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Did I mention that Bob builds devices?
"Wait, I have a new one. It is a Sowter but has a switchable gain of 1:10
and 1:20. It will suit probably 85% of low output MC cartridges. I will be
finished testing next week and will send it to you. You will be the first
one in the world to have this custom SUT with OCC wire and the taller
can. Preliminary results are very promising.
"Here is the latest review I received from a buyer of one of the 1:20
Sowters. Tom had tried several SUTs before buying one from me. He
uses an Ortofon Kontrapunkt b cartridge on a VPI 10 arm with van den Hul
carbon wire running to a George Wright tubed phono preamp:
‘Hi Bob, I just wanted you to know that I am very happy with the Sowter
SUT I got last week. I have to say that I can't hear any downside. … I
wish I had done this sooner. I think there is whole bunch of people who are
listening to moving coils that are not getting what they paid for.’"
Bob sends the device. Later he sends an email:
"I have been getting some response back on these Sowters. Remember
you were the first to get one. Apparently they need some breaking in
before they ‘open up.’ I apologize for not sending a unit already
broken in. Typically my other units have not required any. The jury is
still out on how long of a break-in is required here."
My jury’s verdict: I don’t know.
After listening to it for two hours I wanted
to take it out. To my ears it was thin and wiry. It also was quite
detailed. But detailed is the last thing I want combined with thin and wiry.
Three hours longer and it seemed to start opening up. Since Bob didn’t
really have specifics on how long it would take and I didn’t want to waste
my time, vinyl or ears to find out, it spent two weeks getting nursed by my
Hagerman Audio Labs Frybaby. That's a compact, flexible and low-cost burn-in
generator. It has three output amplitude -: two low level for MC and MM
phono stages and a third line level for power amplifiers and to directly
burn in cables. When I thought about it I would cycle the Frybaby on or
off four or five times a day. My goal was to get to 100 hours at which
point I reckoned the transformers would be at least 95% cooked.
So how does it sound? I don’t know. And I’m not sure anyone else can
tell you either. However the sound produced by the combination of the
17D, Bob’s device and the Allnic H-1200 was in a word panoramic.
Unobstructed. If we were talking about film or video, the presentation
would be that of a wide (and naturally deep) shot. This usually
corresponds to approximately what would be the distance between the front
row of the audience and the stage in a live theatre.
