Was interested in building a Cornet2 for quite a while, but when I saw a complete kit with upgraded components for sale on Audiocircle for an excellent price I pounced.
It took a while but finnally I got the time to build it.
The build went relativly smoothly (especially for a first time builder).
Total time was about 1.5 days. I was shooting for 1 day (full day) but the usual BS cropped up.
Biggest build issues were the pair of WIMA FPK resitors with pin spacing of .5"(?) and PCB spacing of .2". The frigging leads were too short to bend them to fit (unlike the Caddock resistors which I was able to shoehorn in the .5" spacing) and I had to fabricate adapters. Also, needing my crimping tool which I had been kicking around for years because it was a poor wirecutter, and not being able to find it afer multiple exhastive searches pissed me off a little and made me a real bastard. This is when I went to bed the first day. Turns out it was probably for the best as I was tired and I'm sure I did a better job finnishing up the next day.
After completing it he next day I had a preminition that I needed to make sure the Transformer and chassis made good electricl contact with each other (from reading Audiocirle threads in preparation for the build). Seeing as I blindly followed the instructions I did not do this. Well let me tell you - DO THIS! The first time I hooked it up in my main system (it passed the inital test without killing me or itself, albeit with a little low voltaged which we'll get to in a bit) it humed like a SOB. If I increased the volume the hum got worse. This was an easy fix - introduced it to mister file and that hum issue was history.
Well, as eluded to above, there was still a slight hum issue. Well the solutuion to this was to plug it directly to the wall outlet and not the DODD balanced PS everything else was hooked to.
How does it sound?
Simply awesome. Compared to my only other tube Phone PreAmp (Project Tube Box), it is much quieter.
As far as sonics go, I have no issues. Very dynamic and musical. 3D effects are easily heard.
My voltages are low (5.5v vs. 6.3 on tube heaters, similar throughout circuit), so I need to experiment with increasing them.
My understanding is the sonics will change as this is increased.
This thing impressed me so much that I snapped up a built version from "eric the red" and will use this to help me tweak the Cornet2 to best fit my system.
This is an awesome phono preamp, anyone wanting to hear it drop me a PM.
