Entity MC

[Defender]

Hey David,
any news from you about the Entity? You seem to be the one who has it now running for the longest time.

[David Neel]

Sorry, too busy wearing out my Kandid... :)

[Tony Tune-age]

It's been approximately 24 hours since my new Entity was installed. But before hooking it up to my system, a new set of arm cables had to be installed, along with the standard Trampolin 2 base board. And at this time, my Linn Urika is officially on the second hand market.

Dr. ThomasOK hard at work conducting LP12 surgery...





Pictures of installed Entity...





As others have already stated, there is considerable sonic improvement over the Linn Urika and it continues to sound better by the hour. In just a short period of time, I notice a much better mid-range and more realistic vocals than the Urika. The bass is much deeper and better defined as well. I'll wait a few more days before conducting additional listening tests. But needless to say, the Entity is a really great sounding stereo phono pre-amp straight out of the box!!!

[beck]

It does not look like hard work to me :-). More like a comfortable afternoon at the kitchen table having a nice conversation.

Great pictures.

Enjoy!

[Charlie1]

Nice pics - thanks Tony. Glad you're enjoying it!

[V.A.MKD]

Great time & pics ... great music as well ... enjoy :-)

[Ron The Mon]

It does not look like hard work to me :-). More like a comfortable afternoon at the kitchen table having a nice conversation.

beck,
That is exactly the demeanor you would want in a quality surgeon!

I am the guy in the grey sweatshirt pictured above. Tom is the one wearing the blue shirt with a ponytail. Tony was busy taking photos and helping with unboxing. The surgery went better than expected, it took about 40 minutes from us listening to Urika to hear the Entity.

There was a huge midwest storm Tom and I had to deal with which meant our visit was cut short. Tom brought another Entity as he and Tony both wanted to hear if two Entity's run mono improved the sound. Unfortunately, we didn't have time. More unfortunately, when we returned to Tom's house, I was too tired to listen to his hi-fi; including the SINGularity's!! Damn.

I did get to look at them though. Another day, another story for the future.

Back to Tony's Entity: There was a communication problem that Tony wanted a burned in Entity but Tom brought a brand new one for him sealed in the box. Tony looked like a kid at Christmas opening it. I have heard and seen Lejonklou products before but I was still surprised how small the Entity and its' box are. Very well packaged and includes a manual. I have read of many buying and keeping a Urika to keep their "box count" down. The Entity is so small, I don't see that being an excuse, but it does take up one more power socket.

Nothing else was disturbed or changed in our comparison. In fact, the same Linn Silver cables from the Urika were used.

Listening was very straight forward; I picked a record and Tony picked a record. We listened to the Urika, then played the Entity with the songs in the same order. There was a bit of a learning curve for Tony as the Entity is a lot louder and he needed to find the right volume level.

After the listening comparison, Tom turned to me and asked what I thought. He didn't ask Tony as he was sitting frozen in a comatose daze. I believe his mind was blown. I told Tom, "In no way does the Entity sound worse". Tom was a bit insulted but after reading the other two reviews above, I was expecting the brand new Entity to sound weird or even bad.

The Entity sounds better in every respect to a Urika. In some ways much better. The PRaT is mucho betterer. Anyone who has heard a Urika knows it is very quiet. Yet the Entity has an even lower noise floor. We listened to another four or five records and the tone coming out of the Isobariks was so tasty. Tony threw on "Industrial Military Complex Hex" from Steve Miller's recent Welcome to The Vault record. The tone from Steve's Strat using the middle and neck pickups together just sounded so full-bodied and cool, and tasty! Tony put on Bahia and Black Magic Woman from Santana's live Moonflower record. Carlos' guitar tone is legendary and the Entity brought it out in spades.

As we were listening, we could hear it warming up and burning in. It kept improving on every track. Right before we left, I touched the top of the Entity and the Klimax Radikal next to it. The Entity case was still physically cooler to the touch. I would expect the better part of a day for it to normalize. I would like to hear Tony's impression if it ever sounded odd, weird, or worsened as it broke in.

My favorite Lejonklou product used to be the Tundra Monos; they are an incredible value compared to anything out there and may be the best regardless of price. I get the same impression from Entity. I have no intention of ever buying another moving coil cartridge again in my life. But if I did, I'd buy an Entity first.

Ron The Mon
Needle-Freak

[Defender]

hey Ron that was simply the best compliment you could do to the Entity - especially you ... known as diehard Audio Technika MM promoter ... impressive!

[lejonklou]

Oh wow, what a feast!

First pictures of two of the most hard core music/HiFi/Tune Method enthusiasts that I know of. Or have heard of even.

And then those reviews, oh my. I'm grinning from ear to ear.

Thank you!

[ThomasOK]

I'm glad you all enjoyed the photos and stories. We did indeed have an ice storm the night and early morning of the day I was driving down to Columbus, Ohio which stretched the trip to almost 5 hours including a brief fast-food breakfast stop. Luckily the surgery went well and fitting the old T.Kable/Akito cable and Trampolin 2 was straightforward (indeed much easier than on my own turntable which likes to fight me).

The listening was very interesting. I was sitting well off axis so that Ron and Tony could sit near center and I really didn't enjoy the system as it started at all. I found it was just too aggressive with the two tracks we played, especially the second one. But when we put on the Entity it all changed and I really got into the first track and even enjoyed the second one, despite only having been plugged into AC for about a half hour. We played a few more tracks including my choice of "Telegraph Road" by Dire Straits and everything was jelling very well. You could hear it was improving as we played it but even from the beginning it was very, very good. Tony's girlfriend was also quite pleased with the improvement in the musicality and Tony likes it so much he is thinking a second Entity might be a good way to get a "mini-SINGularity". Unfortunately it was getting late and we had a 4+ hour trip home and the desire for some real dinner so we had to say goodbye and be on our way. I do promise to check out a two Entity setup when I have the chance and let you know how it goes.

[Ron The Mon]

Luckily the surgery went well and fitting the old T.Kable/Akito cable and Trampolin 2 was straightforward (indeed much easier than on my own turntable which likes to fight me).

To be clear, Tom didn't install anything "old" or used. I was the one who took the brand-new "T-Kable" out of the bag and saw Tom and Tony swap the Trampolins.

Ron The Mon

[ThomasOK]

Correct. That description is used to indicate the Akito cable, which is the same construction as the original T.Kable. It uses the newer Linn DIN tonearm plug, used on latter T.Kables with both types of wire. The "old" is to differentiate it from the newer T.Kable using separate Mogami wires and a ground wire.

[Tony Tune-age]

Well, all the comments made by Ron, Thomas and myself sizes things up. The sound is really superior to any other "stereo phono preamplifier" I've heard regardless of price. And the Entity is very small in comparison to other phono preamps also. And it's the small compactness that really makes me happy in terms of size and finding space on an audio rack.

Thanks for your hard work Dr. Thomas, and thank you Fredrick for creating such a useful and great sounding product!

Cheers

[Tony Tune-age]

It does not look like hard work to me :-). More like a comfortable afternoon at the kitchen table having a nice conversation.

Great pictures. Enjoy!

Thanks for all the kind words beck, Charlie1 and V.A.MKD. I'll report back after a few days of being properly warmed up.

Cheers!

[David Neel]

I'll report back after a few days of being properly warmed up.

Cheers!

If you can drag yourself away from listening.... :)

I've got no reference other than the Urika, but that was supposed to be pretty good. I'm now living the cliche of having a new record collection. The additional information, dynamics, involvement and natural feel are difficult to convey in words.

But let's not go overboard with praise - we've both got Urikas to sell!

[Tony Tune-age]

I'll report back after a few days of being properly warmed up.

If you can drag yourself away from listening.... :)

I've got no reference other than the Urika, but that was supposed to be pretty good. I'm now living the cliche of having a new record collection. The additional information, dynamics, involvement and natural feel are difficult to convey in words.

But let's not go overboard with praise - we've both got Urikas to sell!

Well, the Urika is a very good sounding phono preamp. And it does have some advantages as well. It comes with the Trampolin base board, and a set of Linn Silver interconnects. Plus, it saves space by virture of being mounted inside of the deck.

However the Entitiy does have lower background noise, and a higher signal to noise ratio (I'm still adjusting to the volume difference...in a good way). And needless to say, it's way more musically revealing.

So for the money of a used Urika, it can still be a great choice for many LP12 owners wanting to upgrade from a lesser phono preamp.

Cheers

[u252agz]

Well, the Urika is a very good sounding phono preamp. And it does have some advantages as well. It comes with the Trampolin base board, and a set of Linn Silver interconnects. Plus, it saves space by virture of being mounted inside of the deck.

Cheers

One of the main issues with the Urika 1 is that it comes with that Trampolin base board and for those using a standard baseboard, it means that there is a real risk of fouling the Radikal motor. Fine if you have a dealer who can sort this out but a potential disaster if you don't.

[Tony Tune-age]

It's been approximately 168 hours since a Lejonklou Entity phono preamp was installed into my stereo system, replacing the Linn Urika. As stated previously, the Entity sounded really good out of the box. And to my ears, it immediately sounded better than the Urika in many areas. And as such, I wasn't sure how much "burn in time" it would require, or how much improvement would occur.

Every 26 to 30 hours after the initial listening session, I would play a few songs to see if there were any changes and/or improvements. And although there were some improvements, they came very slowly and gradually over the 168 hour period. However there were no real krazy, radikal or strange musical changes with the sound. And other than being cold and/or stiff sounding at times, the "burning in process" was evenly keeled.

As for the bass, at no time was it bloated. In fact, the bass was well behaved for the most part. It always remained well defined and detailed. However, the bass would periodically sound fuzzy and/or muffled with certain songs. And at times, the bass sounded a little bit on the cold side too. But none of this lasted very long, and did improve throughout the week.

As for the midrange, it had almost no quirky issues throughout the entire burn in process. Backup vocals, lead vocals, and guitar solos were always proper and on point. It was never overbearing or rude, just great sounding. However the midrange wasn't perfect, it did come across as mildly cool at times. But the coolness did subside rather quickly.

As for the treble, it did have a few interesting changes throughout the week. With certain songs, the treble would sound cold and stiff. Also, it would periodically sound raspy and strident. However, none of this lasted very long and did improve over time.

Although the Entity sounds much better now, I'm guessing it will probably continue to improve for awhile. It has blended very well with my system, and has proven to be a positive influence on the other components too.

[Defender]

hey Tony,
thank you for keeping us all updated - you must be a happy man now. All what you describe sounds wonderful and promising.
Keep it going I am sure there is more to come.

[Tony Tune-age]

hey Tony,
thank you for keeping us all updated - you must be a happy man now. All what you describe sounds wonderful and promising.
Keep it going I am sure there is more to come.

Thank you for the kind words Defender.

Cheers!

[Tony Tune-age]

Entity...sounding more alive with each passing day.

[Defender]

thats good - the more you actually let it play music the more it should get better.
My feeling is the effect of just letting it powered on is doing less for run in compared to letting music run through it
how much hours of music do you have on it?

[V.A.MKD]

Absolutely, much better is with playing music, also from my personal experience ... :)

thats good - the more you actually let it play music the more it should get better.
My feeling is the effect of just letting it powered on is doing less for run in compared to letting music run through it
how much hours of music do you have on it?

[Tony Tune-age]

Thats good - the more you actually let it play music the more it should get better. My feeling is the effect of just letting it powered on is doing less for run in compared to letting music run through it, how many hours of music do you have on it?

Approximately 312 total hours of being powered on, not sure how many hours of playing time.

Cheers

[lejonklou]

https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review ... ono-stage/