Anyone have any experience with The Budgie 6DJ8 phono pre from Parks Audio?
Mike
Mike
Parks Audio Budgie Phono Preamp
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Stanton681EEES
Addicted Member
I can't answer your question, but your question got me to do some searching and i did find one on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Parks-Audio-Budgie-Tube-Phono-Preamp-/181164042280
Looks like a nice tube phono pre..........
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Parks-Audio-Budgie-Tube-Phono-Preamp-/181164042280
Looks like a nice tube phono pre..........
Cool ...
Yeah, that's a nice looking unit with all the loading options needed in a MM or MI world
I'd put that on my shorter list. Looks like a good tube based alternative to the Phonomena which is about the same for loading options and is highly regarded :thmbsp:
I'm also interested in hearing from anyone who is running one of these :scratch2:
Yeah, that's a nice looking unit with all the loading options needed in a MM or MI world
I'd put that on my shorter list. Looks like a good tube based alternative to the Phonomena which is about the same for loading options and is highly regarded :thmbsp:
I'm also interested in hearing from anyone who is running one of these :scratch2:
Well......I just bought it. I'll let you know.
Mike
Mike
ampsandsound
Active Member
Id look at DIYtube.. Shannon is a master at his work.... Id strongly consider it.
According to UPS tracking my Parks Audio Budgie is due tomorrow. I'll post my thoughts about it.
Mike
Mike
Just listened to Steely Dan aja mfsl (twice). Blown away
Mike
Mike
Depends to some extent on the tube set being employed I would think. I have no way to measure mine, but it is certainly subectively quieter than the vast majority of SS phono stages I've owned. Published specs are S/N 86db, not too shabby. By comparison the phono stage in my Yamaha CA-1010 (MM setting) is rated at 82db. Neither is in the same league as my C-4 which is rated at 97db. Not sure what the S/N ratio of the various SS phono pre's being discussed of late is like, but I don't imagine noise is an issue for any of them. Can't speak to other tube units, though.
G'day mate, looking at that website the general specs all look considerably worse than a modern top notch solid state phono stage.
I guess this is generally expected in valve gear and isn't necessarily a condemnation, however the quoted distortion figures might be a concern. Still I'd like to listen to it myself. Regards, Felix aka catman.
I guess this is generally expected in valve gear and isn't necessarily a condemnation, however the quoted distortion figures might be a concern. Still I'd like to listen to it myself. Regards, Felix aka catman.
Hmmm.... The distortion figures are exactly the same as for a number of the current crop of separate SS stages and clearly superior @ .01% THD to many including the highly-touted Clearaudio Nano @ .04% (which I owned previous to the Opera). Even so I don't think published specs reveal much past a point. My CJ PV12 pre has nowhere near the specs of a good SS unit, yet in terms of what comes out of the speakers it trounces anything else that has come through the door in my home by a wide margin. In the final assessment it is the subjective that wins the day, no? Provided the measurements are beyond a certain threshold (no idea where that cutoff point might actually be) it seems a design lifts itself into at the least the realm of sweet possibility.
If you would like to hear what the PM1 sounds like I've posted some links in the ARTDJ thread and my old Dual 1219 one or I could send them to you in a PM if you like as well. Admittedly the majority of the clips were done with the thumpy old un-restored Dual 1219 that I just can't seem to get myself to pull from the system yet (silly), but when you listen past that it gives a good idea perhaps. I'm not claiming it to be anything like the be-all-end-all, but in my system in my listening room it is many leagues better than anything else I tried and I auditioned as many units as I could find that were vaguely in my budget. At the time I was concerned that running completely tube (valve to you folks) from one end to the other would be too much of a good thing, but it proved to be a non-issue.
I for one would love to hear the Parks Budgie. Some clips of that would be welcome (did I miss any?).
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grooveman
Super Member
Try listening to a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS or a Jolida JD9 and it might answer your question. I own a Pro-Ject DS and it's extremely quite and very musical. And that's using the stock tubes! If you've never been a "tube guy", this phono stage will be an eye opener! I'm sure the Budgie is a nice sounding tube phono stage as well.
Wunderbar! Glad it is coming through for you. What is the tube set that came with it? Just curious.Just listened to Steely Dan aja mfsl (twice). Blown away
Mike
I need to find myself a decent copy of Aja as mine vanished years back (I think there might have been an ex involved). It seems to be one of the standard reference recordings that most have, so in addition to being a favourite I really should have a copy.
The sixteen position loading adjustment is purely resistive, and the theory behind the loading concept is actually from Jim Hagerman's excellent article on cartridge loading:
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html
We basically want the resonance pushed out as far as possible, so we want minimal capacitive loading. The Budgie has 50pF input capacitance and the interconnect cables will be around 200pF, so we average around 250pF total. BTW, this holds true for either MM or MC carts.
Aja is one of my favorite LPs! It really shows what vinyl can do. :thmbsp:
Shannon Parks
skriefal
Super Member
I have a pre-built Budgie Phono pre in one of my systems. It's a nice phono pre and the adjustable loading is great. But do be aware that its rated output impedance is rather high @ 6k ohms. This shouldn't be a problem when feeding a typical line stage preamp with an input impedance of 50k ohms. But many portable SD recorders have a lower input impedance (15k ohms for my Edirol R09HR, and others are even lower) and may produce non-optimal results when recording from the Budgie. I don't know whether the same is true of PC sound cards / interfaces. Also note that I haven't actually tried this yet -- my R09HR is in another system at the moment.
Oh... and a 3 ft Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 interconnect will work nicely to drop the overall system capacitance! 12pF per foot, plus a few pF for each RCA connector. You might even get total capacitance down to 100pF or so if the tonearm wiring is of good quality.
Oh... and a 3 ft Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 interconnect will work nicely to drop the overall system capacitance! 12pF per foot, plus a few pF for each RCA connector. You might even get total capacitance down to 100pF or so if the tonearm wiring is of good quality.
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