Connecting Pleiades V0, V(-1) to Altec 1566A, EMI RS61

Setups:


Beyer M55 chrome 500Ω - Pleiades V(-1) - EMI RS61 - 20dB resistor pad - Sennseiser HD580


Great sound, nice presence perhaps exaggerated, no s problems.


Beyer M55 chrome 500Ω - 400mH Canford input transformer - Pleiades V0 - EMI RS61 - 20dB pad - Sennheiser HD580


Fuller sound but perhaps a bit bass heavy.


M55 black 500Ω unbalanced - 300mH (500Ω:50KΩ 1/4in inline transformer) - Pleiades V0 - EMI RS61 - EMI RS106A used as attenuator - HD580


This gives a very HF extended sound and of course no s problems.


So far directly connecting the RS61 to the Pleiades modified Philips CDR produced a more bassy sound and 0DB digital was exceeded on the CDR due to careless adjustment of the passive input attenuator.


M55 500Ω chrome - Altec 1566A - HD580


Natural nice sound but not very loud. The balanced sound is due to the 300mH only input inductance of the Altec input transformer playing the role of a Pleiades filter to compensate exaggerated bass to brain perception. A similar connection gave an unacceptable sound on the RS61 as its input inductance is 10H, giving a very bass heavy sound to brain perception.


M55 500Ω chrome - Pleiades V(-1) - Altec 1566A - 20dB pad - Sennheiser HD580


The sound is there. Loud with every detail, no s problems, some pop problems, possibly due to the high input inductance of the Pleiades V(-1), 10H? But overall a great sound showing serendipity at making up the Pleiades (-1) by instinct. The high output impedance of the 7025 electron tube together with the low shunt inductance of the military transformer make it sound (no bass heavy) and correct to listener's brain.


An impressive sound (recorded time ago) in today's experiments perhaps also due to the fact it is an analog recording is coming from the following setup:


Electro-Voice RE15 for vocals
Yamaha bass direct from pickup - Pleiades V5 - Tascam porta 07 - Philips Pleiades mod CDR 870
Grampian 50Ω ribbon for drums


Each part was recorded separately by multi tracking.


The voice is very clear, the bass with very detail, the drums nice but with some room reverberation making it a bit unfocused.


Sennheiser HD580 precision headphones used for monitoring.