well, all sorted. The Hana SL was faulty.

PS...


My TT an EAT C-Sharp with a Hana SL cartridge




I'd love to try out some analog preamp and amp someday at home.  I bet that ProJect of yours is honey.

A funny thing about the snake oil of cables is I found, through auditioning several lesser and more expensive cables, they do make a difference.  For my ears, the cables I've gone with provide the best sound for the money.  Some of the more expensive cables certainly sounded a bit better, but not for the extra money they demanded.  While gain and clarity were two of the main characteristics I noticed with higher quality cables, the biggest improvement is lack of unwanted noise.  I can now turn on my TT, turn the volume on my pre-amp to max, and have zero unwanted hums or other noises coming through the speakers. 

I hate to read it was a hassle to return the Hana.  I'm loving mine, so far.

It's amazing how much integration is going on these days.  There are so many quality DACs with good phono stages in them, now.  Here's to wishing good luck with the phono stage on the Cyrus. 

For interconnects, I am fortunate to have a local dealer who will let me take home a $100 USD interconnect along with a $400 and $12,000 to audition over a weekend.  Does the $12,000 sound better?  To me, yes.  Does it sound 30X better than the $400 interconnect?  Not even close.

If you can find a similar dealer or someone with a generous return policy, it's worth auditioning several different cables.  I'll typically have three tracks ready (combo of digital and analog source) and play all three on each cable.  Sometimes, I'll need to repeat to compare my notes.  What's really fun is when Sheri changes out the cables so it becomes a blind audition.  That's has been a big help for me. 

At the end of the day, I have zero unwanted noise.  Going to balanced connects, where I could, was the biggest help.  At the time of my blind audition for preamp to main amp inner-connects, only one of the medium priced cords actually prevented back-feed from going into my preamp affecting the phono stage.  For my experience, there are supple differences in cables in terms of providing a "signature" on the playback.  Some are brighter and some carry better mid bass.  But, the elimination of unwanted noise and improved gains were the two most notable benefit.   YMMV

Here's a question for you tubeheads.

Ran into some used McIntosh gear the other day. A preamp and a surround processor (THX). I'd have to get the amp as another brand they also have in the shop. Trying to remember what they said about them but they look good and have been serviced and come with a short (used) warranty to work.

MX-130 Tuner Controller Center
Mac-3 Sound decoder

$700 seem reasonable? Expectations?

Woo and Hoo!

I keep forgetting to go back by and see if it's still there.