[Daverz]

I just got my Cornet MC from the factory and have run it for a few hours now.  The soundstage seems a little narrow.  Is this something that will change over time?

[amandarae]

What cartridge, loading, gain setting of the Cornet MC, tubes?  FWIW, my Cornet 2 "settled down" at about 30-50 hours of use with the stock parts.

[Daverz]

Cartridge is a Benz Micro L2 (0.3 mV).  Tubes are the stock Sovteks that came with the Cornet.  Benz specifies 100 Ohms or greater loading, so I started out with 100 Ohms and 20 dB gain.  The Cornet output is going into the aux input of my Bryston B-60 integrated amp.  Oddly, if I back off on the gain, the soundstage gets wider (while the background gets noisier for the same listening level, of course).  Changing the loading doesn't seem to have much immediate affect [I take that back: increasing loading seems to increase bass response].

The only spec Bryston gives on its inputs is 500 mV sensitivity, if that means anything to anybody.

I've settled on 12 dB of head-amp gain, which seems to result in a nice soundstage width.  56 dB total gain seems to be plenty.  I'd be curious to know if anyone else has encountered this effect and whether it's normal.  Maybe it's my integrated amp and not the Cornet.  I'll try the other amps I have around.

[Daverz]

Well, now I can't reproduce the effect described above.   I'm not sure if the Cornet has settled in or whether I was just hearing what I wanted to hear.  Sometimes I think break-in has more to do with breaking in how our brain hears things to match the new presentation.  By analogy, when I first got the eyeglasses I have now, they distorted parallel vertical lines, turning rectangles into trapezoids.   After a while this distortion went away...until I took the glasses off and shapes were now distorted the other way.

[amandarae]

Good to hear that all is fine now Dave!  FWIW, I have a Benz ACE Medium with SME3012 on one of my table (TD 124 MKII).  In my system, it sounds best at 470 ohms with a SUT and 1000 ohms using a head amp.

regards,

Abe

[hagtech]

Yeah, break-in is a weird thing.  I do a FryKlean on all of these machines overnight before they ship.  However (and I haven't officially proven this yet), is that something happens during shipment.  Maybe it is the airplane ride, I don't know.  Altitude, vibration, cold?  But almost always they end up needing more break-in when they arrive.  Same thing happens when a machine has not been used for several weeks or months.

Anyway, I hope it is coming around now.

jh

[Daverz]

After a couple days of listening, both the Cornet and my ears seem to have settled down, but the soundstage still seems a little compressed.  I'm a tube newbie; is width of soundstage something that is going to respond to tube rolling?

[BobM]

Absolutely. Sovtek's are just the very beginning of what is possible from tubes. Search for some of the other threads about tubes that work well in the Coronet. There's lots of suggestions and plently of $$ to be spent to find the right mix for your system.

Enjoy,
Bob

[Daverz]

I've started out by ordering a couple Ei 12AX7's from thetubestore.   If that works out well, I'll try replacing the 12AU7 and the rectifier as well.

[SET Man]

I've started out by ordering a couple Ei 12AX7's from thetubestore....

Hey!

  I have 4 Ei 12AX7 Elite... the gold pin version, the same as the regular. And it sound beautiful. I much preferred the Ei over the JJ and Sovtek WA or something like that.

  Actually I'm planning to stock up 8 of these Ei 12AX7 tube. With these I should be able to make 2 matched set (4 matched pairs) for my phono section:D

  BTW... I have Benz Micro "ACE" HO version.

  EDITED: Oh! Sorry forgot to mention... I don't own the Cornet. Just want to share my exprience about the Ei 12AX7

Take care,
Buddy

[Daverz]

I've started out by ordering a couple Ei 12AX7's from thetubestore....

  I have 4 Ei 12AX7 Elite... the gold pin version, the same as the regular. And it sound beautiful. I much preferred the Ei over the JJ and Sovtek WA or something like that.

Cool.  I just got the regular pin Eis to start with.  I also considered Tung-Sol and the JAN-Philips 5751.  I heard some good things about Tungsram, but those are $60 each.

 

[Daverz]

I've had Ei Elite 12AX7E's in the Cornet for about 30 hours and they sound great.  These present a big soundstage, an articulate midrange, and a big, authoritative (but maybe a little loose?) bass.  They rock hard.   I'm hoping their representation of string tone does warm up a bit, though*.

With that success, I ordered an NOS RCA 5814A for the 12AU7, a Mazda NOS Mazda 5Y3GB, and matched pair of Tung-Sol 12AX7s from kcanostubes.com.

Odd thing, when I first installed them, the balance was off about 3 dB.  I swapped the order of the Ei 12AX7 tubes and the channel difference came down under 1 dB.  Or maybe it was just reseating the tubes?

* Now at the 50 hour mark, it seems to have warmed up quite a bit.  I also should have mentioned that the Ei tubes are much quieter than the stock Sovteks.