may or may not result in any noticeable difference. But do use a matched pair.

Enjoy,
Bob