About Me
I have been very involved over the years in the HiFi world as a consultant, and had the pleasure of meeting some iconic gurus, I worked very closely with Terry from Loricraft Audio and the Garrard 301 and 401, I am also currently employed part time at SME Limited as head of development for the Garrard 301, I have run this website for 23 years distributing Garrard spare parts worldwide, SME Limited now own my spare parts company.
I have been an audiophile for 45 years, I have owned various amplifiers, valve amps, and have good knowledge of HiFi equipment and how it works.
My Equipment
Since 2007 this is my current setup never faltered apart from one malfunctioned Electro Harmonics KT88!
My system two Dared 200 watt mono block, each have Matched Sixtet Shuguang Treasure KT88-Z Valve Vacuum tubes per amplifier, and these sound amazing but not really useable in the hot summer months, this coupled with the infamous Dared MC 7P valve preamplifier, a Garrard 501 Inspiration turntable, SME V tone arm, and Dynavector XX2 low output moving coil cartridge, Art Audio Vinyl One switchable MC/MM cartridge I had Tom Willis from Art Audio upgrade the moving coils to suit my low output Dynavector cartridge, the speakers are very hard to drive Opera Callas Gold crafted in solid wood very much on par with Sonus Faber, everything is connected up by a Nordost Thor Power supply, all interconnects manufactured by Chris VenHaus owner of VH Audio.
Now to shrink and downsize everything.
As amplifiers have moved a long way in the past 20 years I was looking to replace my trusty valve mono blocks, I have done a lot of research on class D amplification, looking at the specs I should be able to get a similar power from the Hypex Core NC500 amplifers.
The start, a pair of Fosi Audio ZA3 amplifiers run in mono mode coupled with my valve pre amp, these were good I was surprised, power matched the mono blocks but not quite as warm and muscle of my mono blocks but close, I listened to them over many hours, and I liked them, the draw back they just don’t have the class look about them, now the preamplifier and new phono stage, Tisbury Audio passive preamp and Domino phono stage, the phono stage is good for the money £189.00 but not high end class like the art Audio, I didn’t have to do much to the Domino but alter dip switch on the bottom for the correct input gain, everything hooked up for a budget system this was good, from here I had a direction on where I wanted to go…
Now Robson Accoustics
I have never seen this company before a Scottish Hi END manufacture, I found his products on eBay, brushed aluminium case really class etched logo these looked the business, I phoned him asked for demo units I don’t have any… I asked if he would do a deal, phono pre amp (that is currently for sale on eBay), valve pre amplifier and a pair of 500 watt mono blocks, the deal was done, the draw back you can only pay by bank transfer this does make my a bit jumpy as if there’s a problem this can go horribly wrong as to getting your money back and held over a barrel but or could end up in a civil court of law. A word of warning be careful!
I paid a hefty sum, and looked forward to my new equipment, a message from Rob the mono block were ready but there was a issue with the valve preamp, a problem with the vintage valves he purchased and couldn’t get right, he’s going back to the supplier to source different valves, so I would have to wait, a message from Rob on the Friday the mono blocks were soak testing over the weekend if everything was OK they would be packed up and sent Monday for Tuesday delivery, great I will have Tuesday off, in the message… I now only have silver feet would I be happy with this on the mono blocks? I asked for gold so he had to take feet from other products to go on mine so all the feet matched!
Tuesday 2pm the parcel arrived I was excited to receive my lovely engraved brushed cased mono blocks, carefully unpacked them, they were damaged, but not in transit! These units were pretty knocked about scratched, a dink on the front panel and the feet well they looked like they came out of a parts bin, and some masking tape on the bottom of the amp that said glue, not sure what that was about!
The units were plugged in and ready to go I fired them up nice and quiet, but within 30mins these amps were hotter than Mars!
I phoned Rob just to let him know I recieved the amps but unfortunately damaged, his reply “oh you must be a peticular kind of person I don’t normally get complaints”!
Don’t worry he said I will arrange to collect them and voiced my concerns that these amps are hot, not just hot, but bloody hot, he said don’t worry they have thermal cut out, and the case is a massive heat sink, I did question do they need some ventilation in the lid? No he told me they will be fine, I was worried the amount of heat just coming off them just idling, I listened to them the output power was way down, I did question this these mono blocks not as good as the Fosi audio 3ZA, I left them on all day and turned them off last thing in the evening.
In the morning I isolated the mains, and moved the amps to a lower shelf, my stands are open with glass shelfs thought they would be better lower down heat wise. Carefully plugged everything back in, checked the connections all good, lets fire everything up, this was not good the amps were oscillating hence why the amps were over heating the day before but the amps thermal cut out never kicked in and shut the amps down!
Turned everything off, unplugged the interconnects turned the amps back on quite, another phone call to Rob I have a problem? His reply there must be something wrong with your system they were OK here, who am I to argue I was carefully listening to him, he said bypass the preamp, I plugged in my network steamer I could still hear the amp oscillating, his reply pack them up I will arrange collection, oh dear this was not a good start!
Rob said said the master class phono stage is ready packed up, and will be with you tomorrow, great I was looking forward to getting and trying that… Phono stage arrived as promised, well unfortunately this had been through the wars probably ex demo, he did say this that it’s second hand you can forgive a few knocks and marks… but he had tried to disguise this because of my OCD he polished the font brushed aluminium panel it looked awful probably should have just left it alone, warts and all I pulled out my Art Audio from the rack in went the Robson phono preamp I fired it up, the Phono stage had a ground loop a awful humming behind the normal hiss of a phono preamp, I was not pleased, on the phone again and the same spill I played that the phono stage with my 40k front end its got to be your system, I was not arguing, I just wanted to return it and attempt to get my money back! Rob said pack it all up and we will call it a day and I will refund you, phew…!
Even though he had to buy apparently two Lundal LL1941 I know these are good and expensive step up transformers, and that he had lost money on the deal!
I returned my own equipment to its rightful place perfect, time to give up finding a new system!
For sale is a Ref Phono stage for MC only and made as a bespoke unit with additional ventilation on the top plate due to the location within a rack for the customer who subsequently purchased a Masterpiece edition instead hence for sale at a reduced price.
Lundahl step up transformers, silver internal wiring and fully adjustable for load impedance for different cartridges via internal dip switches. Set to 100 ohm load as factory standard.
1 year warranty and brand new with new tubes.
The noise floor on this design is incredibly low.
Please see full specifications on the website for further information.
Any questions…..please ask and as always a full money back guarantee if not satisfied.
Time to find out what really happened
Before the monos blocks were returned, I removed the top lid just to see if I could see if anything had blown, I am a computer engineer by trade, and very familiar with circuit boards, to my suprise the Hypex NC 500 had a microphone input transformer instead of a hypex input buffer, I could not see any leaking or blown caps on the modules, but I quickly identified the problem that the jumper pin on the microphone input gain module had not been soldered properly it was just about making contact but due the amp osolating and overheating the day before it had parted company bearing in mind this was all checked before it left!
I took the lid off the phono pre amp this is the unit for sale on eBay as it has been re listed since it’s return.
The first surprise was the vent hole griddle was half heartedly stuck on with hot glue then reinforced with black duck tape.
Now to see if there is a problem with the valve4amp circuit boards… took me all of 10 seconds to see what was wrong! One of the Wima capacitors was damaged, easily missed if you don’t know what your looking for!
Personally I think what’s happen this phono stage has been around the block a few times as he did say it was a demo unit, my assumption is sometime before I got it the glued on heatsink has come off in transit the grill has very sharp edges and rubbed on the top of the Wima capacitor damaging it hence the ground loop!
Now the shit hits the fan.
Rob is upset obviously, here is his email, and charged me for all the damage that I had blown up the Hypex 500 modules… How he has given the phono preamp to friends locally and can’t find anything wrong probably with the damaged Wima cap.
Robs email
Hi Steve,
I have all the kit back and put the amps and phonostage on the test bench.
Firstly, there is nothing wrong with the Ref Phonostage. I have put this into both my systems here and also to 2 different customers I have locally. In all cases it worked fine and definitely no hum beyond the normal tiny amount associated with tube phono stages. This strongly suggests there is an issue with your system!
Also, because the phono stage was a bespoke order especially for your low output Dynavector XX2 cartridge I will have to charge you for the time it takes to remove the SUT’s, replace them with the original units and then install the SUT’s back into the Masterpiece phonostage where they came from. Also labour for modifying the SUT’s back to 16x gain as apposed to the 32x gain required for your cartridge.
Both the MB2 amplifiers are damaged and because this is a module change and not component level repair I will be charging you for 2 modules and labour for swapping the modules over. Because they worked initially and then were blown up through your system it is obvious this is damage caused by misuse or operator error especially in view of the Phonostage issues you had.
I have attached an invoice for all the parts and labour.
Once I receive acceptance of this I will refund you the remaining balance.
Kind regardsRob Hudson
Unfortunate for me I can’t argue, I have kept my mouth shut, and going to take a massive hit for £1020.00, he had me over barrel, I don’t know what would have happened if I had argued perhaps this would have ended up in court… So had to accept!
Would I recommend Robson Acoustics? No.
A note of caution always be wary of what you purchase, and always make sure you pay with a credit card or PayPal this way you have better protection from bad purchases!
I have since emailed Rob with my reply and photos and asked for him to send me the supposedly damaged modules, but no response to date.