Entity MC

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Re: Entity MC

Post by Tony Tune-age »

Scooter62 wrote: 2021-12-28 00:03
abdulbasit wrote: 2021-12-24 17:17 Excellent product. Gave it as a Christmas gift to my brother and he loved it.
You, sir, are a most excellent brother!
Happy holidays
That's very true indeed!
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Re: Entity MC

Post by Tony Tune-age »

After talking with Thomas, we listened to the Ekstatik cartridge through all three of the Entity Ohm settings (90/180/120 ). The best sounding setting is 120 Ohm, second best was 90 Ohm and last place was 180 Ohm. The same setting (120 Ohm) was used for the Kandid also.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by lejonklou »

Thank you Tony and Thomas!

Good to know. I haven't listened to the Ekstatik yet.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by snatex »

Just bought Gammaboy's Entity and I am excited to see how it sounds compared to my Uphorik. Does anyone have experience using the Entity with the Hana ML? Hana recommends >100 load impedance. I'm guessing 120 on the Entity would be a good place to start.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by ThomasOK »

I haven't tried the Hana cartridges with the Entity but 120 is likely to be a good place to start. However it is easy to test all three settings and see which is the most tuneful sounding. Let us know what you find.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by lejonklou »

There is no need to shut down Entity while changing the cartridge load. You can just flip the switches and replay the piece of music.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by SondekFan »

Dear Entity fans and experts,
I registered here because I have a question and I hope you can help me.
I have been a happy and very satisfied owner of an Entity for a few months now. Before that I used the phono input of my Linn Akurate DSM. Not bad, but no comparison to the Entity. Cartridge is a Linn Krystal.

Here is my question: the input sensitivity of the analog input was preset to 2 Vrms. This caused some dynamic impulses from close recorded instruments (ex: Jim Hall Concierto or even Chet Baker the Steeple Case recordings) to distort badly. I thought at first that my Krystal was broken. In reality, however, the input level is probably too high. Only changing the settings to 4 Vrms in the device section of Konfig solved the problem.

Was this the correct way to solve the problem or are there other possibilities? How do you solve such a problem with an amplifier that has no variable settings?

I think that some users use the Entity in combination with a Linn DSM. Have you had the same experience? I could not find any reference here so far in this regard....

Thanks a lot
Cheers
Frank
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Re: Entity MC

Post by Tony Tune-age »

snatex wrote: 2022-01-21 00:16 Just bought Gammaboy's Entity and I am excited to see how it sounds compared to my Uphorik. Does anyone have experience using the Entity with the Hana ML? Hana recommends >100 load impedance. I'm guessing 120 on the Entity would be a good place to start.
Greetings,

Be sure to let us know what you think of the Entity, and how it compares with the Uphorik. I'm using the 120 Ohm setting for the Linn Ekstatik cartridge, which is the same setting I used for the Linn Kandid cartridge as well. I tried all three settings with the Ekstatik, and 120 Ohm sounded best, followed by 180 Ohm and last place was 90 Ohm.

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Re: Entity MC

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Tony Tune-age wrote: 2022-01-24 14:05
snatex wrote: 2022-01-21 00:16 Just bought Gammaboy's Entity and I am excited to see how it sounds compared to my Uphorik. Does anyone have experience using the Entity with the Hana ML? Hana recommends >100 load impedance. I'm guessing 120 on the Entity would be a good place to start.
Greetings,

Be sure to let us know what you think of the Entity, and how it compares with the Uphorik. I'm using the 120 Ohm setting for the Linn Ekstatik cartridge, which is the same setting I used for the Linn Kandid cartridge as well. I tried all three settings with the Ekstatik, and 120 Ohm sounded best, followed by 180 Ohm and last place was 90 Ohm.

Cheers

Thanks for the tips Tony. Will definitely post my thoughts on the Entity on here and in my system thread. I think it is supposed to arrive today. :)
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Re: Entity MC

Post by Tony Tune-age »

snatex wrote: 2022-01-24 17:47
Tony Tune-age wrote: 2022-01-24 14:05
snatex wrote: 2022-01-21 00:16 Just bought Gammaboy's Entity and I am excited to see how it sounds compared to my Uphorik. Does anyone have experience using the Entity with the Hana ML? Hana recommends >100 load impedance. I'm guessing 120 on the Entity would be a good place to start.
Greetings,

Be sure to let us know what you think of the Entity, and how it compares with the Uphorik. I'm using the 120 Ohm setting for the Linn Ekstatik cartridge, which is the same setting I used for the Linn Kandid cartridge as well. I tried all three settings with the Ekstatik, and 120 Ohm sounded best, followed by 180 Ohm and last place was 90 Ohm.

Cheers

Thanks for the tips Tony. Will definitely post my thoughts on the Entity on here and in my system thread. I think it is supposed to arrive today. :)
Will you be posting any music links as well?
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Re: Entity MC

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Tony Tune-age wrote: 2022-01-25 14:58
Will you be posting any music links as well?
Not really sure how to do this in a meaningful way.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by ThomasOK »

SondekFan wrote: 2022-01-23 13:25 Dear Entity fans and experts,
I registered here because I have a question and I hope you can help me.
I have been a happy and very satisfied owner of an Entity for a few months now. Before that I used the phono input of my Linn Akurate DSM. Not bad, but no comparison to the Entity. Cartridge is a Linn Krystal.

Here is my question: the input sensitivity of the analog input was preset to 2 Vrms. This caused some dynamic impulses from close recorded instruments (ex: Jim Hall Concierto or even Chet Baker the Steeple Case recordings) to distort badly. I thought at first that my Krystal was broken. In reality, however, the input level is probably too high. Only changing the settings to 4 Vrms in the device section of Konfig solved the problem.

Was this the correct way to solve the problem or are there other possibilities? How do you solve such a problem with an amplifier that has no variable settings?

I think that some users use the Entity in combination with a Linn DSM. Have you had the same experience? I could not find any reference here so far in this regard....

Thanks a lot
Cheers
Frank
This sounds like a reasonable solution to me, especially since it works! The Entity has a significantly higher gain than any of the Linn MC phono stages - 71dB vs. generally around 64dB (in high gain mode on variable units). I would surmise that with the 2Vrms setting it is overloading the input stage of the ADSM and setting it to 4Vrms gives it enough headroom for that to not be a problem.

Many amplifiers don't have variable gain settings on the inputs and don't need them, Lejonklou Sagatuns for instance. The variable gain is implemented for a couple of reasons, originally it was to allow units with different output levels to have about the same volume. This became popular after the CD player came out because they have 2 Volts maximum output. At the time the typical output of most cassette decks and AM/FM tuners was about .8 Volts and the output of phono stages was similar. So switching over to CD would give a big increase in volume. (The cynical among us might think it was done on purpose to make CD players louder than other sources, hence better to the uninitiated, in A/B comparisons.) Linn started including variable sensitivity with the Kairn for that reason (technically it was just a readjustment of the volume control). This is less of a concern now as over time the output level of most sources has increased to be close to that 2 Volt output.

However, there is another reason for the variable input sensitivity on many modern units. In a DSM unit all analog inputs are converted to digital via the onboard ADC circuit (Analog to Digital Converter). There are dynamic range limitations on those circuits so to get the best performance it is best to optimize the level fed into it to keep it from overloading (digital sounds really bad when you overload it, as you have heard) while keeping the signal above the low level region where noise and distortion are more of a problem. Variable gain helps to keep this balancing act working.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by Tony Tune-age »

snatex wrote: 2022-01-25 17:49
Tony Tune-age wrote: 2022-01-25 14:58
Will you be posting any music links as well?
Not really sure how to do this in a meaningful way.
Gotcha, that does makes sense for sure. I've experienced that type of situation as well.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by SondekFan »

ThomasOK wrote: 2022-01-25 18:55
SondekFan wrote: 2022-01-23 13:25 Dear Entity fans and experts,
I registered here because I have a question and I hope you can help me.
I have been a happy and very satisfied owner of an Entity for a few months now. Before that I used the phono input of my Linn Akurate DSM. Not bad, but no comparison to the Entity. Cartridge is a Linn Krystal.

Here is my question: the input sensitivity of the analog input was preset to 2 Vrms. This caused some dynamic impulses from close recorded instruments (ex: Jim Hall Concierto or even Chet Baker the Steeple Case recordings) to distort badly. I thought at first that my Krystal was broken. In reality, however, the input level is probably too high. Only changing the settings to 4 Vrms in the device section of Konfig solved the problem.

Was this the correct way to solve the problem or are there other possibilities? How do you solve such a problem with an amplifier that has no variable settings?

I think that some users use the Entity in combination with a Linn DSM. Have you had the same experience? I could not find any reference here so far in this regard....

Thanks a lot
Cheers
Frank
This sounds like a reasonable solution to me, especially since it works! The Entity has a significantly higher gain than any of the Linn MC phono stages - 71dB vs. generally around 64dB (in high gain mode on variable units). I would surmise that with the 2Vrms setting it is overloading the input stage of the ADSM and setting it to 4Vrms gives it enough headroom for that to not be a problem.

Many amplifiers don't have variable gain settings on the inputs and don't need them, Lejonklou Sagatuns for instance. The variable gain is implemented for a couple of reasons, originally it was to allow units with different output levels to have about the same volume. This became popular after the CD player came out because they have 2 Volts maximum output. At the time the typical output of most cassette decks and AM/FM tuners was about .8 Volts and the output of phono stages was similar. So switching over to CD would give a big increase in volume. (The cynical among us might think it was done on purpose to make CD players louder than other sources, hence better to the uninitiated, in A/B comparisons.) Linn started including variable sensitivity with the Kairn for that reason (technically it was just a readjustment of the volume control). This is less of a concern now as over time the output level of most sources has increased to be close to that 2 Volt output.

However, there is another reason for the variable input sensitivity on many modern units. In a DSM unit all analog inputs are converted to digital via the onboard ADC circuit (Analog to Digital Converter). There are dynamic range limitations on those circuits so to get the best performance it is best to optimize the level fed into it to keep it from overloading (digital sounds really bad when you overload it, as you have heard) while keeping the signal above the low level region where noise and distortion are more of a problem. Variable gain helps to keep this balancing act working.
Hello Thomas, thank you very much for your answer. That's how I explained it to myself in the end. But can it not be that Entity then overloads many preamplifiers that have no adjustable input settings?
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Re: Entity MC

Post by ThomasOK »

I would think most modern analog preamplifiers will have enough headroom to handle the output without problem and I have yet to hear of anyone having a problem with overload on a preamp other than the problem you had. There are a number of Entity units out there in use with various preamps and integrated amps. If you were talking some real vintage pieces from the 60s or 70s when the typical input voltages were lower, before CD came out, then all bets are off but it still might be fine.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by SondekFan »

Hi Thomas, thanks a lot. In any case, it is an excellent phono preamp that gives a lot of pleasure. And my problem is also solved........;-))
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Re: Entity MC

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SondekFan wrote: 2022-01-28 17:29 Hi Thomas, thanks a lot. In any case, it is an excellent phono preamp that gives a lot of pleasure. And my problem is also solved........;-))
Glad you were able to resolve the issue, enjoy!

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Re: Entity MC

Post by Klimaxme2550 »

Figured I'd ask this in this thread as well. Is it to safe assume the Krystal will be a better match for the Entity 1.1 than the Dynavector XX2 since it was designed for Linn Cartridges?
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Re: Entity MC

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Klimaxme2550 wrote: 2022-03-18 21:37 Figured I'd ask this in this thread as well. Is it to safe assume the Krystal will be a better match for the Entity 1.1 than the Dynavector XX2 since it was designed for Linn Cartridges?
Greetings, and welcome to the forum. Both cartridges are in a similar price range, the Krystal has an output of 0.25 mV, and the Dynavector XX2 has an output of 0.28 mV. I suspect either cartridge will be compatible with the Entity 1.1, but they could certainly sound different. However, the Krystal is a very good sounding cartridge, and some forum members have chosen the Linn Krystal for their Entity.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by Defender »

I am one of them (Krystal with Entity) and I happy with it. But I cant comment if its a better match but I assume so as Fredrik to my knowledge also has a Krystal.
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Re: Entity MC

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I just wanted to let everyone know that Stereophile will be publishing a quite positive review of the Entity 1.1 in the July issue. This is a full Equipment Report of 4.5 pages written by Alex Halberstadt and has full measurements by John Atkinson. Alex is quite a good writer and a music first person. I feel he gets to the meat of what the Entity is all about very well. The review is a quite enjoyable read but I can't tell you more about it or quote from it at this time. (I was sent it to allow correction of any technical errors or typos.) I can tell you Fredrik read the draft and loves it. I expect the issue to hit the stands sometime in June.

You can get an idea of his writing style and preferences in his loudspeaker review which is in the current issue and also online. Many here will find it interesting that it is on the JBL 4367 Studio Monitor speaker - a two way large box speaker with a 15" paper cone bass/mid driver and one of their new style horns. Equally interesting is that he personally uses Altec Lansing Valencia 846A speakers from 1966. These are also a two way speaker in a large cabinet with about a 15" paper cone woofer and horn loaded tweeter.
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Re: Entity MC

Post by lejonklou »

ThomasOK wrote: 2022-04-28 23:58 I just wanted to let everyone know that Stereophile will be publishing a quite positive review of the Entity 1.1 in the July issue.
I am thrilled and honoured.

So much looking forward to seeing this review in print!
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Re: Entity MC

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There was a mention on the WAM Linn forum that the review is out. I haven't received my copy yet but subscribers should be receiving it within days and it should arrive at news agents soon as well. I don't know how quickly the print articles make it online but it shouldn't be far behind as articles and reviews from the June issue have been up for a while.

I won't be able to quote from it as distributors and manufacturers are prohibited from that until the issue has been out for about a month. But I'm sure you will find it enjoyable and informative.
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Re: Entity MC

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ThomasOK wrote: 2022-06-04 18:43 There was a mention on the WAM Linn forum that the review is out. I haven't received my copy yet but subscribers should be receiving it within days and it should arrive at news agents soon as well. I don't know how quickly the print articles make it online but it shouldn't be far behind as articles and reviews from the June issue have been up for a while.

I won't be able to quote from it as distributors and manufacturers are prohibited from that until the issue has been out for about a month. But I'm sure you will find it enjoyable and informative.
Just received my copy of Stereophile. The author opened with a longish introduction which summed Fredrik's design philosophy quite well. His description of the sound emphasized the pace, rhythm and timing. His glowing report was enhanced when he connected Linn silver interconnects supplied by Thomas. This review should make Fredrik proud. Congratulations!
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Re: Entity MC

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j22928 wrote: 2022-06-06 19:12Just received my copy of Stereophile. The author opened with a longish introduction which summed Fredrik's design philosophy quite well. His description of the sound emphasized the pace, rhythm and timing. His glowing report was enhanced when he connected Linn silver interconnects supplied by Thomas. This review should make Fredrik proud. Congratulations!
That sounds fantastic! Congratulations Fredrik!
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