Started it yesterday, finished it up today. everthing checked out fine first time out and worked fine from first fire up.
I didn't do the C13 C14 hum fix trick. Not using technical sense as I don;t have much, I used some other kind of sense and couldn't figur how the ground path was being shortened all that much seeing that you have to use the entire - lead of C14 to reach C13 with the suggested hum fix. Instead, I left the negative leads of both C13 and C14 full length on the solder side of the board and angled them toward each other before I soldered. The I linked those 2 leads together and soldered them ... so C13 and C14 - leads are conneceted directly together on the solder side of the board........ not sure if this logic has any merit but I have absolutely no hum whatsoever, even with no signal and the 100 WPC integrated cranked wide open ! maybe I wouldn't have had any hum even if I didn't follow the hum fix or do what I did but maybe my way is worth a try by others ..... it's neater and easier.
Anyway .... my frame of reference is an old Audio Alchemy vac In the Box which I thought was better than the usual sub $200 phono stages. my tavle is a Music Hall MMF-5 and my cart is a Shure 97 .... so not really high end stuff but it sounds good. The Cornet is a big time upgrade over the Audio Alchemy which is un mistakenly obvious even with my modest gear. I was worried about bass and I used a .47uf at C6 because the integrated has a 100K input inped. But the bass is excellent .... a little stronger thean my previous phono stage but tighter and cleaner. Midrange is far better and treble is sweeter. I do setect a very slight harshness at times in the treble but it still cleaner than the old stage and I only have 30 minutes on the Cornet .... this is with current production JJ Tubes for 12AX7's and 12AU7 and an inexpensive JAN 5Y3 rectifier. I'm betting that time and/or tube roll will rmemdy this already benign "fault".
I built it stock except I subbed Orange Drops for the Xicons in all but C11 C12 and C9. And used Dayton Film and Foil .47uf at C6 .... these are Parts Express inexpensive film and foils for By-pass ..... and I like them almost as much if not as much as the Audiocaps for speaker crossover use so I figured I'd try them here. Plus I used a different, round switch and some gold plated, teflon insulated RCA's that I had on hand.
I did the project for pretty much bare minimum considering everthing was new (new tranny etc.) except for the slightly higher cost for orange drops vs. Xicons and the RCA jacks being more expensive.
I also chose the Cornet over the seduction because of the higher gain of the cornet vs. the seduction in stock form. No pictures ... everything is basic with a bare Hammond aluminum chassis so I won't bore anyone.
Couldn't be happier .... thanks JIM and those who helped answer my questions ..... this project was a piece of cake, loads of fun and an excellent value !!!
Thanks
