EROS gathering dust.. new toy in the house.

E

elharvo

New member
Thanks to the arrival of a Studer a807, the 'table hasn't been seeing much action lately...
I'm finally ready to get in on those TP tapes, buuuut.... first I'd like to mod my Eros toe do double duty.. Riaa and IEC...
How 'doable' is this? Is there a manual and bag of bits I can order to do this , or is it major surgery? I know it's only been done once to date, and that was for riaa/NAB.. so, I'm wondering if I can make her work double duty, or should I convert it strictly to IEC and put a new phonostage into play?
Harv
 
PJ may have some suggestions, but basically the gain structure is enough different in the tape head Eros circuit with IEC eq vs. the phono Eros circuit that it gets fairly involved to convert the phono version to a tape version. The Eros Phono is a pretty good phono preamp, so it might make sense to get a Tape Eros for tape and keep the phono Eros for phono if that is within the budget.
 
At first look, I can't do it easily. The NAB has the same LF corner as RIAA, so it was possible to switch just the HF equalization. But IEC needs a different LF and different HF, so the switch becomes twice as big. We had a heck of a time getting the small switch in there, not to mention the extra components. The LF difference call for a pretty large capacitor. But the main problem is that the same LF compromise gives a bass boost below 2-3Hz when in the RIAA position. When that was NAB, it's OK, there is little energy there. But with RIAA, this gives excessive sensitivity to record warps and their low harmonics - just not a good idea for records. The only way to move that corner below 1/2 Hz (first order warp) is to make it much larger, and there just isn't room unless you go to a sonically crappy capacitor. Basically, I can do it but the solutions cause more problems than they solve.
 
Well, that sucks.. Looks like lots of room left in there :o
But blah, what do I know?!
Having had the King Cello in house for a while, it's Phonostage won me over (lack of noise was the deciding factor, the Eros, though lovely is just too darn noisy since I added the Bent Audio TAP AVC to the system... Dunno why, it was bearable before) Buut I found the tape stage a wee bit 'clinical' and I'm thinking the Eros could add some juiciness to the affair.
But if it ain't do-able, I shall never know!
Are you guys phasing the Eros out any time soon?
I know any step up in performance is going to be at least a fourfold investment... Which puts me right in K/C territory, (with a Phonostage thrown in to boot)!
But I'm seeing your lineup growing up and out with the beePre and reduction etc..
So it would be nice to know whats 'next' on the tape/phono front.
A reduction tape pre perhaps?
Cheers
 
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