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Tech details and specs: Era Gold vs Reflex M

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Richardl60 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Richardl60 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jul 2015 at 9:22am
I moved from an Era Gold V to a Revelation M around teh turn of the year (which I believe is very similar to the Reflex M). Drewan's comments mirrored my findings; in relative terms the Era Gold appeared quite narrow by comparison in sound stage, the Revelation being more natural in all aspects and the Bass being firmer, better defined and again more natural - the Revelation possibly a little lighter in overall balance; likely due to better definition and less colouration.  Not huge differences but certainly worthwhile and as said by others you could live with either quite easily.
 
As stated elsewhere on the forum I upgraded my mains to PSU cable around the same time.  Upgrading the mains leads with the Era Gold I found prefereable to the Revelation with stock cable in pretty much all aspects, certainly far more natural.  Rev + cable far better (IMO).
 
Can't go wrong with either the Era Gold, Reflex M or Revelation, ideally with PSU (and with upgraded mains throughout but that is another debate).
 
Good luck.
Richard
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sebastopol Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Nov 2015 at 6:51pm
Originally posted by Drewan77 Drewan77 wrote:


The main 'difference' I have noticed is that the Era Gold seems to have a slightly darker audio signature, without quite as much 'openness' but this is very subtle - a bit like listening to a pair of planar speakers vs a high quality closed box type. I hope it is apparent that am very happy with both phono stages


Hi Andrew, this is helpful to me in deciding between the pair in question, thanks.

Paul
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Drewan77 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Nov 2015 at 6:13am
You're welcome Paul.
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Andrew
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dsockel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 May 2017 at 2:11pm
Good stuff.

Thanks.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cmarzot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2018 at 10:57am
Couple of questions:
Were the AD opamps installed in the Era Gold Reflex?
What exactly were the "tweaks" Graham mentions for the Era Gold Reflex?
Thanks for any information.

Originally posted by Graham Slee Graham Slee wrote:

The Era Gold V was the first "ultra-linear" device in that the AD opamps had reduced open-loop gain resulting in a wider open-loop frequency response. It led to a loose bass because RIAA EQ gain was approaching the open-loop gain of the opamps. It was quite an endearing sound I liked very much. Latter versions dispensed with the AD opamps because their consistency was going down, and we were already throwing away over 30% of the chips. These were replaced with a different opamp which has FET inputs and the open loop gain is manipulated by our proprietary "ultra-linear" technique. The results are extremely close to the original and I personally can't hear any difference.

The original "Era Gold Reflex" was a tweaked Era Gold V, but the design changed after a couple of years and the name changed to Reflex M. The "ultra-linear" technique was observed to serve a flat response best, and this being RIAA had a falling response, so the opamp choice was for one that met the same gain profile. In a way this complied better with the desired loop-gain, which I wanted to be constant end to end. It is "ultra-linear" by default.

A moving coil version, the Reflex C, was introduced. This is disimilar to the M version in that the gain profile is more like the Era Gold V, but it does moving coil and suits many MC users needs.

Further work on the gain profile - to get it to a constant end to end - resulted in the NPS invention (new phono stage - soon to be launched). However, because we're at the limits of signal to noise, like the Reflexes, moving coil cannot be given the same treatment, so it will only be of interest to high quality MM, high output MC and high output MI cartridge users.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Graham Slee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2018 at 12:20pm
Originally posted by cmarzot cmarzot wrote:

Couple of questions:
Were the AD opamps installed in the Era Gold Reflex?
What exactly were the "tweaks" Graham mentions for the Era Gold Reflex?
Thanks for any information.


The AD opamps were installed in the Era Gold Reflex and one of the tweaks was to use them in parallel which helped reduce noise by roughly 3dB. The opamps were a pain to use because they suffer from flicker noise, and in their intended use of video such flicker noise might not be an issue because of the bandwidth (range of frequencies) covered.

There were other tweaks which were alterations to component values intended to make a more natural sound. Eventually though I realised that the gain profile of a record/MM cartridge EQ was better matched to other specific opamps, such that it 'held' the loop gain more constant over the entire audible range (and beyond to closure). This eventually resulted in the patent application for the "NPS" and the introduction of the Accession.

At that point in time the Reflex M as we now know it replaced the Era Gold Reflex, and later on it was found that adopting a different opamp in the Era Gold, suitably 'breathed upon', produced an exact match gain-profile to the original opamps and the resultant sound was indistinguishable from the original design.

Also during the use of the AD opamps I was able to use Elna Starget capacitors but RoHS in 2006 outlawed them from commercial production, and so the last units using the ADs used Nichicon Fine Gold's and/or Panasonic Audio capacitors. Further research concluded that these were responsible for an etched sound in the new designs, which I don't think were released until an alternative solution was found. The rest are trade secrets.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cmarzot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2018 at 3:05pm
Thanks so much. Very interesting to know the history.
Gives another layer of appreciation to your work.
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