Entity MC

[Tony Tune-age]

Hello Tony, I'm happy, that you like it. I made exactly the upgrades and it is still hard to believe how simple improvements can be achieved.

Thank you Hermann, glad you're happy as well...

Cheers!

[Winston67]

I'm considering pairing my Rega P8 and Apheta 2 with an Entity. Does anyone have any experience with that combination? I assume there's nothing about the Rega specs that would be a problem for the Entity but figured I'd check with the experts. Thanks.

[ThomasOK]

Last week I was at my old store, Overture Audio, setting up and upgrading a couple of LP12s. At the time I also gave a listen to their new demo Rega Naia with Aphelion 2. I ran this through the Entity 1.2 and thought it sounded quite good, certainly the best Rega I have heard. It worked just fine through the Entity. I have in the past also connected a Planar 6/Ania to the Entity with good results.

All Rega MCs have the same electrical specs and recommend a loading of 100 Ohms. I used the 120 setting on the Entity and thought it worked quite well. You might want to try the 90 Ohm setting as well but don't be surprised if it is more musical at 120. The loading specs on cartridges are nominal and a lot will depend on the specific MC stage used and their characteristics such as capacitive loading, where the Entity is significantly higher than the Rega stages are.

[Winston67]

Last week I was at my old store, Overture Audio, setting up and upgrading a couple of LP12s. At the time I also gave a listen to their new demo Rega Naia with Aphelion 2. I ran this through the Entity 1.2 and thought it sounded quite good, certainly the best Rega I have heard. It worked just fine through the Entity. I have in the past also connected a Planar 6/Ania to the Entity with good results.

All Rega MCs have the same electrical specs and recommend a loading of 100 Ohms. I used the 120 setting on the Entity and thought it worked quite well. You might want to try the 90 Ohm setting as well but don't be surprised if it is more musical at 120. The loading specs on cartridges are nominal and a lot will depend on the specific MC stage used and their characteristics such as capacitive loading, where the Entity is significantly higher than the Rega stages are.

Thanks - so no reason to think the combination would be sub-optimal (whether because of higher capacitance loading or otherwise)?

[ThomasOK]

No reason at all. Fredrik found the higher capacitance he uses in the Entity and SINGularity to be the most musical regardless of the cartridge. But the resistance and capacitance both provide a damping effect on the generator so a different capacitance will be most musical with a different resistance that matches it best. The only way to be really sure what is most musical is to try both the 90 and 120 Ohm settings. You can even try the 180 Ohm as well but I doubt that will be optimal.

It is interesting to note that the Linn Urika 1, the Kairn and the Linto all used higher capacitance loading than what they now have in the Urika 2 and Uphorik. Indeed the Urika 1 used the same capacitance as the Entity and SINGularity.

[cannonball24]

Wow. Just finished reading this entire thread start to finish. Had not read it previously. What a journey, and what a fantastic story. Needed something to do on vacation while I wait to get home to my new entity!

I have never heard the entity. Or any Lejonklou product for that matter. But a good friend turned me onto Fredrik and his products several months ago and I have been dying to try one ever since. The more I read and the more I learn, the more I want to be a part of this amazing journey. Also Fredrik has been wonderfully helpful to me answering my emails with rookie questions. Thomas as well. I never expected such support for somebody who is not even a customer yet. A fact that made me want to become a customer even more, frankly. I now have a freshly upgraded Entity 1.2 waiting for me at home. And a big thanks to Thomas for all his help with my questions and my upgrade, as well as super fast turnaround.

I’ll be upgrading from the Linto. Also already ordered 2 pair of Linn Silver 1.2m interconnects in anticipation of wanting to upgrade my AQ cables as soon as I hear the entity. It’s wild to hear everybody talk about how much difference those cables make.

I feel like I’ve already had an excellent tutorial reading the last 16 pages but if anybody has any tips/tricks or other suggestions for initial setup and break in please do let me know.

I can’t wait for this ride. I feel like a kid again, entering the carnival for the first time!

[Hermann]

Hello Cannonball,

Thanks for sharing. I can understand the excitement about the Entity only too well.

My journey of more than 45 years with Naim came to an end with the Entity1.1. It surpassed the large Naim phono stage and even more so with the V1.2. The Naim NDS also had to go because the Källa offers some musical advantages. Then I swapped the Naim 552/DR for Sagatun Monos. And again the relatively new V1.7 surpasses the Naim 552 by far. Fredrik's amplifiers also have to be mentioned in this context because the Tundra Monos 3.0 are simply the best I have ever heard.

I am sure the journey will not end with the Entity.

[cannonball24]

I am sure the journey will not end with the Entity.

Thanks Hermann! Oh I am quite sure indeed that it will not end here! Already eyeing a Boazu. Sadly the sagatun and tundras are just way out of my budget for now, but maybe one day! Still pretty pumped that there’s room for me to upgrade in the meantime to something that is more attainable for me.

[Hermann]

This is definitely a real eye-catcher, especially since the new version of Boazu is now available. The older Version 1.3 has been playing in my small system for a few months now and I can assure you that the integrated amplifier is really fun and shows exactly how well and excitingly music can be reproduced.

[cannonball24]

Finally got home to my new gear a few days ago!

First off, you guys weren’t kidding about the new Linn silver interconnects being way too tight. You also weren’t kidding about needing just the right force to not loosen them up too much. Every single connector on both of my pairs was much too tight to fit correctly. Took me probably half an hour to finish my adjustments; I was moving very slowly and carefully. Really wish I hadn’t had to do that honestly. And I still almost messed up one of the connectors. Loosened one prong (if that’s the right word) too much - I could visibly see the difference compared to the others which is when I knew I went too far. Pushed it back into place with my thumb best I could. Didn’t want to use the pliers again. It appears to be back in line with the other outer prongs and the fit seems snug on the input, so hopefully I didn’t screw it up. Anyway luckily I had read everything here first so I knew how to handle this issue, even if my execution wasn’t top notch. So thank you all!

Ok now back to the entity. I finally got it hooked up and despite both the raw entity, and raw interconnects, I couldn’t help but play it immediately. It maybe got 30 minutes of power at best before I dropped the needle. But wow. Even if it never gets any better I have to say I’m pretty happy. It did seem a tad bit cold/tight at first but that’s to be expected of course. And still I could hear more of the music already.

Fast forward a few days and now everything has had some time to settle in. I’m sure there’s still plenty of burn in left to do; only put about 20-25 hours of actual listening on everything so far on top of 100ish hours of power. But it’s already opened up. There’s nothing tight or cold about what I hear now. Not that it’s warm either. The neutrality is quite impressive. And I’m still running the entity through a tube preamp that does tend to warm things up a bit. Regardless, my overall impression to this point is that the entity absolutely digs out information from the vinyl that others leave behind.

I started out my most recent listening session with a staple of mine; a MoFi original master recording pressing of the Jack Johnson album by Miles Davis. A musical roller coaster in my opinion. It goes from loud to soft to loud again, calm and quiet to raucous and full of energy. Perfect test track if you ask me. And it passed the test with flying colors. I can’t say it’s my favorite album, but I very much enjoy the ride and I’ve also listened to it on many different systems at this point. It’s a fine test of a system’s mettle and grit. The entity really did it justice.

Next up was my 45rpm pressing of Dave Brubeck’s Time Out from Analog Productions (mastered by Ryan Smith), and it has never sounded so good. I can say the same for several of the other albums I’ve played so far as well but this album is particularly musical; incredibly well recorded, mastered and pressed. The sense of time and space is like no (or at least not many) others. It truly feels like I’m sitting in front of the live performance. In a way that it didn’t quite previously. It always sounded good, great even. But now it sounds alive. It sounds so real. I used to cherry pick the tracks but now I’m listening to the whole thing cover to cover, over and over again. I just can’t get enough.

Next I put on some Diana Krall and Adele. I absolutely love Diana Krall so I’m pretty biased. There was not a chance that was not going to sound incredible, which of course it did. Live in Paris; wow, just wow. Disc 2 side 2 all 3 tracks. If you haven’t heard it yet go get it - you won’t regret it; Sinatra, Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel covers to die for.

But Adele is another story. I’m not even a huge Adele fan, although I can certainly appreciate her talent. And her work is growing on me. On a side note; sadly I also have found that her record label doesn’t seem to care much about her vinyl albums. They’re all pretty garbage pressings. I’ve gone through 2-3 copies of each album trying to find a clean(ish) one, and given up the search at this point. It’s all cheap, light weight vinyl and more surface noise than I’ve ever heard even on horribly scratched and warped discs. Makes me dream for a Kalla so I can stream the digital versions in all their glory, haha. But I digress, and despite the surface noise, the music itself through the Entity is now just next level. “Hold On” from her 30 album is impressive. And even more so, “Someone Like You” on her 21 album is absolutely stunning and thoroughly haunting. I may have listened to it 4-5 times in a row or more, I lost count. It resonates to my core like not many songs do. The piano and vocals meld together into an amalgamation of musicality that is eerily evocative. And the entity really brings out the best in it.

Now of course, it’s not all champagne and roses. I have run into a couple issues. One I think is just sadly the nature of the beast. I hear surface noise to a degree I’ve never heard it before. But I assume that’s to be expected to a certain degree when more of the detail is being revealed. The bad has to come with the good, or it isn’t real. Definitely will be putting a new record cleaner on my wish list for this year! But if anybody has any other suggestions to help mitigate this issue, please let me know.

The second issue I’ve run into is hopefully correctable as indicated in the entity manual. I think my system and/or amp grounding is somehow off. I do hear a good bit of noise/hum from my speakers when the needle is up, much more so than I did before with the Linto. And based on every single review talking about how quiet the entity is I am pretty sure this is wrong. I think I’m going to need to fit the extra ground lead. Which scares me a bit because I really don’t want to touch the entity. If anybody has any advice on the best way to do this please let me know. More specifically, how do I make sure that I put the screw back in with the correct torque to not disturb the sonics? I have no fancy tools for this, I’ll have to do it by hand with a mini screwdriver. For now I’m just going to live with it because when the music is playing it’s inaudible (or at least it doesn’t bother me). I only notice it when I’m changing a disc and the speaker is right next to my head. But eventually I think I’ll try to make it work.

In the meantime, back to exploring my record collection like never before!

Thank you Fredrik and Thomas!!

[Hermann]

Nice report, thanks for sharing. Once this virus has been "intubated", it won't let go, day after day.

Regarding the noise, I don't know to what extent additional grounding can help. My daughter's system sufffers from a similar problem, but is probably due to the Din to RCA connection. Since it is very, very quiet, no further action are taken. The music signal is not audibly affected during a session.

There could be a general grounding problem, which is not necessarily solvable from a distance. That's where I would start, with the grounding of the house supply network. The way the cables are laid could cause it, but the phono branch is more likely.

[lejonklou]

Thank you for a great report, cannonball24!

I am not familiar with your preamp, but if it doesn’t tie signal ground to chassis ground but your power amps do, this could be the reason for the hum. And if so, the extra ground lead on the rear of Entity is likely to help.

You can easily test this by attaching the larger ring end of the extra ground lead to the ground screw on the rear of Entity and then simply let the other end of the wire touch a corner screw of Entity. If the hum goes away, you will know this is the solution.

[cannonball24]

You can easily test this by attaching the larger ring end of the extra ground lead to the ground screw on the rear of Entity and then simply let the other end of the wire touch a corner screw of Entity. If the hum goes away, you will know this is the solution.

Thank you for the advice! I’ll try that tonight and see what happens and go from there

[cannonball24]

Just realized I never posted an update on this but I did test the ground lead and it made things much worse. It created a whole new “hum” that was exponentially more audible than without. To the point where I think it maybe created a ground loop instead of removing one, if that’s possible. Anyway this led me to the conclusion that maybe I don’t really have a problem in the first place. Either way ive been listening for weeks since and I haven’t given it a second thought. Still loving every minute of listening through the entity and the current iteration of my system.


I do have an entirely unrelated question to ask of you all though, if you don’t mind. I’ve recently been getting more into mono recordings. As a result I’ve been looking at some mono cartridges as well (although since my TT can only accommodate 1 tonearm I am unlikely to switch anytime soon). That being said, I am wondering if anybody has tested the entity with a mono cartridge like the Miyajima Labs ‘Zero’ or ‘Infinity’ cartridges?

[lejonklou]

Hello cannonball24!

I’m happy to hear that you’re enjoying your Entity. It does sound like a ground loop was created by fitting the extra ground cable, so you’re correct in leaving it disconnected.

I had never heard of Miyajima cartridges before. Would love to hear one as they seem very original in their design. Hope that someone else has heard of them, or better yet listened to one.

[cannonball24]

Yes I am very intrigued as well. I haven’t heard them yet but read some good reviews. Here is one of them for anybody that’s interested:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bri ... -cartridge

[Tendaberry]

Yes I am very intrigued as well. I haven’t heard them yet but read some good reviews. Here is one of them for anybody that’s interested:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bri ... -cartridge

An interesting article! Now, where do I put that second arm on my LP12???

[cannonball24]

An interesting article! Now, where do I put that second arm on my LP12???

[Tony Tune-age]

It wasn't very long ago when the Entity 1.1 upgrade was released. And less than two years later, the Entity 1.2 upgrade became available. Both of those upgrades have significantly improved the Entity well beyond it's original performance, which was already great from the start!

I always appreciate being able to upgrade a stereo component, and not have to sell, or trade it in for an upgrade. Thanks again Fredrik...job well done!

Cheers

[lejonklou]

Thank you Tony!